The FAMCare Blog

Only because it is GVT’s business to provide technology services to the world of social services have we hesitated in the past to promote the central role that technology plays in the delivery of services to the vulnerable populations social workers serve. It has always felt a little too self-serving.

However, in the past fifteen years, technology has evolved from being one of the tools social workers use to what can only be described as the “heart of the matter”.

A surgeon and his scalpel are more than a doctor holding an instrument. They are a functional unit that can only perform their work in unison.

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in the age of telehealth. Perhaps too quickly in many cases, but most clinicians agree that without the nudge from COVID-19 they never would have encouraged the widespread use of telehealth. The coronavirus changed that in an instant, significantly accelerating the adoption of telebehavioral health services. Statewide lockdowns forced providers to find virtual means of meeting with clients and appointments were moved to the telephone and /or video chats.

As tele-health becomes more prevalent in the delivery of behavioral health services during this ongoing pandemic, tomorrow’s new normal will be much more virtual than yesterdays. Even after the pandemic, services will be a combination of tele-health and in-person.

Behavioral health clinicians, now operating screen-to-screen rather than face-to-face, realized they needed guidance on engagement, assessment, intervention, and the legal and ethical considerations necessary when setting up and implementing tele-behavioral health. However, they did not foresee the hidden dangers of "Zoom Fatigue".

There's a common (and unfortunate) misconception out there that certain industries are perfectly fine relying less on technology than others. Social workers, healthcare workers and people in similar professions don't necessarily have a pressing urge for information management and case management software because most of their day is spent in-person.

I still have a full set of Windows 3.11 on 3.5’ floppies. It was a wonderful time. With a bit of 10 BASE2 coax cable, BNC T-connectors, network interface cards (NICs), and a couple of 50 ohm terminators we could get computers to talk to one another. How could we forget the fun we had getting the interrupts set properly on the bus cards. And when it was all done, our first foray into network gaming, Duke Nukem, roared to life. Of course I figured out early how to use the mouse instead of the keyboard. The kids never knew what hit ‘em.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many other social media sites, help keep people and communities together and up to date on all of our lives. We learn about who has a new job, who is having a baby and whose political views differ from another. Sounds promising and helpful, but is it?

Baby boomers are a lot more than just the generation of people born in the years immediately following World War II. They're our mothers, our fathers, our neighbors and our friends. They're also one of the most significant generations in American history, at least as far as sheer numbers are concerned. Most studies say that by the closing days of 1946 - the first official year of the "baby boom" - there were roughly 2.4 million people among the demographic. Flash-forward to 1964 - the final official year of the boom - and that number had grown to 72.5 million. Add in people who immigrated to the United States and you're looking at a total population of about 78.8 million people.

Congratulations to our recent graduates of the FAMCare / Visions Server Master Certification training course!  Thank you to Travis Dillard of SARCOA (Southern Alabama Regional Council on Aging) and Cody Lewis of Middle Alabama Area on Aging for attending the course!

My name is Heather Lytle and I work for a non-profit organization called F.A.C.T.

The future is here. 3.2 billion subscribers, an estimated 47% of people on the planet, are using mobile technology. 74% of adults use social networking sites.

Social workers are no exception. They are beginning to revolutionize practice with technology. In addition to using mobile devices to communicate with clients and advanced digital data collection, social workers are taking Masters courses in online formats and even dabbling in cyber therapy with certain clients.