Content uploaded by Daniel Pollack
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Daniel Pollack on Jul 15, 2024
Content may be subject to copyright.
1
COMMENTARY
CPS Workers Are Exhausted—and It's
Affecting the Legal Rights of Children
Daniel Pollack and Elisa Reiter | July 15, 2024
Burnout. Compassion fatigue. Both terms connote emotional exhaustion.
Child Protection Service (CPS) workers seem to be disproportionately
susceptible. Because they comprise the essential frontline of the child
protection system, their emotional exhaustion can quickly affect a
negative domino series of consequences: shoddy work, low morale,
worker turnover, and a potential erosion of the legal rights of the very
children and families they ideally want to protect.
2
Have attorneys who work in the child protection field noticed this
emotional exhaustion and its effects? Yes. Here are some of their
observations:
1. Angel Brown Reveles, Texas: ”It seems that every time I start
working consistently with a good, solid, compassionate CPS
caseworker, they end up leaving. I attribute this issue to the
overwhelming amount of duties and responsibilities that are
placed on the caseworkers in addition to the large caseload. I can’t
tell you how many times I have heard a caseworker say they had
just come from either taking or picking up a child, spent hours in
Children Without Placement (CWOP), and attended a hearing in a
24-hour period. I am always amazed at how much they have to do
and I often tell them I could never do their job.”
2. Hillary Nappi, New York: ”A lack of work-life balance and the
single experience of a traumatic event such as witnessing someone
being abused or neglected leads to burnout. As an attorney who
represents survivors of childhood sexual assault the best thing I
can give my clients is my self-care. Taking the time to engage in
self-care allows me to release the emotions I have and be fully
present for my clients. When I am not at my best, I cannot be my
best for them—either in or out of the courtroom. The same is true
of anyone in this space. It is essential that child protection service
workers are supported by their agencies to prevent burnout and
vicarious trauma or the population they seek to serve will remain
underserved. Collaborative efforts from the judiciary, welfare
programs and the community at large will mitigate the vicarious
trauma experienced by those on the front lines.”
3
3. Electra S. Watson, Texas: ”The attorneys that I know who do this
work have a heart for it. You have to. The amount of people on the
appointment wheel is the lowest that it’s ever been since I’ve been
practicing law, and as a result everyone is overworked, underpaid
and burning out. Couple that with the consistent secondary trauma
of the facts in these cases and it is impactful for those that choose
to do this work. I can’t do with 50 cases what I used to do with 10-
15. If you’re a guardian ad litem in a CPS case, you’re often in court
during the day or in the office drafting and catching up on emails.
That only leaves nights and weekends to conduct home visits—
periods that would normally be used to rest and recharge in other
jobs. One case can have multiple children in various placements all
over the Metroplex. When you do the math, there aren’t enough
hours in the day, the week or the month.”
4. Virginia E. Griffin, California: ”Child Protection Service
investigators who are emotionally exhausted can unwittingly
disrupt a child’s relationship with a loving parent by missing the
issue of covert abuse. In these rare cases, children can be removed
from a fit parent and given to an abusive one. Legal rights of
children and families are then negatively affected. For example, I
have seen cases (during high conflict family law custody disputes),
where one parent sabotages the relationship with the other parent,
to hurt that other parent. In these cases, the “bad actor” parents
coach their child(ren) into making false allegations of abuse (when
no abuse actually occurred).”
What Can We Do?
4
Here are some suggestions that attorneys and the judicial system should
support in order to minimize emotional exhaustion of CPS workers:
• Workload and scheduling. CPS workers, their supervisors, and
administrators must realize that overloading workers, and thereby
encroaching upon personal time, can quickly have negative effects.
Yes, there will be exceptions to clocking out at an exact time,
especially when the worker is involved in an emergency situation.
But, to the extent possible, it is wise to be mindful of a firm
work/personal time boundary.
• Good physical and mental health. Because CPS workers are under
constant and intense psychological pressure, good sleep, exercise,
and positive relationships are a must.
• Administrators should enact periodic systematic reviews to
monitor the emotional health of their workers. Standardized, valid
instruments to measure emotional exhaustion are available.
Attorneys, judges, and others in the family court system—please—use
your influence to help minimize CPS worker emotional exhaustion. By
taking concrete steps to support the emotional well-being not only of the
families, but of CPS social workers and the other professionals involved
in CPS cases, we can help ensure that CPS workers are able to effectively
advocate for and protect the rights of vulnerable children and families.
This requires commitments from agencies, policymakers, and the
broader child welfare system to prioritize the health of those on the front
lines of this critical work. In addition, the toll of having children removed
from the family home cannot be minimized. The various stakeholders in
family court cases—including judges, court appointed attorneys, private
attorneys, mental health professionals and the involved parties—can
5
work effectively as a therapeutic team to safeguard children’s best
interests. This collaborative approach serves two primary purposes.
First, to pursue family reunification when appropriate and feasible.
Second, to implement more stringent measures when circumstances
necessitate stronger interventions. By working together, these
professions can craft a balanced, child-centered approach to complex
family situations. Judges and parties face huge turnover in CPS cases. We
need our judges to assure that orders are entered and remain in place
that will benefit children. And, we need to be particularly sensitive to the
rigors of cases involving CPS referrals.
Daniel Pollack, is a professor at Yeshiva University’s School of Social
Work in New York City. He was also a commissioner of Game Over:
Commission to Protect Youth Athletes, an independent blue-ribbon
commission created to examine the institutional responses to sexual
grooming and abuse by former USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar.
Contact: dpollack@yu.edu.
Elisa Reiter, a senior attorney with Calabrese Budner in Dallas, Texas, is
Board Certified in Family Law and in Child Welfare Law by the Texas
Board of Legal Specialization. She has served as an Adjunct Professor at
SMU. She is also admitted to practice in the District of Columbia,
Massachusetts, and New York. Contact: elisa@calabresebudner.com.
Original link: https://www.law.com/texaslawyer/2024/07/15/cps-workers-are-
exhausted-and-its-affecting-the-legal-rights-of-children/