CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY GROUPS CONDEMN DHHS ACCESS VISITATION FUNDING FOR FATHER'S INITIATIVE , part two

While the Father's groups are prolific, moneyed, and highly organized. There are scant resources and groups actually working to help abused children in these custody cases. Women whom I work with and I have searched for funding, agencies, legal and otherwise to help battered women protect their children, and there are none, contrary to popular opinion. Ironically, after an exhaustive, inconclusive search for pro bono or sliding scale legal services, one of the attorneys (Gary Bunch) representing the fathers in the federal suits against Faye Yager, offered to help. Otherwise, Jean Barsh would still be sitting in jail on a two-year Contempt Order, and Teresa Johnston would have to go pro se next week in a Contempt Hearing against a well-known, "Big Boy" attorney, William Turner, representing her ex-husband, Anthony Allen, in a domestic violence and child sexual abuse custody case.

Fathers frequently have enough money to hire influential "pricey" attorneys and "Trial Consultants" recommended by the very Fathers' Rights groups that DHHS is funding with their Access Visitation Grants. This scheme is patently unfair and an inherent danger to children, who have no civil rights or access to due process in our courts. See the following website, which shows a classic example of how these cases are "case managed" by the Fathers' Initiative and Fathers' Rights attorneys.

INJUSTICE At It's Best

If the federal government continues to funnel millions of dollars to these dads without a comparable hand-out to moms, then mothers might as well just give up
without a fight and hand their children over to child molesters, child Internet
pornographers, registered sex offenders, convicted drug felons, convicted assault/battery felons, etc., a blight upon society a thousand times over.

In addition, billions of dollars going to DHR for child protection is wasted because agencies like DFACS do nothing to help. Recently, the Governor's Special Liaison to DFACS threatened me with criminal prosecution by the GA State Attorney's General for writing about their lack of support in child abuse custody litigation. DFACS officials claim that there is nothing they can do about a judicial decision, even though GA law clearly states that a court of equity has no jurisdiction over a private or police investigation. George Casper threatened to have me criminally prosecuted for "slander" upon receiving a copy of one of my articles presented to him by Vice President Al Gore.

When writing the President, his wife, legislators and federal and state officials, we are unanimously referred back to GA's DHR and DFACS officials, such as Tommy Olmstead and Casper, who now refuse talk to us or return our calls.

The following is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Web page:

Improve Customer Service

Fathers as Customers: The Work Group will explore and make recommendations on improving customer service for fathers in DHHS' programs. The Office of Child Support Enforcement's Customer Service Division will develop a customer satisfaction survey of custodial and non-custodial parents and will seek input from fathers' groups in the design and implementation of proposed changes to the child support enforcement system, including the national guidelines commission; increased enforcement efforts; the child access and visitation grants; and proposed changes to the review and modification of child support orders. The Health Care Financing Administration will conduct a Medicaid Customer Focus Group to provide more input from beneficiaries, including fathers, into the development of Medicaid policies. The Work Group will provide assistance to these and other agencies using customer satisfaction focus groups, surveys, and other mechanisms to ensure that fathers' issues and input are included in policy formulation.

Helping Mothers to Support Fathers: Some program reviews and research studies have indicated that impediments to involving fathers include the attitude and resistance of mothers. The Work Group will develop strategies for informing mothers as well as fathers about the importance of working together as parents for the well-being of their children and to help mothers understand the positive effect that paternal involvement has on children's growth and development.

Promote Fatherhood at National Conferences and Staff Training

DHHS will promote the importance of including father issues and concerns in the agendas of national conferences and government training events. Currently, the Child and Family Well-being Research Network is planning a research and policy conference on fathers for the fall of 1996 with funding support from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. Other conference opportunities will be identified and developed. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation will take the lead in maintaining and sharing information on various fathers' groups, researchers, and advocates. In addition, DHHS will examine whether specific staff training is needed for various DHHS programs to support and expand father involvement.

Extend Review of DHHS Policies and Programs

The Work Group will coordinate an extended review of all HHS statutory provisions, regulations, administration requests, directives, special initiatives and demonstrations to examine policies and language used to support or impede fatherhood. The initial in-depth review of DHHS programs effectively identified current activities supporting father involvement and highlighted the need for additional activities. DHHS found that more targeted reviews are necessary to ensure that the fatherhood principles underlying this initiative are consistent in the Department's activities. For example, based on results of the initial review, the Office for Civil Rights will update the list of statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex (see Appendix C). In addition, statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex will
be reviewed to ascertain the degree to which these statutes apply to discrimination against males in general and fathers in particular.

Performance Outcomes

DHHS will assist agencies in developing father involvement performance measures in the areas of program, research, and communications. Because of the diversity of DHHS programs and the populations served by these programs, DHHS will not attempt to develop a Department-wide standard for father involvement. Rather, the Work Group will work with individual agencies to incorporate father-related performance measures that are appropriate to the mission of respective programs.

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