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Q&A
Adequacy of social worker staffing in APS
0:44:37
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Council Member Crystal Hudson questions whether six social workers are adequate for the number of APS cases. Deputy Commissioner Gili Hershkovich-Kim and Chief Special Services Officer John Rojas explain the role of social workers and additional resources available.
- Social workers focus on the most challenging situations, not visiting every client
- At least one social worker is assigned to each borough
- APS hasn't experienced situations where clients weren't serviced due to lack of social workers
- For higher levels of care, APS can access visiting psychiatric services through the DSS office of the medical director
- Additional resources include psychiatric nurse practitioners and psychiatrists
Crystal Hudson
0:44:37
And do you think six social workers is an adequate number for that number of cases?
Gili Hershkovich-Kim
0:44:45
So our social workers do not visit every client.
0:44:49
Their scope is really to focus with the most challenging situations.
0:44:55
If it's challenging for because of engagement issues or resistance to accepting services.
0:45:04
So the scope of the social work unit is not to conduct ongoing clinical intervention, but if there is a need for that they will refer.
0:45:13
We have at least one social work staff in each one of our boroughs, which seems sufficient to the number of interventions that are required by the social work staff.
Crystal Hudson
0:45:30
Okay.
0:45:32
But I'm just gonna ask you the same question just a little bit more directly.
0:45:37
Are six social workers adequate?
0:45:39
I hear what you're saying that they're not making visits to every everybody, but do you think six is enough to even assess the most challenging cases that might need a social worker?
John Rojas
0:45:50
I would respond that we haven't not serviced the client because of lack of social workers.
0:45:56
When, if we come to that situation and if we need a higher level of care, we access our visiting psychiatric service through the DSS office of the medical director.
0:46:05
So we also access nurse psychiatric nurse practitioners and psychiatrists through that office.
0:46:11
So yes, have six social workers, but we also have the backing of our visiting psychiatric services who really help us for those most challenging clients.