a typical day at ausslc castner or sunrise was getting singed in doing body checks on the residents before the overnight shift leaves reporting any changes bruises to home nurse,supervisor shift coordinator , possibly psychologist ,O.D write what was found in the residents ,I Book and in the communication log plus log on to avatar to make injury report. then start getting the residents up and get there clothes out giving them a choice to choose from . then if they use addaptive equipment you would assist them in applying the shoes gait belt etc.. and you would help them to walk to the restroom or if they are in a whhel chair and cant help you in getting up then that person would be some one who needs to be gotten up useing a mechanical lift using a mesh sling or specially made sling and you would put them into there own wheel chair ,assist them into the rest room maybe to the toilet afterwards you would help them in to the shower chair or bathing trolley and according to their training plans you would try to get them to help bath them selves, afterwards get them dressed, do all hygeine tasks that you would do for your self .get them to help comb there hair then when done active treatment starts you would get5-8 people in a group and do things like beauty hour ,or excercise group yoga,or teach them insanitizing their hands for meal time ,then you take them to go eat in the dining room .but first stopping to wash their hands if they can feed them selves then you just give the
Proslots of hold overs which means lots of over time, some good managment, being able to pay your bills with otua struggle and good benifits i think
Conslots of hold over may see your family but 5 hrs a week, if that, some bad management
Generally, I believe that in time, things will be headed in the right direction over time provided that some individuals toxic to the mission of DFPS are ushered out of, usher themselves out of or are fired from their present positions. Overall, this is a decent entry level position for recent graduates, NOT those who have years of experience and are more seasoned in their careers/fields relative to social work, counseling, psychology, etc. If you come to this job with a wealth of knowledge, experience, and education you WILL feel overworked, underpaid, unacknowledged. Work/life balance is promoted often, but almost impossible to truly be successful in helping your families, keeping up with face to face contacts, and all the other paperwork, referrals, etc. that are a part of this position. The best part about this job is equally the worst, as you are a salaried employee expected to be available 24/7 and in order to truly make an impact with families and complete your tasks, you have to work overtime (some even work weekends and late into the evenings).
Regardless of the experience, education, and abilities that you possess/have acquired, the starting salary is not negotiable (unless you have a BSW/MSW). As a single 20-something with no children, higher education, and years of experience, I managed to barely live off of and bring in $2,026 a month (after taxes). Raises are given based on tenure and not work performance (i.e. in order to receive an incentive- you hav
I had the opportunity of having a good supervisor, but not everyone is lucky. It is a great places to gain experience, but there is no upward progress after you hit investigator IV (SI’s are V). The work load is too heavy to manage for most and most times they expect you to put your own family on the back burner to cater to other families that can’t get their lifestyles together.
Job security is somewhat there, but depending on your sup and PD you can easily be given a developmental note and fired if you don’t improve. Which is hard to do when you’re delinquent. Taking time off also is a “no-go” when you’re delinquent. There’s so many rotations and on-call lists, and case rotation lists, etc. and too many workers that cheat the systems to get out of getting cases. The turnover rate is extremely hit because of this, and for other reasons as well. Not to mention your state phone is constantly ringing when something happens on one of your cases. (Which is very frequent)
The pay is decent to be honest, but for the amount of work you do, it’s not worth it. Another issue you have too is only being able to use 10 hours of Over time each week. Which is unrealistic for the amount of cases you get, families you deal with, and visits/ follow ups you have to do. Especially when you have 15 other cases on top of the 2-3 cases you get assigned per week. So by not being able to use an appropriate amount of OT you stay in the same cycle of delinquency. Then the Department wa
ProsBenefits/Pay/ Time off (when you can use it)
ConsWork life balance, very high turnover rate, no upward progression, no opportunities, some management is uneducated, issues with travel pay, issues with OT pay.
2.0
Senior Eligibility Specialist | El Paso, TX | Feb 11, 2019
Not a good place to work
When I started working at Texas Health and Human Services commission it was great. This was back in 2015. I was very proud to work for this company. However, when BPR rolled out, things changed drastically. Managers actually cared before this whole process started. Now, it is all about impressing the PM or even higher than that. We work 10 + hours a day and get not appreciation. They think they can decide to not approve any leave for us hard-working individuals. I feel bad for those who had plans and a plane ticket that they cannot use because they are forced to be at work. It really is a shame that I have to leave this job because this was an actual job that I use to love. Now it's all about controlling who. You can't ask questions and get told to ask your supervisor but then have them bounce you are or they are not able to answer your question. They have you work additional assignments after you pull your task but then send you daily stats and ask you why your time was so high for this day. Well yeah, when you tell me to work on case readings after pulling a task, that will happen. We aren't a bunch of robots who can do thing quick. We can't do things quick, because if we do then something will be wrong with the case. You get asked on the daily that your sick if you have gone to the doctor and asked to bring a doctors note, we don't need one until the 3rd day but get asked for one on the 1st day. I don't know who to turn to anymore, I don't know if I should report this to t
A typical work day at CPS will depend on which area you work in. What I can say for sure is that the job comes with high stress, it comes with wanting to put families first, it comes with wanting to put children first and their well being. This job is incredibly challenging, but rewarding at the same time. I enjoyed my time at CPS. I know the office I worked from was a supportive, positive and team built office. I know not all offices are the same.
Working as a caseworker you have to be mentally prepared to hear anything, a good listener, empathetic, patience, calm, tolerant, organized, and good with data entry skills. As a worker you have to be willing to have a voice to speak of the facts that you have found that serves in the best interest of the child. This can mean having different opinions from other caseworkers, supervisors or court. It is important that all facts are gathered to best serve the child and or family.
The best part of my job was my team, my co-workers, and the amazing children I met. It was hard work, but rewarding when you know you made a difference in at least one child's life.
The hardest part was not the 40-50 hours a week I put in, as I was compensated for that. The hardest part was pouring your heart into a job to help reunite a family and doing your best to help the parents only to see that they continued to choose drugs or lifestyle over the priority of the child. The other hard part is becoming too close to foster families on
Prosflexible hours, working from home, making a difference, meeting new people, team members, management, benefits, able to advance, training
ConsStress, children's stories, hearing what parents are capable of, lawyers, constant documenting (everything needs to be documented), long hours (however I didn't mind that) filing reports on abuse, having difficult and confrontational parents, having to stand your ground on facts that you have.
A real view of where your tax dollars are going...
This organization is the epitome of government waste. When the HHSC computer mainframe went down this past year there were literally buildings full of people paid to do absolutely nothing for days. The culture is go along to get along and no one is rewarded for doing more. In fact, you’re likely to be looked at like something is wrong with you if you think doing more gets you anywhere-it won’t with HHSC. Deadlines and commitments are very laissez faire and rarely are either consistently kept by those above or below you. They have on average 2-3 people to complete the work that one person would do in the real world, so you won’t have to worry about working hard, unless the others you work with do nothing, which happens. Pay raises are non-existent and the word bonus is like something from a foreign language. This is the place you hire on if you can’t make it in the real world or you simply need a paycheck until you die. They claim the hiring process is fair, but be aware, there are internal candidates already being eyed for 90% of the job postings. So, don’t sit around waiting for anyone to call you for an interview, unless you apply for one of the bottom level positions that are notoriously low wage and no one is willing to take. The hiring panel is typically made up of others you will work with, so if you come across as too competent or that you want to work harder, the panel will probably go with another candidate. Don’t make any of these delicate little flowers feel like y
ProsProbably won’t ever get fired
ConsYou’ll never get a raise or feel like you work somewhere that is making a difference.
Be sure you clarify whether they're looking for a TMC or PMC caseworker. PMC conservatorship caseworkers deal mainly with teenagers, most of whom have a significant history of mental health issues. You will routinely be expected to transport potentially dangerous kids (including teenage boys with a history of attacking women) at all hours of the day and night on road trips that may be several hours in duration and take you through very remote areas of the state. One of my coworkers was assaulted by a teenage boy. He suddenly grabbed at her chest and tore her shirt off while she was driving 70 down the highway. One out of control teenage girl grabbed my arm violently because she didn't like where I was placing her. A schizophrenic teenage boy on my caseload left vulgar threatening messages on my work cell. Be prepared to know what to do when a teen jumps out of your car and takes off. Be prepared to drive 5, 10, and more hours straight without rest. If you have kids you'll need a babysitter you can call at any hour day or night for the times you have to work all night placing a kid. Be aware that kids, especially teens, routinely sleep in CPS offices so during those times you'll be expected to work in round the clock shifts. Also be sure to clarify if you will be housed in the same office as your supervisor or if your supervisor will be at another office an hour away. There are numerous articles you can access online that chronicle the recent ongoing turmoil CPS
ProsMedical/dental, leave, you can work from home to some degree
ConsVery high caseloads, salary does not adequately compensate for amount of work
SUMMARY:
• 7+years of strong experience in Software Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Testing of Object Oriented Applications and Web based Enterprise Applications using Java/J2EE on Windows and Linux platforms.
• Extensive experience in implementing web based projects using IBM Web Sphere Application Server 5.x/6.x and IDEs like IBM Web Sphere Studio Application Developer (WSAD) 5.0 and Eclipse3.0/3.1.
• Developed Web based Distributed and Front End applications in a three-tier architecture using Java, J2EE, HTML, XHTML, JavaScript, Ajax, JSP, Servlets, Conversations, JSF, CSS, JavaBeans.Java Swing.
• Experience in designing and developing enterprise applications using J2EE technologies like EJB 3.0, GRNDS,Struts 1.0/2.0, JDBC, JNDI, JMS, JAXR, JMX, JAXB, Mark Logic XML Server, SAX/DOM, Web services - SOAP, UDDI, JAX-RS,JAX-WS,WS Security.
• Expertise in OOP, Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD) using Unified Modeling Language (UML).
• Expertise in design patterns including Front Controller, Data Access Object, Session Façade, Service Locator, MVC, Data Transfer Object and Singleton.
• Knowledge of various components in spring such as IOC, AOP and Spring MVC.
• Knowledge of XML and related technologies like XHR, XSL, XSLT and parsers like JAXP (SAX, DOM) and JAXB.
• Strong experience with JUnit in performing unit test and determining the application functionality.UsedClearQuest as a Bug Fixing tool.
• Experience with JMS both Synchronous an
The only reason I left this work is because the job is super sedentary. It really did not make a big differance if I went to the gym for one hour and the rest of the day I was sitting down. I really liked this place I had 2 different supervisors and both of them were super kind and understanding. You get all the benefits with this job. This is the perfect place to start your working career. I will also say that due to Covid this place is starting to turn into a call center, were half of your shift you are taking automated calls back to back. I mean, its not that bad, but previously we would call the clients and there were no time limits. Now you have to move to specific queues, and an automated system makes the calls for you back to back. I previously worked in a call center and promised myself I would never do that to myself again. Overall its a pretty good place to work, we had a daily huddle between 15 to 30 min long, now it was only 2 huddles per week. We also used to have a monthly meeting and now they were suspended due to production goals. Oh also when I started I was in a one and a half month training where previously it was 3 months long. Obviously I was sent into production not very well prepared. But if you are going to try this, once you are in production, take a day at a time and be patient with yourself, because this is the point were you will want to quit. There will be a nester available for you for a full month. There is a ton of information you will be in co
ProsNice people, great supervisors, paid health insurance, 401K, pension benefits, paid FMLA
ConsMonthly pay, sedentary lifestyle, turning into a call center
Fast Paced environment with extensive multitasking
Responsible for anywhere from a 15 to 25 caseload, each day may begin differently depending on the needs and priority of ones cases and tasks due within them. Individuals and their need determines he priority of task to be completed i.e. court appearances, permanency conferences, removal conferences(new cases), submit requests for parent/child visits, ensure child care for children's needs, education documentation, medical/dental/mental needs. Referral for services/assessments, maintain timely documentation (court reports/family plans/child plans/unit reports), case staffing with Supervisor/Program Director/and or Legal, and then there is the more than likely crisis situations that come up.
There is also the responsibility to ensure all key players are updated and informed of what is going in within the case.
Each case may differ in key players and is dependent on number of child, parents(how many fathers, mothers) attorneys on the case, Child Advocates, child caregivers(are children in same placement), other family members, service providers, etc. ( are there any special needs for the children/parents/caregiver?)
What I have learned is staying firm in my objective, ensuring that I am thoroughly trained and clearly communicate when I am unaware or do not have clear understanding on the how-to. I will continue to clearly communicate my needs in order to be successful in my responsibilities. I grown in the area of understanding that truly can not do it all in one d
ProsWatching transformation of growth in families
ConsThere will always be a crisis however, being supported and provided positive affirmations, every once in a while, can minimize the sting of the many adversities experienced in this job.
Questions And Answers about Texas Health and Human Services Commission
How often do you get a raise at Texas Health and Human Services Commission?
Asked Jul 22, 2021
Maybe every 2 to 3 yrs
Answered Mar 24, 2023
Worked for 4 years never got a raise
Answered Mar 22, 2023
What is the promotion process like at Texas Health and Human Services Commission?
Asked Jul 4, 2022
Until someone moves, quits or dies
Answered Mar 24, 2023
Wait until someone else leaves a position then apply.
Answered Mar 10, 2023
What is the most stressful part about working at Texas Health and Human Services Commission?
Asked Oct 5, 2016
Workload is impossible to keep up with and policy always changes every couple of weeks. It impossible to stay up to date as there is very little training on changes. You are sent emails of the change and expected to follow immediately.
Answered Aug 15, 2020
Truthfully, denial of medical services to clients in need makes the day stressful. It hearts my heart 💔 some days, but mostly feelings of worthiness while serving Texas Residents.
Answered Jul 25, 2020
What is the best part of working at Texas Health and Human Services Commission?
Asked Dec 20, 2019
Good job
Answered Jun 28, 2022
Schedule flexibility
Answered Jun 24, 2022
How long does it take to get hired from start to finish at Texas Health and Human Services Commission? What are the steps along the way?
Asked Jul 4, 2016
During my interview, I asked the interviewers how long is the hiring process and was told it takes 2-3 weeks. Add: 3 weeks training
Answered Dec 14, 2019
The job is very fast paced, with multiple deadlines. It is very demanding and stressful. The hire process took a while but when I was hired in 2008 I loved it. I was proud. I left in 2010 unfortunately due to family matters, but I was helping people in need.
Former Employee 2008-2010 TIERS ART MENTOR / TWA III Houston, TX 40%Travel
