The primary purpose of the Screener (Social Service Worker 2) position is to conduct initial interviews with the public to gather information regarding concerns of abuse, neglect, and exploitation of children and adults. This position is responsible for documenting this information in a timely manner within state systems and in accordance with state deadlines, informing the public of agency procedures, provide information and referral services to clients who are not accepted for direct service, process time sensitive paperwork and notifications, serve as a support to other caseworker staff within the department, and serves as on-call social worker (e.g., on weekends, holidays, and after business hours.)
50% Conduct initial interviews with the public to gather information of abuse/neglect concerns for children and elderly; collect, organize, and receive abuse/neglect referrals from caseworkers, other agencies, community partners, and the general public and document information within the State Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS) and or the Ohio Database for Adult Protective Services (ODAPS), advise the public of agency procedures.
20% Complete forms, case records, logs and correspondence, organize record documentation (e.g. photos, audio/videos, handwritten/typed notes, written summaries) for supervisory approvals and agency record retention; provide cross referrals to other agencies, completion of letter notification to Mandated Reporters.
20% Provide information and referral services for clients not accepted for direct service; maintain contact with other agencies; provide clerical support (e.g., answering telephone, copying, typing, filing, sorting, mailing, scanning, and uploading documents into the electronic data management system); assist supervisor in preparing reports and data collection.
10% Participate in ongoing training, supervisory/staff meetings, staff consultations and other related management support tasks. Participates in weekend and night coverage on rotating basis. Assist with overflow case assignments by assessing the validity of complaints accepted according to Department of Children and Youth (DCY) rules and agency policy of abuse, neglect, and dependency by conducting interviews of adults and children at various locations, completing assessments in the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS), gathering evidence, and working with community partners and/or collateral sources. Provides interventions to alleviate crisis and reduce risks to children by engaging the family, community partners and referring for service linkage. When assigned two or more overflow cases from the area of Intake, Ongoing, and/or Adoption, SSWII’s will receive a temporary 5% increase during the duration of working high risk cases. Upon completion of those cases or when only assigned one overflow case, the worker will return to their original base rate of pay. Perform other duties as assigned.
Per Section 5153.112 of the Ohio Revised Code, applicants of a Public Children Services unit must have one of the following:
1. A bachelor’s degree in human services-related studies, or
2. A bachelor’s degree in any field and have been employed for at least two years in a human services occupation, or
3. An associate’s degree in human services-related studies, or
4. Been employed for at least five years in a human service-related occupation.
For employment to continue, a person described in Option 2, 3, or 4 above must obtain a job-related bachelor’s degree not later than five years after the date employment with the agency commences.
Per Section 5153.122 of the Ohio Revised Code, each caseworker shall complete at least ninety hours of in-service training during the first year of the caseworker’s continuous employment, consisting of courses in recognizing and preventing child abuse and neglect, assessing risks, interviewing persons, investigating cases, intervening, providing services to children and their families, and other topics relevant to child abuse and neglect. After the first year of continuous employment, each caseworker annually shall complete thirty-six hours of training in areas relevant to the caseworker’s assigned duties. In addition, applicant must have valid driver’s license.
Applicants may first be required to complete a Case Worker in Training onboarding process for a period up to 6 weeks.
