Local Moms Feeling Trapped Between Hospitals, CPS and Police
While conducting interviews about our local foster care system, we’ve been receiving multiple reports of moms feeling trapped between local hospitals, Child Protection Services and police. One woman who wants to remain anonymous reached out to us saying she took her child to the hospital for a rash and cough. Their visit though ended up with a CT, x-ray, MRI and an eye exam, CPS getting called in as well as police, and her partner who is on the spectrum arrested for suspected child abuse, which she denies.
We’ve heard of other similar instances when a mother is trying to do her best for an unwell child, and ends up in a nightmare scenario of mounting bills and facing the loss of custody, when her initial goal was just to get medical help.
It makes us wonder if others in the community are experiencing these types of situations and if one of our reporters should tackle this issue.
It’s part of a wider trend of parents simply avoiding to seek medical care for their kids because of having to wait for hours on end and getting billed hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars, even when insured, for health scares. Since the Great Recession, there’s been a steady decline in the number of hospitals with inpatient pediatric care units, because these don’t make as much money as other departments, lengthening distances to even get into the front door.
Our health system feels like hell for many of us, and more so for those in precarious situations who are framed and profiled as being bad parents.
Our Reporting Highlights This Week
As part of our series on local Latino-owned business, we featured a chicano wear store La Gente trying to reopen in Sparks after being shut down: http://www.ourtownreno.com/keeping-reno-rad/2022/11/16/monica-and-fernando-trying-to-reopen-la-gente-a-chicano-community-store
A Citizen’s Forum contribution exploring artwashing with a new mural coinciding with increased rent (http://www.ourtownreno.com/our-citizens-forum/2022/11/17/the-mural-on-the-wall-is-expensive-reno-and-its-artwashing-issues) got lots of comments in its Instagram version below:
Our podcast this week is with the Reno indie pop basement band Flamingos in the Tree recently reaching new heights: https://ourtownreno.simplecast.com/episodes/reno-pop-band-flamingos-in-the-tree-reaches-new-heights