State: Big shortage of social workers in healthcare

[hrmjustin]

D&C

After 26 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, John Demby returned to school to become a healthcare social worker.

“It’s in my family’s background” to help others, said the 58-year-old from Rochester, who works at Rochester General Hospital. His great-great uncle was William Still, a Philadelphia abolitionist who helped nearly 800 slaves escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad.

Demby links patients to community services to minimize the risk of returning to the hospital. The job “opens my mind up and educates me,” he explained. “We run into so many different situations, we have to constantly be thinking about how we’re going to help people reach their goals.”

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/money/business/2014/08/25/state-big-shortage-social-workers-healthcare/14323921/

[Warpy]

1. They want people with master's degrees to work huge caseloads

and do it for peanuts. There's a reason why there is a shortage, look at their paychecks.

[hrmjustin]

2. Agreed! When they pay an appropriate wahge it won't be a problem anymore.

[No Vested Interest]

3. In Butler County, Ohio the social workers are currently on strike.

Butler county is just north of Cincinnati and is John Boehner's home county. It is strongly GOP-led.

The county social workers have not received a raise in at least three years. The GOP county commissioners are not negotiating with the social workers.
County commissioners are recruiting replacements for the social workers.
Meanwhile, children's needs and those of others are going unmet.

This is not my home county, so DUers closer to the scene may want to add details.

[hrmjustin]

4. Sounds like typical gop tactics.