Social Services: Short Shrift for 600,000 Children on AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children)

摘要

Public assistance methods for identifying social service needs and providing social services for aid to families with dependent children (AFDC) program recipients were examined in 1977. Monitoring took place at income maintenance and recertification centers in New York City that handle eligibility and financial assistance. Monitoring also occurred at the Office of Case Intake and Management (OCIM) within the city's Department of Social Services. The number of children on AFDC ranged from 10,000 to 34,000 at 6 of 38 income maintenance centers covered by the study. In order of importance, services most frequently requested by AFDC applicants related to housing, jobs, medical and psychiatric care, stretching money, day and child care, family planning, problems with child, and problems with husband. Center directors generally agreed that little time was spent on personal or family problems beyond what was necessary to establish eligibility for AFDC. These problems involved pregnant adolescents, housing, money management, lack of clothing, truancy or leaving school, mental health problems, marital problems, managing children, babysitting fees, and adolescent mother wanting own apartment. Services requested most freqently by families and children at the OCIM were related to child care, help in family relationships, help in housing, school attendance / truancy, home and money management, separate housing for adolescent mothers, home care, health - related services, transportation, protective services, and client advocacy at income maintenance centers. Even though linkages, referral, and case management were important elements in the OCIM, the office reached only a small number of families and provided a limited range of services for children and their families. A survey of social service agencies in the field indicated that most had a substantial number of AFDC recipients in their caseloads. The operation of and services provided by income maintenance and recertification centers and the OCIM are detailed. Recommendations to enhance services rendered to AFDC families are offered.