When it comes to your clients and your fellow caseworkers, nothing is more important than meeting face-to-face. The more time spent directly with your client, the more likely you are to achieve the individual case goals and fulfill the mission focus. On paper it seems simple and obvious, yet paper is exactly what continues getting in the way. That’s where having the right human services software comes in.

"Getting adopted is like finally being able to sit down after standing up for a painfully long time." — Sam, age 9, in foster care - Social Work Today

This touching testimony from a little boy finally emerging from the foster care system opened our eyes to the ongoing trauma children in state custody experience. 

This is the third in our series of posts outlining ways to make sure your caseworkers keep HIPAA compliant. Previously we talked about the training and the computer etiquette needed for being HIPAA compliant. Today we look at the things you need to do within your office environment to remain compliant.

When you have a client’s medical records, keeping them private is essential to ensuring you keep the trust of the people you work with. But breaking that trust has financial consequences as well.

Ensuring your computer systems and employees are Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant is something that is of the utmost importance for agencies who deal with health information that must remain private and safeguarded. While training to be HIPAA compliant can vary based on your industry, one area that can reach across the board is proper computer etiquette.

In recent years, homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In August 2018, there were 62,166 homeless people, including 15,189 homeless families with 22,511 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. The number of homeless New Yorkers sleeping each night in municipal shelters is now 79% higher than it was ten years ago, and families make up three-quarters of the homeless shelter population.

This is the fourth in our series on case manager stress relief. In the first post, we discussed the physical things that can be done to relieve stress. The second focused on ways to find mental stress relief and the third focused on identifying and lessening exhaustion factors. In this post, we will examine how case manager burnout can be prevented with good supervision and mentorship.

A caseworker’s job consists of many facets: assessing client needs, home visits, evaluations, reporting, listening to concerns, problem solving, providing referrals and the list goes on. While wanting to collaborate with coworkers and the community on projects is always the goal, the ability to do so can often be hindered by a caseworker’s workload. Fortunately, with the right case management software in place, increased collaboration can be possible.

We’ve already discussed how nonprofit software solutions make it possible for your organization to focus more of its time on the mission, but we’d like to take it a step further. Not only can the right software solution provide an organization with more time to focus on the mission, it can also help you manage relationships better.

Safeguarding your clients’ privacy is something that must be taken seriously, regardless of your industry. Ensuring your caseworkers receive the proper Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance training is necessary not only to protect the clients, but to protect your organization.