Social Work Commons^™

Eastern Band Of Cherokee Indians Selects A Workforce Intervention: Onboarding, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The Family Safety Program (FSP) serves the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) to provide high quality and innovative care, utilizing an integrated model to ensure client access to behavioral health services and targeted case management. To retain a competent and committed workforce and best serve children and families, FSP partnered with the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) to be one of eight national project sites to test child welfare workforce interventions. In 2018, FSP conducted a workforce needs assessment, which revealed that staff had inconsistent job expectations for their own role and lacked understanding of the roles …

Milwaukee Selects A Workforce Intervention: Organizational Culture & Climate, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services (DMCPS) of the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) will be implementing and testing an organizational culture and climate intervention called ARC, which stands for Availability, Responsiveness, & Continuity. ARC is an organizational change process that has improved outcomes in mental health settings by: 1) introducing core principles to guide service improvement efforts, 2) embedding research-based organizational components for service improvement, and 3) fostering attitudes necessary for ongoing service improvement. DMCPS employs approximately 185 State employees. These employees conduct initial child protective service assessments, oversee ongoing case management services delivered by private …

Washington Selects A Workforce Intervention: Telework, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) will be implementing and testing the effectiveness of telework for child welfare field operations staff and their supervisors. DYCF is a stateadministered system with a total of 3,075 employees. There are approximately 1,600 field operation staff and 260 field operation supervisors that make up the majority of the child welfare workforce in the agency. A comprehensive workforce needs assessment showed a strong desire among employees to be able to work from home or an alternate work site. A telework policy existed but was inconsistently implemented, and the majority of employees …

Nebraska Selects A Workforce Intervention: Addressing Secondary Traumatic Stress, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) workforce intervention will address secondary traumatic stress (STS) among frontline staff and supervisors. Nebraska is a state-run child welfare system with about 400 Child and Family Service Specialists (CFSS) organized into five service areas across the state. Currently, the annual CFSS turnover rate in Nebraska is about 30%, but DCFS is committed to retaining and supporting high quality CFSS. Over the last year, DCFS has worked with the QIC-WD to review human resources (HR) data, feedback from the field (e.g., CFSS, supervisors, and administrators), and …

Ohio Selects And Begins Installation Of A Workforce Intervention: Coach Ohio: Promoting Resilience And Optimism, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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Ohio is committed to improving outcomes for children and families. Strengthening the child welfare workforce is an essential component for improving these outcomes. To this end, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) partnered with eight public children services agencies; Champaign, Crawford, Hamilton, Knox, Montgomery, Summit, Trumbull, and Wayne, to become one of eight national project sites to test child welfare workforce interventions through the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD). Earlier this year, the Ohio site conducted a workforce assessment that revealed 48% of Ohio’s participating child welfare caseworkers experienced at least one symptom of secondary …

Qic-Wd Site Intervention Selection – Fall 2018, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The eight QIC-WD sites have worked with the QIC-WD to determined which intervention to implement and evaluate to strengthen their child welfare workforce. These decisions came after a thorough needs assessment through which human resources (HR) data was examined to uncover the root causes of child welfare caseworker turnover. The sites recognize that turnover is not caused by a single issue, so they had to consider which aspect of turnover they could address in partnership with the QIC-WD. The QIC-WD team simultaneously examined available interventions, study designs, and the needs of the broader child welfare field to help each site …

Using Implementation Science To Strengthen The Child Welfare Workforce, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The QIC-WD is using implementation science to strengthen the child welfare workforce in eight child welfare agencies across the U.S. According to a synthesis of the literature, implementation can be defined as a specified set of activities designed to put into practice and activity or program of known dimensions. The QIC-WD is using the implementation science framework developed by NIRN and the guide created by the Permanency Innovations Initiative to support our sites through the stages of implementation: Exploration, Installation, Initial Implementation, and Full Implementation as described below. The QIC-WD knows that high quality implementation of a selected intervention is …

Understanding The Relationship Between Organizational Culture And Turnover, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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“Organizational culture” is a term used to describe the norms and expectations in a work environment. Research has found that there are three aspects of a human services organization’s culture that predict better outcomes related to the implementation of evidence-based practices, staff turnover, and the serviced provided: 1. Proficiency includes staff skills, competence, responsiveness, and a focus on client well-being. 2. Rigidity reflects issues related to decision making, transparency, micromanagement, and trust. 3. Resistance considers if staff are resistant to change or new ways of doing things. Healthy organizations are highly proficient and not too rigid or resistant. For example …

Virginia Selects And Begins Implementation Of A Workforce Intervention: Transcription Services, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) was the first QIC-WD site to select a workforce intervention. VDSS learned from the field that many workers leave the agency because they feel overloaded with paperwork. In Virginia, 2,400 Family Services Specialists (FSS) representing 120 local departments of social services (LDSS) perform child welfare and adult protective services. These FSS must document case notes for all interactions with clients, families, and service providers. FSS often manage several high-priority cases and need tools to complete their required documentation in a timely and high-quality manner. VDSS decided to implement three technology solutions to ease …

Virtual Mentorship Network To Address The Rural Shortage Of Mental Health Providers, Heidi Keeler, Tara Sjuts, Kosuke Niitsu, Shinobu Watanabe-Galloway, Paul Force-Emery Mackie, Howard Liu

Social Work Department Publications

Introduction: The process of identifying effective responses to the challenges of placing and retaining a rural behavioral health workforce remains elusive. The Virtual Mentorship Network was developed to test the feasibility of using distance technology to connect rural students interested in mental health careers with mentors.

Methods: In Year 1, college and high school students were virtually mentored using a near-peer approach both live and asynchronously as a cohort over 7 months. In Year 2, college students only were virtually intensely mentored live over 1 month. High school students were asynchronously provided with informational videos produced by mentors. Program benefits …

Unlocking The Potential In Your Workforce Data, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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Communicating complex ideas to diverse stakeholders is central to reliable decision making. Stakeholders may vary greatly in their interest, familiarity, or expertise with data regarding a policy, program, or practice. Well-designed data visualizations provide a platform for engaging stakeholders in ways that are tailored to their interest, familiarity, and expertise. However, research indicates that visualizations are not always designed effectively to reliably motivate users to understand and ultimately use the data in their decision-making (Evergreen, 2011; Cawthon & Moere, 2007). Thoughtful and engaging visualizations demand the stakeholders’ attention and can facilitate the comprehension of findings (Hillstrom & Yantis, 1994; Treisman, …

Exploring Occupational Stress Through The Persepectives Of The Child Welfare Workforce, Ann Christine Obermann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The child welfare system is charged with providing safety, permanency, and wellbeing for millions of children impacted by abuse and neglect requiring a highly effective and efficient workforce. Unfortunately, the health of the child welfare workforce, organizations, and system have been described as substandard as evidenced by chronic rates of high turnover and burnout and their inability to consistently meet national child safety and wellbeing standards. One factor contributing to the substandard functioning is the workforces' experience of occupational stress. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the child welfare workforces' experience of occupational stress through a qualitative secondary …

Service Before Self: The Health Consequences Of Working In Public Child Welfare, Austin Garrett Griffiths

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Child welfare workers respond to human tragedy and the job stresses associated with their positions that may result in their own trauma, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, emotional exhaustion, and burnout. Workers continue to leave their positions at alarming rates, influencing service quality and the ability to meet the needs of vulnerable populations. Decades of research have attempted to solve this national crisis by identifying salient factors found to influence the child welfare worker's experience and intention to leave their position. However, the problem prevails.

Addressing a major gap in the literature, this mixed methods study took a unique approach …

Compassion Fatigue And Compassion Satisfaction : Experiences Of Helping Professionals In The Homeless Workforce : A Project Based Upon An Investigation At Boston Healthcare For The Homeless, Boston, Massachusetts, Joshua Beebe

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

Homeless workforce staff perform their duties with clients for whom themes of crisis, suffering and distress are common. Such working conditions are characteristic of settings in which workers are vulnerable to workplace stress and burnout. Compassion for those we help can affect us in positive and negative ways. Using a cross-sectional design, 44 homeless workforce staff in one large agency completed a 87-item online questionnaire designed to examine burnout and secondary trauma and whether the personal characteristics of empathy and reactivity would be associated with improved workplace functioning (less burnout and greater job satisfaction). Contrary to our expectations, this sample …

Responding To The Child Welfare Workforce Crisis Here And Now: A Constructivist Approach To Understanding Supervision, Abigail K. Wyche

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, the author argues that there is strong evidence that the child welfare workforce continues to be in crisis. While a great deal of research has indicated that supervision is closely linked to the crisis, extremely high rates of turnover have not been notably reduced through the efforts of administrators or academics to change supervisory practices. Therefore, the author makes the case that it is time to employ an alternative methodology—constructivist inquiry. Constructivist inquiry is based on paradigmatic assumptions that make it distinct from the functionalist approach that researchers most commonly use to understand the child welfare workforce …

Understanding The Complexities Of Workforce Issues Among Rural Social Workers, Paul Force-Emery Mackie

Social Work Department Publications

This presentation addresses a brief history of knowledge around rural social work (including demographics), the current state of knowledge on rural workforce issues, the social work workforce in rural and remote areas, recruitment and retention issues and concerns, and suggestions for future development of social work workforce, research, and knowledge development.

Social Workers In Rural Areas: Research On Workforce Issues, Recruitment, And Retention, Paul Force-Emery Mackie

Social Work Department Publications

This presentation addresses a brief history of knowledge around rural social work, the current state of knowledge on rural workforce issues, the social work workforce in rural and remote areas, recruitment and retention issues and concerns, and suggestions for future development of social work workforce, research, and knowledge development.

Workfare In Toronto: More Of The Same?, Ernie Lightman, Andrew Mitchell, Dean Herd

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper uses a recent survey of welfare leavers in Toronto to examine Workfare, a uniquely American initiative introduced into Canada, with its different welfare state history and traditions. When classic American workfare was imported by an enthusiastic government in Ontario, its application led to employment outcomes remarkably similar to those in the US (reduced caseloads, insecure and contingent employment, high recidivism). Yet, Canada's earlier commitment to community and collective responsibility have not been entirely subsumed below the overarching American umbrella. Welfare programs in Canada-specifically, workfare-reflect both the difficulties of maintaining great difference, and also the possibilities of following an …