Page 7 - Work Force October 2016

Caseloads, staffing at ‘desperate’ level
Chris Ellis has more than 15 years of experience in child protective services, and has never seen the situation of trying to help families as desperate as it presently is.
“It’s a balance of trying to get a family into a better place and leaving them in a better place than when you first found them, in the time we have,” said Ellis, a Chemung County child protective
services supervisor.
“Some families have
one kid and some
have 13 kids.”
Ellis had worked
in Steuben County,
moving to Chemung County 10 years
ago, and also
worked for a private sector agency in
Broome County. In
that time, he has
seen an increase in paperwork, more
demands for data
entry on computers,
more mandates
from the state Office
of Children and
Family Services,
more staff burnout
and more workers
leaving for other positions.
What has not changed is the amount of time to spend on cases.
“There’s just not enough time to meet all the needs, wants, demands, recommendations, etc. The fact of the matter is, CPS has a high burnout rate and the recommendations and demands are ever increasing without
necessarily taking into account the staffing or time issues,” said Ellis, also the CSEA Chemung County Unit executive vice president.
“When you deal with a fatality, you need to have certain reports completed in 24 hours. If a child dies, they still expect that report, and we’re left trying to find people to complete the work,” he said.
“It’s a thankless job, sometimes
it’s thankless
from above and sometimes from the public. People aren’t beating down our doors saying, ‘Please come to my house.’”
“Child abuse doesn’t happen between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.,” Ellis said. “It’s nearly impossible to complete all of it in the time we have.”
Coupled with time restraints is the challenge of holding onto staff. Training is expensive and intermittent,
taking place over six months. New hires begin to realize how high the demands are, and transfer to other positions.
“Last year, our turnover rate was 44 percent,” Ellis said. “This year, it’s already at 25 to 30 percent. We just hired seven new caseworkers and one has already agreed to not take
Chemung County CPS Grade B Supervisor and CSEA activist Chris Ellis on the job. (Photo provided by Jennifer Yannette.)
“There’s just not enough time to meet all the needs, wants, demands, recommendations, etc. The fact of
the matter is,
CPS has a high burnout rate and the recommendations and demands are ever increasing without necessarily taking into account the staffing or time issues.”
the job for a better job.”
The increase in opioid addiction
has brought a new complexity to cases.
“
“The cases can be more involved than what they used to be, more complex,” Ellis said.
— Lou Hmieleski
We’ve definitely noticed an uptick in cases related to heroin and opiate use, especially in the last four years. Some of the individuals are in the early stages of dependency, but many are long-term users with a chronic dependency. For these individuals, it becomes about chasing that high. Everything else — child
care, getting kids to school, all of it — takes a back seat to the addiction. As caseworkers, we deal with the fallout of drug dependency and we are seeing it very pointedly in cases of pregnant women and their newborn babies, many of whom are being born with withdrawal sym”ptoms requiring longer hospital stays and acute care.
— Marissa Capuano-Rushford, CSEA member and child protective services caseworker, Clinton County
Sign up for updates on CPS legislation
CSEA fought hard to pass legislation to limit the number of caseloads that a CPS worker can carry at one time, but we need you for this campaign to succeed.
Visit actionnetwork.org/forms/sign- up-for-updates-on-cps-legislation to receive information on how you can help ensure that the governor signs the bill into law.
October 2016
The Work Force 7