What Is Social Work In Child Welfare Like?

Many people are rather confused as to what child welfare social workers do, especially in light of how the media portray their role.

@SocialJerkBlog, a social worker employed in the field of social work, describes her typical day as including “some parent training with clients. This can be working on behavioral charts and disciplinary consistency, or getting into the parent’s childhood and how that affects their parenting…I also usually have at least one play therapy session with a child.”

To give a brief introduction, @SocialJerkBlog, who prefers to keep her identity anonymous, started her blog SocialJerk this past June with the purpose of creating a funny commentary on social work, child welfare and related topics. The blog seemed to be a good fit for her in light of her love of writing and the need to get things off her chest. She tends to use humor as her primary method of combating burnout because she was raised in a big Irish American family in which she was always taught that “if you don’t laugh, you cry.”

SocialJerk also wanted to reach out to other social workers who have their work get to them so as help them lighten up. She hopes that other social workers are able to find the humor and joy in their own work. It is also her hope that the fact that she loves and cares about her work and the people she works with comes through her writing.

Without further ado, the first question that comes to mind is with respect to your name:) What was the reasoning behind the selection of your twitter handle “socialjerk?”

I created the moniker “SocialJerk” because, first of all, anonymity was important to me. Second, I wanted something to convey the fact that I write about my work through the lens of snark and sarcasm.

I also thought it was vaguely clever. (My twitter handle is “SocialJerkBlog” because “SocialJerk” was taken, but remains unused. Grr…)

 

SocialJerk’s Avatar (Subway Map of the Bronx – the area in which she works)

What made you decide to pursue an MSW in general? (and then to focus on child welfare)?

I’ve wanted to be a social worker since I was in high school, about age 15. I have four younger cousins, all of whom are adopted, including my godson, who was adopted out of foster care at age 3. Their mother (my aunt) is a public health nurse, and she talked with me a lot about the difficulties of adopting and problems in the foster care system. I was raised by rather liberal, socially conscious parents, and I was a teenager, so I decided at that point that I was going to fix the system!

I also read two books about poverty in New York, and the New York City foster care system (“The Lost Children of Wilder”, by Nina Bernstein, and “Random Family”, by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc.) Both of these books had a huge impact on me, and I try to re-read them every so often to remind myself of that. I really wanted to be a strong advocate for families, children in particular, and I felt that social workers are the ones most dedicated to the best interest of the child (ideally.)

That was what I wanted to do, and getting my MSW was the next logical step. I took a social work class in college, taught by a great LCSW, who was very concerned about social work as a profession, and she really instilled in me the importance of a social work education. So I had that plan in mind as a freshman, and decided on it definitively as a sophomore.

What is your current title/position and what type of child welfare agency do you work for?

I am an LMSW, and my current title is “Social Worker.” I work at a preventive agency in the Bronx. We work with families who are at risk of losing their children to foster care. We provide counseling and case management services in order to preserve families.

We get clients referred to us from the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) which is the agency that does child protective services in NYC, and also from PINS (person in need of supervision, which is a warrant parents file for if they cannot control their teenager) in addition to some from schools and community agencies. I started off with this agency as an intern in Brooklyn, and I’ve been in my current position since getting my Master’s.

How does a family applying for PINS get help in controlling their teenager?

When a child is considered “out of control” the parent can file a PINS petition in family court. This generally means that the child is out of the home (a runaway or throwaway) and is not attending school. If the petition is granted, a PINS warrant is issued and the child has to be picked up when seen by the police. The child is then brought to family court and a decision is made.

Often parents do this so they can get their children into some kind of residential treatment, or into a more restrictive school environment that will keep the child to ensure that they are attending. The courts are hesitant to issue many of these, because they’re expensive, so before issuing one, parents have to first go through “PINS Diversion.” This means that they are first referred to preventive services for family counseling, to try to avoid something so drastic as a PINS warrant. We get a lot of our clients through PINS diversion.

What types of families are at risk of losing their children to foster care? (Is it your role to teach them how to parent within 12 months? )

Some parents are referred to us due to an indicated (meaning that there was merit to the report) CPS case. These cases can be due to abuse or neglect, most often neglect. Ones that are due to physical abuse are usually noted as being because of “excessive corporal punishment.”

In these situations, it’s really inappropriate discipline or inappropriate expectations based on the child’s age and development.The same goes for neglect–people leave their two year old home alone, not understanding that this is completely unsafe. In these cases we do a lot of parenting counseling, teaching about child development, and learning other methods of discipline, in addition to counseling regarding their own upbringing and how they were disciplined.

There are also situations where the case CPS case is unfounded, but the parents still feel that they need help and accept a referral. School and community referrals usually come due to issues with the child acting out in school, or a child reporting something like sexual abuse to a teacher. The families then come to us for counseling.

12 months is not nearly enough, in my opinion, but if the family is engaged, it is at least enough time for them to learn new parenting techniques, and for a foundation for change to be laid. We usually provide referrals for other services (mental health counseling, anger management, support groups, etc) when our time is up, so that the change can continue.

A lot of parents are angry and in denial that they need help. Our services are voluntary, unless CPS goes to court for a court order, so the really angry people tend not to sign on. Many parents are not entirely honest at first, and it takes a long time for them to come around and engage in services.

Work can still get done under these circumstances, by starting where the client is and working on their goals. (People might be in denial that they need parenting help, but pretty much everyone can admit that they need something.) I usually find that helping people with concrete needs, such as public assistance applications, clothing, or school supplies, can get them to start trusting and get them engaged.

What percentage of your day is clinical work vs. case management?

Clinical vs. case management is tough for me to break down. Most of my sessions with clients include both. For example, I will spend a lot of time with a client doing referrals for legal aid, getting child support, preventing eviction, etc. But there is an opportunity for clinical work in providing that type of assistance–getting into how to prevent these problems in the future, the familial patterns that keep repeating, and all that.

As a social worker, I am supposed to have a clinical focus in all of my client interactions, and I try to. I would say that probably a third of my time, at least, is taken up by case management tasks. Also a good amount of my time is taken up by tracking clients down–going to see them at home, school, work, wherever!

What is a typical day like for you?

I will typically have several office sessions and home visits scheduled in a day, four is probably average. Due to the nature of my clients’ lives, a lot of those will be no-shows, or the client will call to reschedule, ask if I can come over instead of them coming in, or something like that. So my day involves tons of walking, all over the Bronx, as well as a lot of time on buses, trying to track people down. (This is where I get all my best stories.) It’s hard to describe a typical day, because, cliche as it sounds, I never know what’s going to happen.

Today I was in a school, a children’s psychiatric hospital, another school, and someone’s home. It really varies. But everyday generally involves me doing some parent training with clients. This can be working on behavioral charts and disciplinary consistency, or getting into the parent’s childhood and how that affects their parenting, or whatever. I also usually have at least one play therapy session with a child. I love play-doh and work with it every chance I get.

I have a lot of family sessions, which can be pretty tame with families of small children, and pretty chaotic with families of teens. I run a teen group for girls, which runs in a three month cycle. We just ended one and and starting another one up in the next month. Days that I have group are always a lot of fun. A coworker and I developed a curriculum, but you never really know what’s going to come up with my girls.

What are the parts that you like best about your current position?

I have found that I love group work. I wish I studied it more as a social work student. I really like that I get to use different therapy modalities in my work–group, individual, family…it keeps things interesting. And, more importantly, it’s best for the clients. The same is true for the population I work with. With families, you get a little bit of everything in terms of ages, which is great. I’ve found that I have a particular passion for working with teen girls. They’re such an interesting and fun population, and also a huge challenge.

I feel like it’s a huge privilege to be invited into people’s lives the way that I am in this field. I get to spend time with amazing, hilarious kids who do ridiculous things and crack me up constantly. I get to work with young mothers, who are also some of my favorites. Most of them are ill-prepared for parenthood, but love their kids so much and are really eager to learn. That makes work with them super rewarding.

I work in a pretty well-respected agency, and I think they have earned their good reputation. You hear horror stories in this field, and while there are plenty of crazy office type things to complain about, we really have good supervisors with a lot of experience, and we get excellent support.

And what are the parts of work that are the most challenging?

I have to chase after clients a lot, which gets frustrating, and can make you (by you I mean me!) a bit resentful. You start to feel like, “hey, I’m offering you free counseling, stop running from me!” Or, “I just dragged myself to your house in the 100 degree heat, the least you could do is be home!” Combatting burnout and remaining compassionate is a constant struggle.

The caseloads are big and getting bigger, which does not make things easier. We have to see each client twice per month, so sometimes it feels like numbers are all that matters, as in, “we didn’t really get anything accomplished, so I saw you. My job is done.” You also see and hear terrible things, and a lot of people stay the same for a long time. You’re not seeing major changes overnight, and you’re often not even seeing major changes in a year. That can get depressing.

The economy has affected everyone, but preventive services really took massive hits. Things are a bit uncertain in terms of agencies closing or having to lay people off, which puts everyone on edge. They are also drastically cutting down the amount of time we can keep a case open (the max is now twelve months) which puts a lot of extra pressure on the workers to engage families quickly and really stay on target in terms of goals.

Overall, burnout and stress are my main challenges. Others include safety, which is always a concern, especially when you aren’t working in the greatest area, and over coming cultural differences. I don’t have any white clients, and a lot of my clients are very interested in the fact that I am white. The meaning that this has for them can have a pretty big impact on the therapeutic relationship.

How have you found your race/ethnicity impacting your relationship with clients? And what do you do on your end to better understand their culture/ethnicity?

My agency is very concerned about incorporating client’s culture into treatment. We are required to ask about it and the role it plays in their lives, to document this in our notes, and to include culture in our genograms.

People often won’t outright state, “You’re white, you don’t understand” or “we’re different.” Clients will ask where I’m from, and say that they assume I’m from Westchester or Connecticut. Or they’ll say things that let me know that they think I was raised very differently, or that I don’t believe in corporal punishment because I’m white.

The assumption seems to be that white equals upper class, and that I’m not familiar with their problems. I try not to concern myself with changing their minds about these kind of things, because it really doesn’t matter for the most part, and I realize that if someone has these feelings, they aren’t going to change because I argue with them. I don’t let myself get defensive, because that takes the focus off of the clients and puts it on me.

I try to be culturally sensitive and allow my clients to teach me about where they are from and what, culturally is significant to them. Kids especially enjoy doing this. I also try to help clients understand what is and is not a cultural practice–just because your grandmother made you kneel on rice a a punishment in Puerto Rico doesn’t mean that this is an important part of your culture that needs to be preserved.

Is there anything you can do to ensure your safety? 

In terms of safety, I try to make sure that my supervisor, or someone, knows where I’m going. I know the neighborhood well enough at this point to know where I should and shouldn’t go, and at what times of day. I try to wear headphones and ignore people who try to talk to me.

If I really feel unsafe, I can ask a coworker to accompany me to a visit. People have done this in the past and it seems to be pretty effective. I’m also planning to pick up pepper spray or mace, whichever is legal in New York. It’s not something I’m excited about, but I have had a coupe of situations that I realize could have gone quite badly, and I think it’s something I need to have.

For upcoming MSW graduate students, the LMSW licensing exam sounds quite scary. Based upon your experience, was it reasonable in light of what you had studied at school? And do you have any advice to offer upcoming MSW graduates regarding test preparation?

I was so incredibly stressed about the licensing exam. I convinced myself that I was going to fail. My stress actually helped me in preparing, because I studied a lot. Not a crazy amount, but daily. I used the Social Work Exam Services home study books. I found those to be really helpful and I feel like they prepared me well. I just kept doing practice tests over and over again. I also took the practice exam on the ASWB website. That made me feel a lot more confident.

One thing that was important for me was that I took the exam a few months after graduation. I was still in social work school mode, and things were fresh in my mind. If this is an option, I would recommend it. I’ve always been fortunate to do pretty well on standardized tests (not bragging, it’s just something I’m very glad to have inherited from my mother.) Because of this, I didn’t opt for prep courses, but I know a lot of people who took them and found them to be very helpful.

With all that stress, the exam was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was a bit tricky, but I felt well prepared and like I had learned almost everything that was on it.

Thanks so much, SocialJerk, for giving us a peek into the child welfare world within social work. This has been both educational and fun!