Sara, an intern in a child protection unit at a county here in Minnesota, writes about issues pertaining to caseload management, worker turnover, and client outcomes, specifically in terms of foster care re-entry, based on her observations in her field placement.
As a child protection intern in a large County, I have seen how difficult it can be to manage child protection cases. Parents need time to address the issues that bring their families to the attention of child protection. Yet we also know that children do better when they are in a stable home and preferably, with their family of origin. Case managers have the difficult task of striking a balance between keeping children safe and the parent’s need for support.
In some ways, Minnesota’s high rate of re-entry for children in foster care is no surprise. This does not mean that case managers are intentionally making decisions to return children to their families too early. Rather, there are numerous challenges that workers face when making the decision whether to reunite the family or move to terminate or transfer legal custody.
Case managers at our County are burdened with high caseloads. A significant amount of work goes into every case. It requires meeting with your client(s), consulting with various service provides, preparing court documents, and addressing barriers and struggles with your client(s). As an intern, I have two cases and work between 15 and 20 hours a week and still feel like I don’t have enough time to accomplish everything I need to do and would like to do for my clients. Case managers only get paid to work forty hours a week (though often they work more out of necessity albeit without pay) and have anywhere between nine and 16 cases. Case managers cannot physically do everything they are charged or trained to do and as a result, sometimes things fall between the cracks.
Another significant barrier is time. There are many reasons that families come to the attention of child protection and they all need time to be addressed. Common reasons for child protection involvement include but are not limited to chemical dependency, mental illness, and domestic violence. These issues cannot be resolved overnight. Minnesota only allows six months before requiring case managers make a decision on permanency. Six months is a short amount of time, particularly when case managers, due to their heavy caseload, can’t spend the time that may be necessary to support the client.
Lastly, case management is difficult and stressful. Currently, at my placement, there is a high turnover rate of case managers. Case managers are overworked. Contracting agencies and service providers often have more referrals than they have the capacity to serve and getting clients access to services can sometimes take weeks. Court involvement can take a case plan and turn it into a series of bureaucratic hoops for case managers and clients to jump through. Tension between the attorneys and case managers makes it difficult to stay true to social work values. These stressors make it difficult to keep seasoned social workers in their positions as case managers.
I do not mean to imply that case managers don’t or can’t do great work. I see case managers doing amazing things everyday and I admire their abilities to engage their clients and help families in need. I do, however, think that the state needs to do more to support its workers. Until case managers/social workers are supported, Minnesota may not see a reduction in foster care re-entry rates.
Written by Sara, a Title IV-E Scholar