One very powerful tool that is beginning to be used more often in fighting negligence and corruption of Children's Protectives Services and Welfare Agencies is the knowledge that many of these organizations are receiving federal funds to run these programs and it is illegal to fraud the federal govenment in obtaining funds. This holds true with State Social Services Agencies that receive federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services or other federal agencies.

Many programs, especially Children's Protective Services programs, are subcontracted to the Mental Health Field for counseling, evaluation and therapy while these "contracts" are being used more and more by these social welfare agencies.

There are many violations in these areas. These would include billing for mental testing and evaluation that was either improperly done or not necessary. Billing for therapy and counseling that was either not necessary or recommended in order to obtain compensation for fraudulent services provided and use the child as a source of income for these therapists, counselors, and psychologists. When this happens children are left in abusive situations so that more money can be requested to fund and justify the need for this type of program and there is very little regulation and oversight in this "INDUSTRY!" In fact the guidelines and rules to follow are left almost entirely up to the people that administer these programs!

There is not any legal definition of what a psychological evaluation is. There is not any legal definition of who is qualified to perfom psychological evaluation and testing. Right now you can travel around the country and see many "Mental Healthcare Centers" being built and additions to these centers. This is a highly unregulated industry and fraud and corruption is growing by leaps and bounds in this "INDUSTRY!" Children's Protective Services is making referrals to these organizations, the Courts are making referrals to these organizations, attorneys are petitioning the courts for orders for evaluation, testing and recommendations while the taxpayer's money is flowing in these directions.

I wrote my Senator and asked if there were any legal definitions or legislative definitions and criteria for psychological evaluations and my Senator responded that he had asked the legal research bureau to research this and confirmed that the research staff was unable to find any legal definitions for psychological evaluations. There simply is not any law enacted to provide direction for these types of programs that affect our children's best interests, welfare and our lives.

The False Claims Act is an avenue for whistleblowers who seek to expose fraud in federal contracts. Through this Act, individual whistleblower "relators"--employees or non-employees who are original sources of evidence of fraud--can challenge government contract fraud directly before a jury of taxpayers. Used properly, the law is a powerful tool. Whistleblowers must be sure that they meet the requirements for filing a false claims suit, however, and should be aware that it can be a protracted and potentially quite expensive process, unless the Department of Justice (DOJ) takes the case over after initial review. A false claims suit also imposes limitations on the whistleblower: while the case is "under seal' for DOJ review, for example, you cannot discuss the evidence publicly.

There are more and more organizations proposing the use of the Federal False Claims Act to provide the public with an effective means to fight corruption and fraud within many administrative agencies. The Child Protection Agencies are beginning to find that as the public becomes more alert and aware of what is really happening to our children while invovled with these programs under the pretense of "Protecting Children" they are also beginning to feel the affects from public awareness of these types of claims.