Michigan professionals who have social work careers may be given new technology tools

Michigan's Department of Human Services recently said that newly-hired individuals who have social work careers in child welfare may be given iPads and mobile technology, according to The Detroit News.

Ray Holman, legislative liaison to UAW Local 6000 – the union that represents the human services and administrative support units – said new technology would be useful for caseworkers. If these social workers had iPads and mobile products, he said, they would be able to spend more time in the community and less time in their offices.

Being away from their desks throughout the day may be useful for social workers who wish to accomplish a list of goals that the department recently sent to Governor Rick Snyder. The areas of improvement include reducing the number of foster children who wait to be adopted for over 24 months and cutting the response time of child abuse and neglect investigations, according to the news source.

This year, the state Department of Human Services hired about 700 caseworkers. As social work is a fast-growing career, the increase in professionals in many organizations may be typical in coming years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the field of social work is expected to grow by approximately 16 percent through 2018, which is much faster than the average for all other occupations.

POSTED BY: ec_admin - April 15th, 2011 at 03:51pm ( 0 )