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Demanding Times at DSS
Swamped with rise in cases, agency is slow getting aid to those most in need
Journal Photo by Jennifer Rotenizer
Jasmin Walker (left), a work-experience client, answers questions from Sheila Murphy of the Department of Social Services.
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Published: October 30, 2009
To Sheila Murphy, the job sometimes seems overwhelming.
Murphy works at the Forsyth County Department of Social Services, where she helps clients get child and family Medicaid. Murphy and her co-workers handle 900 cases apiece, and the number keeps rising because of economic hard times.
The result: delays in approving assistance for county residents needing help.
"We have a lot of people coming in on unemployment benefits that are needing services," she said. "They are very anxious and afraid they are not going to qualify."
DSS workers are increasingly stressed by unfilled vacancies. Those openings force DSS workers to take on bigger loads, delaying help to people who need it.
Out of a staff of 458, the department has 50 vacant positions.
Although economists say that the recession has officially ended, DSS Director Joe Raymond predicts that the number of people needing help -- and needing DSS workers to assist them -- will continue to rise. Raymond calls the DSS case load a "lagging indicator" of recovery because it takes time for economic recovery to reach the neediest people.
Raymond said he can find people qualified and willing to fill vacant DSS jobs, but that it has been taking too long -- about 100 days -- to fill a job.
"It is very frustrating," Raymond said. "It is an incredibly unfortunate situation because effective DSS operations are totally dependent on filling the positions to do the work."
The number of people on food-and-nutrition assistance has steadily climbed from 13,767 cases last September to 18,269 at the end of this September -- an increase of 33 percent.
Family-and-child Medicaid cases rose from 22,965 to 26,257 during the same period, an increase of 14 percent. Adult Medicaid cases rose from 12,800 to 13,947, a 9 percent rise.
All of those applications get processed through DSS.
Brenda Evans, the deputy DSS director, said that the vacancies are making it harder to meet the 30-day standard for approving people for food assistance.
"In the past, we might have gotten them through quicker with more staff," Evans said. "We are getting more people calling in because they are out there waiting and want to hear. "
When the economy fell off the cliff last year, it hit the county budget hard by reducing sales-tax revenues. The county responded with measures that included a slowdown in hiring, and incentives for employees to retire early. The county subjected vacant positions to a review process to see which jobs could fall by the wayside.
In a letter to County Manager Dudley Watts, Raymond and the social-services board are asking the county to allow the department to fill vacancies without a review, take over the recruitment and selection of employees, and fill vacancies in 30 to 45 days or fewer.
Watts said that the county has already made some changes to speed up hiring and will consider Raymond's request. While the county had a "soft freeze" on hiring in place during the worst of the county's budget crunch, Watts said, it did allow DSS to fill some jobs "that we would not have unfrozen for anybody else."
"We were in a terrible budget position," Watts said. "It was a worsening situation that each month seemed to get a little worse and worse. What I had to do as the manager was make sure we were OK. We took some actions that were necessary to do that, and some of that resulted in DSS positions getting filled at a slower rate."
Some delays are inevitable, officials said. When a position becomes vacant, it is first advertised inside county administration in case someone already working for the county wants the job. The county next advertises outside for the job, but then it has to deal with screening what can be a large number of applications.
Evans said that even when a position is filled, it can take awhile for the new employee to get up to speed.
The world of social services has its own special vocabulary and procedures, she said, and it takes time to learn them.
That's why job retention is also important, Evans said. The work can be stressful because employees are dealing with people facing a personal crisis. Sometimes people leave to work in Guilford County, which pays better, she said.
wyoung@wsjournal.com
727-7369
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