Demonstrating for Children Families and Fellow Workers

September 2002

Contra Costa social worker Mike Goodman attended the Sacramento rally to support AB 364 and full staffing for social services because he understands the difference safe staffing levels can make. He used to work at least 20 to 40 hours of overtime per month, as was common in his unit. But after the union settled a grievance by Contra Costa worker Jacqueline Jackson involving forced over time (See Dragon, Feb. 2000, “Are Social Workers Entitled to a Life? Just Say No to Excessive Overtime!”), the department lowered the caseloads in his unit to a reasonable level.

“Now we can see the kids once a month and provide the legally mandated services our clients deserve,” Goodman says. “Before we would have to triage. It was impossible to see them all and adequately assure their safety.” Goodman admits he used to lose a lot of sleep. “It worried me that some place might seem like an okay placement, but something would go wrong and I would be unable to keep track because I was too busy dealing with a critical situation.”

Goodman went to Sacramento to lobby because he wanted other workers to have reasonable caseloads as well. “We want to be able to deal with more than the flagrant problems that caused the intervention. We want to get to the deeper needs and family dysfunctions. We don’t want to just remove the child from an unsafe home; we want to provide the services to assure they will grow up to become healthy members of society, and that means dealing with their educational, emotional, and psychological needs. You can’t do that if all you are doing is playing catch up,” he states.

Goodman enjoyed the energy of the capitol. “It was very interesting seeing the government in action. The whole building was filled with people from all over the state exercising their right to speak out and be heard. You could feel the buzz of people speaking out on their issues. And that is what it takes so that our representatives know our concerns.

“Even though very little happened, and our group didn’t get to speak to any state senators, we did talk to one staff member who was in our corner. I got the satisfaction that our presence did add something, and the committee approved our action [sending AB 364 to the appropriations committee]. You felt that the legislators were interested in what their constituencies felt.”