The hate towards case workers is getting me down
I graduated as a social worker over 7 years ago and currently work in child protection. I work in a specialised program that investigates criminal matters with a main focus on child sexual abuse. However we also take severe cases of physical abuse and neglect on babies and young children.
Working in child protection I know we are often looked down on by the public and our clients and it’s never bothered me before because I know the system is super broken but most case workers are trying their best and are good people, they can only do so much in a broken system. Given my role is child sexual abuse most of my clients are glad to have me involved and protecting the children, of course when it’s parents who are the issue it can get difficult but it’s a very rare occasion that I need to remove the kids, and usually we organise them to stay with family if safe to do so and the perpetrator is not involved.
Lately there’s been a lot of news articles and social media posts about our social workers wanting to be on a offical register so that they are held to a high standard and also so that not any joe blow can claim to be a social worker without the correct education. It was rejected. All over social media the public was completely bashing social workers, saying they should be registered because social workers are scum and bad people who just want to ruin peoples lives, steal kids and not help anyone. There were no nice comments, it was all hate.
Just recently the last few days there was a horrific child murder in my state (likely caused by the child’s parent) and all the comments are blaming child protection (and police) for not protecting this child and not having done welfare checks or removed him from his parents care and it was child protections fault he was dead for once again not doing their job. Only this child was not known to child protection at all. All friends, family and neighbours reported the boy appearing happy and healthy and having a good relationship with his parent. There were no reports and no concerns. So what was child protection supposed to have done?
Usually all the hate doesn’t bother me, but it’s been a crappy week in social media for social workers and it’s just getting on my nerves. I’ve seen horrific cases, dealt with children dying, listening almost everyday to children describe graphic sexual and physical abuse, sat with babies in the hospital with broken bones and bruises. I have family members who also have incredibly hard jobs like nurses and teachers and everyone backs them while I get blamed and spat at for either not doing a good enough job, not protecting the children, or stealing kids from their families