Social Worker, Family Advocacy & Support Services

Position Information

Conducts basic social services casework; identifies client needs for more intensive casework services and provides referrals; carries a caseload of moderately difficult cases; manages a caseload of increasingly difficult cases; and performs other related work as assigned.

• Conduct interviews with clients, family members, and others in their home, in the office, or via telephone to assess basic social, physical, and mental needs of clients and obtain health information to identify and provide social services.
• Perform case studies and evaluate individual and family case information to assess the safety of children and adults; determine appropriate types and methods of treatment.
• Assess reports of suspected abuse; may be required to work on‑call; provide information to law enforcement or district attorneys.
• Develop and carry out culturally sensitive non‑complex to moderate treatment plans for an assigned caseload in conformance with agency, state and federal requirements; assist clients and family members to develop strategies to accomplish case plan goals.
• Refer clients to other staff members or to community resources for direct and intensive services and specialized counseling as necessary; advocate on the clients' behalf for most appropriate services including enabling services.
• Assist applicants and recipients in utilizing available resources.
• Interpret policies, rules, and regulations of the agency to applicants, clients and others within the scope of responsibility.
• Make home visits in connection with casework assignments.
• Prepare and maintain case records and databases; communicate decisions, timelines, recommendations and case plans to clients, families and service providers.
• May testify in court.
• May be assigned to specialized functions.
• Participate in in‑service training and other staff development activities to increase knowledge of the social work processes and achieve technical competence.
• Receive casework consultation from professionally trained staff members.
• Provide community outreach for various agency programs.
• Maintain client confidentiality; perform all duties in conformance with the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics.
• Perform related duties as assigned.

Incumbents in the Social Worker I/II classification receive direct supervision from a Social Worker Supervisor or other higher‑level supervisor or manager.

• Principles and practices of organization, workload management and time management.
• Principles and practices of note taking, report writing, English composition, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
• Phone etiquette and interview techniques.
• Socio‑economic conditions and trends.
• Basic principles of individual and group behavior.
• Current issues in the field of social welfare.
• Role and responsibilities of social workers.
• Principles of interviewing and problem‑solving methodology.
• Basic public welfare programs on the Federal, State and local level.
• General principles of public assistance policies and programs.
• Developing and preparing court report, case plans, case narratives and safety plans in automated computer systems.
• Entering and retrieving data and narratives from automated computer systems.
• Basic principles and techniques of interviewing and recording of social casework.
• Laws, rules, and regulations governing the operation of the public welfare agency and the role of a social worker.
• Community organization and the social problems calling for the use of public and private community resources.
• Basic principles involved in the nature, growth and development of personality and in‑group processes.
• The medical, legal, economic, and social management needs of individuals and families with special medical needs such as HIV disease, drug dependency, the medically fragile child, Alzheimer's, and the terminally ill.
• The strategies and protocols surrounding crisis intervention techniques such as voice modulation and assessing the potential for suicide.
• Basic psychopathology, the different types of mental illness diagnoses, how mental illness affects human behavior and mental health services and treatments utilized by clients.