http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=9315331
This article is a follow up to a story regarding the L.A. DCFS. An 8-year old girl was brutally beaten by her mother and her boyfriend to death in May of 2013 and a large scale investigation was done on the agency. Two social workers and two supervisors were fired following the investigation into the child's death. Social workers at L.A. DCFS reported they carry close to 50 cases each and report that they are unable to ensure the safety of all the children on their caseloads. The L.A. DCFS social workers are filing a lawsuit with the county to reduce their caseloads to 31 per caseworker. The union is also asking for a pay raise and for 1,400 more caseworkers to be hired.
"Our children in Los Angeles County, they need to be protected. And they need to be protected by having additional social workers providing direct practice social work for our kids," said David Green, a social worker with SEIU Local 721.
Social workers in child welfare are all too often underpaid and overworked. In order to ensure the safety of children in such large urban areas the counties must reevaluate their finances and make child safety a priority. They must put an emphasis on hiring the most trained individuals to conduct such serious work as well, which will mean paying them more. Unfortunately too many things in society today are run by money and by policy created by those who do not even in work in the field. All of these issues must be considered if we truly believe that children deserve to grow up in a safe and stable home environment!
This is very sad. You have the safety of a child verses the caseload. It is very unfortunate that the death of a child resulted from this but hope that it brings attention to the caseload. It is very difficult for social workers to diligently do their job when they have such a load. Of course most policies are birth from a mishap instead of a preventive measure. You would think the agency would know that having 50 cases per social worker is too much and the reality of them doing an excellent job is slim to non.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Janell. I was pleasantly surprised to read that the social workers in La have a union, that will likely make a huge difference in this case. I think this is something all social workers struggle with in one form or another; when so many of the clients on our caseload are in crisis, how do you prioritize who you help first?
ReplyDelete