Q&A
Self-care initiatives for foster care agency staff
1:07:43
ยท
4 min
Council Member Althea Stevens inquires about self-care initiatives for foster care agency staff, acknowledging the challenging nature of their work. Commissioner Jess Dannhauser responds by outlining various strategies implemented by ACS to support staff well-being and create a positive work culture.
- ACS conducts staff surveys to identify areas for improvement in employee satisfaction and appreciation
- The agency is working to build a learning culture where staff feel they can grow and develop professionally
- ACS has implemented practices such as healing circles and direct appreciation from leadership to support staff
Althea Stevens
1:07:43
Thank you so much.
1:07:45
Back to our regular schedule programming.
1:07:48
And just to kind of, like, piggyback off some of the what oh, first of all, I would like to acknowledge council member Williams here today.
1:07:56
I didn't do that for the record, so she's here.
1:07:58
Thank you.
1:07:59
But just thinking about staff too and the and the and the extraordinary work that they are doing, and it is a lot.
1:08:10
I mean, you used to be a provider.
1:08:11
I used to be a provider.
1:08:12
Literally, in the trenches.
1:08:14
What I know with all the innovations you're bringing, what are you doing around self care for staff?
1:08:18
Because we know that a lot of times we do this work so thinklessly, and we forget about ourselves.
1:08:24
So, I think that as we are you're putting implementing things, I would love to hear what are you doing around self care for the agency and, like, even with providers.
1:08:33
What does that look like to hold them accountable also do self care?
1:08:37
Because sometimes, even with the staff, they are burnt out, which sometimes lead to things escalating in situations.
1:08:44
Listen.
1:08:44
I've I've I've been there.
1:08:45
So I'm just Yeah.
1:08:46
How how are you shifting the culture in that I mean, the culture and climate in that way as well?
Jess Dannhauser
1:08:52
Yeah.
1:08:52
Starting at ACS and then and I think we can do a better job engaging the providers on how to do that well, and a lot of them are doing it well, but just in how we can be supportive of that.
1:09:04
We survey our staff at ACS and what we learned a couple years ago was staff could see how their job was consistent with the mission and vision of the agency.
1:09:16
They could they felt like their supervisors were knowledgeable.
1:09:19
They felt like they were responsive.
1:09:22
But they didn't but about less than half felt, what I'll say, seen.
1:09:26
Right?
1:09:27
Appreciated specifically for their contributions.
1:09:30
And so we've tried to really go about making sure that all of us have different events, different ways in which we have CPS appreciation week, but then we try to bring it all year round to make sure that folks hear what we're saying.
1:09:46
I think it also is about the culture when something goes right and something goes wrong, that we're really trying to build a learning culture that this is a place you can grow.
1:09:56
Staff who see themselves in a growth trajectory, all the literature says, like, they can tolerate a lot more challenge because they feel like they're growing rather than just getting stuck.
1:10:07
I think it's responsiveness when things don't go right, when there are safety issues.
1:10:11
Sometimes that happens for a case planner at an agency or a CPS.
1:10:18
I think also, obviously, we've got things like healing circles where folks can come, but also going out to express appreciation directly to staff.
1:10:29
And that they know, you know, my perspective on this work and being the leader of ACS is if staff make a decision and I delegated that decision, then we made it together.
1:10:40
I'm not coming to to actually we we might need to learn from it.
1:10:44
We might need to do something different.
1:10:46
We might need to make sure.
1:10:48
But if they made if they did their level best and made a good solid decision, even if it wasn't perfect, we're together gonna learn from that as a system.
1:10:57
And I think part of that's how I'm trying to create the learning culture.
1:11:00
We have an extraordinary team of cabinet members, many of whom you've met, who are building that in each of their areas.
1:11:07
And I know, the providers, especially during COVID, figured out a lot of things, group work that they're doing, with their staff, ways in which they're making them feel appreciated.
1:11:18
We can always do more.
1:11:19
I think surveys and those kinds of things are deeply important, so you get the actual data of what people are experiencing.
1:11:26
So I'll pause there with that, but we can it's such a hard job.
1:11:29
Every one of these jobs Yeah.
Althea Stevens
1:11:30
It's not an easy job.
1:11:31
Listen.
1:11:31
I I worked with kids for twenty years.
1:11:33
It's not easy until, like and even there's moments where it was like, you know, you need to take a day because you just
Jess Dannhauser
1:11:38
Exactly.
Althea Stevens
1:11:38
Experience something really bad and or, you know, it's so it's hard.
1:11:42
So I you know, it definitely is something that we do need to keep in the forefront of making sure that self care is part of the process while we are rolling things out because burnout is real, and we don't wanna lose good people.
1:11:54
And we often do because we already don't pay them anything.
1:11:57
And so they're already doing this from for the love, so we also gotta think about how we also just keep people sane as well.
1:12:03
I know you mentioned before that there are about 25 provider placement providers.
1:12:09
You don't have to do now if you can get us a list of all those providers so we can have it in one place.
Jess Dannhauser
1:12:14
We have it for you.