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Front-line DFCS workers drown in sea of cases and paperwork
Front-line DFCS workers drown in sea of cases and paperwork
By CRAIG SCHNEIDER The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 11/20/04 It may be too late for Valeri Dunn. This has been a tough year for many of the state's child welfare workers, but Dunn has lived the headlines about overwhelming caseloads, stressed-out staff members and workers quitting in droves. It's been that bad. "I'm going through the motions. I'm burnt out," said Dunn in an interview with the Journal-Constitution. She works in the DeKalb County office of the Division of Family and Children Services, investigating complaints of child abuse and neglect. She offered a rare glimpse into the difficult life of a DFCS caseworker, a life on the front lines of protecting Georgia's most vulnerable children. This has been a year of upheaval for the child protection system, filled with leadership changes, suffocating caseloads for workers and false starts toward reform. More recently, change for the better seems on its way, but it's a slow train coming. The new leadership of the agency says the practices that pushed up caseloads have been changed. Dunn says her caseload finally has become manageable. But, at the same time, Department of Human Resources Commissioner B. J. Walker recently noted that nearly 70 caseworkers are quitting each month, and she said she fears that the numbers may grow. 'It's all about helping people' Dunn was hired last November, four days after her job interview. She got the call while packing for a job interview in Charlotte. She canceled the interview. The young woman who had worked for three years at a crisis hotline and a few months in the Florida child welfare system saw a great future ahead. "It's all about helping people," she said. The fact that she had been hired so quickly made her think the Georgia system really wanted her. She has always been a helpful person, she said. The daughter of a social worker, she recalls her father's stories of helping families get back on their feet, helping them become productive citizens. She helped her mother take care of her younger sister. Friends have always looked to her for advice. She remembers that when she was about 10, she saw a TV ad saying you could adopt a needy family for Christmas. Give them gifts, bring them some joy. She asked her mother if some of her gifts could go to a poor family. "Oh, you're such a social worker," she recalls her mother telling her. But in her first week, Dunn started to see what she was getting into. She was bright and eager, but she said her new colleagues tried to warn her off. Are you sure you want to work here? they asked. You might want to get another job, they told her. The caseloads are unreal, they warned. Dunn, armed with her bachelor's degree in social work and not a lot of on-the-job experience, didn't realize it, but she had just stepped into one of the most troubled DFCS offices in the state. The heat was on at the DeKalb office. Three months before Dunn's arrival, Kyshawn Punter, a 2-year-old boy, had been beaten to death by his stepfather while under the agency's watch. The state fired two caseworkers and reprimanded supervisors. New DFCS chief Janet Oliva put the office under a microscope and sent in 13 monitors to fix things. Anxiety permeated the office. Dunn saw the news reports about problems with the DeKalb office. She heard people bitterly criticizing caseworkers. An agency overloaded Dunn's job is to investigate accusations of child abuse and neglect. That means knocking on a family's door, telling them you're from the state, then challenging them about their parenting. Some parents become hostile. Some lie. Some try to become your best friend while you determine whether to take their children from them. In January, the DeKalb office suffered another high-profile blow. Another child that DFCS had been asked to help died. After 4-year-old Rita Moody's battered and tortured body was found Jan. 26, officials admitted that no child welfare worker had contacted her family, despite repeated calls for intervention. The girl's aunt told reporters that she had contacted DFCS seven times with concerns about Rita's safety. The caseworker who handled the case was juggling about 70 cases, officials said. DeKalb became the symbol of all that was wrong with DFCS. Top officials said the Rita Moody case revealed problems evident throughout the state child protection system, which had seen the ouster of the state agency's two top officials, widespread retraining of staff and the replacement of leadership in several county offices, including DeKalb. Caseworkers felt under attack. Many felt blamed unfairly for the problems. Child welfare advocates pointed to some policy changes that drove up caseloads. For example, after the death of a boy in Cobb County, DFCS required caseworkers to launch investigations whenever teachers, doctors or other people in positions of authority over children contacted the agency with concerns of abuse or neglect. Suddenly, many cases that would have been screened out required a caseworker to start an investigation. By the end of her first month on the job, Dunn had about 25 cases, nearly double the number recommended by child welfare experts. And she was getting more cases almost every day. She would spend the day in court on one case, only to come back to her cubicle to find three more files on her desk. Each one meant visiting a family, interviewing the accuser, interviewing the child, interviewing relatives and assessing risk in the home. If neglect or abuse was substantiated, she had to figure out whether to remove the child and help with a plan to fix the family. As the files stacked up on her desk, the floor, the chairs, the file cabinet, Dunn found herself flying from home to home. She had no time to catch up on her paperwork. By March, her caseload had risen to more than 50, and the tension in the office had escalated as well. Workers said they couldn't get to children fast enough, they were so backed up. They needed more and more extensions on the deadlines for investigations. "I didn't feel I was doing any good," Dunn said. Maybe once a month she felt like she helped someone, she said. "But not like it should have been." Light may lie ahead Every couple of weeks, another caseworker quit, she said, and his or her cases would be spread among the staff. At its highest last summer, she said, her caseload approached 100. The stress started getting to her. "I cried on the job. I cried at home," she said. She had to pry herself out of bed in the morning. She reached out to her mother for help, talking to her in the morning and at night. Her mother urged her not to quit. Her work troubles invaded her sleep. She dreamed that a child died under her watch. She dreamed that a child she had taken from a dangerous home suffered abuse in a foster home. She worked late nights, took work home, and came in on some weekends. Dunn said she can't remember the first time she broke down over work, but she recalls the feeling that came each time: "I can't do this. I'm organized. I'm goal-oriented. Then I get here, and I feel incompetent. I can't do this job." The cases kept coming. High-profile cases in other county offices had spooked school social workers and others required by law to report suspicions of child abuse and neglect. So they flooded the agency with any and all suspicions, Dunn said. In June, the number of cases of suspected child abuse and neglect had jumped by nearly a third since December. Child welfare advocates worried publicly that the rapid rise had seriously hampered the state's efforts to protect children. Dunn drew her own line and stopped working so much overtime. She was not going to drown in her work. When she came up for air, she saw her social life was — well, she had no social life. Around this time, Gov. Sonny Perdue, who has made child welfare issues a priority, brought on board a new commissioner of the Department of Human Resources. B. J. Walker quickly acknowledged that the child welfare agency was in crisis and made fixing DFCS her priority. Walker introduced initiatives to reduce the caseloads, in part to stem the loss of workers. Since June, DFCS officials have been trying new ways of handling cases in nine counties that had big increases in caseloads earlier this year. Caseworkers may cut short an investigation when it becomes apparent that a family merely needs some counseling or health advice. DeKalb is one of nine counties that have seen a combined 14 percent decrease in cases. "We have a long row to hoe," Walker said at the time. "We're nowhere near the finish line, but now we know there is a finish line." Dunn suspects she may not be there when the agency reaches that line. She has seen improvements. The agency is giving some cases to privately employed social workers, and Dunn considers her load of 25 cases manageable. People in her office seem encouraged by the changes, she said, but they still fear the bottom could drop out. Dunn is thinking she'll go into interior design, maybe sometime next year. Something without the worry that she might not get to a child in time. Something that doesn't bring nightmares. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/met...aseworker.html Defend your civil liberties! Get information at http://www.aclu.org, become a member at http://www.aclu.org/join and get active at http://www.aclu.org/action. |
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There are always sad stories but that is no excuse for the incompetence and ignorance that permeates the DFCS. When i hear recordings that say "I will call you back at my earliest convenience" and workers saying "I'm not good at test taking" I cringe. If you are the smartest most talented person in the world but can't prove it you are a slob like the rest of us.
Either get off your butt and do your job or get another gubment job where you don't come in contact with the public. |
#4
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Quote:
Last edited by JeromePearson : July 20th 13 at 06:57 AM. |
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