Introduction
The United States is one of the countries that is best known for its comprehensive and outstanding social services programs. There are numerous departments and government-related agencies and organizations that have been given the task to direct and regulate the different social programs that the government has put in place for its citizens and other qualified candidates. In terms of healthcare, for example, thanks to the latest healthcare reforms, a considerably larger percentage of the total U.S. population are now insured, something which increases the affordability and accessibility of healthcare, just in line with the goals of healthcare and medical organizations. It is worthwhile to note that while there are federally funded organizations and social services programs, there are also ones that are funded and ran by state and local governments. In the case of the Department of Children and Family Services, which will be the topic of this paper, for example, there are different states that run and fund their own children and family services department. Although the essence such as the core principles, values, mission, vision, and even the rules and policies of each of these state-owned and ran children and family services department are practically the same; it may be safe to say that some things can be different. It can be theorized, for example, that the social services workers over at the Department of Children and Family Services in Los Angeles Country are more efficient and effective in terms of doing their job and producing outputs compared to their counterparts over at the DCFS in the state of Louisiana.
As another example, it can be theorized that case workers in Los Angeles County’s DCFS are more resilient and possess more essential leadership skills and qualities compared to their counterparts in other states. However, since this is an area of sociological research that is often taken for granted, an assumption which is mainly based on the fact that there is only a limited number of available literatures about this topic (the effectiveness, resiliency, among other qualities of case workers and social service workers in DCFS and other government social services-related departments), it would be an important thing to start conducing a research in this area. One possible significance of this phenomenological review or study is that with enough information about the Department of Children and Family Services and the individual case workers for each particular county’s children and family services department, an evaluation standard or even a baseline of comparison can be established which future researchers and even policy makers can use to compare the effectiveness of one group of case workers working in a county DCFS to that of another. Unfortunately, this is something that cannot be done today because as stated earlier, there are very little to no information about the different qualities (e.g. leadership skills and qualities, and qualifications, among others) of DCFS case workers because very few researchers appear to be interested in conducting a qualitative study about a particular organization, which in this case is the Department of Children and Family Services.
The Department of Children and Family Services is a department that states choose to run and establish that has the following mission: to promote and improve the current national level of child safety, permanency, and their access to effective and caring services, especially children who are orphaned or those who do not have any guardians. It has been stated in their website that their mission is to: improve child safety, decrease timeliness of permanence, reduce the reliance of children on out of home care and other related services, help and educate the children to live a self-sufficient life, improve the child and if possible, their entire family’s well-being, and from a larger perspective, create an image of organizational excellence that is mainly fuelled by positive outcomes and outputs . The more relevant question that needs to be answered here is just what exactly is this organization (the DCFS) and what are they planning to do, specifically, and more importantly, do they have the necessary tools (e.g. manpower, manpower skills, resources, etc.) to achieve their organizational goals and objectives.
Considering that most children and family services departments are funded by the state governments and that a significant part of their funds also come from gifts, grants, and donations, knowing where, and on what, and on whom the DCFS spend its funds can be an important political and or research question to answer. These questions may even be followed up by more specific ones such as does the particular county DCFS spend the part of its funds allocated for human resources management, particularly the payroll division, on qualified, efficient, and effective case workers? These are just examples of research questions that any group of researchers can fruitfully investigate on in a phenomenological review focusing on a specific government or any government-related department, agency, or organization at that.
The process of conducting this study is indeed grounded on real world problems, particularly in the field of sociology, psychology, and even family dynamics. Recent statistical information from the Department of Children and Family Services states that there were roughly 73.9 million children in the United States in 2011 and by 2050, which is just a little more than three decades from now, that number is expected to increase by almost 30 million to 101.6 million. It can only be assumed that as the population of individuals within the children development age group gets bigger, the amount of resources, including human resources and human resources expertise to meet the demand for essential services for that particular population would only get bigger. That is, the complexity and the volume of resources, including human resources, required to satisfy the service demand of a particular population can be said to be directly proportional to the percentage by which that population grows. So as the population of children reaches more than 100 million come 2050 in the United States, government-related social services organizations such as the Department of Children and Family Services in this case, should be able to come up with contingencies and appropriate organizational development strategies to prepare for such instances. In general, there can be two practical ways how to address the primary and secondary problems that may be associated with the ballooning of the population. Firstly, DCFS, among other state departments may come up with plans and strategies on how they can improve the efficiency of their services. The organization can, for example, train their case workers to handle a larger number of and more complex children and family service cases. Another option would be to simply increase the number of social service and or case workers within the department so that the anticipated increase in demand for resources, or in this case human resources, can be well and organically accommodated.
In the case of this research, however, the researchers have chosen to focus on the case workers, particularly these two human resources qualities: resiliency and psychological capital when it comes to doing their respective jobs, cases, and assignments in the Department of Children and Family Services.
It is in the interest of the author of this paper to write a research paper whose results would be directly relevant to and usable by the members of society in addressing some of the most significant problems in the field of social service or in this particular case, in the provision of social services specifically children and family services. As mentioned in the introduction section of this paper, the number of children and family members—or in some cases, even entire families that require a specific type and extent of assistance from the government or any private organization that is not related to the government that at the same time provides children and family services, is on a continuous increase. To give the readers of this paper an idea how dramatic the volume or number of individuals who would require a certain type and extent of help from the children and family services department several years from now (medium term) and in the long run, the Child Welfare website presented a set of statistical information that suggests that in 2011, there were some 73.9 million children in the United States, a significant percentage of which relied on the grants and benefits that the children and family services departments and non-government organizations provided and funded for to get by and survive. By 2050, the children and family services department estimates that that number they got in 2011 would increase to 101.6 million. Again, surely, a significant portion of the organization’s projected inflated number of children by 2050 would be reliant on social service grants and benefits. If the government fails to provide for the needs of welfare and social service dependent children and family members, it would be impossible for these people to survive and so it is important for organizations such as the DCFS to keep up with the ever increasing demand for productivity and efficiency in providing social and welfare services to those who need it—in this case, the children and members of problematic families. Another set of information that may be useful to emphasize the relevance and significance of this paper in solving a real life or world problem would be the statistical information provided by the United States Social Security Agency.
According to their official website, In 2014, more than 59 million U.S. citizens benefited from the almost 863 billion USD budget allocated by the government for Social Security benefits . According to the same source (the SSA), a large portion of the beneficiaries are those individuals who could be classified as retired workers, dependents, disabled workers, the dependents of these people, survivors, and children of poverty stricken families. Another important information on the agency’s report that may have a direct carryover for this research would be the one that suggested that “among elderly Social Security beneficiaries, 22% of married couples and about 47% of unmarried persons relied on Social Security for 90% or more of their income” . What makes this particular information important is the fact that the families, family members, and dependent children who belonged to this group of population (those who relied on Social Security for 90% or more of their income), would be reliant on the services being offered and provided by organizations and agencies such as the DCFS as well. There was also some information in the said report that applied directly to children, which is one of the major populations targeted by the children and family services departments and or organizations. In the report, it was stated that “about 96% of persons aged 20 to 49 who worked in covered employment in 2013 have survivors insurance protection for their young children and the surviving spouse caring for the children” . This meant that the children of retired, disabled, and basically any type of documented worker who managed to get an insurance coverage for their family in 2013 would be entitled to receive assistance and grants from the government and even similar organizations such as the DCFS. What makes these pieces of information important is that if both organizations we consulted suggest that the demand for children and family services, and even social services, as well as the associated expenses that the organizations and agencies that offer such services and ultimately the government, is expected to increase over the long run, then something that would increase the capacity (the number of beneficiaries that social and welfare service organizations and agencies) can accommodate should be done.
One of the practical ways how the government or any concerned organization can ensure that the supply for children and family services—which is the focus of this research paper, will not be interrupted is to ensure that a competent workforce is recruited, trained, and maintained. In a social services setting, for example, the lifeblood of any social service organization would most likely be the social workers. After all, these are the people who get trained and certified to interact with people who may be in dire need of a social service or program. Simply put any social or welfare service organization is composed of functional units in the form of social workers. Since the goals and mission of most social and welfare service organizations and a children and family services department may prove to be similar in a lot of ways, it can be said that the DCFS may also be composed of functional units. In this case, however, the focus would be on the case workers instead of the social workers. The productivity, efficiency, and the effectiveness of the children and family services department’s services and programs would heavily depend on the performance and expertise of its respective case workers. Naturally, a strong and competent team of case workers who are at the same time equipped with the right state of mind and qualities that make up a good case worker, would eventually outperform another team of case workers who are not strong and competent and not equipped with the right set of tools and skills to do their job. Employee or in this case, case worker turnover rates may be an important issue that researchers in the field should look into since a high rate of DCFS case worker turnover would most likely mean that the next generation of workers would have a certain level of difficulty in meeting the demands for children and family services which is mainly brought about by the ballooning of the population that exercises their rights to access such services.
