Editorial: Social workers need supportEditorial: Social workers need supportEditorial: Social workers need supportEditorial:
Social workers need support
Editorial:
Social workers need support
Times
Colonist (2014).
When
something goes wrong with a child-welfare case, the system comes under
criticism. That stings those who are on the front lines: social workers. However,
the failures stem not from the work they do, but from the work they can’t do
because of a lack of resources.
Mary
Ellen Turpel-Lafond, B.C.’s children and youth representative, has released a
report that says social workers failed to protect a 10-year-old boy from his
mother, who struggled with addictions. The boy was put in the care of his
maternal grandparents with the directive that he not be left alone with his
mother. He was severely injured in a car crash on an outing with his mother and
her boyfriend. Five years later, he continues to suffer from the effects of
those injuries.
Turpel-Lafond
said the case illustrates the child-welfare system’s flawed response to the
problem of parental addictions.
Social
workers are keenly aware of that, says Doug Kinna, vice-president of the social
information and health component of the B.C. Government and Service Employees
Union. “They just don’t have enough resources to do the work they are mandated
to do.”
In
February, Turpel-Lafond issued a report concerning the suicide of a 14-year-old
girl living on a rural First Nations reserve. The girl, who had suffered abuse
and lived with a violent and mentally ill mother, had repeatedly sought help,
but was let down by all those who should have helped her.
One
social worker in the region was doing the job of seven, Turpel-Lafond said.
And
therein lies much of the problem.
“[Social
workers] have an incredible load,” said Kinna. “The ministry pretty much relies
on free overtime to get the work done.
“It’s
frustrating. When I tell them to quit doing free overtime, they say they can’t.
They just want to be sure the kids are safe. I think the ministry takes
advantage of that.”
Being a
social worker in the child-welfare system can be a stressful job at the best of
times.
“They
never know what they’re going to run into when they go out,” said Kinna.
“Something that can seem fairly innocuous can turn into a horror show.”
In
addition to heavy loads, MCFD social workers must make difficult choices. If
they take too many children away from families, they go against the ministry’s
emphasis on keep families together. Leaving children with families involves
risks.
The B.C.
government has the unenviable task of balancing the budget; nevertheless, every
effort should be made to ensure MCFD social workers have sufficient support and
resources to do their jobs.
That’s
difficult to do within the ministry’s budget, but perhaps part of the solution
can be found in other budgets. Is the $26 million a year spent by the minister
of citizens’ services and open government on “communications and public engagement,”
for example, more important than the safety of a child? Trimming 10 per cent
from that ministry’s $260-million budget for “integrated workplace solutions”
would hire quite a few social workers.
As with
past issues, Stephanie Cadieux, minister of children and family development,
said her office will work with Turpel-Lafond and is already “strengthening our
efforts in this area and strengthening our practice at the front line.”
For the
sake of the children, social workers need relief. They have had to be flexible,
but when flexibility reaches the point of being stretched too thin, bad things
happen.
©
Copyright Times Colonist
