[juli714]

Hi, we are very curious, with all of these children in foster care, where have all the social workers disappeared to?

Any assistance will be helpful.
Regards.

[skirbo]

I'm not sure what you mean. Could you elaborate a bit on what you are looking for?

Sarah

[Kat-L]

Originally Posted by juli714

Hi, we are very curious, with all of these children in foster care, where have all the social workers disappeared to?

Any assistance will be helpful.
Regards.

Actually, the social workers are the ones WORKING to remove children from abusive homes, WORKING to license foster parents, WORKING to provide services to parents so they can regain custody and WORKING to find adoptive homes for children who's parents won't do what needs to be done. So, where are all the social workers? They're working. They haven't disappeared at all.

[juli714]

they do not return calls; they gather homestudies and stay quiet.

[Bippette]

Its my experience that most social workers are over worked and underpaid. I usually have to hound them to get a response. In this case the squeakiest wheel usually does get the grease.

[juli714]

Are you a social worker?

[Bippette]

Nope. But dealt with lots and lots of them over the years.

[stevenstwin]

Originally Posted by juli714

they do not return calls; they gather homestudies and stay quiet.

Ah, I see where you are going with this. Well, there are good ones and there are bad ones. I think they really all ARE overworked, so there are delays in everything. Sometimes people who want to foster or adopt expect things to happen much more quickly than is realistic. BUT if you feel that your social worker is ignoring you, or that things are really taking too long, talk to their supervisor. And if that doesn't work, talk to THEIR supervisor. I've done it a couple of times. Everyone has a boss.

[aMarylandfamily]

I believe the poster's question wasn't received as intended ... many prospective parents who are in the midst of their "search" and "match" with a child are finding that workers are not completing the matching process - many start it and for reasons, some known - others not, aren't completing that "matching" and thus delay decisions and subsequently placement for the children. It is true that many (most or all) are often overwhelmed with caseloads and overworked especially following the holiday season where many placements are often terminated or notice given to the workers that a new placement is required which thus dominoes into even further delays and decisons. It should be that child not be "posted" available unless placement is the imminent goal for that child - not "let's see what posting will reveal" - that placement is possible or in the odd event push a family who has chosen not to be a resource or is in the process and would seem like one to move up their position in the journey ... and once a posting is made that placement be processed vs. discussed, placed on hold, pushed forward, placed on hold ... which equals the frustration that seems to have initiated this post in my thoughts of coming from the lack of communication as to what is occurring and intentions from the placing agencies/social workers.

Hoping I am assuming correctly and this helps lead this post to the question the poster has - are others experiencing this frustration and what can prospective families due to be communicated with ... even when a delay is necessitated by whatever situaiton, there should be a way to let the "waiting" families know.

[ajjhmf]

Now, these stats only reflect my county, but I live in the capital city in my state.

Our licensing SW's caseload was as follows. Each month an average of 30-45 households began the foster/adopt processin our county. She was assigned 1/2 of them. She had 90 days from the date they submitted their app to complete their homestudy for approval or denial. So, on average, she was working on 45 households at any one time.

The foster care workers are assigned 30-45 families each. Now, that's families. NOt all kids are placed in the same home, so say you have 6 kids in 3 homes with the birthparents split, you are responsible for visiting 5 different locations for that one file in a month.

The adoption workers are also assigned 30-45 sibling groups or individual kids for adoption. They must visit them each month whether they are in a foster hom or preadoptive home. As for returning calls, our worker was rarely in the office more than 1 day a week as she was on visits. She called when she could, but if it was an emergency, then I could press a button and speak to the worker on call in the office that day.

There are good workers and bad workers out there, but I think there are more good than bad overall. They are horribly overworked, underpaid and unappreciated.

But, like stevenstwin said, everyone has a boss so if you truly feel they are actively ignoring you, go over their head. Everyone has a boss.

[Again!]

Hopefully all the social workers have been treated to a free vacation by the grateful folks they have helped, because they sure deserve it.

[juli714]

I have to say Maryland summed it up correctly. In fact, this is the second time within three months that a child was put on the web when in fact the child was spoken for and the workers are "waiting" for the pre-adoptive family to attend the classes, complete their fingerprints, etc. so that a homestudy may be written. Hence, they are on the web, accepting homestudies from agencies (whose adoption workers are making calls, etc.) knowing that they already have the family in place and are simply waiting for that family to become certified yet just accepting other homestudies as an "In Case". Would love to hear the thoughts on that.

[Kat-L]

Originally Posted by juli714

I have to say Maryland summed it up correctly. In fact, this is the second time within three months that a child was put on the web when in fact the child was spoken for and the workers are "waiting" for the pre-adoptive family to attend the classes, complete their fingerprints, etc. so that a homestudy may be written. Hence, they are on the web, accepting homestudies from agencies (whose adoption workers are making calls, etc.) knowing that they already have the family in place and are simply waiting for that family to become certified yet just accepting other homestudies as an "In Case". Would love to hear the thoughts on that.

I can understand that. They can't put all their eggs in one basket. What if the prospective home going through the homestudy is a relative who might not pass the study? Therefore they need to screen additional families as a back up. I wouldn't get my hopes up on adopting any older child in a US photolisting-even if your homestudy is submitted. You are one of many families submitting homestudies and they probably only choose a few families to follow up with (ones they think would be a great match). Sometimes there is a lot of information NOT on the listing and the receiving agency knows from reviewing your homestudy that the child has issues that you wouldn't be comfortable dealing with. Just from the shear volume of homestudies they might receive for one adorable child might make it impossible for them to respond to every inquiry. Children on photolistings usually have more emotional problems that maybe you weren't comfortable with (like anger, attachment issues, psychiatric diagnosis..etc). I know you're anxious to find your child -but it's better to wait for your home finder to match you with a child who is right for your famiy than to choose a child from a photolisting who then wrecks havoc in your home.

[dadfor2]

a social workers work is never done. what is not done today, doesnt disappear tomorrow, it just keeps building up.

removing a child from an unsafe home vs making sure an aparent homestudy is done. hmmmmmm you get what i mean.

Not to come in defence of not returning calls. But I know that it really does come down to prority somedays.

I hate to be one of those pain in the butts, but bippette is write, the squicky wheel does get the worm.

be very respectful, and assume they are busy with more important things. Its usually the case.

TIP:
when you call, dont ever say "please call me back" they already know that. Just say "I realize your busy, I'll try again later"

this leaves the ball still in your court. From here on, you will pretty much be in charge of everything. Its a pain, but usually thats what happens.

[Barksum]

Different agencies work out who manages which cases differently, too. If you are referring to the cw's working only with the children in foster care and working toward reunification they have a different set of responsibilities than the workers representing adoptive families. Different states maintain their web sites differently and the kids on the web site don't necessarily represent all of the children waiting for adoptive families. Web sites may/may not be updated in a timely manner, etc.

There are tons of factors that come into play regarding any one child pictured on a web site. Take sibling groups for instance. Sometimes they are doing a kind of concurrent recruitment for adoptive families. They're taking homestudies from families who want to adopt only one of the sibs, and they are also taking homestudies from families willing to adopt all of the sibs together. Generally the families willing to adopt all of the sibs together are on the "A List" and if none of those work out then the cw's will go on to the "B List" families who want to adopt only one sib.

Then there's the kids that they are hoping to recruit families from one geographic area, but will take homestudies from other areas, just in case. There are all kinds of individual needs for each child waiting for an adoptive family. Just because we have 100 waiting kids and 200 waiting families doesn't mean they'll all be great matches just because we have more families waiting than kids. The stats can be somewhat deceptive when we just look at the numbers and forget the factors.

As to non-responsive cw's...that just goes with the territory. We had good adoptive cw's but they were still very, very busy. There was alot of travelling involved for them, too. So I would call every other week, or as needed when we had to communicate about something before a specific date. I also would email so that our worker had information in writing and didn't have to transcribe from voice mail if I was sending information s/he needed. Snail mail is also a good way to communicate written information....:evilgrin We'd also stop in at the office occasionally and sometimes catch our worker in the office. We tried to keep the visits short and sweet so that we didn't bog the worker down further, but it was good to make contact every now and then in person, too.