Child Welfare Caseworker Incentives

["Jennifer Bellamy" <jbellamy@xxxxxxxxx>]

I am developing a proposal for a grant that includes interviews with caseworkers. The interviews are expected to last 60-90 minutes and includes both the completion of a brief instrument regarding constructs like characteristics of parents in their current caseload and demographics, as well as some open ended questions about their perceptions of barriers to and facilitators of parents engagement in parent training interventions in child welfare. I am partnering closely with the local child welfare agency and my institution has a fairly successful history of executing research with them. It is not allowable by policy to provide caseworkers with any type of money, gift, or other traditional incentives. Can anyone advise me as to other methods or procedures that might “incentivize” this group or support their participation in some other way? I am particularly concerned about the competing demands placed on these workers as they will participate in the research during normal working hours.

 

Jennifer Bellamy

George Warren Brown School of Social Work

Washington University