Page 29 of Guarding Over You
DOING THE RIGHT THING
“Hi, Katherine,” Arden said when she returned to her office. She liked her supervisor in the few weeks she’d been here.
“Arden, do you have a minute?”
“Always.” She moved into Katherine’s office. It seemed few sat still here or at least in their office. And if they were, they were on calls or in meetings.
She liked how her time flew by and felt safer here than she had at her old job doing home visits.
The things she’d seen, heard, and been through were enough for her to want to leave this field. But at thirty, she was too young to be burned out, though many got that way.
“The case last week, the little girl whose brother was kicking her.”
“Abigail,” she said.
“Yes. I want you to follow up with the police and someone in the county to see if the child is okay.”
“It was on my list to do this week.”
“I figured as much. But in looking it over the last name stood out. I was emailed this weekend from the ER. Seems the brother ended up in the ER this weekend also.”
She frowned. Those things she wouldn’t know or wouldn’t think to trace back. “What happened?”
“He had a concussion. From what I can see, he was running around the house and ramming his head into the walls.”
“What?! He did it more than once?”
“His mother said they told him to stop after the first time, but he doesn’t listen well. He did it another time before she called his father into the house. When the father arrived, Corey did it a third time and knocked himself out. They called the ambulance. The parents’ names came up and they passed it on to me.”
“Nobody went down to talk to them about it? From this department. Or doesn’t that happen on the weekends?”
“There is always a nurse on duty that will cross over if it’s an issue or call law enforcement in. The weekends we are short staffed. Due to the nature of what happened last week and then the brother this week, if you can reach out to the parents and find out the next step for Corey as well. It was recommended that he have further evaluation for behavior issues and tendencies.”
Mrs. Oliver didn’t care for her so much, but she’d learned a long time ago that you didn’t make friends in this job.
“I’ll look into the file and notes and make the call this afternoon and update the information. Can I ask, how long do we follow up with cases like this?”
“Not long. We normally check in once they leave and ask that they reach out if they need anything else from us. Or we’ll get a call from the county if they notice any medical issues on a former patient. Other times, we have repeat offenders in here and it’s between you and the county.”
“I know a few case managers in Warren County from my previous job in Saratoga.”
“Which is part of what made you valuable to this team. You’ve got good connections.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I’ll get right on this and keep you posted.”
Arden returned to her office that she shared with two other employees, neither of them in right now, pulled up the case notes on the Oliver family and called. It went to voicemail for both parents. Which she expected, but she’d left detailed messages for them both to return her call, as it was a follow up.
She documented her calls, then the phone rang on her desk. The line was for anyone to call up looking for a social worker. She answered and was asked to come down to the ER.
Maybe she’d get another look at Blaze while she was there.
“Hi,” she said to the front desk. “Maddy, right?”
“That’s me,” Maddy said. “Room 3 has an elderly patient with their wife. The wife is struggling with handling his care. She wants to do better, but her resources are limited.”
This type of case broke her heart but warmed it in a way that someone cared. Someone was trying. Someone was asking for help.
“I’ll go in and talk. I should be able to get something figured out for them.”
