DHS protest interrupted by blizzard 88-mile walk to capital halted during final leg

BELFAST – Only a nor’easter managed to stop a small but determined group of walkers as they made their way from Ellsworth toward Augusta – a planned 88 miles in five days.

Although the last leg of the trip – a 22-mile hike from Liberty to the outskirts of Augusta – was canceled because of concern for the walkers’ safety, today’s rally at noon to bring the group’s concerns about the operations of the Maine Department of Human Services is still on schedule.

The Walk for DHS Accountability was borne of Cherryfield’s Democratic state Rep. Edward Dugay’s frustration with what he calls a failed system. “DHS and the courts require a comprehensive change in attitude, policy and budgeting accountability pertaining to child protective services,” he said, resting at a Belfast hotel Sunday afternoon.

When Dugay was recently barred from a courtroom while trying to advocate for one of his constituents, it was the last straw. “Years of councils and commissions and investigative hearings and still children are being taken away from loving parents,” said Dugay.

He said the stories he heard along the walk have only deepened his resolve for change. Dozens of people filled out forms to document their struggles for equitable treatment from DHS. The forms will be presented to the governor.

“People just kept coming and coming,” Dugay said Sunday as he waited out the storm. Despite bitter winds, biting snow and blisters on his feet, Dugay said Saturday was “an awesome day.”

For most of the walk, about 35 walkers joined the representative. Others not walking honked car horns in support. Dugay said the stories he heard show a definite pattern of DHS hurting families in trouble rather than helping them, of tearing families apart rather than helping them stay together. He said a key problem appears to lie in the guardian ad litem process.

“The judges give the guardian 85 percent of the weight in any child custody case,” said Dugay, “but in many cases, the guardians have not even interviewed the mother or father.” Dugay said caseworkers often decide, based on little hard evidence, that a child is at risk and must be removed immediately from the home. Many times this occurs with no plan in place to support either the child or the affected family, according to Dugay.

“I want to see an objective process,” he said. “I want to see everyone working for reunification or placement with the extended family. That’s something tangible. That’s something everyone can work toward.”

The guardians are also overloaded, he said. “One who walked with us said she had 54 cases.”

The stories are just part of the message Dugay and his fellow marchers hope to bring to Gov. John Baldacci today: that DHS is broken and desperately needs to be fixed. Dugay’s frustrations with the Maine Department of Human Services are built on five years’ experience as a member of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee.

Dugay said, “We are looking at two and a half decades of policy that needs overhaul. I am really encouraged by the governor’s attitude.

“With the wind at my back, through a nor’easter, I intend to walk into a city where the executive branch wants change,” Dugay said.

Gov. John Baldacci, who sat down with Dugay for 90 minutes last weekend to discuss Baldacci’s planned overhaul of the newly merged DHS and Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services, promised he would be waiting at the State House door when Dugay and the walkers arrive at noon today.