Social Services Case Manager

[vettechick99]

A case manager helps children who are neglected, abused or in unsafe homes. What can you tell me about this career: specifically the ups and downs and the emotional involvement.

TIA!

 

[hipporina]

My dh is a case manager for CPS. He has also worked for a private foster agency as a case manager before that. It is definately an emotional job and requires people that really care. Most of the problems come when people get so burned by the job that they stop caring about the kids and working hard for them.

As with any job, he has good days and bad. I think the one of the worst things for him is when some of the families yell at him and treat him awful, even though the situation is not his fault at all. Then there are the days when he gets to really help a kid out, either getting them back to parents that have gotten things straight or finding new adoptive families.

The pay is never good, so don't go there for money, but the job does have its rewards. Most days, dh really likes his job.

 

[bcarson]

I was a foster care worker before I had children. I also worked at a home for dk's that had been sexually abused. The down sides. LOTS of paperwork. In foster care you have to deal with the parents also. A lot of them hate you and see you as the enemy. Your job is to sometimes help them get there kids back but they don't see it that way. A lot of them are mentally ill. Now I work with mentally ill clients now and enjoy it. But most of these parents are untreated. You have to go to court and deal with dcfs who a lot of times screws up the case before the private agency gets it. Hated that. You sometimes have to do things you don't like. Like take the kids on a visit because its mandated by court but the kid doesn't want to go for good reasons. Did I mention the paper work?? LOL! It can be emotionally draining. YOu get vested in these kids and it does not always work out the way you think it should. Dealing with teenagers was rough to. They run away, get kicked out of several homes and then I had to find them a new place. Sometimes an impossible task.

I would say you need to be tough skinned and able to emotionally leave it at work. I was not able to do these things and really did not enjoy the work. I love helping kids but there was to much other junk that came with the job to make it worthwhile. Now I have friends who have started out doing what I did and now do adoptions and that seems better. Also my agency had programs where you worked with families before the dk's were removed to try and prevent it. This seemed better. Sometimes the parents were more coopertative because they had to be or they saw it as you giving them a chance.

I have a social work degree and now work with mentally ill adults that live in a group home. This job is cake compared to foster care! I help teach them cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping ect... They do all of these things and I just mainly oversee things. Its nice because the people at my home want to be there. You weed out the bad eggs eventually because they don't want to cooperate. There are people always waiting to move in if someone doesn't want to do what they should. I enjoy it. I just don't like working second.

I would be glad to answer anymore questions. I hope I am on the right track with what you wanted to know.

Beth

 

[Microcell]

What I actually did for a living was different from this, but as my course of study, this was covered in college.

I worked with mentally ******** adults and children, some of whom had been abused. It is very hard to seperate your emotions from the job. Sometimes these kids get a raw deal, and in some situations nothing you can do will fix it. I did enjoy it and it was rewarding teaching them something new. That is what you would do with kids, help them, protect them and work with a team to teach new behaviors, because (my college speaking here) they come to you so very broken.

If it is a group home situation you would say, consult for, there are teenagers there who only know manipulation, and qutie honestly ( college practicum speaking now) they are attention starved, and will go to extremes to get that attention if they are in a group home. Sexually abused kids, on average seek out sex, try suicide, drugs, and will do anything to get it. You have to be strong and place boundries on your own personal space with these kids. You have to be firm, but caring. You will be working with the kids as a caseworker, and training the adults who care for them too. Before the flames come I was talking about kids who are placed there after other options have been exhausted. I am giving a view into the hardest cases.

In any case I would find it very rewarding, but I choose not to do it, even though it interests me, because I just get so mad at the situation and feel helpless to fix it some of the time. I want to focus on my kids during thier childhood, but when they leave the house I would love to do that kind of work again!

 

[vettechick99]

Thanks everyone. This is a position at DFCS in my local county. I'm not 100% sold on the career choice -- I do want a job that helps people but I'm not sure I'm the right personality for such an emotionally taxing job.

And of course, I definitely wouldn't take it for the money. I'm still planning on keeping my market research business (just going part-time). Anyway, no one made a million dollars doing social work. If they did, the world would be a better place!

Any other comments?

 

[pjshaff]

A girl I worked with used to work for DFACS up here in the Northern part of Atlanta. She quit(citing job stress) and were to work for one of the county PD's. I don't see her much anymore, but last I heard she was a child advocate at the PD, and was MUCH happier there.

The only other thing I would tell you is to really look into how many cases you would be handling a month. They seem to gloss over exactly how many you'd REALLY be dealing with. Just a comment, and not to say that all counties would do that.

 

[missypie]

My dad was a social worker for the Illinois DCFS. The philosophy is often to keep the kids in their homes if at all possible, so you'll probably be leaving lots of kids in homes that you sure wouldn't want to live in.

You should think of some real life scenarios and ask youself how you would cope emotionally. Example: Single mom is put in prison for 5 years. Her toddler is placed in foster care with a terrific home. So then, after 5 years in a great home with the only parents the child knows, the mom gets out a prison and you have to return the child to the mom. How heart wrenching!

But here's the biggest stress: How many times, after a child has been fatally abused, does the news report say that the family had been reported and that child welfare came out and investigated but didn't do anything? I think that is the underlying fear of every social worker who does that type of work..that they investigate a home, think it seems okay, then a while later the kid is beaten to death. How do you live with that? My dad was able to get through his career without that happening to him, but it's a constant worry.