(NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Maine's Attorney General Janet Mills says that the Department of Health and Human Services' child abuse intake hotline (1-800-452-1999) is "understaffed" after a report from the state's watchdog agency, OPEGA, cited concerns around how the Department handles claims.
One of the concerns listed in that report is the "timeliness of answering phone calls regarding potential child abuse and neglect by OCFS Intake workers via the statewide, toll-free number."
"To report a child abuse case -- if you're a teacher or doctor or lawyer or professional, you'll be put on hold for as much as an hour at a time. You'll be told to go make a report online," said Attorney General Mills. "Being put on hold for an hour at a time is unacceptable."
DHHS says the hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Maine DHHS did not return calls or e-mails for comment, but a chart on its website dated June 22, 2018 shows that there are 25 "intake social workers," plus one vacant position. There are three intake supervisors, and one program manager. Without clarity from DHHS, it is unclear if supervisors and the manager are also responsible for taking calls on the hotline.
One of the other concerns in the report is the training and guidance for mandated reporters to recognize signs of abuse. Mandated reporters are typically people like health care workers, law enforcement officers, or teachers.
Since 2015, "school personnel" made up 20 percent of the total child abuse reports to DHHS, on average.
The list of mandated reporters is wider than just those professions though. See the list here:
"As a teacher, I'm putting my faith and confidence in the system." said Aaron Filieo, a teacher and head football coach at Cape Elizabeth schools, who has worked with kids for 20 years. "If you do this long enough, you realize something is off. You don't want to jump to conclusions -- but you do know that there's something going on that's different."
He said he was not aware that there was a 24-hour hotline to report child abuse, and believes many teachers do not know about it, but said he now plans to take advantage of it if necessary.
"As a teacher, once I pass that on, you're kind of left blind to the process, and it's blind hope and faith that it's taken care of," said Filieo.