The Balance between Caseworkers and the Innocent
Jennifer Collins
Liberty University
28 August 2015
The Balance between Caseworkers and the Innocent
Why our Child Protective Service Caseworkers have a high turnover rate within a year of taking the job along with an extreme amount of caseloads?
Large caseloads and excessive workloads in many jurisdictions make it difficult for child welfare workers to serve families effectively (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013). Other reasons that caseworker’s leave were due to the danger involved and extreme stress. Some caseworker were so behind; they were caught lying to get caught up on the workload.
Children are left at risk when a case is not followed up promptly due to
The organization under investigation is Child Protective Services, also referred to as CPS, which is an agency within the Department of Family and Protective Services. CPS is a governmental organization that has existed for years. The agency is designed to protect children from abuse and neglect. There are numerous cases that are called in on a daily basis in the state of Texas, and it is the duty of state employees to address all allegations in a timely manner. The positions held as a caseworker within the agency are either Investigator, Special Investigator, Family Based Safety Services Specialist, or Conservatorship Specialist. Due to the required work and deadlines involved with being a caseworker at CPS, the job can become very
Health and safety of the children is so important and should not be put at risk at any time. Any area out of my control that I cannot actually sort myself is reported immediately to be dealt with.
In the “High Stakes and Frightening Lapses” case study, the report indicates various problems that face individuals with careers in the social services cluster. There was evidence of high case loads with low pay, lack of attention to families that needed it the most (the Ventura family), absence of leadership from administration, broken promises, bureaucratic issues, etc., which can all lead to unsuccessful relationships between clients and social workers as well as distrust within the helping process. The actions pursued by both DSS and La Alianza Hispana (LAH) resulted in the horrifying situation of several children that could have ultimately been prevented by the professionals.
It is very important that anyone working with children should be able to recognise if a child is at risk of harm of in need because of their vulnerability. The earlier this is recognised, the better outcome for the child involved.
Many of the children who are placed into the care of Child Protective Services are situated into hellish foster homes with people who only care about the money they receive from the government for each child that is placed under their roof; and not for the welfare of the children. Numerous amounts of children that are caught up in the system, especially
I need to start by admitting that this video was difficult to watch! Within a few seconds of watching the video I was reminded of the level of difficulty of the social work profession. As described in the video, Child Protection Services’ role is to protect children from neglect and abuse (Mierendorf, 2000). Similarly, social workers play several significant and complex roles within child advocacy. Social workers need to ensure the safety and well-being of children and be their voice when they are being silenced or maltreated. Social workers need to identify the abuse and address the situation accordingly. This could be particularly difficult when is in the best interest of children to be removed from their
Often children die or get seriously injured due to abuse or avoidable accidents. Society has a duty to protect children. We have a range of professional organisations supported by legislation, policies and procedures in order to do this. When the procedures and policies do not work society has failed at the thing it is meant to do. It is vital and that the causes of failure are known and dealt with.
* ‘Where a child sustains a potentially life threatening injury or serious and permanent impairment of health and development through abuse and neglect’
There are different practises across the country when looking at serious case review, each country has there own procedure. In England the LSCB local safeguarding children's board liaise
I believe that the most challenging aspect of working in protective services is separating work from home. Being able to "leave work at work" is difficult to do for any position, especially when considering deadlines that must be met and paperwork that must be completed. Working in protective services provides the additional challenge of leaving the horrifying images and circumstances that a service worker will see and face at the door before entering the home. Protective services appeals to me specifically because I want to assist children and families in facing some of the darkest moments in their lives. While it is difficult to separate work from home, working in protective services is one of the most worthwhile things one can do and one
The objective of this research is to examine the normalization of work that is centered around child abuse. This is a qualitative ethnographic study of Children and Youth caseworkers and supervisor, as well as my own experience working at Children and Youth. The research will be centered on the examination of emotional capital, occupational selection, socialization, and identity. My research will interview assessment and treatment caseworkers and supervisors, in order to explore the four concepts mentioned above. Comparing similarities or differences with the two separate departments, within Children and Youth, and management (supervisors) versus caseworkers, can help understand why some workers are successful and why some choose to leave
The reading in the textbook was appealing for week one. I learned that case management sounds like an interesting profession. Summers (2016) writes, “The primary purpose for case management is to improve the quality of life for your client” (p. 1). Helping others fits my personality. Although, case management does not include actually counseling a client, it provides the opportunity to connect the individual with an appropriate counseling service. Additionally, in case management the professional can also connect the client with other needed services creating a holistic approach and monitoring clients progress (p. 3).
On the contrary social and caseworkers have flaws when working on cases, but they still try their best to help families. As more issues come up, more changes are made to the system, Moyer explains how even if caseworkers are the problem for over years, there has been changes that don’t help the situation because they expanded the definition of child abuse and mandated reports. As the system changes some of the workers aren't well trained with new information, which can affect the way that deal with cases. Another reason why some workers struggle is due to budget cuts, May Bulman a social affairs correspondent explains the issue of budget cuts in her article “Record number in children in care as social services reach ‘tipping point’”. “The
The purpose of this paper was to understand the effects of workload and caseload sizes on the quality of service delivery in child welfare services. Yamatani, Engel, and Spjeldnes (2009) presented various family service reviews of several states from sources such as The Children’s Bureau and The U.S. Government Accountability Office, which demonstrated the negative impacts of excessive workloads and caseloads on service delivery in child welfare. The reviews found that most social workers had caseloads and workloads that were too large to allow them to adequately meet client needs. Yamatani et al. (2009) propose a combination of qualitative and quantitative research to find a comprehensive solution in setting and maintaining appropriate workload and caseloads for social workers. Qualitative research aims to understand the underlying reasons behind the issues of caseload and workload standards, while quantitative research measures the data drawn from the population used in order to deliver quantified results.
“ CP is trying really hard . She is stuggling because she belives that she only needs residential treatment for 90 days. Her case worker has spoken to her CPS worker and has agreed that the treatment program should decied her lenth of stay in treatment based on her needs. CP 7y is currently having issues with the foster care placement and this is triggering for her. The client struggles with impose control in groups. She likes to share a lot in groups. The treatment team is working with her to creat a more individualized treatment program for her . This plan would give her more one on one tme with her individual case manager to process her feelings.