The Effects of Computerization on Public Child Welfare Practice.

CALIFORNIA; UNITED States

This paper examines the impact of a new and promising case-based management information system on child welfare case management practices in two California counties. Objectives were to measure the extent to which computerization affected casework practices and to identify factors that influenced the effect of computerization. An exploratory longitudinal one-group pre-post design was used. Individual characteristics such as ethnicity , gender, age, time on the job, computer experience and work experience may be associated with how workers react to the introduction of new computer systems. Contrary to expectations, few differences were found, although workers spent more time alone after implementation of the system. This design has a number of limitations of sampling and design, in the long run these limitations may be resolved through advanced computer systems. A key finding is that the amount of time that caseworkers spent with clients was not reduced by the computer system.