Social workers Tuesday told lawmakers about huge workloads, bad policies and how frustrating it is when they can’t help families as much as they would like.
It was the first time front-line workers have spoken publicly about what it’s like to be on the inside of the Department for Children and Families since the department has come under fire this year.
DCF is “woefully understaffed,” said Nancy Miller, a social services supervisor at the Burlington DCF office. Her colleagues echoed her concerns during more than two hours of testimony in the Statehouse.
“We just do not have enough people,” said Alyssa Dawson, another Burlington DCF social worker.
“I’m triaging my cases,” said Tracey Brown, who also works in Burlington.
“Things will fall through the cracks,” said Patricia Casanova, a St. Albans worker.
They and their colleagues detailed a laundry list of frustrations but made it clear they love their jobs; many have been DCF workers for more than a decade. They also mentioned the many good things they do that don’t make their way into headlines.
DCF is under scrutiny this year after three child deaths that have been ruled homicides. In the case of Poultney toddler Dezirae Sheldon, a state police report faulted DCF workers, attorneys and others for miscommunication and other failures. The secretary of the agency that oversees DCF, Doug Racine, was fired Tuesday by Gov. Peter Shumlin.
The legislative committee that convened Tuesday to hear from the workers was formed after Dezirae’s death to investigate not only DCF but all aspects of the state’s child protection system.
The workers said they are often out of line with policy because they have so many cases and not enough time to work each case thoroughly. Paperwork falls behind because workers are constantly thrust onto the front lines to start new cases.
Workers aren’t able to help prevent abuse, much less manage the crises that walk through the door every day, they said.
Much of what the social workers said is what lawmakers and others have known but hadn’t heard firsthand.
They explained instances where their workloads prevent them from following good policy but also instances where policy doesn’t make sense, such as a boy who pokes six girls in the breasts at school. DCF would open up six cases of alleged abuse on those girls, but not a case on the boy, a former social worker told legislators.
A worker said under DCF protocol workers cannot accept a report of a pregnant mother’s using drugs until a month before the woman’s due date. But at that point a residential treatment facility won’t accept the mother, they said.
Many workers said there are not enough community services to which they can refer families, but said the services that do exist are solid.
Workers also said the DCF system known as differential response, adopted in 2009, isn’t working. The theory behind the system is a good one but it’s based on prevention and there are not enough employees to make it work correctly, they said.
Differential response allows workers to respond less forcefully to cases that appear less serious. But that has created a “balloon” of open cases where children are not in state custody but there are not enough workers to intervene and prevent the situation from getting worse, they said.
Turnover is a problem and leads to more turnover, Barre office supervisor Neysha Stuart said.
Turnover also affects caseload, she said. DCF officials often say each worker has about 16 cases, but that is an average. In reality, new workers have fewer and veteran staff have as many as 25, she said.
Caseload is not a good measure of how burdened workers are because some cases (such as one where a mother has eight children) require more work than others, they said.
On a slow week, a front-end worker might be handed two new cases, on a busy week four or five, they said.
Burlington social workers said they do not feel pressure from within DCF to reunify children when it’s not safe. Casanova said she feels pressure from judges to reunify. Workers said there is also pressure from supervisors to close cases.
All workers mentioned a severe lack of foster families, especially for older children, making it that much harder to ask a judge to allow DCF to keep custody of a child.
They also mentioned problems including multiple computer systems within DCF that don’t talk to each other and a lack of repercussions for people who make malicious or false abuse/neglect reports to DCF and waste social workers’ time.
Meanwhile, cases have become more complex because of increased homelessness and substance abuse, they said.
DCF workers are paid well but should be paid more for what they’re asked to do, one worker said. Another said they shouldn’t have to spend time on clerical work that could be done by someone who doesn’t have their masters-level training in social work.
The legislative committee is taking testimony to decide whether to recommend new laws, or change existing laws, in the legislative session that begins in January.
