Child Abuse (Midwest Communications)
STEVENS POINT, WI (WSAU-WAOW) – Members of the Portage County Board approved the addition of a new social worker working in the Child and Protective Services unit. The new worker would look into allegations of child abuse and neglect, and then make the first contact with the family.
This past year has been hard on everyone, and Child Protective Services in Portage County has been seeing firsthand how challenging it has been for some families.
A typical workload for each CPS worker is about five to seven cases a month, but that can fluctuate. Sometimes, a caseload can be as high as ten, and some cases are more complex than others. CPS officials say adding another worker would help spread out the current workload.
“I think we just saw families with a lot more — their needs were a lot more complex and much more layered. With more complexity comes more time, more intervention, more assistance, more referral time. So the workload itself that’s why it increased,” said Teresa Kovach, Child Protective Services Supervisor at Portage County Human Services.
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