Social Workers: A Day in Their Shoesby Fatherofeight | More from this Blogger 04 Mar 2007 11:00 AM Those of you who have been following my blogs know that I am no fan of the child protection / foster care / adopt system in Texas. That is a common feeling with most of the people who have shared their stories from other states. I have said on occasion that almost any way of doing things would be an improvement over what we experienced in going through the foster / adopt process with our five boys. I have to admit that I have encountered many very competent hard working people with the state and I have not intended to impugn them in any way. The lady who was our state social worker for our second adoption was very competent and really had a heart for hurting children. Unfortunately, she saw the light after a few years and went to law school. Our first state social worker was very incompetent and did not care enough about the situation to do anything to improve. To make matters worse, her supervisor was not willing to step in and make her do her job. If you talked to the supervisor for very long, you would see that she was suffering from burn out and just trying to make it to pension eligibility. The whole thing made me wonder how hard it would be to get fired by the agency. Having said all of that, I must admit that the average social worker for a state agency has a job that I would not want to do for any amount of money. They have huge work loads that often force them to rush through work that is very important to do correctly. Sometimes, the consequences of a mistake are very harsh. Let me illustrate my point. A social worker inspects a home and finds it lacking, but not seriously enough to warrant removing the children. Sometimes that example happens in real life and a tragedy happens in the home soon after the inspection. Then there is a lot of bad publicity for the agency and the inspector. The people working with the state then become acutely aware of the bad publicity and start taking children out of every home that seems like it might be bad. Some of those removals will be unjustified and, to make matters worse, the children have a chance of being put in foster care that is worse than the conditions of their home. It is a vicious cycle. State investigators are not infallible, none of us are. The problem is that the decisions that they may make sometimes have life and death implications. It is no wonder that many good, conscientious people who choose this line of work wind up hardened to the injustice that they see, burned out, and discouraged. Add to that the fact that they have to go, on an almost daily basis, to places that can be extremely dangerous. To summarize, it is a dangerous, low-paying job with a heavy workload and the consequences of making a mistake can be deadly. Maybe I need to go easier on these people. Relevantadoption tags Food | relationships | christmas | Scrapbooking | parenting | family | children | holidays | pregnancy | baby User Comments  Traci Anderson (970) 04 Mar 2007 08:06 PMWonderful post, Ed! As a former child-abuse investigator....I had the same experiences. Quite honestly..I wouldn't return to that career for any amount of money, but I am so thankful that there are people who are willing to put up with the disrespect, abuse and low pay. It is a really tough (and dangerous) job. I am thankful for people like you who seem to "get it".  QueenAngie Central Illinois, USA (60086) 04 Mar 2007 09:06 PMWell, I have to share that my experiences with Social Workers in a hospital setting is totally different. The SW all have their masters degrees in social work and could be private counselors with their own private practice, if they chose. Obviously, this is a different setting with a much different clientel, for the most part. There are several in my office, I'm an RN and a counterpart from the nursing aspect, and I see a different view. They counsel patients & families with life adjusting illnesses, assist with financial problems in obtaining medications, hospice care, long term nursing homes. As I deal with an adult population, it more likely an elder abuse situation, than a child abuse. This is the opposite end of the spectrum, but just as sad and a horrible crime. From the emergency dept, the social workers do get calls for child abuse, or in the burn unit, child abuse. At that point, the SW contacts DCFS. Or if a baby is born in the nursery with the need for adoption or a mother high on drugs, the SW handles this. I am not assigned to these particular areas. Yes, SW do work very hard, but in the hospital setting, on a daily basis, these individuals are very caring, professional, and do their best for patients.  Fatherofeight (2475) 04 Mar 2007 09:36 PMI have to try very hard to give them a fair shake based upon how hard some of them made our adoptions. That is what I tried to do with the article, point out that many of them work hard, don't get paid enough, have big hearts, could be making more money doing something else. I must admit that it was always with dread when I had to sit in court waiting for our turn and I saw a bunch of medical professionals there to testify about what they saw when an injured child came in to the ER. It is always good to hear from you, Angie. Fatherofeight (2475) 04 Mar 2007 09:38 PMThanks for the comment Traci, again I felt like I needed to set the record straight and give the profession and the many dedicated people who do the work some credit. That earn it every day. Its also good to hear from someone that has been ther. Fatherofeight (2475) 04 Mar 2007 09:39 PMGood to hear from you Crickett, thanks for being a faithful reader.  Julie Gentry (5915) 04 Mar 2007 09:41 PMI'm sure there are wonderful people who are SWs. I'm equally sure there are those who are less-than-wonderful. When I took my son in when our cat bit him, the one in our hospital was very accusative, in a less than straightforward way. Fatherofeight (2475) 04 Mar 2007 09:47 PMThats a shame Julie, in that position and having that attitude. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. PATTI (580) 05 Mar 2007 08:44 AMDear Ed, Good blog! May be people will listen and if it makes the difference in the life of one child, then it is well worth it. PATTI melodyes_song (80) 05 Mar 2007 03:20 PMEd your blogs are always wonderful...our boys SW is incredible, she has such a heart and our boys are not, nor have they ever been a number to her or her supervisor, for that I am so thankful. And since the boys now live with us on the other side of the state she drives here once a month just to see them, she misses them...On the other hand the county we live in while we do not deal with them I know some who do and they are constantly frustrated by the lack of response but I also know we live in a poorer county thus there are virtually no funds to meet the needs of the numerous children in this county. I do not believe I could ever be a social worker since as you stated they must make decisions that are life and death and their is generally no one standing there thanking them for their efforts either. Fatherofeight (2475) 05 Mar 2007 04:35 PMThe good one I knew would see a problem and want to report it but no one wanted it reported because they would have to try to solve the problem. I'mglad you have a good one now, that is great.  rsbg (501) 05 Mar 2007 07:52 PMThere are good ones out there, but the job is so tough and demanding that it IS hard to keep the good ones for long. I think our CW works 7 days a week, 12 hours a day (I've received emails from her on Sunday evenings). She is wonderful, always kind and informative. She is very young (and has energy!) But I wonder, how would someone be able to keep up with the demands of this job for 10 or 20 years? I say KUDOS to the good ones, they are out there and they are great. But I know there are lots of bad ones out there as well. As always, GREAT blog! Fatherofeight (2475) 05 Mar 2007 09:52 PMWe were blessed when we had a good one and cursed (it seemed sometimes) when we had a bad one. Glad you have one that is helping you. Community Tags heart for children, incompetent social worker, remove a child from a home Discuss this article
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