RE: measuring stress levels child welfare workers (who cares!)

["Ron Kokish" <dka@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't think John Murray was denying that Child Welfare (CW) work is
stressful. Nor did he seem to be saying this doesn't matter. I see his
refreshingly direct post as making two points.

1. We already know how stressful CW work is and we already know this isn't
good for anyone. It's been proved to reasonable certainty. Further studies
on the subject are simply not needed.

2. While the stress of CW work is undeniable, CW workers are not unique in
having that problem and, as a group, they often seem to cope with stress in
rather unproductive ways.

At least I THINK that's what John Murray was getting at. If so, my
experience is consistent with his statement.

I teach workshops for CW workers in California. As a group, the social
workers in my rooms often remind me of  battered spouse stereotypes. They
talk about how the system mistreats them. (It does!) They feel helpless to
change it, at least on an individual basis. (They are not!)  Many say they
hesitate to instruct the attorney who represents them, much less assert
their opinion to a judge. These same workers often say they resent the way
they perceive themselves being treated in court. Many of these tenured civil
servants report being stopped in their tracks by the mere thought of
angering their supervisors. They seem to think that  positive changes should
come about without a personal price tag for them. (When has THAT ever
happened?)

No doubt this constitutes a workable coping style for these folks.
Unfortunately, they seem largely unaware that they cope in this way. Many of
these CW workers perceive themselves as willing and ready to help clients
with their learned helplessness. When their helping doesn't help, they tend
to pathologize (blame) the clients. As a group, these CW workers seem
unwilling to examine the role modeling they offer their adult clients but
are ready enough to examine and criticize the role modeling these same
clients offer their children.

I certainly don't mean to describe all CWS workers in this way. I meet many
exceptions. They always brighten my day and warm my heart. But these
exceptions IMHO,  do not characterize the field. Hence, my agreement with
what I think John Murray was getting at. (Or am I way off base John, seeing
my own biases in your post?)

All this is of course, not objective fact. It's just my subjective
experience. I wonder whether there might be verifiable hypotheses in there
somewhere. e.g.  How do child welfare workers cope with stress as opposed to
say MD's, police officers, etc. If there are differences? If yes, what are
they and to what can we attribute them?  I wonder whether studying stuff
could help generate useful changes. I don't know. (Maybe such studies
already exist and I don't know that either.)

I really liked John Murray's post. Forgive my ramblings on the subject.


***************************************************************************
 Ron Kokish at Delson-Kokish Associates, P.O. Box 476, Trinidad, CA 95570
        Clinical and Forensic Evaluations, Consultation & Training
                 (707)677-3181-voice   (707)677-0187-fax
             ron@delko.net-email     www.northcoast.com/~dka
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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu
[mailto:owner-CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu]On Behalf Of
vernon brooks carter
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 10:08 PM
To: Child Maltreatment Researchers
Subject: Re: measuring stress levels child welfare workers (who cares!)


Mr. Murray - I respond as a CPSW and a researcher. I would assert that the
persons most harmed by child welfare workers experiencing high levels of
stress are the children and families they serve. I was just reading Ner
Littner's(1956) "Some Traumatic Effects of Separation and Placement" and he
discussed how children in placement frequently relive their original
separation all over again when a worker goes on vacation, is late or cancels
an appointment (p.31). John Pardeck (1983) found that one of the variables
that was most positively associated with children experiencing multiple
placements was worker turnover. Finally, it a major goal of many CPSWs to
maintain a child safely in their home or if they are in foster care to
safely reunify children with their families. It is a difficult task to
accomplish safely for stressed or new workers.
----- Original Message -----
From: "john murray" <psychometre@hotmail.com>
To: "Child Maltreatment Researchers"
<CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 2:31 AM
Subject: measuring stress levels child welfare workers (who cares!)


> Can I suggest that she do something a little more interesting and
important,
> this topic is exhausted, and because it is natural for people to put their
> best interests first (quite despite a duty of care)done done done done
done,
>
> and who gives a stuff- child welfare workers are usually a number of
things:
>
> 1. university educated
> 2. adult
> 3. usually repressented by a union or association
> 4. able to organise
> 5. covered by all sorts of legislation, Occupational Health and
   Safety -
> anti discrimination blah blah blah etc
> 6. paid for what they do
> 7. able to leave the environment that stresses them for up to 16 hours
a
> day
> 8. very quick to take the provissions of stress or burn out leave
> 9. able to move on to other arenas when it all gets to much.
> 10. alledged to be competant
> 11. allowed to take holidays
> 12. over pimples and hormonal shifts (alledgedly)
>
> now compare this list to the kids!
> I'm sure they'd love some stress/burn out leave, get away from it 18 hours
a
> day (oh thats why so many are drug users!) have the oportunity of getting
a
> uni edu' (I know this from looking back), be able to organise, and have
> people who are really really actually real;ly are interested in their (the
> kids) best interests to protect them etc etc etc, you know- like a union
>
> don't see too much of this type of research but hell I'm inundated with
all
> the crappy surveys about the poor old staff and how hard it is for them.
We
> even had one recently in NSW that asked service providers about how good
the
> Department of Community Services was at providing family services- not one
> family was asked- not one child was asked, not one person who had been
> through it and lived was asked.
>
> If she still wants to pursue this stuff she can approach :
> `````````
> `````````
>
> http://www.ncoss.org.au/bookshelf/submissions/download/staffsur.pdfWanted:
A
> Genuine Partnership
> The DOCS Ministerial taskforce has released the results of a 1998 survey
of
> DOCS staff. The six top priority issues
>      identified by the survey were:
>         1.more substitute/respite care places
>         2.improve staff retention
>         3.staff want to feel more valued by DOCS
>         4.better communication
>         5.better solutions locally
>         6.better equipment and technology.
>
> `````````
> ``````````
> http://www.ncoss.org.au/bookshelf/submissions/download/docs_survey.pdf
> A report on the survey, conducted by NCOSS, of community based agencies
> providing direct services to Department of Community Services clients.
>
> ````````
> ```````
> http://www.ncoss.org.au/bookshelf/submissions/s-conrev.html
> Response to the Consultation Review Discussion Paper
>
> In late 1994, the NSW Department of Community Services adopted, supposedly
> as part of its decision making processes, a Consultation Protocol. Since
> then the community sector has felt that the neither consultation was
> seriously taken up by the department, nor that the department's
> decision-making processes resulted in better services. Now the protocol is
> being reviewed in a climate of cost-cutting and NCOSS has substantial
> concerns. This submission is a response to a departmental discussion paper
>
>
>
> ``````
> `````
> A NEW PUBLICATION FROM ACWA AND UWS NEPEAN-
> http://www.acwa.asn.au/acwa/publications/reports/plumber.html
>
> "I Always say I'm a Plumber: Significant factors in job satisfaction,
staff
> morale and retention in children's welfare
> agencies"
>
> The relationships between the quality of service provision in community
> organisations, the quality of staff training and development and job
> retention, job satisfaction and staff morale and organisational structures
> and cultures remain largely unexplored. This pilot project jointly
conducted
> by the Association of Childrens Welfare Agencies (ACWA) and the Designated
> Research Group, Workplace Learning and Organisational Development of the
> University of Western Sydney,
>                     Nepean (DRG) aimed to establish some preliminary
> findings of the factors that impact on job satisfaction, staff morale and
> staff retention in child welfare service organisations in the Penrith
> region. Three sites were selected for the study - one government
department
> and a large and small non-government organisation.
>
>                     The study provides a wealth of data including
> significant preliminary indications that job satisfaction is strongly
linked
> to intrinsic aspects of the work itself; Dissatisfaction with the job is
> strongly linked to organisational constraints; There is a strong link
> between dissatisfaction and policies and practices that are workload
driven
> and not client driven; Workers are frustrated and personally demoralised
by
> having to make choices about who to provide service to based on resource
> considerations and not on client need; Strong team identification emerged
as
> a driving force counterbalancing organisational constraints, and to some
> degree intrinsic aspects of the work itself. All workers draw strength in
> the workplace  from other team members and experience a sense of isolation
> at a personal and organisational level when members of the team are away.
>
>
>
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ORDER FORM - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> Print this form, fill it in and send or fax to the address below.
>
> Please send me . . . . . . . . copies of "I Always say I'm a Plumber" @
$15
> ea. (incl P&P).
>
> Name:
>
> Organisation:
>
> Address:
>
> Phone:
>
> Fax:
>
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Please
> charge to:
>
> ( ) Bankcard
> ( ) Visa
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>
> Credit card number:
>
> I_ I_ I_ I_ I I_ I_ I_ I_ I I_ I_ I_ I_ I I_ I_ I_ I_ I
>
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> Cardholder's Name:
> ...........................................................
>
> Expiry date:.............................
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>
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>
> Please make cheques payable to ACWA and return to:
>
> Association of Childrens Welfare Agencies
> Level 2
> Central Square
> Cnr Castlereagh & Hay Streets
> Sydney 2000
> Fax: 02 281 8827
>
> Enquiries to Eric Scott 02 9281 8822 or email eric@acwa.asn.au
>
>
>
>
> From: "\"Richard Carrière et Louise Picard\" @"
> <picard.carriere@sympatico.ca>
> Reply-To: picard.carriere@sympatico.ca
> To: Child Maltreatment Researchers
> <CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu>
> Subject: measuring the stress level of those working in child welfare
> Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 22:02:14 -0500
>
> I have a student who is interested in studying the stress level
> experienced by child welfare workers. Can anyone suggest standardised
> measures of stress that she could use.
> Secondly, I suspect that this topic may have been covered in the past.
> How do I access the archives of this listserver?
>
> Richard Carrière
>
>
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