Social workers in Georgia are planning a strike across the country in late March, demanding systemic changes, effective programmes for the country’s socially vulnerable and decent working conditions for themselves.

In late January, a four-year-old girl from a socially vulnerable family was beaten to death by her mother.

A few days earlier, a 12-year-old boy, also from an impoverished background, went in search of scrap metal; he fell into a hole, and was buried alive by earth.

These tragedies elicited serious discussion about the work of the Social Service Agency of the country, and whether the state is working effectively on improving the condition of its socially vulnerable citizens.

More than 125,000 people in Georgia have the status of ‘socially vulnerable’, and are under the supervision of the Social Service Agency. In addition to children, the agency also provides services to the elderly and people with disabilities, providing them with social workers to study their problems and help them find a solution. .

However, workers in the field, including psychologists and social workers, have been saying for far over a year that there is a crisis in the system, and that it is failing the people it is supposed to help.

JAMnews met with social workers and asked them to share their vision of a way out of the current situation.

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Keti Khutsishvili, former social worker and co-founder of a social care initiative group

“The tragedy of the four-year-old girl did not come as a surprise: a branch of the Social Service Agency in the Gldani-Nadzaladevi district appealed to the Ministry of Social Affairs in September, reporting that its social workers were physically incapable of keeping up with the work load and that they would not be able to continue working at such a rate for much longer.

“There was no reaction from the ministry. And what did we get? A murdered child. If the situation does not change, then such cases will repeat and this will not be the fault of the social workers. The fact that there aren’t more children dying today is a sheer coincidence.

“In 2017, I worked as a social worker for seven months. I always liked this job, I was very motivated, but when I was faced with the real conditions in which I had to work – I quit, I couldn’t do it.

“Initially, social workers only had children to work with. Later, the elderly were added, then people with disabilities, and then victims of violence. The Social Services Agency receives dozens of reports of violence daily, but the system ultimately leaves social workers alone with their clients.

“The responsibility for the death of the four-year-old child was placed on the shoulders of the social workers, but everyone is actually to blame: the minister, the head of the agency, the heads of the centres, the programme directors – all who have not assessed the situation sufficiently.

“When social workers are responsible for dealing with more than 100 people per week, what can you actually expect? Who can handle this amount of work?

“If of 100 children, only 20 can be provided with tolerable living conditions, then this happens at the expense of the remaining eighty. Even an employee’s best efforts barely puts a dent in the problem.

“In addition to their main duties, social workers often have to do things that are not closely related to their official duties. For example, to answer calls on the hotline, to place the information they receive in the database and to perform other technical work, since there are simply no other employees. And if you refuse, you lose the job.

“Social workers are in constant stress. Often, they even have to perform the functions of a lawyer, again due to a lack of personnel.

“In Tbilisi, social workers receive 680 lari [about $250] per month, while in the rural areas they receive 640 lari [about $235]. This amount includes transport costs required to get to the client, and if you need to visit several at once, then half of your salary goes to transport.

“Overtime is unpaid, and social workers always have to work late and sometimes on the weekends.

“No one ensures the safety of social workers, despite the fact that they are often involved in the problems of the families they care for.

“In addition to the lack of personnel, another problem is their incompetence. Due to the chaos in this field, experienced staff leave the system. And nobody thinks to train new personnel.

“The agency’s buildings themselves do not conform to any standards. Many older people physically cannot get inside, since the centres are not equipped with ramps. I’ve seen people have to go outside to work with clients.

“The work places are awful. For example, I sat in a room with four other colleagues. When a client came, everyone heard their story, since there were no separate rooms for conversations and talks. And sometimes, rather private topics are discussed.

“Once, for example, a woman came in who had been raped, and she was forced to share her story with not just one social worker, but everyone who was in the room. No one thinks about confidentiality and professional ethics.

“There was a case when an elderly woman fell down in the Isani-Samgori centre but there was simply no place to put her so that she could recover. We helped her sit down on the old floor, and drugs were administered to her right there on the spot. The ambulance provided necessary assistance in the same place as well.

“On several occasions there were situations in which socially vulnerable families had nothing with which to feed their children, but instead of quickly resolving the issue of nutrition, it took weeks for the necessary bureaucratic procedures to allocate food to the child.

“I say nothing about the lack of psychologists and child psychiatrists. Clients have to sit in long queues to get to these specialists.

“At the very beginning of my work, I made an appointment with a psychologist for one child. By the time I had quit, he had not yet seen him as it still wasn’t his turn.

“The problem is that there are no statistics about who and what is available, and when and where or who needs what. Therefore, changes in the system are necessary.”

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Andro Dadiani, chairman of the non-governmental organization Partnership for Children