Child Welfare Workers Second-Guess Stressful Jobs
By Colleen Long
NEW YORK (AP) -- When child welfare worker Kelly Mares investigates an abuse case, she doesn't know what's going to greet her on the other side of the door. A ferocious dog. Or a gun. Or a meth lab, or angry parents who lash out violently.
She takes those risks willingly, she says, because she believes in protecting the city's most vulnerable. But she's not willing to risk going to jail. After two of her co-workers were charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of a 4-year-old Brooklyn girl under their care, she's rethinking her career.
