Social workers in LA County advocate for fewer cases to best safeguard families and children.
On Wednesday, some 200 social workers from Los Angeles County demonstrated in front of county offices in downtown L.A. They demanded that their contract be reviewed in order to improve working conditions by lowering their caseloads.
On the plaza of the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, members of the SEIU 721, which represents 4,000 social workers employed by the county Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), held a rally while chanting “Protect Our Children” and “Children’s Social Workers Demand Real Solutions.”
The Wednesday event, according to union president and veteran county social worker David Green, was not about raising money. Instead, they handed Tim Pescatello, the county’s employee relations manager, a letter requesting for the contract to be reconsidered. To process cases more swiftly and safeguard families and children, the union is requesting that the county limit caseloads for social workers to around 15 cases.
22 instances per worker, according to the union, is “above the accepted rate of 15 per social worker to ensure child safety.” The Child Welfare League of America recommends a limit of 15 cases involving children per social worker.
Social workers who handle situations involving children being moved from foster care into permanent placements have a particularly acute difficulty. According to Green, each adoption social worker may be allocated up to 55 cases.
According to Green, the process is slowed down when social workers are overworked, leaving foster children waiting for months or even years to find a permanent placement. “Hiring more adoption social workers is the answer. In doing so, we may hasten the transition to permanence and genuinely enhance people’s lives in Los Angeles County, he said in a Wednesday interview.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the DCFS lauded its employees, claiming that they were crucial to the department’s purpose of safeguarding children and maintaining intact families. When a child is assessed to be in danger while living at home or in a foster care, the department is contacted. And if so, the kid is sent to a different foster home or placed in foster care.
The DCFS claimed that it has made efforts in this direction and that it agreed that assigning fewer cases to social workers is the best practice.
“Due to the fact that they improve practice, DCFS has drastically reduced social worker caseloads over a number of years. The agency is still convinced that existing levels ensure the security of children and the wellbeing of personnel, despite our continued efforts to make changes, according to the statement.
However, there are still issues with adoption workers and when social workers respond to emergency calls that ask for an evaluation of the living circumstances, according to Roxanne Marquez, a spokesman for the union. The union said that DCFS cut caseloads in several of its 23 regional offices.
We know it can be done (in other places) since the regional offices have experienced a decrease in their caseloads, she added.
According to Marquez, the union assisted the county in obtaining additional state assistance the previous year. They have requested in exchange that the county include a cap on caseloads and workloads in their contract.
“Return to the conversation and reduce caseloads. The right thing to do, according to Green.
Simply put, the high stress nature of the job is a contributing factor in the issue with social workers on the front lines of child abuse and domestic violence. In 2020, JBS International, Inc. conducted a nationwide study and discovered that having a large caseload “negatively affected caseworkers’ ability to achieve permanence goals, respond to maltreatment reports in a timely manner, file court documents and paperwork efficiently, and attend training.”
A previous countrywide study conducted in 2018 by Edwards & Wildeman, researchers from Rutgers University, revealed that caseworker turnover was a major contributor to the issue and that it can also be a result of employees being burdened with heavy caseloads and responsibilities.
The DCFS stated that it wanted to reassure the residents of L.A. “That there are plans in place to ensure that there is continuity in services for children and families who depend on DCFS,” the county said.
In an effort to lessen social workers‘ caseloads, the county allocated 123 new staff jobs to the DCFS in the revised $46.7 billion budget that the Board of Supervisors passed on Tuesday.
At the Tuesday supervisors meeting, it was stressed how important psychiatric social workers are to carrying out the board’s “care first” policy. In order to quickly redirect clients out of the system from the beginning, psychiatric social workers are used, according to L.A. County Public Defender Ricardo Garcia.
Green claimed that the county Department of Mental Health also needs to hire more of these trained social workers. These professionals frequently visit encampments to assess the mental health of the homeless in an effort to place them in housing or receive treatment.
“Social workers save lives every single day,” added Green. They serve as the most vulnerable members of society’s first line of defense.