The FAMCare Blog

We were surprised by the results of our recent mini-poll, when we asked six case workers serving our elder population what they considered the most pressing current problem elders are facing. 3 out of 6 (50%) said, "internet scams". Internet scams?! What’s going on now? What kind of scoundrel would cheat the elderly out of the last of their nest egg?

Case workers tell us that the shameful practice of scamming seniors is on the rise. With the elderly population growing, seniors racked up more than $3 billion in losses this past year. Case workers say that the heart-breaking irony of elder fraud is that seniors are targeted because they tend to be trusting and polite.

Case workers in Juvenile Justice have long been concerned about a subversive movement in the back halls of Congress and many state houses to erase any distinction between young offenders and adult criminals. As recently as the 1990s almost all 50 states overhauled their juvenile justice laws, allowing more youths to be tried as adults and scrapping long-time protections to help rehabilitate delinquent kids and prevent future crimes. Only ignorance of the history of juvenile justice in United States could be responsible for a now subdued but continued movement to “simplify” criminal justice by merging juveniles and adults together in the eyes of the law. May we take a moment to remind everyone how our juvenile justice system evolved to its present effective state.

This FAMCare Fundamentals focuses on the Demographics Form.  This short video walks you through the demographics form in FAMCare. The demographics form can include other summary tables and be your one stop area for collecting various pieces of information making it faster for caseworkers to detail records.

While singing the praises of our dedicated case workers during the coronavirus pandemic, I have received numerous inquiries from readers who do not know what case workers do in hospital and post-care settings. Apparently, the critical role of medical social workers is not clear to the general public. I thought it best, therefore, to let them speak for themselves.

“An 18-year-old sleeps in a doorway of a public building with nothing but a tattered blanket to shield him from the cold wind. He took little more than the clothes on his back when his foster parents demanded that he leave home. He hasn’t been in touch with his biological parents in years. None of his friends’ parents will allow him to spend a night on their sofa. And he’s unfamiliar with the nearest homeless shelter.” (Social Work Today, Vol. 19, P.24, Nadine Hasenecz, MSW, LSW)

Social workers practice in schools, hospitals, psychiatric clinics, juvenile courts, prisons, police departments, and a range of other settings. Current practice demands collaboration between social workers and the professionals who dominate these agencies. But the Covid-19 Pandemic has presented case workers with a variety of new challenges.

Homeless