OPEA

Under intense questioning from several  DHS Commission members regarding the increase in pending referrals for either child abuse or neglect that are 60 days old, DHS Field Operations Director Larry Johnson responded that turnover has reached a critical point in child welfare.

"The majority of the staff probably has less than two years experience,” he said.

After the Legislature authorized the hiring of an additional 100 child welfare workers in 2006, the agency is down 23 employees from that time, according to testimony given before the DHS Commission in a regular meeting.

DHS director Howard Hendrick said officials have authorized workers in certain regions to work overtime to try to eliminate the backlog, but working long hours contributes to on-the-job stress, which can lead to higher employee turnover.

"We have been trying to hire everywhere we can,” Johnson said, adding that the agency has been running ads and recruiting at colleges.

Hendrick said it is difficult to keep employees because, "the work is hard.”

“There are still serious issues in child welfare that the Continuous Service Incentive Program (CSI) has not been able to address,” commented OPEA deputy director Scott Barger, who attended the meeting for OPEA members.   “Clearly there are concerns with the nature of the job that discourage long-term employees from continuing in this field.  Immediate action needs to be taken to make progress.”

“The OPEA DHS Council is meeting in January, prior to our meeting with Director Hendrick,” said Barger.  “This would be a great opportunity for not only child welfare workers but all DHS employees to begin to break this issue down and determine how the Association can best tackle this crisis.”

The Council will meet at the OPEA office in Oklahoma City at 11:00. After lunch, provided by OPEA, the group will meet with DHS Director Howard Hendrick. 

All OPEA members who work for DHS are welcome to attend.  Please RSVP to trishf@opea.org or call Trish Frazier at the OPEA office (405-524-6764 or 800-880-6732) so plenty of food and materials can be prepared.  Space is limited