How Do You Know If Your MA DCF Social Worker Is a Professional?
When DCF opens a case against you, DCF will assign a social worker to investigate your family. After the DCF investigation, you may get another social worker if DCF decides to do an assessment into your family. DCF social workers are employed by the state to work with families to meet their needs. These needs include psychological, emotional, and physical ones among other things. Since social workers deal with a great deal of sensitive information and handle heavy cases, they must be professional.
They must approach their work as well as the public respectfully and cautiously. Although this should be how social workers operate, we are all humans. We all have blemishes, flaws and imperfections. sometimes we make mistakes. You should be able to identify when your social worker may be unprofessional. The way that the social worker will treat their management team and colleagues is usually vastly different from how they treat accused parents and caretakers. But when a social worker is rude to their colleagues or other lawyers and court personnel, this is a major sign that they are unprofessional.
What Are Professional Behaviors?
When determining if your social worker is behaving professionally, look out for a number of professional behaviors.
Communication
One behavior that should be expected is to communicate effectively. As a social worker, they are expected to support the community and they are not able to do that if they cannot communicate effectively. Communication skills are the most important skills that they can possess to ensure that their clients and everyone involved understands the situation. Some examples of good communication skills are actively listening, politeness, and maintaining calm under pressure.
Reliability
Another behavior that demonstrates a professional social worker is how reliable they are. Working within the community indicates that they have the responsibility to be able to provide what the community needs that is within their capacity. Having a social worker that you can rely on when you contact when you need to is essential when they are dealing with the livelihoods of the community. Some examples of being reliable as a social worker are being on time, managing commitments, and being detail-oriented.
Positive Attitudes
A professional social worker is also able to maintain a positive attitude. In their line of work, they are interacting with vulnerable people who are in need of services. These vulnerable people may be going through difficult times and the social worker should not add more stress than they already have. In any situation, your social worker should be positive to lessen your stress and make you comfortable.
Respectful
You should also take notice of whether your social worker is respectful. Respect goes a long way, especially when dealing with people who have been wrongfully accused. Not only should your social worker be respectful towards you, but they should be respectful to your children as well. These are all behaviors that you should notice within your social worker that demonstrates their efforts and professionalism that they bring to their community.
What Are Unprofessional Behaviors To Watch Out For in your DCF Social Worker?
Just like professional behaviors, there are unprofessional behaviors which you should notice in your social worker.
Not Responsive
If your social worker is not responding to you, it could be a sign of unprofessionalism. This means there is a lack of communication from your social worker. Non-responsive behaviors include not reaching back out to you when they promised they would, not taking your calls, and not responding to your emails.
Lazy
In your social worker, you your social worker to put in 100% of their efforts in everything they do for your case. The effort your social worker puts in directly affects you and your children. Since important rights are at stake, a DCF investigation or assessment isn’t something you would want someone to do half-heartedly. So when you feel like your social worker is not putting in too much effort to get the right result for your family, it is a sign that they are being lazy.
Defensive
You should also watch out to see if your social worker is defensive. Your social worker is supposed to be able to work with a range of different people everyday. That means they should be well equipped to deal with what is thrown at them, including people’s attitudes. A defensive social worker is someone who makes snarky remarks to criticism, and never takes accountability for their actions. Having a defensive attitude with parents and caretakers only demonstrates how unprofessional the social worker is.
The unprofessional behaviors of non-responsiveness, laziness, and defensiveness are just some unprofessional behaviors. There are many others you can look out for. But when you see a sign of unprofessionalism, address them directly with your social worker to resolve the issues sooner rather than later.
What Can You Do When Your DCF Social Worker is Unprofessional?
When you think your social worker is being unprofessional, you can try to talk to them about it. This should be your first step. When that doesn’t work, the next step you can take is to email your social worker’s supervisor and clearly explain the issues you’re having. The supervisor has the ability to go to your social worker and discuss your concerns with them. The supervisor also has the ability to make sure your social worker does or does not do certain things. This as a result should make things better for you and your social worker.
At the end of the day, however, trying to work it out with your social worker may be your best option. It may be difficult for you to know how to handle your social worker and you may want to just get another one. But the next social worker may be even worse than your first one. This is a main reason why you should keep your social worker and try to work with them instead of getting a new social worker.
Kevin Seaver is a trusted Massachusetts DCF Lawyer Specialized in DCF since 1991. 
DISCLAIMER
You find yourself in this situation, it’s advisable to seek legal representation from a qualified attorney, like those at the Law Office of Kevin Seaver, who can advocate for your rights and guide you through the complex process of a DCF investigation.
Remember that the ultimate goal of DCF is to ensure the safety and well-being of children while supporting families in crisis.
Please note that this article does not create an Attorney-Client relationship between our law firm and the reader and is provided for informational purposes only. Information in this article does not apply to all readers.
Readers should not rely on this information as legal advice and should seek specific counsel from the attorney based on personal circumstances. Thank you.
Kevin Patrick Seaver is a Massachusetts DCF Defense Lawyer who represents parents against false child abuse allegations.
Massachusetts DCF Defense Lawyer Kevin Seaver has been successfully fighting false child abuse allegations since 1991.