Social Worker with a Mission

The School of Social Work

Karen Patton:
Social Worker with a Mission

“What if someone knocked on my door and took my kids away for several weeks while the case dragged on in the judicial system? I decided there had to be a better way,” says Karen Patton, investigator for Child Protective Services (CPS) in Walla Walla.

Patton’s mission to find a better way began four decades ago. Ever since she was five years old, she knew she wanted to be a social worker. “I didn’t necessarily know what the word ‘social worker’ was but I did know that I wanted to help people.” Her dream was to be put on hold for 31 years.

It wasn’t until 1992, following her divorce, that she began to reassess her goals. She was a single mom with one year of college under her belt, two children, and a secretarial job that could not pay her bills. There was only one thing to do: get more education.

“I decided to get a degree in social work and had considered several colleges nearby on the East Coast,” Patton recalls. “I made contact with Walla Walla College and found the Admissions Office to be assertive and helpful. When I discovered that WWC offered a one-year master’s degree in social work, I was sold,” she recalls.

But she wondered, how could she move 3,000 miles away with no money for moving expenses, no money for tuition, and no job waiting for her? That did not even take into account providing for her two children. Patton soon got her answer in February 1992, when Wilma Hepker called her at home. There was an opening in the social work department for a secretary, and Hepker offered Patton the job.

“Because of the job offer, college housing, and full financial aid, what I thought was insurmountable became a reality,” Patton says. “It was an answer to prayer, and Wilma made it happen. I am ever so grateful to her!”

Wilma fondly remembers that Karen was one of “our bright and shining stars. She took on more challenges and was actually more of a graduate program assistant than a secretary. The students loved her.”

At the end of Patton’s junior year in the undergraduate program, she obtained an internship at the Department of Social and Health Services in the Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in Walla Walla. “The internship helped me tremendously. It helped me face the real world and apply all the information I learned at WWC.”

A few months before she graduated with her MSW degree in June 1996, Patton was hired full-time at DCFS. Her primary job involves investigating sexual abuse allegations. She also investigates emotional abuse, physical abuse, physical neglect, and domestic violence. Patton guest lectures at WWC in the social work department and trains the MSW interns. She travels throughout the state of Washington to train other DCFS employees on how to properly conduct forensic interviews of children as well.

Patton has also developed an innovative approach to resolving family crisis cases. “A year ago,” she says, “I discovered the solution to helping families in crisis was mediation.” Patton contacted a mediation team after an attorney she used for custody transfers recommended it. “She was willing to try it because other techniques were not working,” says Robert Boggess, mediator and co-founder of Endwell Partners, LLP. The team mediated in a successful case. Since then, Patton has used this approach in more than 50 mediations with 30 different families.

Mediation provides the unique opportunity of allowing all the participants‹the caseworker, the parents, and the children‹to have a direct role in the process, rather than having any one person make a determination. This helps the caseworker who is often in the difficult position of conducting an investigation and also providing support services. Mediation helps to alleviate this situation.

“Karen realized that mediation allowed her to provide services more easily. She has proven that she is open to something different, confident that she can try it out, and be able to judge whether or not it works,” says Boggess.

Usually court drags on and is emotionally draining. However, mediation can shorten this process to 4-6 days and a 1-3 hour session all of which results in a plan. Mediation in DCFS offices is not used anywhere in Washington State except Walla Walla. “Several other states use mediation, but only after court hearings,” Boggess says.

“Karen is not afraid to be a risk taker,” says her supervisor, Butch Van Dyk. “She has been an innovative leader in bringing mediation to our office. There are several other offices statewide which are now showing an interest in this process because it has been successful.”

Now Patton finds that people are calling the office for help instead of locking their doors and closing their minds to CPS.

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