Mindful Continuing Education

1. Although reducing and managing caseloads is often a difficult task for administrators in child welfare settings, manageable caseloads can make a real difference in a worker's ability to engage families, deliver quality services, stay with the agency, and ultimately achieve positive outcomes for children and families.

A. True B. False

2. Which of the following is an accurate statement about how workers' attitudes and well-being may impact their ability to effectively help children and families?

A. Workers' perceptions of their workloads are related to work-family conflict, job satisfaction, mental wellbeing, strain, depression, distress, fatigue, physical symptoms, burnout, and absenteeism B. Efforts to ensure that workloads are manageable may prevent workers from experiencing myriad negative outcomes and may enhance job satisfaction C. Workers may feel overwhelmed due to secondary traumatic stress (STS), which can occur when a professional experiences stress or symptoms of trauma when working with traumatized children and families, and this could exacerbate any stress they are feeling from high caseloads or workloads D. All of the above

3. The most comprehensive approach to assessing caseload and workload is a workload study which helps agencies compare how much time is available to complete casework with how much time is spent or should be spent completing it.

A. True B. False

4. Strategies to manage caseloads and workloads include targeted efforts as well as broader initiatives in four categories: enhancing work processes and supports; implementing program, practice, or system changes; staffing; and:

A. Monitoring action-plans and resources B. Improving worker effectiveness C. Analyzing service requirements D. Interpreting and prioritizing levels of care

5. Although solid empirical evidence has supported the use of several effective casework practice models in child welfare settings, agencies are often hesitant to implement such practices.

A. True B. False

6. One strategy to reduce individual workload and strengthen service delivery is to use a teaming model to manage more challenging cases, where more than one worker is assigned to a case, and group supervision and teamwork are used to make decisions and develop strategies.

A. True B. False

7. Each of the following is an accurate statement about how supervisors should make case assignment decisions EXCEPT:

A. Supervisors need a system for assigning cases in a fair and equitable manner B. The assignment process should take into account the anticipated workload of a case, the worker's experience and capabilities, and the worker's current caseload C. High-performing workers should be assigned more complex cases to ensure best case care D. Supervisors can enhance workload management by providing clear direction about goals, priorities, and next steps in a case and by teaching time-management strategies