SWAMPED 

The debate between caseworkers and case managers about the size of caseloads continues to rage. Caseworkers feel overloaded, and they believe the quality of the service they provide suffers accordingly. Case managers pass the buck up to senior agency management complaining that they are severely understaffed. Senior agency management blames budgets and funding, and sends regrets back down to the overburdened case workers as the line for services continues to extend ever further out from the agency’s doors. Everyone is concerned. No one seems to know what to do. 

LEARNING TO SWIM 

“You should practice swimming technique in shallow water, but you don’t really learn to swim until the water is deep,” said Dianne Z., a retired caseworker from Chicago, Illinois. 

“When our agency was founded after the war, we had few clients and no idea what we were doing. As the clients began to pour in, we scrambled to keep up with the paperwork, visit with clients, coordinate with other services, and try to make things come out better for each client. As the years passed we worked harder and harder, but as the water got deeper, we learned how to swim.” 

“Can you share any of your ‘swimming’ lessons with the case workers who are laboring out there today?” I asked this energetic, bright-eyed, eighty-year-old woman who had been a caseworker for more than forty years. 

“Sure,” she said with a smile. “Why not?"

“Number One…Stop complaining! It doesn’t do you any good and just makes you feel negative all the time. Rather, figure out what you and your case manager can do about the caseload.

Forget external factors you can’t control, like money or more clients pouring in.

And be careful about who gets what case. Not all cases are equal and not all case workers are equal. Give those tough, complicated ones to the old hands. They’ve learned how to knock them out. 

Be realistic about outcomes. Don’t try to save the entire world. Just help that new mother find a place to live. 

And don’t let your good workers quit. Find a way to make them happy. Give them some more money or a fancy title or a new pen or something. But look after them. You can’t handle very many cases if you’re always training new case workers. They’re just not as efficient as those experienced ones. 

And for God sake, let the computers do most of the work. Get the best technology money can buy. In modern times, it’s your only hope.” 

SWIM TO SHORE 

As I listened to this experienced, wise woman talk, I realized that her folksy way was masking a seminar in best management practices. The only solution we can offer to the caseload dilemma the entire industry faces is to constantly evaluate and execute the best management practices we can come up with. We cannot reduce the volume of cases or increase the funding required to expand our agencies. Before I talked to Dianne, I thought of “doing my best” as a cliché. Now I know it’s often the only answer.