The FAMCare Blog

Sometimes, all an organization needs is a little organization!  This was the case for Michigan’s Departments of Community Health, DHS, and Education. In 1994, these organizations came together to form the Systems Reform Task Force with a primary goal to, “achieve better results for multigenerational families who receive services across multiple human service and educational systems.” The task force recognized the need for improved technology to simplify administrative processes, improved communication across systems, and reduced barriers to services for families. Specifically, children under DHS supervision frequently needed services across multiple systems. 

One way for a software solution to help you be HIPAA compliant is to offer you HIPAA encryption as part of the package. But is that something you need to be HIPAA compliant? Technically, no, it’s not mandatory.

The rules state you should use encryption if it would be needed to safeguard electronic Protected Health Information (PHI). But, they do say if you don’t use encryption, you need to have an alternative to encryption that will safeguard as well as encrypting would. Or you need to have documentation with justifiable cause, as to why have taken a different tact with regard to safeguarding PHI.

Being a case manager is stressful work. The hours are long. The caseloads are heavy. Budgets are tight. And you are often dealing with people facing some of the worst moments of their lives. We have discussed in previous posts different ways that social workers can achieve case manager stress relief. In this post we look at some organizational tactics to reduce stress for your case managers.

In our last post, we talked about how we are constantly in hackathon mode and how listening to and working with social workers in the field helps us find better solutions. In talking to those caseworkers and their supervisors recently, we were able to pull together a list of some of the top things that cause them frustration. Here is what they said and how we can help solve the problems.

Nobody understands your stress and how to deal with it better than those in the trenches with you. In previous blogs we have shared ideas on both physical and mental ways to create some level of case manager stress relief. But for today’s post, we talked to case managers and mental health professionals who deal with the stress of the job every day and asked them to share the best ways they find stress relief.

You have good caseworkers who are committed to their clients. They work long hours and go above and beyond to make sure everyone is getting the help they need. Yet, it’s still too easy for someone to slip through the cracks if you’re using an antiquated or old school record system. Or if the caseworker is overwhelmed with too much to do and too little time to do it. Using the right case management software can alleviate some of these issues and help make sure nobody falls through the cracks.

We are in an unprecedented stretch of strong economic conditions where where there are more jobs then job applicants. Yet, there are still many children and families who are suffering and in need of government agency help. So many, in fact, that human services caseworkers often still feel overwhelmed by heavy caseloads and the accompanying paperwork.

I recently read an article in Forbes about how Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are broken. And while some of the points they made were appalling, they weren’t surprising – at least, not to me. We’ve known about the limitations of the government approved EHRs for some time now.

Your nonprofit organization has been growing and helping more people on a regular basis. You have good case workers who care about their clients and making a difference. Have you reached the point where investing in the right case management software could propel your organization to a new level, while making your case workers more effective at their jobs? Here are some tips to see if you’re ready to take that next step.

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.