Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Susan Dreyfus To Head DSHS

Welcome, Susan. The public is looking for accountability and fairness and protection of the vulnerable. In other words...we want our money's worth of goodness! I look forward to working with you. PAM

STATE OF WASHINGTON
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
P.O. Box 40002 • Olympia, Washington 98504-0002 • (360) 902-4111

For Release:Immediate
Date: March 31, 2009 Phone:360-902-4136

Warm and Fuzzy Quotes Are Removed The facts, Mame, just the facts!"
Gov. Gregoire announces appointment of new DSHS secretary

OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire today named Susan N. Dreyfus, a Wisconsin executive with more than a dozen years of leadership experience in both the private and public health sectors, to head Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services.

Dreyfus will join the agency, and the governor’s Cabinet, on May 18. She will visit today with DSHS staff and leadership and later with key legislators and stakeholders.

DSHS is Washington’s largest state agency, with more than 19,000 employees and a combined state and federal two-year budget of about $20 billion. Each year, more than 2 million Washington residents turn to the agency for help. Its five divisions are responsible for an array of social services, including medical assistance, mental health services, vocational rehabilitation, food assistance, child welfare, care for the frail elderly and disabled adults, child support enforcement, juvenile rehabilitation, and alcohol and substance abuse prevention and treatment.

A Wisconsin resident for the past 33 years, Dreyfus, 51, is executive vice president for strategy with Rogers Behavioral Health System, Inc., in the Milwaukee area. Prior to joining Rogers in 2007, Dreyfus served for five years as senior vice president and chief operating officer of the National Alliance for Children and Families and Families International. With the Alliance, Dreyfus consulted with nonprofit human service agencies across the country on a range of governance, organizational and program areas, including child welfare practice, system design and management, contracting, policy, and state and federal financing.

Dreyfus also served on the Wisconsin State Legislative Council on Adoptions to develop ways to streamline adoptive processes and protect the rights of children and parents.
(I am wondering if the streamlining is totally a good thing given how fast they are moving to take Lilly. ed)

In 1996, Dreyfus was appointed administrator of the Division of Children and Family Services within the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services. For nearly seven years she led this office responsible for child welfare, regulation and licensing of child care facilities, youth development and other community programs. In this role, Dreyfus successfully led the state’s assumption of all child welfare responsibilities from Milwaukee County. She also championed a major redesign of physical and behavioral health services for children in out-of-home care provided by Medicaid.

Gregoire commended DSHS Interim Secretary Stan Marshburn, who has led the agency since January, when former Secretary Robin Arnold-Williams joined the Governor’s Office as director of Gregoire’s executive policy office.

Dreyfus is married with three adult children. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay and attended the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Her annual salary is $163,056.

13 comments:

infinite freedom said...

I wonder if she is capable of grasping the compassion theory.

I very much doubt that there will be any real movement in the direction of honesty. this system is so abusive to children and their families. Just another high payed henchman won't really help the outcomes of the victims of Washington State.

We need to put the families in charge of the outcomes. With a mandatory prevention program. Or will that put too many state workers out of jobs??

Anonymous said...

"chief operating officer of the National Alliance for Children and Families and Families International." OH BOY! Here we go with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Treaty. Get ready for advanced social control school. Hold on to your seats. I knew Gregoire was going to appoint someone with that mindset. Grrrrrr

Anonymous said...

So why did she want to come here? Or has she worked elsewhere with someone on the inside, and they brought her here like they have done with many others involved with the stealing of children in this state. And who the hell is Stan Marshburn....never heard that name before.

Unknown said...

Susan is a reformer, with impeccable honesty. She also is a Republican, from the school of thought that does not believe that government alone can solve problems (nor should government be trusted, without oversight, to do so). Therefore, while we've never seen eye to eye on many political matters (since I'm a Progressive), on issues of children and families and those with mental health challenges, she is a passionate advocate. Thus, in spite of the fact that she is not a Democrat, nor from the system in Washington, she was appointed. Also, note that she and her husband, a judge, had their last child graduate from college a few years ago. I suspect she's not doing this for the money, but because she is a believer. (Yes, I admit to bias 'cause I've known her for a long time, but the facts are the facts.)

Anonymous said...

Stan Marshburnis.......Drum roll...

Cheryl Stephani's Husband..........

Nepotisism ms thinks.

Bald Guy for Justice said...

While I am all for proper parental rights, I am very much saddened by the growing number of children that are being awarded by the state to purpertrators of abuse! Abusers tend to "beat up the competition (typically their spouse) and then they proceed to get her on some sort of pain pills from the damage THEY did!! Then they go to court and make outrageous accusations of drug addiction! They hire a GAL who makes life altering decisions after an hour of questions. The poor beat up (and usually full-time) mom is left to try to find employment and pay child-support. Whether abuse is physical or mental, it is still abuse. When will they allow a parenting contract to be challenged? A convict on death row has a better chance of getting an appeal in most states!!

Feminist Martron said...

Bald Guy for Justice,

You said:

"Abusers tend to "beat up the competition (typically their spouse) and then they proceed to get her on some sort of pain pills from the damage THEY did!! Then they go to court and make outrageous accusations of drug addiction! They hire a GAL who makes life altering decisions after an hour of questions."

What's even more baffling about this is? If the battered mother who is outrageously accused of drug addiction is not a fit parent enough to have custody of her children, then WHYYYYYYY do they allow her to have visitation rights without being supervised?

In my case, my Guardian Ad Litem brought it up verbally before the judge that there was a "question of possible drug use" but she didn't say it was of a concern to her, she didn't even investigate the issue, and it wasn't brought up again later on in her report.

But, what it did was give this initial reason for the judge to overturn another judge's ruling that awarded me temporary sole custody and give him temporary sole custody...with me getting UNsupervised visitation rights with my children.

Then, the Guardian Ad Litem based her recommendation to the judge to let status quo remain in effect...on the fact that I was unemployed (from being a stay at home mother my entire adult life) and he had a good paying job (he had a superb educational background and years of work history)...and that I was living in a section 8 home, while he was living in the nice family home. That's it!

What still kills my heart to this day, is that he was a batterer and he had given me the date rape drug and violently raped me one night...I lived his hell day in and day out and he's got a psychological evaluation that diagnosed him of having a personality disorder and mental disorder...and there's CPS records with him being alleged of child abuse with my children and noted that he has been diagnosed with those disorders...yet, NOTHING is being done to save my children out of the hell I once lived!!!!

And my record is clean!!!!! The Guardian At Litem's report doesn't have ANYTHING in it to point me as an unfit mother...I do not have one CPS record showing I had ever been turned in for suspected or real child abuse!!! I am totally fit and willing to be a full time mom and yet this corrupt system and just as corrupt ex...won't let me!!! If only they would court appoint lawyers in family law cases where a parent like me (unable to pay for one) like they do for child molesters!!!!!

I am so tired of bashing up against brick walls trying to get the help I need to protect my children and get them out of their dad's home, so they can be free from his abuse! I am sick of waking up every day wondering what torment they have to look forward to during their day!!! It painfully hurts me and can drive my mind crazy, knowing that there is a possibility that one or the other is getting beat and I can't do a damn thing about it, unless someone who has the power and authority to help me to help my sons!

Bottom line, our parental rights are quickly starting to protect the wrong parent anymore...and something's got to give before we have two whole generations of children suffering abuse...who will grow up being potential sociopaths as adults!

Lovingfitfather said...

Bald Guy and Feminist Matron:
The underlying problem is the blatant falsity of most CPS allegations in the first place. Parental rights anymore are almost non existent. I see that the only way to improve the system would be to include due process and juries. This automatically includes a higher evidentiary standard a much better deal than the mere hearsay allowed in current family law proceedings. I fear that any more erosion of parental rights will extinguish them entirely.

Anonymous said...

Is that the same salary as the last one in that position?

Feminist Martron said...

The REAL underlying problem is LYING period...and it starts with the parent who's abusive, sexually criminal and controlling.

CPS for the most part doesn't have to lie anymore....they just blatantly use a child's possible or real risk of danger reported by someone to their advantage and run with it.

Then, it spreads throughout our entire "system" who's supposed to be protecting our children and putting our children's best interest their top priority.

Not their greedy bank accounts.

Lovingfitfather said...

Yes the more you respond to CPS allegations, or the more you accuse the other parent of child maltreatment in a divorce or custody proceeding, The more likely that CPS will step into divide and conquer your family. They do not serve anyone but themselves. They are serial child predators with absolutely no interest in any child or families well being. They are predisposed to place the child in the most opportune environment of the choices availible insuring that they will remain in the picture.

Unknown said...

Medical clinics are getting slaughtered by DSHS. They are no longer reimbursing us for our services. We are out to dry for ten's of thousands and no one will answer the phones to help us at DSHS.

Anonymous said...

RE:
Jon Russell said...

They are too busy destroying families and trafficking in their children because it is so profitable>