The FAMCare Blog

Social workers are mission-centric personalities who join the profession to do some good. For the most part they are idealists who gradually get caught up in the minutia of the large bureaucracies they work within, and their vision of a better future gets a little blurry. Every year we like to take a step back to help refocus the collective vision of the ideal future that inspired social workers to join the profession in the first place. We interviewed four caseworkers of varying years’ experience working in diverse specialties and asked them why they became social workers.

According to the most recent estimates, the United States has over 56 million people over the age of 65. This figure is expected to more than double by 2060, when senior citizens will account for more than 19% of the population.

So, if your human service agency is interested in determining a strategy for senior services case management, we believe the time has come. Because, in the near future, your case managers will face a massive workload, numerous new challenges, and a large number of new clients desperate for their assistance.

Are you curious about how you can evolve and improve your senior care agency in the future? Let's explore the way forward.

Employee burnout exists, and according to a recent survey, 23% of full-time workers in the United States experience burnout the majority of the time during the work week. So, if you're a nonprofit leader and you notice that your case workers aren't as enthusiastic as they used to be or are falling behind in their daily tasks, it may be time to look into whether job burnout could be the issue.

While there are numerous traditional methods for motivating caseworkers, we have compiled a list of steps that social service agencies can take on their own. This is to ensure that your case managers are not neglecting themselves or their mental health while serving their communities.

How we care for the most vulnerable among us is one of the great challenges of our time. As Mahatma Ghandi once said, “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” And social workers are hard-pressed to find one group in more dire need of urgent attention than children at risk of neglect or abuse.

Children deprived of a safe, nurturing family environment are entitled to special protection, assistance and alternative care. And today’s caseworkers can most effectively address this with the right social services software.

While doing some spring cleaning on the FAMCare Blog, I stumbled across this brief but excellent blog article from our very own Danielle Ritacco from March 2017.

Dr. Anna Scheyett, PhD, is the speaker, and this is her TED Talk about social workers. Dr. Scheyett's research, which she conducts as a professor at The University of Georgia, has focused on the needs of vulnerable populations. In this Ted Talk, she gives a succinct 7-minute summary of why social workers are superhumans. It's reassuring to know that some people recognized social workers as superheroes even before the pandemic that rocked social services to its core.

So Happy Social Worker Month.  Please enjoy this reposted TED Talk! 

Like all industries, the nonprofit sector is trying to put the pandemic behind them. During and immediately after the height of the pandemic government subsidies buoyed up many nonprofits through programs like the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), Employee Retention Credit (ERC), and Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG). When asked about their organization’s financial position as the pandemic began to wane in the fall of 2022, 49% reported being somewhat or very concerned about their financial condition. In a recent follow-up survey, however, overall satisfaction in the past three months has increased considerably (by 64%), while those who are somewhat or very concerned has remained nearly the same (48.71%).

In the United States, there are over 1.5 million non-profit organizations. And, in recent years, the vast majority of them have realized the importance of digitization. Today, more than 90% of social services use the cloud, and more than 56% have considered using multiple cloud-based solutions to improve case management.

This blog is for you if your social service organization hasn't started the digitization process or has had trouble with a slow acceptance. We're going to share some tried-and-true tactics with you today that corporations have used in the past to quicken the adoption of new technology, and your nonprofit organization may now take use of them as well.

So, let's discover how to quicken the digitization process in your nonprofit.  But first, let us first discuss the advantages of doing so.

Educators, who are some of the likeliest professionals to report child abuse, are encountering youth who have faced abuse in isolation throughout the pandemic. During 2020, the proportion of mental health-related emergency department (ED) visits among adolescents aged 12-17 years increased 31% compared to 2019. Suspected suicide attempt ED visits were 50.6% higher among girls aged 12-17 (CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 6/18/21). These stats indicate an increase in child abuse as children were confined to the home during the pandemic.

As stated in Article 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child:

"Every child in conflict with the law has the right to be treated in a manner that takes into account “the desirability of promoting [his/her] reintegration and [his/her] assuming a constructive role in society.”

Known as the “Cures Rule,” this national policy requires healthcare providers to give patients access to all of the health information in their electronic medical records “without delay” and without charge. It mandates that patients have rapid, free, and full access upon request to test results, medication lists, referral information, and clinical notes, all in electronic formats. Some refer to the Cures Act Final Rule as the “Open Notes Rule.” This “Final” Rule supports seamless and secure access, exchange, and use of electronic health information. The rule is designed to give patients and their healthcare providers secure access to health information.