On a recent workday, a new case came across Protective Services Worker Tom Ruff’s desk. A first-time mother’s newborn boy tested positive for meth at the hospital, and the mother admitted to using the drug during her pregnancy, according to the front-line social worker’s report.
San Diego County Child Welfare Services placed the newborn with foster parents after he was released from the hospital. The baby’s stunned mother, grandparents and father were reportedly overwrought with sadness and shock when they learned their new baby would leave the hospital with strangers.
Ruff works in the County’s Child Welfare Services Court Intervention unit. He typically gets involved in cases after a front-line social worker investigating a report to the County’s Child Abuse Hotline has already visited the home or hospital and found evidence of abuse or neglect, prompting the County to remove children to protect them.
Once he gets a case, Ruff has just two days to prepare for a court hearing in which he must recommend whether the child go home or should remain in the County’s care for safety.
Some babies born with meth in their system suffer serious medical complications or withdrawal. Fortunately, the 3-day-old seemed to be doing well, Ruff learned.
He set out to the parents’ apartment from his Linda Vista office to learn more.
At the complex, Ruff found the address in the back of a large development and knocked at the door. Earlier, he said these first uncertain moments on the threshold are always a little tense.
“You hear and read about cops who pulled over a guy and were shot at; they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Ruff said. “It would be stupid not to be a little…alert.”
But a quiet woman who appeared to be in her 50s answered the door. Tom explained he was a social worker and asked if the baby’s mother was home. The woman introduced herself as the baby’s grandmother and invited Ruff in.
There were boxes from a recent move along the walls of the clean two-story apartment with beige carpet and walls.
The new mother, a woman in her early 30s in green furry pajama bottoms and a baggy gray T-shirt , came downstairs, moving slowly, apparently still in pain from the childbirth two days earlier. The purple mark on her arm from her IV was still visible.
She began heaving with tears as soon as she shook Ruff’s hand.
“How do I get him back? Whatever it takes; whatever I need to do, I’ll do it times 10. I want him back,” she pleaded.
