Topic
Key Issues Affecting Child Welfare Caseworkers Which Impact the Delivery of Psychological and Physical Medical Services to Teenagers and Young Adults.
Thesis Statement
The organization of child welfare staff directly affects the quality of services provided.
Annotated Bibliography
Axelrad-Levy, T., Schwartz Tayri, T. M., Achdut, N., & Sarid, O. (2023). The perceived job performance of child welfare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical Social Work Journal, 51(2), 175–187. Web.
This article examines the challenges faced by social service workers during restrictions due to COVID-19. The authors investigated social workers’ productivity issues and found that work environment factors directly affected the ability to help children (Axelrad-Levy et al., 2023). They examined occupational supervision and autonomy factors and concluded that their decline during COVID-19 restrictions increased perceived stress. This means that the decreased well-being of social service staff leads to lower job performance.
Staff under constant stress fail to care for the most vulnerable children (Axelrad-Levy et al., 2023). Limitations are related to the chosen research site because no studies were conducted in Israel before the pandemic. The present study is helpful for the work because it identifies and specifies the effects of different work factors on the environment and the work attitudes of child welfare caseworkers.
Bardauskiene, R., & Pivoriene, J. (2018). The effectiveness of social work services for families whose children are in temporary custody. 6th International Interdisciplinary Scientific Conference, 40. Web.
This article reveals a perspective on the factors that contribute to the delivery of skilled care for children by social services. The authors explore how micro-level factors can stop staff from doing their jobs and significantly interfere with care delivery (Bardauskiene & Pivoriene, 2018). They determined that social factors such as an unfavorable environment and attitudes toward social-risk families interfere with job performance.
In addition, the authors point out that staff are exposed to high workloads, which limits their effectiveness, narrowing the potential field of work. Lack of resources and capacity puts social services staff in a position where they cannot provide adequate care and support (Bardauskiene & Pivoriene, 2018). Limitations are related to a narrow part of the specifics of the work. This article is a way to affirm that social service organizations and perceptions in the community become frequent limiting factors in improving the quality of care for children.
Ben-Ezra, M., & Hamama-Raz, Y. (2021). Social workers during COVID-19: Do coping strategies differentially mediate the relationship between job demand and psychological distress? The British Journal of Social Work, 51(5), 1551–1567. Web.
This study identifies how social workers perceive their work in high-stress environments. According to the study, employees are concerned that conditions such as pandemics are always left out of the strategic planning of social services. The authors noted that virtually all participants in the study noted psychological distress in response to unbearable work conditions and demands (Ben-Ezra & Hamama-Raz, 2021).
In addition, they identified strategies that could help social service employees overcome burnout and cope with crises. According to the study, using coping strategies and creating staff support services to overcome specific problems for their job allows them to adapt to COVID-19-type disasters (Ben-Ezra & Hamama-Raz, 2021). The competition between job demands and the well-being of one’s condition can be a barrier to skilled care. Limitations are related to the lack of division of employees by age of wards. This article may help identify opportunities to manage social service staff stress, avoid overwork, and make services comfortable for children.
Katz, I., Katz, C., Andresen, S., Bérubé, A., Collin-Vezina, D., Fallon, B., Fouché, A., Haffejee, S., Masrawa, N., Muñoz, P., Priolo Filho, S. R., Tarabulsy, G., Truter, E., Varela, N., & Wekerle, C. (2021). Child maltreatment reports and Child Protection Service responses during COVID-19: Knowledge exchange among Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Israel, and South Africa. Child Abuse & Neglect, 116(Pt 2). Web.
The study focuses on how various children’s problems were affected by the state of social support provided. The authors note that the most common issues all social services faced during the pandemic were high staff stress and high staff turnover, which hindered the speed and effectiveness of healthcare delivery (Katz et al., 2021). The authors noted that child welfare was not at the forefront for many countries, which made staff even more anxious because of the increased risk and life-threatening risks to children and adolescents during COVID-19.
They found that without social institutions such as schools, social workers were less able to help children and identify maltreatment (Katz et al., 2021). Limitations are related to an exaggeration of the role of COVID-19 instead of the internal organization of social services. The present study may reveal potential ways to organize social work in a crisis by establishing the need to preserve human resources, which decreased significantly during the pandemic due to burnout and stress.
Sudlan, C. (2019). Challenges and dilemmas working with high-conflict families in child protection casework. Child & Family Social Work, 25(2), 248-255. Web.
This article explores social workers’ interactions with families with highly hostile attitudes. The author investigates how social workers deal with stress while working with children with separated parents (Sudlan, 2019). They establish a pattern of how social workers prioritize anxiety for children as the most vital factor affecting job performance. In addition, they show that employees are constrained by the empowerment of working in such families, which significantly limits their ability to manage their stress.
The author introduces the problem of powerlessness and gridlock on the part of the staff as factors that can cause them to suffer burnout and other emotional problems (Sudlan, 2019). Limitations are related to analyzing employees’ perceptions of work in general rather than their resources. This kind of research is helpful for the current thesis because it reveals the specifics of a social worker’s interaction with a child’s problem and shows the factors that influence the provision of help.
Tumwesigye, K. (2021). Challenges and experiences faced by social workers working with children exposed to abuse and neglect. Open Science Journal, 5(4). Web.
This article describes the experiences and feelings of social workers who are involved in working with abused and neglected children. The author describes that having personal traumatic experiences can interfere with the emotional care of children and further disrupt the staff member’s emotional stability (Tumwesigye, 2019). Among the many problems in staff, emotional stress and burnout are the most common, so social services must create a support system for their employees.
The author establishes that the staff’s physical and emotional well-being can be crucial in providing social services for children and adolescents (Tumwesigye, 2019). In addition, as staff gain experience working with children, they may ignore their accumulating problems. Limitations are related to the analysis only of the mental state of the staff. The present article will help reveal the thesis and prove the link between the emotional well-being of social service staff and the quality of care they provide.