Lehigh County Children and Youth workers used the public comment part of the commissioners meeting on Wednesday to ask for help in reducing onerous caseloads that they say exceed state caps.
Every county in the state is having trouble keeping employees because of heavy caseloads, inadequate training and low pay, Tony Lupo, a county caseworker, told the board.
In Pennsylvania, he said, the state caps caseloads at 30, which already is higher than in neighboring states. But Lupo said he is handling 47 because there are not enough workers.
“Caseload caps have been studied and have shown it makes a difference to protect children,” Lupo said. He urged the board to hire more caseworkers so the cap can be enforced.
Four employees from the departments of Children and Youth and Early Intervention spoke at the meeting, saying there has been an uptick of workloads since the state implemented regulations for mandated reporters of child abuse after the conviction of former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky in 2012.
Citing statistics from the state Office of Child Development and Early Learning, Lupo said the Human Services Department received 6,748 reports of child abuse in 2017, more than seven times the number it received in 2013.
The numbers, he and others told the board, are taking their toll on the staff.
“People who have been here for years, who planned on staying here until they can retire, are running away because it’s too much,” said Stephanie Brotzman-Savercool, an Early Intervention service coordinator. “We need to hire new people but we also need to keep people with experience here. It is essential for the most vulnerable members of our county that we figure out how to fix this system.”
Michelle Fritz, also from Early Intervention, spoke of the emotional and mental strain caseworkers are under from routinely hearing about the trauma their clients have endured. She added that caseworkers sometimes find themselves in dangerous situations that police officers wouldn’t go into without backup.
“We deal with it, we go home and we try not to let it affect our families,” Fritz said. She invited the commissioners to spend time with caseworkers to see how their decisions affect workers and the people they serve.
After 16 years as a Children and Youth caseworker, Stacie McKeever said stress and heavy caseloads made her choose a pay cut in February to work in Early Intervention. She said she worried that a child might die as a result of the heavy burdens caseworkers are carrying.
Commissioner Percy Dougherty said the County Commissioners Association has been working since 2012 to increase the state budget for Human Services. He said he could not address the workers’ specific questions because of ongoing negotiations about such issues with the Service Employees International Union, which represents Human Services employees.
The county employees have been working without contract since 2014.
Gabriela L. Laracca is a freelance writer for The Morning Call.