When your job becomes just a job, then it's time to move on.
This is especially true in the social services sector when the welfare of another human is hanging on the balance. It doesn't matter if the person in context is aged sick, teenager, child, or adult. Social services = welfare which doesn't mean half-baked solutions.
Assuming all caseworkers employed within the system here are sufficiently qualified by international standards, then they should know that it's UNETHICAL to continue working on the job, managing files when they are unable to not break the codes. There is no excuse.
After 4 straight years in social services, I took a sabbatical. It's been 7 years, almost. I couldn't cope with patients dying, patients who are fine today but checked into the eternal hotel the next. I decided to use that time in another industry, put aside money to do post-graduate studies, so that I will return better equipped academically and mentally. I targeted for a 5-year break, but I'm delayed, so what, I'm back on track and I didn't break any professional ethical codes.
Today I met one such caseworker, who apparently has been on the job for 2 years with no social graces, common courtesy and knowledge of what supervision is about. I chewed her up and spat out the bones. Why are we spending good money to pay these people if they do not respect their work? This caseworker is dealing with teenagers and if she is not able to expose them to the correct behaviour, then it's no better than putting a robot there to mind them.
I am really disgusted and perhaps that's why I stayed on, in the business world longer than I imagined I could. I will go back to do my thing with my training, but never, never with these bunch of clowns. Clowns because it's laughable that they have been tasked to manage a file, which means, laying some kind of foundation for that child or the general family's betterment as a whole, yet they themselves are unable to be an average role model.
It's pointless to talk about best practices when there is this obvious service gap, which has nothing to do with giving food rations. Why strive to build a progressive society if we do not care for another human. We do not have to be oozing with empathy but at least take some interest in the file one manages and be concerned enough that it's not a number on the file, but the future of the child or person that we are dealing with.
We need some major overhaul here.
I'm not about to sit pretty here and pretend it didn't happen. Nope. I am going to get busy sending emails until I get a satisfactory response.
It may not be my child who's there, but it's another family's kid and that must matter - I may not be the best parent but I am sure, my commitment to my responsibilities are serious enough for me to never muck around someone's head just because I felt like it.
If you cannot do a good job working with kids, then DON'T.
This is not about a typical organisation where you drag yourself to work and wait for 6pm.
This is about someone's life.
This is about modelling.
This is about setting a good example.
This is about serving the community, never about boosting your ego.
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