Mike Carroll of the Department of Children and Families Email

Published November 4, 2017 at 1:32 PM EDT

Credit Florida Aqueduct

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Florida Department of Children and Families Secretarial assistant Mike Carroll speaking to a group of lawmakers last week.

With the 2018 legislative session around the corner, Florida lawmakers as well as kid welfare stakeholders are starting to dive into how to address the huge turnover of the state's child protective investigators. Their job is to expect into cases called into the state'due south kid corruption hotline.

"There are definitely some stressful days,…and there are however some cases that all the same bother yous," said Jennifer Renfro, a senior Child Protective investigator for the Florida Department of Children and Families.

As she heads to her side by side case, she recalls one involving an eight-year-onetime child from years ago.

"We received a written report, and this kid—straight-A educatee, sweetness child—she disclosed a lot of, I would call it torture as far as they would brand her drink hot sauce, and hold her nose and dump h2o on her head and make her become to bed wet," Renfro added. "They told her they hated her. We concluded upwardly moving her and her brother."

Renfro says what she institute most shocking was the abused girl notwithstanding loved her parents and wanted to see them.

Renfro'due south testimony is one of the videos featured on DCF's YouTube channel most the day in the life of a child protective investigator.

Over the years, that position has seen high turnover—in role Jessica Pryce says considering some who get out say they never really understood what they were getting into.

Pryce heads the Florida Institute for Child Welfare, created by the Florida legislature in 2014 to acquit enquiry and clarify Florida'south child protection and child welfare services.

To assist address the turnover inside DCF, Pryce suggests what she calls "realistic chore previews."

"They more often than not are videos shown to applicants that are interested in going into kid welfare piece of work," she said, during a contempo hearing of the House Children, Families & Seniors Subcommittee. "On these previews, yous accept caseworkers that are discussing their jobs in a very candid way, in a very real way. The realistic task previews that I have seen sometimes show caseworkers going into sure neighborhoods. Sometimes the previews prove their task starts in the middle of the night."

Florida lawmakers have begun discussing some ideas of their own. Rep. Cyndi Stevenson (R-St. Johns) recommends shadowing.

"Shadowing is really one of the all-time things," she said, at the time. "I adumbral…I wanted to be a veterinarian. I found out I really didn't similar the smell of claret. Yous know, information technology saved me a lot of coin. So, in addition to that realistic video, if you lot tin become a shadowing feel, that seems like information technology would really help considering it's a large investment of time."

At to the lowest degree one lawmaker suggested higher pay for child protective investigators, only DCF Secretary Mike Carroll says that's not really the main issue.

"Pay is somewhat a factor, and we call up most pay," he said. "But, I tin tell y'all most of the folks that I talk to don't mention pay. They mention workload, and they mention their perceived lack of support because they lose command…their ability to control their life, and they tin can't control their work life."

So, what does the head of DCF himself propose to accost the issue? Carroll says he'southward looking at the long term, rather than the brusque term.

He says first he wants to brand sure those they train stay past the two-twelvemonth marking. Almost new hires are in their 20s and 30s, and Carroll says this is often their kickoff job.

He says afterward doing a survey, many spoke to a lack of mentorship. And then, under a new policy, senior child protective investigators will at present exist mentoring lower level investigators.

"We also created child protective investigative services field supervisors," he added. "Nosotros understand that one of the things that is going to be crucial going forward in keeping folks in these jobs is not the classroom training considering nosotros're pretty successful with the classroom grooming, it's the back up we give folks when they go out in the field."

And, he says his ultimate goal is for the investigators to accept a manageable caseload, while maintaining a personal life likewise.

"I do believe that any recommendation that we have for keeping folks in the workforce is to provide work life-balance and to restructure this work in a way where folks take fourth dimension off that's theirs," Carroll stated. "Yous know, you lot should have a weekend where you actually have a weekend, not where you're tethered to a telephone, and yous thought you had a weekend. Just, at present on Sabbatum afternoon, you're out in the middle of an investigation and your family is out someplace else. We have to observe a way to restructure the way we do this work in a way that would provide that work life balance because that's what folks in the field are asking united states about."

The Business firm committee that looks into children bug has made addressing the turnover i of its legislative priorities.

Meanwhile, on Th, Governor Rick Scott announced his support for spending 10-million dollars to hire 130 additional CPIs and Florida corruption hotline counselors. In a statement, DCF Chief Carroll says hiring boosted investigators will allow DCF to keep the caseloads low so that it will provide that work life balance.

For more than news updates, follow Sascha Cordner on Twitter: @SaschaCordner .

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Source: https://www.wlrn.org/2017-11-04/dcf-looking-for-ways-to-address-high-turnover-of-child-protective-investigators

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