I evaluated the Franklin County Department of Social Services in Rocky Mount, Virginia. In my evaluation I was able to observe workers in my field of choice. I plan to work as a Family Services Specialist in the neighboring county, Henry County. In my agency I am a Human Services Assistant, so I am unable to make first contact on referrals. In this specific unit Human Services Assistants can carry a caseload but my unit, Investigations, we do not. I was able to work closely with the workers and see exactly how they handle their cases. I was able to see the benefits of their involvement with their families and how they were able to help them achieve better circumstances. This job is very hard on workers mentally and emotionally, many must leave their jobs temporarily or find support outside the workplace. The turnover rate in the social work field is one of the highest due to how easily it is for us to become burnt out. I have been in this field for two years and have had my moments where I needed help but was too scared to reach out. I was also able to discuss with some clients how they feel about the involvement of social services in their lives. Many were grateful for their workers but said they have had some bad experiences in the past. Some clients reported that they were at rock bottom when DSS became involved and since their children were removed from the home it gave them the motivation to get back up on their feet. Overall, I observed Franklin County Department of Social Services is doing well with supporting their community and providing services to those in need.
In my interviews with clients, I was able to learn about their experiences with DSS involvement. As I previously discussed, some clients were at their worst when the workers became involved because they were in a bad place mentally or hooked on substances. They told me their world strictly revolved around finding their next high. This caused them to neglect their children’s needs because they were unable to care for their kids the way the children needed. The clients stated that just by someone stepping in and placing their children outside of the parent’s care was the wake up call they needed to get help. Some of the ones that did not have a substance dependence told me they were happy that DSS stepped in when they did because they were glad to see someone actually cared enough about them to get them to the places they needed. Whether it was counseling, food pantries, etc., the workers were able to place some support in their lives to make things a bit easier on the parents. I also had clients tell me the negative about their interactions with social services. Besides the clients that absolutely hated DSS’s involvement, many were worried it caused harm to their children’s mental health. Some reported their children having anxiety about being outside the home and away from their parents. They said DSS workers helped to combat this issue by giving the children a way to get into services. Services like counseling and therapy helped to settle the children’s anxiety about their open cases. In all from the client interviews I was able to observe a higher positive outcome than negative outcome from social service’s involvement with their families. This means workers are doing their jobs correctly and supporting the clients while connecting them to services in the way they need. While there was not always a positive answer when I would ask them the question “How has social services involvement impacted your life?” most seemed to be in high spirits about their community’s workers.
In this evaluation I also interviewed workers about the treatment they receive as workers for the Franklin County Department of Social Services. This is exactly what I expected to be based on my own personal experience and the research I read. Workers feel burnt out, overworked, and underpaid. In a way social workers should also be considered first responders the same way EMTs, Firefighters, and Police officers are. As social workers a majority of the time we are the ones calling in the “first responders” to the scene due to threats of safety or medical emergencies. A majority of the time when police are called it is because of the threat of safety to the workers. I and other workers have had to do this multiple times as clients can be very dangerous. Social workers are “armed” with a notebook and a pen when entering the homes of people they have never met before. While police officers are armed with guns, tasers, pepper spray, night sticks, and bullet proof vests, social workers are not allowed to carry anything considered a weapon with us as we are supposed to appear “nonthreatening”. This is beyond dangerous and the workers of Franklin County report this has been one of the reasons they were thinking about leaving their agency. The best way they put it was that social workers do not get paid enough to risk their lives on a daily basis. Many social workers have been assaulted or killed in the homes of their clients. There are no safety precautions in place for workers other than the light training we receive to talk conflict down. Workers understand this is not directly related to the agency and that the state is in charge of this policy but feel in order to protect themselves they would have to leave their career field behind to get peace of mind. Directly correlating to the agency itself, workers feel there is a lack of communication between themselves. They state that high stakeholders have tried to enforce better ways of communication in at the agency but they fell short when COVID-19 took over the agency. Worker’s report this is slowly improving but feel more could be done. Another thing mentioned by most of the workers is the lack of support. Many agencies in the area are short-staffed, including my own. They feel overwhelmed by the number of cases they have and the number of workers they do not have to share them with. Workers have reported feeling if they had smaller and more manageable caseloads, they would likely be able to provide more intensive and attentive services to their families.
I feel my findings in this evaluation will impact the agency in a positive way, specifically the ongoing/in-home unit. Since the Department of Social Services agency is so large as a whole, I was unable to evaluate it in its entirety so I focused on the one unit that I specifically do not work in. My findings will provide the agency as outsiders point of view on how their workers do their jobs. I was also able to obtain both a point of view from the workers and community they serve so that the agency can make changes in their units where deemed necessary. The influence should be nothing but positive as the Director was very open to me joining them to observe them over several sessions. She knew it was important to have someone of non-bias enter the agency to observe things that she and her other administrators may have overlooked in the observations themselves. I was able to achieve a deeper understanding of a neighboring agency and develop new friendships in the process.
Based on my findings, I recommend better advocation for workers at the state level. What I mean by this is pushing the board, which supplies grants to fund DSS, to put in better protection for workers. They could potentially raise the pay and apply hazard pay to salaries of specifically, field social workers. I mean specifically to the social workers in the field, not medical or school social workers as a majority of their work is done from their office. Social workers that work in the agencies and put their lives at risk daily should be paid more and protected better, especially by law. My second recommendation would be for the agency themselves to increase the advertisement of positions available and possibly prompt the state to offer sign-on bonuses. This would help increase the number of applicants to the positions and potentially find a match. I have noticed that mine and other agencies are lacking in the category of advertisement. People do not know that they have to go to the stated website to apply for positions such as these and are often timid to reach out to ask. I understand that social workers, specifically CPS, have a bad reputation but I feel if we can share the process with other people will begin to understand a bit better. This could decrease the danger to the workers when approaching families. My last recommendation would be that the administrators or stakeholders implement a program within the agency to better promote community in the agency themselves. This will help workers by increasing their confidence, support, and most importantly their mental health. Our front line workers struggle tremendously with the second-hand trauma they receive from their cases and having a supportive environment in the agency could potentially lower the high turnover rates of social workers.
A goal the agency should implement would be the accessibility and support of self-care. The workers are burnt out and so they are unable to provide the best assistance they can to clients.
Some objectives to this is:
- Implement mandatory days off once a month for workers strictly devoted to self-care. (Only one worker in the unit can be off on a certain day so that there is coverage for the other workers. These should be paid!)
- Promote counseling in the workplace!
- Provide a safe space for workers to decrease stimulation when feeling overwhelmed.
- Allow workers to accommodate other workers on home visits when they do not feel safe approaching a situation.
- Devote a day each quarter to bring the entire agency together for a “Fun Day.”
I understand that all of these may not be obtainable at once but slowly implementing these changes into the workplace, stakeholders may be able to see a drastic change in turnover rates and decrease of complaints against the department.
In conclusion, all of my articles supported my findings in my evaluation. I believe these findings to be true and just, as I have many of the same feelings. This evaluation has brought me closer to my neighboring agency, helped me develop new connections, and given me new ideas to bring back to my own agency. Clients are able to see when workers are not at their best, this can cause many problems like cooperation from clients and the willingness to make a change in their lives. Workers are expected to put their all into serving their communities but this cannot happen if they have nothing left to give. I am proud of my job and fellow social workers; we are resilient and determined to make a positive difference in people’s lives daily. This takes a lot of out of and sometimes takes us out of the field entirely. If the agencies make changes and advocate better for employees, I feel there will be more good in the agency than bad that will come from new policies put in place. I plan to continue my career in social work and push through the challenges. The reward of seeing people do better and live their lives to the fullest because of something you helped them start is the best feeling and I, and other social workers, wouldn’t trade it for the world. We are resilient and dedicated to having our voices heard.
Resources
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Toros, K., DiNitto, D. M., & Tiko, A. (2018). Family engagement in the child welfare system: A
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