According to estimates, the United States has over 680,000 social workers affiliated with various non-profit organizations. Social workers play an important role in the American social fabric, from juvenile justice to veteran services, senior services, and child welfare.

However, in their pursuit of doing good for humanity, social workers occasionally make mistakes that add to their workload and stress. So, if you're a new caseworker about to embark on your journey, this article is for you.

Continue reading to learn about the five rookie mistakes that caseworkers make that can add stress and make their jobs more difficult.

Since the 1900s, U.S. public schools have employed a growing number of school resource officers (SROs) – sworn law enforcement officials. In 1975, only 1% of schools reported having police officers on site, but by 2018, approximately 58% of schools had at least one sworn law enforcement official present during the school week. Since 1998, the federal government has invested over $1 billion to explicitly increase police presence in schools, and over $14 billion to advance community policing, which can include SROs.

Performance anxiety can often add to the high stress experienced by social work case managers. After all, social worker performance isn’t about how many widgets you make or how much profit you brought to the bottom line. It’s about helping real people deal with real life problems. If your performance is lacking, it could mess up someone’s life or even end it. That's the mindset that leads to social worker performance anxiety.

An estimated 4.2 million teenagers and young adults are homeless each year. Children who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless have higher rates of mental health problems such as behavioral issues, anxiety, and depression than children who live in unstable households.
The importance of mental health in programs for homeless young people cannot be overstated. Furthermore, most people's willingness to seek therapy is limited by a lack of access to mental health care. For organizations and services that work with at-risk youth, emphasizing mental health is critical to long-term sustainability.

We understand that being a case manager can be extremely stressful. There is never enough time, money, or resources to complete all of your goals. And the work that you do is critical. People's lives are affected. As a result, our case management software is designed to help alleviate some of the stress in your daily workflow.

Louise, a crusty journey-woman social worker had three pairs of glasses hanging from tiny chains around her neck and a sharpened yellow number two pencil plunged into her beehive hairdo. How unlikely that this woman would teach us how to use humor in social work.

Our senior population continues to grow, with the aging of the baby boomers. And with the glut of older citizens comes a glut of issues that elder care workers must deal with. There are health issues – both physical and mental. Muscles and bones get weaker, senses start to fail – hearing, eyesight, even touch, taste and smell, in some cases. And then there’s the loss of mental facilities. About 10% of people over 65 suffer from some form of dementia and it goes up to 32% for those over 85.

Every year, nearly 600,000 people are released from prison. More than two-thirds of inmates are arrested again within three years of their release. Former inmates may struggle to re-enter society due to obstacles such as unemployment, homelessness, or a lack of funds.
The majority of these people do not receive the assistance and counseling they require to avoid committing another crime. In this case, re-entry programs can be beneficial. They want to help ex-offenders reintegrate into society. Re-entry programs offer a variety of services such as job placement, housing, and mentoring.  Let's examine how re-entry programs improve a community. 

Few people outside the social work profession are aware that juvenile justice is administered on a state-by-state basis. While there is no national system that establishes norms beyond the adult criminal justice system, (processes include arrest, detainment, petitions, hearings, adjudications, dispositions, placement, probation, and reentry) the juvenile justice system in most states operates according to the premise that youth are fundamentally different from adults, both in terms of level of responsibility and potential for rehabilitation. Whereas sentencing for a serious crime following a guilty verdict in the criminal justice system often results in jail or prison time, the juvenile justice system seeks to avoid incarceration whenever possible.

Work processes have changed dramatically in the last few years. However, social workers continue to rely on manual workflow methods. The goal of workflow automation is to change this.
Because of their cautious approach to implementing new technology, human service organizations may reap even greater benefits from optimizing their processes with cloud-based services than those in other industries. Some of the advantages of cloud-based workflow for human service case workers are as follows.