At year end we like to take a look over our shoulder at the vast army of social workers who have supported our country's most vulnerable populations throughout the year. The purpose of this annual overview is to tell social workers nationwide that we appreciate the task their profession has undertaken. Last week we looked at the vast mission of HHS workers across the country. This week we're focusing on child welfare workers. We are astounded here at GVT by the magnitude of the need that social workers in all fields attempt to alleviate and find ourselves rededicated to our mission to help the social work community fulfill its mission.

FAMCare is a leader for agencies who want to improve how they manage their data and outcomes for our society's most vulnerable.  FAMCare is a social services software system that includes best practice data collection forms and workflow designed to optimize how a caseworker works with their clients each day. 

COVID-19 has affected the world and its societies at unprecedented levels. Ever since the first few cases were reported in the US, things have been spiraling out of the control for both governments and healthcare authorities alike.

A lot of families have lost their loved ones while others are dealing with the long-term side effects of the virus. It’s not as easy for them to adapt to the new normal that others are embracing.

Toward the end of every year, we like to step back and take a look at the social work profession through a longer lens. Social workers, like all busy professionals, tend to get buried in the minutiae of their work and lose sight of the bigger picture. We find that it helps our colleagues to maintain perspective by taking an annual long look at the profession as a whole and the important work that social workers are engaged in.

The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented catastrophe, the likes of which the modern world had never seen before. It affected billions around the planet and no country escaped unscathed, including the U.S.

The pandemic has had a huge impact on the country’s socio-economic conditions. The healthcare system is exhausted, people have lost jobs and loved ones and in general, the percentage of the vulnerable and dependent population has risen significantly. 

This means human services organization are working harder than ever and they need all the help they can get.  This is where human services software can provide that much needed extra hand. 

Nuclear

Nuclear technology revolutionized national power politics in the first half of the twentieth century. The MAD (mutual assured destruction) concept made world war a thing of the past and ushered in what was known as the "cold war". Rather than world powers sending hordes of young men onto the field of battle to slaughter one another, nuclear technology reduced human conflict to large national beasts glowering at one another across a nuclear divide.

Nearly 500,000 people died from opioid overdoses from 1999-2019. This epidemic of opioid overdose deaths can be outlined in three distinct waves.

1. The first wave began with increased prescribing of opioids in the 1990s, with overdose deaths involving prescription opioids (natural and semi-synthetic opioids and methadone) increasing since at least 1999.
2. The second wave began in 2010, with rapid increases in overdose deaths involving heroin.
3. The third wave began in 2013, with significant increases in overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, particularly those involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl. More than 14,000 deaths involving illicitly manufactured synthetics occurred in 2019, which is equivalent to about 38 deaths per day.

This infographic simply details how you can use Case Management Software to help your agency optimize their case load.  We understand that your agency's success is tied to your ability to integrate best practices in everyday caseworker activities.  Casework isn't simple, but it can be easier, more efficient, therefore increasing your team’s productivity. This allows them to spend more time on what really matters, the client’s that they serve!

The history of social work is replete with religious organizations that were the early founders of social work and prayed for, with, and over clients as a matter of course. However, as secular and governmental social service agencies assumed a greater share of society’s burden of need issues of religious freedom and separation of church and state began to crop up.

Only because it is GVT’s business to provide technology services to the world of social services have we hesitated in the past to promote the central role that technology plays in the delivery of services to the vulnerable populations social workers serve. It has always felt a little too self-serving.

However, in the past fifteen years, technology has evolved from being one of the tools social workers use to what can only be described as the “heart of the matter”.

A surgeon and his scalpel are more than a doctor holding an instrument. They are a functional unit that can only perform their work in unison.