Turnover in child welfare case workers has reached troubling proportions. In any profession, an annual turnover rate around 10% is considered healthy. In child welfare social work, the most recent annual turnover rate was reported at exceeding 22% in some states. When we asked child welfare case workers that we communicate with on a regular basis what they think the problem is, the consensus was clear.

In the United States, there are around 328,120 child welfare employees. However, given the rising number of cases of child abuse and neglect, as well as the demanding nature of the job, it's reasonable to state that there is a severe shortage of child and family social workers in the United States.

Bridging the gap between available employees and children in need of help can take years and need significant adjustments to the current system. But, in the meanwhile, here's how child welfare agencies might better manage greater caseloads.

It is no secret that the pandemic has affected the entire world in one way or another. This includes not just individuals, but entire countries, economies, industries and systems.

The virus has helped put things in perspective for many of us, it has also managed to completely wreck the lives of others. While many people were laid off, others spent months working from home, but for social workers, the pandemic brought huge, unprecedented challenges that went beyond just the struggles associated with remote work.

The focus of social work has shifted from providing immediate support as a safety net to the vulnerable to striving for a better long-term outcome for each client. In child and family services, the mission no longer ends at removing an endangered child from a dysfunctional household but now extends to how a Child Welfare Agency might help the child grow into a productive member of society. In other words, what will be the ultimate outcome for the child?

In 1998, a consortium of child welfare agencies in Missouri were researching the market for web based, social services case management software.  When their search turned up empty...they hired a firm to create it for them.  A few months later in the spring of 1998, FAMCare was born. 

COVID-19 has drastically changed the whole world. From food shortages to problems in the healthcare sector, we’ve seen a wide range of problems since the start of the pandemic in 2020. In these challenging circumstances, NGOs play a vital role in helping individuals get their lives back on track.

Here's a few examples of how NGO's are adapting in an ever-changing pandemic era.  They are finding different ways to rise to the needs and demands placed on them during these turbulent times. 

A case worker who has worked her entire career feeding the hungry in America recently told us:

"When I was a girl and hesitated to eat my spinach, my eagled-eyed mother would notice and say, ' What about all the starving children in China? Think of them and be grateful you have enough to eat. Finish your spinach.' Like so many other middle-class Americans, I believed hungry children lived in China, India, or Africa, not in America. I believed that until I went into social work at the largest food bank in Pennsylvania. That opened my eyes.

Non-profits have ambitious goals, but they are often buried under a workload of paper. According to an estimate, only 11% of non-profit organizations pay attention to including technology in their operations. Doing things manually takes a lot of time and manpower, so understanding the value of technology is critical for non-profits.  

When agencies dig in and start looking into the advances and potential benefits that modernizing technology can bring to the table, here’s some of the things they consider.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused social workers to take a closer look at their ingrained prejudices when dealing with the aged. Robert N. Butler coined the term “ageism" in 1969 to describe attitudes, practices, and policies that discriminate against older people. Ageism occurs when people face stereotypes, prejudice, or discrimination because of their age. The assumption that all older people are frail and helpless is a common, incorrect stereotype. Prejudice can consist of feelings such as “older people are unpleasant and difficult to deal with.” Discrimination is evident when older adults’ needs aren’t recognized and respected or when they’re treated less favorably than younger people. Social workers who work with the elderly are realizing that even in their minds age is “a category of difference” like race and gender, but unlike race and gender, age positions older adults as a homogenous group with similar needs.

(Excerpted from an article by Paul Moakley in Time Magazine, "Deaths Amoung America's Homeless Are Soaring in the Pandemic.  A Photographer Captures a Community In Crisis")