Cigarette smoke whirling in your face, the young mother's ceaseless tobacco habit vies with her angry and sometimes vulgar verbal assaults at testing your patience. You're there to help, you say, but even after several home visits she doesn't buy it. It's hard to tell whether she's looking at you or at the blaring television whose off button seems to have waffed away in all that smoke. But her seven year old reportedly comes to school filthy and smelly and has had welts and scratches and the three year old and her infant girl have recently missed their doctor's appointments. The school principal says that the mother was seen with drug dealers and claims that that explains why the children aren't getting enough to eat.
Indifference sometimes takes the place of her anger as you return to try to establish some rudimentary connection but as days turn into weeks nothing seems to click.
What are you, the caseworker, feeling? What are your thoughts about the mother? About her parenting skills; about her possible drug use? About her interaction with you? About your own competence as a caseworker?
This is clearly very difficult work. And it is work that can not be approached with a tool box full of techniques and ready-made utterances. While the broad outline of the above scenario may appear commonplace, its many intricacies certainly are not. Work with a family such as this may take a very long time or substantial improvement may occur within a relatively short time span. Even the exact same statement made by two individual mothers, depending on such variables as context, can have very different meanings. Or, even by the same mother at various times. This is one reason why a store of vast knowledge is vital and why the ability to know how to use that knowledge is even more critical.
But in addition to knowledge a caseworker must posses certain characteristics without which, in many situations, such as the one described above, there will likely be little or no progress. Deep caring and empathy, compassion, patience, respect for the parents and the belief that they can improve their situation are a must. A steadfast commitment to not give up and to hope that this persistence will eventually inspire the parents to work toward improving their own situation is imperative. And, of course, an honest and ethical mind-set that would never consider anything but the interest of the family in any decision must be foundational.
Given the difficult and complex nature of child welfare work and what should be the requirements for the job, a key to real change is the elevation of this field to a profession equal to other prestigious occupations. A profession that will attract people who have chosen to pursue this work after much deliberation. This can start with rigorous academic training. This has not been the case until now. Not in the required training and certainly not in the culture of how it has been viewed by outsiders and by those who themselves are employed in the child welfare system.
What we are talking about demands a total change in what we have been accustomed to. It will not be easy nor will it be fast, but it can happen.
Indifference sometimes takes the place of her anger as you return to try to establish some rudimentary connection but as days turn into weeks nothing seems to click.
What are you, the caseworker, feeling? What are your thoughts about the mother? About her parenting skills; about her possible drug use? About her interaction with you? About your own competence as a caseworker?
This is clearly very difficult work. And it is work that can not be approached with a tool box full of techniques and ready-made utterances. While the broad outline of the above scenario may appear commonplace, its many intricacies certainly are not. Work with a family such as this may take a very long time or substantial improvement may occur within a relatively short time span. Even the exact same statement made by two individual mothers, depending on such variables as context, can have very different meanings. Or, even by the same mother at various times. This is one reason why a store of vast knowledge is vital and why the ability to know how to use that knowledge is even more critical.
But in addition to knowledge a caseworker must posses certain characteristics without which, in many situations, such as the one described above, there will likely be little or no progress. Deep caring and empathy, compassion, patience, respect for the parents and the belief that they can improve their situation are a must. A steadfast commitment to not give up and to hope that this persistence will eventually inspire the parents to work toward improving their own situation is imperative. And, of course, an honest and ethical mind-set that would never consider anything but the interest of the family in any decision must be foundational.
Given the difficult and complex nature of child welfare work and what should be the requirements for the job, a key to real change is the elevation of this field to a profession equal to other prestigious occupations. A profession that will attract people who have chosen to pursue this work after much deliberation. This can start with rigorous academic training. This has not been the case until now. Not in the required training and certainly not in the culture of how it has been viewed by outsiders and by those who themselves are employed in the child welfare system.
What we are talking about demands a total change in what we have been accustomed to. It will not be easy nor will it be fast, but it can happen.
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