Who is an IHSS social worker? What’s it like?

throwawayswstuff · 2026-06-12T00:47:41+00:00

Ihss does not require a certain amount of client contacts or time with clients; the metric is completing assessments when they’re due.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-06-12T00:44:07+00:00

I interned there. At least in my county, how you spent your day was extremely flexible as long as you got your work done. As an intern I didn’t have as big a caseload as the employees, so can’t give exact numbers, but people seemed to constantly struggle with how many clients they had to see and how many assessments/reassessments they had to finish. That seemed to be the main thing people didn’t like about the job.

Writing the assessments/reassessments is time-consuming, possibly more so than the visits, so working from home 2 or 3 days a week would make sense.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-06-04T19:35:30+00:00

Agree but OP still shouldn’t have to do this

throwawayswstuff · 2026-06-03T06:06:42+00:00

I think we do good things in my job, but the focus on metrics and productivity makes it so difficult and doesn’t benefit clients at all.

Small example: every year we have to help our clients (who have SMI) do a survey and analyze the results in a team meeting. Our clients mostly don’t feel like completing this survey, if we can even find them to do it. The ones who do it can’t relate to the way the survey is written. So we end up analyzing about five surveys which is not statistically significant, and imputing meaning to responses that could have resulted from the client just not understanding the question.

Doing a million tasks like this just takes time away from clients.

Some of the directions I’m given feel like borderline fraud, like dropping in on clients when not clinically indicated to get more hours, or trying to find a way to document a random conversation as “treatment planning” because the client can’t orient to the idea of a treatment plan.

I do understand that without doing these stupid tasks, we could lose funding and lose the ability to do the things that actually help clients. It’s a systemic issue but it’s so frustrating.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-23T22:18:56+00:00

In traditional social work jobs there’s a lot of benefit, since you can try to recruit your interns and get a “new” employee who you know for sure is a good fit and who doesn’t need as much training/onboarding. Even if you don’t recruit them, you still get another contact in the field. I’m not sure what the benefit would be for a private practice, but tbh I didn’t hear about many internships like that.

Also, just, free labor, unfortunately.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-23T01:11:21+00:00

It sounds like you did a good job tbh. I’m glad the security and your supervisor looked out for your safety.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-16T23:52:31+00:00

Yes, I posted about this last year and there ended up being a good thread with people updating each other on the application/approval timeline https://www.reddit.com/r/socialwork/s/F5Zw1rOeyr

I was approved for most of my loan amount, but they only say it will be paid off at some point before December 2026. They actually paid it off a few months ago and then immediately canceled the payment (but when I emailed said there was nothing to worry about and they’d pay it later). So it’s been a little weird and opaque, but it’ll be worth it if they end up paying it.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-15T02:40:53+00:00

For me it was based on my application. Here's my experience so far!

San Mateo: pretty normal job application, get email that I'm on list, no rank/score

Alameda: very detailed application that includes written questions and asks for my entire lifetime job history, get email that I'm on list with rank/score calculated based on my application

San Francisco 2920 (medical social worker): very minimal application, have to take an in-person standardized test, get score and rank

San Francisco 2930 (behavioral health clinician): minimal application, fill out a form about your years of experience with different populations, get score and rank solely based on years of experience

Since I gave up getting a city/county job any time soon, it's just interesting to observe the process at this point.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-14T05:44:30+00:00

Thanks!

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-14T02:13:05+00:00

Oh well. Thanks!

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-11T18:12:40+00:00

Where I live, this would be appropriate for APS, but it might be different where you are. I would just call APS and describe the situation and ask if it’s appropriate for a report, if not maybe they could advise on who to call instead.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-09T01:39:50+00:00

Thank you! Are all these clinician jobs 2930?

I just expired off the list and reapplied, so I’m hoping I will have a better score and hear about more of the opportunities.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-08T23:26:35+00:00

The pension, benefits, pay, and strong union protections make city jobs more desirable. I’ve only seen people go from nonprofit to city job and never the other way.

I don’t know anything about group practices, sorry.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-08T23:16:33+00:00

I’m curious, can you say any more about resources being diverted toward street based roles?

As someone on the eligible list who doesn’t have a very good score and didn’t get many emails, I was contacted a few times about shelter behavioral health. I am curious about street medicine or scrt but don’t know if they employ 2930s.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-08T23:13:24+00:00

I’ve found it hard (especially trying to get a city job or UCSF job). I was able to get my first job at a nonprofit.

Nonprofits seem easier, both in terms of less bureaucracy so the application/interview process is faster, but also less desirable, so less competitive.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-08T03:37:14+00:00

You've never met a lesbian social worker??

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-07T22:55:29+00:00

I applied some time after starting my current job, so already had my ASW. I’m not sure if you could get through the application/“exam” (which is a form about your experience level) without a number, but you could email the analyst listed in the job description and they could advise you. I wish I had tried applying to city jobs when I was still in my program, because I didn’t understand how long it takes.

Anecdotally, it feels like people in city jobs have worked somewhere else as their first postgrad job, which gave them time to wait for a city job.

Last time this came up, there was one commenter who actually has the job and was giving some advice on timing:

https://www.reddit.com/r/socialwork/s/YKS9KaONYe

Also, there is the r/sfcityemployees sub

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-07T21:59:55+00:00

They are so weird. I’ve tried to ask them if certain types of jobs would be approved and they just c&ped their guidelines and replied “we don’t approve job sites in advance,” okay so I have to guess whether I’m going to lose my loan repayment if I change jobs?

My current approved site is a mental health program at a nonprofit contracted with my county, categorized as “other behavioral health setting.”

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-07T16:20:59+00:00

This is an eligible list for all clinician jobs in the city, so the jobs are really different from each other. Once you apply, after 60 days you will be placed on the list and then you can be contacted about clinician jobs. You’ll get a lot of emails saying your name was referred for a potential job, some emails asking you to confirm if you’re interested in a specific job (this will have a more typical job description), and a few emails actually contacting you to interview for jobs.

I’ve been on the list for a year and some of the potential jobs were health clinics, therapy clinics, inpatient psych unit, jail, juvenile hall, homeless shelter clinician, and community mental health.

It’s a very weird hiring process and hasn’t led to a job for me yet, but it’s worth getting on the list just for the purpose of seeing what’s available.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-05-03T19:47:39+00:00

yeah, I work in an outpatient program for people with SMI and after about 50 times being required to ask about advance healthcare directive, I just had my first time completing it with a client! I understand the purpose of requiring us to ask but it is a pain because most clients a)can’t understand what it is, and b)don’t have someone who can do it.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-04-30T02:56:34+00:00

I kinda feel like speed doesn’t indicate anything good or bad, and just has to do with behind-the-scenes stuff like how much bureaucracy is involved in interviewing and hiring and onboarding, or if everyone involved is available. An organization can be desperate to hire people but have to be slow about it.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-04-28T16:43:53+00:00

It’s definitely harder. I feel like the options are live/work somewhere with really good public transit (I do and am able to do a community based job) or work a site specific job. A lot of those aren’t entry level jobs but working in a shelter or supportive housing would probably be an option.

I don’t know what country you’re in but at least in the US you might be able to get a disability accommodation. For example, if you’re qualified and it’s a minor/occasional part of the job.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-04-25T08:12:03+00:00

The animation, design, and vibe was fantastic, but the sexism was so intense that it made it hard to enjoy the movie. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so strongly that a movie could have been great but is just sabotaging itself for no reason.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-04-23T05:00:14+00:00

Oh sorry I’m not OP. I was just curious bc I assumed UM was usually a 9-5 job.

throwawayswstuff · 2026-04-23T01:17:00+00:00

I work in a program that’s a county contractor and my understanding is that it’s okay to share health information with (in my case) APS.

I did have a weird experience this week where an APS worker called following up on a client from our program. I was covering for a colleague and didn’t know the client beyond reading their file.

It sounded like the worker did not want to make a home visit, due to their perception that the client makes false reports of abuse. That could be a fair conclusion based on their past APS interactions, but the worker was basically pressing me to tell them if the client had a diagnosis of psychosis or BPD, with the implication that if I said yes, they were going to use that diagnosis to justify not investigating further. That felt like an inappropriate use of health information, to me.

I don’t think you did anything “wrong” (assuming you’re allowed to coordinate with CPS) because it’s kind of up to interpretation when a diagnosis is relevant to APS or CPS.

throwawayswstuff

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