Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Adela Beckerman
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
assessment, case management, case staffings, customer outcomes, employment, follow-up surveys, hard-to-serve customers, integrated services, intervention model, monitoring, multidisciplinary teams, self-sufficiency, social work interventions
Abstract
This applied dissertation was designed to increase and enhance the role of the Welfare Social Workers in providing case management services to Welfare customers. Welfare Reform (WR) Social Work positions were being eliminated because some thought that traditional social work models could not be adapted to the requirements of employment centered WR programs. This was thought because no research had been carried out and no data was available to indicate the efficacy of social workers or social work models in assisting those welfare customers to self-sufficiency through employment.
The writer developed a WR model of social work intervention. The model focused on case staffings, Multi-Disciplinary teams, and integrated services to assist long-term, hard to- serve welfare customers to employment and eventual self-sufficiency. The writer also trained the social workers in her work setting to conduct WR Case Staffings and to record the employment outcomes of the customers who participated in those case staffings.
The writer also conducted a follow-up case-staffing survey. The sample group consisted of 40 welfare customers who personally participated in their case staffings. Of the 39 contacted, 31 or 80% responded. The survey was sent to determine if the social workers, through the use of case staffings, had assisted the customers to employment. It was expected that 50% of the respondents would have been so assisted. However, based on the respondents’ self-reported data, 83% found employment or other sources of income, as a result of the social workers’ intervention during and after the customers’ case staffings occurred. Based in part on these finding, the WR model is being expanded to all welfare offices in the writer’s state. The writer will be involved in training the WR Social Workers to adopt and/or adapt the methods of the WR model to allow them to better assist the WR customers in all of the 59 welfare offices across the state. The training will include methods of implementing, documenting, monitoring, and assessing the effectiveness of the WR model and making changes to the model, if and when they’re needed to maintain the highest level of service to the WR customer. The expansion of the WR model will require additional social workers to implement that model. In turn, WR Social Work positions will be enhanced and increased.