CHILDREN'S SERVICES SOCIAL WORKERS PRESS FOR ACTION ON HIGH WORKLOADS

Federation Children's Services social workers pressed for action on high workloads and to reject the governor's cuts to other parts of the DSHS Children's Administration as penny-wise and pound-foolish.

That came during a Wednesday night hearing before the House Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee.

"One area we must get a handle on-especially in these tough economic times with the demand for our services going up-is the workloads faced by Children's Services social workers," said Tracy Frosty-Wilson, a social worker 3 in Bellingham and a member of Local 1060.

A joint union-management task force created last year by the Legislature set out to prioritize tasks that might be lifted off the shoulders of social workers. Some progress was made, but the process was too narrowly focused, Frosty-Wilson said.

She said that opened the door to contracting out some services.

There must be solid analysis and strict adherence to the law on competitive contracting, she said.

"It's penny-wise and pound-foolish to move these tasks to private companies that pay less, deliver less and have high turnover...," Frosty-Wilson said.

"These are tight times. But scrimping on workload relief now will only lead to higher and more tragic costs down the line."

Julie Seholm, another social worker 3 from Bellingham and a member of Local 1060, joined her.

Seholm said many of the problems with DSHS are internal governance issues, not with the services provided by social workers.

"Reform is needed," she told the committee. "But in doing so, let's not penalize those of your dedicated social workers trying to deliver quality services with inadequate resources."

She also called on legislators to find sensible solutions to reject the governor's proposed cuts to guardianship placements, elimination of secure crisis residential centers, family support services, and funding for trauma mitigation, intensive resource foster homes and sex abuse recognition training.

"For those on the front lines, this means that higher-needs clients will not receive the services and the placements that they need," Seholm said. This leads to hotel rooms, overtime, per diem and exhausted and overworked social workers. I see lawsuits and tragedy as well as a failure to provide the help to the kids we care for."