Inside the Child Welfare System with Dr. Anu Partap Part 2
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
True Story Media. Hello, it's Andrea, and we're back today with part two of my conversation with foster care pediatrician, Dr. Anu Partap. As always, if you want more Nobody Should Believe Me, you can subscribe on Patreon or Apple Podcasts, and you'll get two extra episodes a month, as well as ad-free listening. And if monetary support is not an option, rating and reviewing the show on Apple and Spotify, as well as sharing it with your friends, are great ways to help us out. as is being here each week. Nobody Should Believe Me is a completely independent podcast, and we're so grateful for your support. We'll be right back with the rest of my conversation with Dr. Anu Partap. I have this interesting experience of these two sort of like ends of the spectrum that do sort of horseshoe back around to like, let's dismantle the child welfare system, right?
So you have abolitionists that are left, you know, on the far left, and then you have parents' rights absolutists on the far right. And I think like, I find that the sort of flavor and nature of the abolitionist argument is something that I much more relate to sort of personally, right? I'm like, the historical context is important. I am also a person that believes that every child should have food and shelter and education and like those sort of, community systems and stuff that they talk about as a sort of preventative measure. I believe deeply in those things. And that's not something that people on the far right talk about. They're really talking about their children much more in terms of them being property.
And that this is a parent has a right over their children rather than a duty to their child. And it's sort of this like parental sort of ultimate supremacy kind of like just it's just an argument that I don't sort of find any common ground with. Whereas I think the abolitionists, I do sort of have some more common ground ideologically with them and do think some of their points, you know, about racial disparities and how do these how does the history of these systems bleed into the way these systems operate now? Those are salient points. Yeah, again, like I don't agree at all that we should dismantle the systems. And I think the systems are worth reforming. But I wonder what you think about this sort of argument, which, again, is not really an argument as far as I can tell that there is like clear data to make either way.
And people sort of try with these statistics and try with these other statistics. But like, ultimately, it's just more complex than this. But I wonder like if we had, you know, some of these things that abolitionists want and that I also want, right? So like universal childcare and making sure that sort of making sure that families have access to all of their basic needs, right? So that there is no danger really of a family being like having their children taken away because of a financial resource problem. Do you think that that would meaningfully impact how many children need to be removed? Or not, because I think there's like a couple of things here that always I sort of get stuck on. Number one, I think, you know, abolitionists will say, like, sort of use this, you know, and sometimes it's like, it depends on year to year, but you know, oh, 200,000 children are being removed from their families every year.
And I always kind of get stopped on that. And I'm like, I understand where like in the abstract, that's sort of a shocking figure. And you think, oh, but I'm like, is that too many? I was like, I don't know what's the right amount, because I do believe that there are circumstances where children should be removed. I believe that that was that circumstance in my family. I don't think it was right that those children got sent back. I've seen tons of cases where I'm like, I don't think that that child deserved to go back to that household. And like, that was not the right call for that child. So it's like, And then you sort of see some of these like, you know, Casey Foundation programs and stuff like that, where they're just measuring like, oh, well, fewer kids went into foster care.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:04–4:21
2
How do abolitionist and parents’-rights arguments shape debates about child welfare reform?
4:21–14:59
3
Would universal childcare and basic-income supports reduce foster care removals?
14:59–25:34
4
Which resources most effectively prevent children from entering foster care?
25:34–38:43