Communicating With Your Case Worker

by Melissa J | More from this Blogger

22 Aug 2006 06:39 PM

You may recall me talking about that awful "hurry up and wait" game. You might even be playing it now. If you are, I'm sure you have discovered, the state does not work on our time!

Often times, case workers are very over loaded with each case being unique. Whether you are working with an adoption worker or a child worker, there are some general things you may want to keep in mind.

Child workers can be hard to reach at their desk. They are often called to court, or home visits. There is usually a lot of paperwork and documentation of several cases they have to deal with daily. It can be easy for a case worker to get a phone message, try to come back to it and just forget. This goes for email as well. Ask the child worker what communication seems to work best for them. A little empathy can go a long way sometimes. If they are working with angry birth parents or other foster parents, sometimes hearing that someone understands they're human is helpful.

Adoption workers typically have many demands on them. Though they aren't usually working directly with birth parents, they still can be overloaded and stressed by their work loads.

If you have been trying to get a hold of your worker with no success, call them again. Often it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. If there is an urgent matter, ask to be transferred to their supervisor. If there is not a supervisor available, sometimes asking another worker to have your worker paged can help. Urgent matters do not usually include questions regarding submission of a home study on a particular child.

Some case workers are more organized than others. If your worker is less than organized, you may want to keep track of appointments and such regarding your child's case yourself. Unfortunately, when workers forget things, it can hold up a case.

I certainly don't want to come across like I'm making excuses for workers that don't do their job. I have found, if you want to get something done, some persistence and kindness go a long way.

( Melissa is a Families.com Christian Blogger. Read her blogs at: http://members.families.com/mj7/blog )

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Megan Bayliss (3586) 22 Aug 2006 06:57 PM

Its good to be reminded of the stress that adoptive parents have to endure with the eternal wait for case workers. I hope that other case workers read this and reflect upon it. Having worked in child protection and on a few adoption cases I know the overwhelming pressure of case overloading.

But...I think case workers often forget that parents are part of the case as well and that there needs to be smooth communication to aid the best interest of the child.

Thanks MJ. This was an excellent reminder to case workers as well as being very helpful to parents.