Dealing with Difficult Cases: Advice Experienced Caseworkers Would Tell Newly-Hired Colleagues

Background: Child welfare workers are tasked with meeting the goals of child safety, permanency, and well-being, often amidst challenging work environments and heavy caseloads. Managing particularly difficult cases amidst already heavy caseloads can increase workers’ stress and contribute to job turnover. Child welfare workers benefit from workplace support involving peer mentorship, particularly when combined with supportive supervision. This study explored the advice experienced child welfare workers would impart to their newly hired colleagues to support workload and caseload management.

Methods: This study used data from the Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families (FSPSF), a longitudinal cohort study of newly hired child welfare workers (N=1,500), recruited between September 2015 and December 2016. Baseline survey data was collected during pre-service training with follow-up surveys every 6 months for 3.5 years. For the current study, eligible participants were child welfare caseworkers who responded to the Wave 6 (about 2.5 years employed) questions regarding difficult cases (n=304). Workers provided a text response giving “advice” to newly hired colleagues on how to respond to difficult cases. We used applied thematic analysis to consider the advice provided by caseworkers and the conditions that facilitated meaning.

Results: The most common difficult cases experienced workers chose to provide advice for reflected challenges related to parents/caregivers (e.g., parent’s mental health; 22.6%), case attributes (e.g., present danger, multiple children on one case, or prior system involvement; 16.2%), or communication challenges (e.g., inability to locate parents, language barriers; 12.2%). Applied thematic analysis resulted in four main points of advice to new workers navigating difficult cases: 1) seek support from supervisors and coworkers; 2) understand and follow your job protocol; 3) develop and practice professional behaviors; and 4) learn to effectively engage with clients. Experienced workers emphasized “preparedness,” “patience,” and “protocol” as necessary considerations for managing difficult cases.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings yield four main implications for newly hired child welfare caseworkers for caseload and workload management. First, new workers should proactively seek guidance from their supervisors and colleagues for knowledge, resources, and emotional support when managing a difficult case. Second, seasoned workers emphasized the importance of understanding the protocols for job tasks and decision-making when working a difficult case. Third, experienced workers conveyed the importance of developing professional behaviors related to time management, professional judgement, preparedness, patience, and realistic caseload expectations. Lastly, the ability to create and maintain boundaries, build rapport, and effectively communicate with clients and families are all skills to support productive engagement with difficult families. Agencies should explore peer-mentorship programs for newly hired workers to support the development of professional networks. Supervisors could assist new workers when transitioning to independent caseloads by providing ‘cheat sheets’ for job tasks. Incorporating specific professional behaviors into a newly hired workers’ professional development plan may assist new workers to develop resourceful habits and expectations. Using the advice of experienced workers to inform agency on-boarding and training practices can increase new workers’ preparation for workload and caseload management, and ultimately, retention.