About This Role
Caring for children and families to achieve the permanency goal of adoption is the central mission of this CWS Case Manager role. The position involves case management and concurrent planning within the Child Welfare area of Adoptions, utilizing critical thinking to monitor safety, risk, and well-being.
Responsibilities
- Perform case management and concurrent planning in the Child Welfare area of Adoptions in accordance with DSS Policy, Mission and GPS Practice Model
- Make contact with children and families to achieve the permanency goal of adoption
- Utilize critical thinking skills to monitor safety, risk, and well-being
- Perform on-call duties as assigned
- Perform case management (ie, contacts, visitation, case planning) to a caseload of legally free children and families to ensure safety, permanency and well-being
- Make referrals to adoption recruitment resources
- Coordinate the selection of adoptive individuals or families
- Prepare children and adoptive applicants for adoptive placement
- Complete, review, and update the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) according to time frames established by DSS Policy
- Utilize the CANS to collaboratively update the Family Permanency Plan within the Child and Family Team (CFT) Meeting
- Authentically engage families, other professionals within the agency, and external partners (i.e. GAL, Foster Care Review Board, DJJ) with empathy and respect; to include timely responses to telephone calls, emails, and texts
- Participate in and facilitate child and family team meetings
- Collaborate closely with legal to promote timely permanency
- Adhere to court orders, submit court packets timely and participate in legal proceedings
- Maintain physical and electronic case record by composing clear, objective, and thorough documentation covering pertinent details of case activities per DSS policy and the GPS Practice Model
- Ensure all case management activities are documented in CAPSS system according to time frames established by DSS policy
- Ensure documentation meets quality standards and captures necessary elements pertinent to safety, permanency, well-being and case planning
- Maintain child welfare certification
- Complete 20 hours of training yearly to include certifications that are required yearly
- Maintain an active routine of self-care and pursue support when necessary to minimize the threat of secondary trauma to physical and mental health
- Understand the impact of trauma on families and secondary trauma on child welfare staff and apply principles to support families
- Ensure that personal identifying information (PII) is properly used, accessed, gathered, shared and disposed
