I email my cw a lot! Weird thing at school-email, Strange behavior after visit-email etc. I call when it's more urgent or there is a time constraint. I do have her cell phone and I use it (I try to use it sparingly) basically because she is in the field more than the office. Our agency serves 3 large rural counties and they are rarely in their office and leaving a message may mean you get a call back a lot later than a quick message on their cell. I don't generally email about the visits because our cw doesn't often do them herself (think she does 1 per month) a case aid does the rest. By the time cw gets a chance to talk to the case aid about one visit it's time for the next one. She does let me know right away if there was something "yucky."
MY PERSONAL OPINION...& Welcome Sadie
I have had case workers who restrict their cell number. This sends a fairly negative message that they can't be bothered in my opinion. (my current cw is free with her # by the way
)
I totally see that cw are swapped. Some have such heavy case loads, I don't know how they cope. Some fail to see that we have the kids (granted not as many as they are responsible for
) all day everyday. Some of us have more than one foster child, some of us have bios as well and some of us have specialized foster placements. We can speak well to busy too! Most of us in my opinion just want a level of understanding about how busy we are too. I think most of them get it.