Social Worker - Protect Services (Adult Services

Adult Protective Services Social Worker

The Guilford County Department of Social Services is seeking to hire an Adult Protective Services Social Worker to provide social work services to individuals who have been identified as victims or potential victims of abuse, neglect, exploitation and/or dependency as defined by North Carolina General Statutes. This individual shall provide services to families while making a thorough assessment of strengths and needs, safety and family support systems.

Work is supervised by a Social Work Supervisor who reports to the Social Work Program Manager.

This is advanced level social work involving the provision of direct and indirect casework to adults requiring protective services. Cases in these areas require an immediate response to a crisis for the client. Consequently, the social worker must be able to analyze the situation and determine an appropriate course of action in a short time span. There are, additionally, legally mandated time spans in which action must be taken in protective services investigation cases.

There may be occasions with the Social Worker will have to work after 5:00pm to meet the needs of the families.

Essential duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Responsible for ensuring safe, permanent, and nurturing families for children who are in DSS custody.
• Responsible for providing services to strengthen, preserve and/or reunite families by helping them to improve the conditions that caused Agency intervention.
• Responsible for ensuring appropriate temporary living arrangements for children in DSS custody and achieving an alternative safe, permanent home for children that cannot return home.
• Responsible for providing information to service providers, community partners and the court as deemed appropriate.
• Responsible for working collaboratively with parents, service providers, law enforcement, medical personnel, mental health professionals, court partners, etc.
• Responsible for helping children, whose parents are incapable of assuring continuing parental responsibilities, to become a part of a new family by finding an appropriate home for them.
• Responsible for recruiting of potential adoptive families and providing on-going services (supervision) to adoptive children and adoptive parents that will provide for their needs and protect the interests of all parties to an adoption.
• Responsible for providing intervention services to children determined to be in need of protection, with the goal of preventing out of home placement or if out of home placement cannot be prevented, provide the necessary services to affect an appropriate placement.
• Responsible for making prompt and thorough assessments when a report of abuse, neglect, or dependency is received by the department.
• Responsible for ascertaining the facts of the case, the extent of the abuse or neglect, and the risk of harm to juvenile/adult, in order to determine whether protective services should be provided, or the complaint filed as a petition.
• Responsible for following the procedures and guidelines as provided by the State of NC and the legal system.
• Responsible for the recruitment, training and retention of families interested in providing foster or adoptive homes for Guilford County children /adults needing temporary or permanent homes. Primary responsibilities include community education, training families in the foster and adoptive processes, licensing homes, and development of recruitment strategies.
• Other duties as assigned.

Minimum qualifications:

• MSW
• BSW – Child Welfare Collaborative
• BSW from an accredited school of social work and one year of directly related experience
• Masters degree in counseling from an accredited college/university in a human services field and one year directly related experience
• Bachelors degree in a human service field from an accredited college/university and two years directly related experience
• Bachelors degree from an accredited college/university and three years directly related experience
• Must have possession of an appropriate driver's license issued by the State of North Carolina
• A motor vehicle record (MVR), background check, and drug screening will be conducted on candidates considered for positions

Candidate must reside within a two-hour driving radius of Guilford County to be considered for employment. Transcripts are required. Copy of transcript must be submitted with application for consideration. Official college transcripts required at time of hire.

Work requires contact with clients, family members and other professional disciplines and service agencies. To determine the extent of neglect, abuse, physical illness the employees may experience emotional stress due to the nature of interactions with clients or service providers and behavioral problems such as aggression of clients and/or family members that cause bodily injury for employees.

Employees work in settings that range from…