Communication practices that assisted foster parents in feeling valued and supported were things, such as good response time (24-48 hours), and access to their case manager after hours. Foster parents who had multiple avenues of communication (text, phone call, email, etc.) felt that their communication was better and they had more access to their case manager. One foster parent said, “The big thing for me was communication, a simple call or email.” The responsibility that foster parents agree to take on when they open their home to a foster child is substantial. Additionally, they are faced with specific guidelines as to who is allowed to give permission for which activities for the child. This can be a double edged sword with protecting families from legal repercussion should an unfortunate event happen, but can also be frustrating when it is difficult to communicate with the case manager, who can make decisions for the child. Therefore, foster parents seem to feel more secure knowing that they have many ways to reach the case manager, should the need arise.
The greatest frustration discussed by participants is the lack of access to their case manager. Communication practices that were most frustrating to foster families were lack of responsiveness (taking one week or more to respond) and no way to contact case managers after hours, should the need arise. Most agencies provide work cell phones or stipends for case managers so they are not obligated to give out their own phone number or pay for calls that are related to work. Additionally, case managers have to travel throughout the state to visit their foster children, attend court, and check on biological parents progress and they must be able to be reached by cell phone while accomplishing these tasks. Given that foster parents are
children’s full-time care provider sometimes there are legitimate reasons that a case manager would need to be reached after hours. For example, an extreme behavioral outburst, if a child runs away, or a medical emergency occurs. When these situations occur and foster parents cannot get in touch with the case manager it creates frustration and the foster parents feel less supported and more on their own to care for the child. This frustration and perceived lack of support has negative impacts for the quality of case manager and foster parent relationships.
One of the foster parents described the frustration getting in touch with her case manager, “It’s like call a thousand times, leave a thousand messages, and hope they get back to you.” Attempting to contact a case manager can be time-consuming, frustrating, and tiring for foster parents. Due to the variety of roles a foster parent takes on when they agree to care for foster children, finding time to make a phone call can be difficult. Then when the case manager is out of the office or busy with something else the frustration increases creating more strife between the two parties. This wedge of discontent grows when foster parents leave a message and it takes the case worker days to return the phone call. Another example of situations that can occur is case workers being out of the office and not giving their foster parents previous notice. When a
foster parent calls and hears on case managers’ voicemail that they are out of the office for the week with no information about who to contact if something urgent needs to be handled, it leaves the foster parents to solve whatever problem they are facing on their own. Sometimes these decisions can get them in trouble, if it is not something the case worker agrees with. Not all situations are this severe, however it is not uncommon.
Jenny, a foster mom with seven children in her home, discussed a situation where she experienced frustration with accessing their case manager while she was trying to access an extra-curricular activity for her foster son.
I had one case worker who ... she iscurrently the case worker for [the child] that we have in our house. He's been in our home for almost two years now,or maybe a year and a half. She is impossible to get a hold of,like I can't ... She doesn't answer emails, she doesn't answerphone calls and she doesn't even come to our house. She hassomebody from [a nearby town] do a courtesy visit for us. Even if Iexpress things that I need help with, to them. Either, shedoesn't communicate with them ...For example, last year, [child] wanted to go to acamp and we needed to get permission from the case workerand so I'm trying to get a hold of her. She's not in the office. Hervoice-mail even says that, "I'm not going to be here from thistime to this time". I'm trying to email her. Her supervisor and was like, "I need this paperwork signed, I need it. The deadline, it's tomorrow." She's like, "I'll see what I can do,"but she's like, "I can't sign them.”
So finally, I got a hold of her. I was supposed to have the papersturned in at four o'clock and I finally got a hold of her at fiveo'clock on that day. I was like, "I need these papers signed." Then, she starts lecturing me about how there is no money outthere to pay for camp so camp is not always approved. I was like, "Listen, I've talked to the mom, she's approved it. I've talked to everybody else. All I need you to do is sign the paperwork saying that he's going and I don't need the money because it costs 20 dollars and I can afford that.
She's like, ‘Well, wouldn't you want the state to pay for that?’
How can you tell me that they don't have the funds and theydon't approve camp but when I'm telling you I'm sending him tocamp then you're like 'Well, don't you want to be reimbursed?' It didn't make sense and so then I'm like, "Well,I just need thepaperwork signed."
She's like, ‘Well, if you email it to me ...’ I'm like, ‘I emailed it to you three days ago.’
So finally, she was like, ‘Oh, there it is!’ Like she was just goingthrough her email at the moment. She was able tofinally scanit, sign it, you know, send it to us and we were able to get it in intime so he could go. But, that's just the way it always is with this case worker. Just like, I needed it yesterday and you're stilltwiddling your thumbs, you know.