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County board wrestles with social worker position issue |
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
After listening to nearly an hour of sometimes emotional testimony, the Houston County Board decided to go ahead with the process to hire another social worker for the County Human Services Department. The issue came to a head during the Human Services Board meeting held April 15.
The major issue was whether the county would require veteran social worker Danielle Swedberg to return to full-time status. Swedberg has been a social worker for the county for six years, and has handled the majority of the child protection cases. She went from full-time to .8 effective April 25, 2006 and from .8 to .5 on February 13, 2007.
Since Swedberg went to part-time status, full-time social worker Michelle Van Beek resigned to pursue other employment opportunities, and the case load for Human Services has increased. Human Services Director Beth Wilms recommended Swedberg be re-instated as a full-time employee. The county decided to go ahead with advertisements to fill the open position when Van Beek resigned.
Swedberg indicated if she was required to go back to full-time, she would resign. Several of the caseworkers expressed their concern over Swedberg’s potential departure in written statements to the county board.
In their statements, Jessica Rommes and Tina Meyer both stressed the value of Swedberg’s experience, and the fact that she handles the vast majority of the child protection cases.
“Danielle is our lead investigator and she conducts the majority of our forensic interviews,” Rommes wrote in her statement to the board. “Forensic interviews require the ability to read children and the knowledge of when and how to ask certain questions and to move through the interview process. These skills are best learned through the experience of conducting interviews over time.
“Along with interviewing children comes testifying in court to defend the validity of the forensic interviewing process, which Danielle has gained extensive experience, with some cases having been upheld in the Supreme Court of Appeals,” Rommes continued.
“Tina Meyer and myself are trained to conduct forensic interviews. However, we have not gained the experience of interviewing hundreds of children that Danielle has, as this takes years to accomplish,” Rommes noted.
“I have been employed with Houston County Human Services (HCHS) as a child protection social worker just over a year,” Meyer stated. “I have attended the Cornerhouse Forensic Interviewing training. However, I have no experience with forensic interviewing. Jessica Rommes has been employed with HCHS for nearly two years and has also completed the Cornerhouse Forensic Interview training. She has completed less than five interviews. Ms. Rommes and I certainly would be capable of conducting an interview. However, our chances of protecting the five-year-old in court, who was sexually abused, would be minimal as the interview would be hard to defend, as we lack the advanced training and experience necessary.”
“I don’t like to hear that some of our caseworkers can’t handle some of the cases,” Commissioner Dave Corcoran said. “If we are hiring trained individuals, they need to be able to handle the cases.”
Wilms indicated she feels Sedberg should be brought back to full-time status and have a review of HCHS conducted by the Social Services Information System. She felt the review could determine if any additional full-time child protection social worker was needed.
“The internal audit may indicate we may have to hire someone that can also handle disability issues,’ Wilms stated. “We are handling more and more disability cases all the time. The person might have to be a highbred position, dealing with various issues.”
Swedberg said she never had a direct conversation with anyone as far as if or when she would be required to go back to full-time status. She noted that although only employed for 20 hours a week, she usually works 30 or more.
“I’m trying to do whatever it takes to make this work. But I just can’t go back to full-time,” Swedberg said.
The fact that Swedberg was employed to work 20 hours, but was putting in additional time could be a liability issue, Wilms noted. She added she did not know Swedberg was putting in all those extra hours.
“I would like to see us keep Danielle on as a part-time employee, and pursue hiring another part time position,” Commissioner Larry Connery said.
“I don’t agree with that,” Wilms replied. “We can’t keep Danielle on at 20 hours. Our workload requires more hours.”
Commissioner Ann Thompson said she felt the county needs to look at all their options. “We need to have the state review conducted and find out just what we need. And then proceed from there,” she said.
“As long as we have the ads in place, I think we should follow through and see what comes up,” Corcoran said. “We might find someone who would fit right into what we need. We need to keep our options open.”
No action was taken by the county board requiring Swedberg to go back to full-time status.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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They do not work in the comfort of large offices and board rooms. They serve in the trenches of the battle against child abuse. They deserve nothing less than our support and admiration.