What Does a Case Worker Do?

Caseworkers are social workers who watch over the welfare of underprivileged individuals and at-risk families by counseling and providing them with assistance. Usually employed under the government or a local non-profit organization, a caseworker must conduct a thorough interview and house visits to determine the needs of the family. They then refer them to any programs or agencies that can give them the specific care and help needed. Furthermore, it is crucial to identify neglect and abuse signs, reporting them to the authorities right away.

Take a few minutes to create or upgrade your resume. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Case Worker resume.

Case Worker Responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real case worker resumes representing typical tasks they are likely to perform in their roles.

Establish collaborative relationships with patients within a supportive atmosphere to assist in confronting drug relate behavior and achieving sobriety.
Review and research leads regarding personal injury cases by obtaining information from the Medicaid recipient's attorney and insurance adjuster
File, close and maintain records in either physical case file or on ETO.
Train new employees and assign tasks in driving and all responsibilities in DCS documentations.
Provide weekly face to face updates to youth and telephonic updates to family members/sponsor with documentation find in ETO.
Facilitate DCS court order supervised visitation during the reunification process.
Consult with interdisciplinary team in order to ensure appropriate referrals and discharge of homeless, psychiatric and geriatric patients.
Grant access to electronic medical record databases to process utilization reviews in a timely and accurate manner while remaining HIPAA compliant.
Assist the case manager with preparing families with the needed services as required by DCFS.
Complete DCFS visitation reports during supervise visits.
Schedule arbitration hearings, maintain arbitration calendar, and provide attorneys with information.
Assist arbitrators in all aspects of the arbitration case management including document preparation, arbitration preparation and support.
Complete MDS assessments to determine mood and cognitive functioning, relaying information to interdisciplinary team and families.

Case Worker Job Description

Perhaps the hardest question to answer when deciding on a career as a case worker is "should I become a case worker?" You might find this info to be helpful. When compared to other jobs, case worker careers are projected to have a growth rate described as "much faster than average" at 11% from 2018 through 2028. This is in accordance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What's more, is that the projected number of opportunities that are predicted to become available for a case worker by 2028 is 81,200.

On average, the case worker annual salary is $41,459 per year, which translates to $19.93 an hour. Generally speaking, case workers earn anywhere from $30,000 to $55,000 a year, which means that the top-earning case workers make $23,000 more than the ones at the lower end of the spectrum.

As is the case with most jobs, it takes work to become a case worker. Sometimes people change their minds about their career after working in the profession. That's why we looked into some other professions that might help you find your next opportunity. These professions include a family specialist, advocate, social services specialist, and case management specialist.

Learn More About Case Worker Job Descriptions

Find Better Talent in Less Time

Post a Job on Zippia and take the best from over 7 million monthly job seekers.

Case Worker Jobs You Might Like

12 Case Worker Resume Examples

Build a professional case worker resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 12+ resume templates to create your case worker resume.


Ashley Clark Case Worker Contact Information Apache Junction, AZ (700) 555-9660 aclark@example.com Skills Crime Victims GAL Out-of-Home Intake System Background Checks Legal Documents Patient Care Customer Service Crisis Intervention Intellectual Disabilities Employment History Case Worker 2015 - Present States Co Apache Junction, AZ Provide customer service and information to individuals, as well as transportation and coordination for services needed. Investigate Child Abuse referrals on an as needed basis. Conducted Individual Service Plan meetings. Provide interviews and assessments to identify social needs, barriers to accessing health care. Family Specialist 2014 - 2015 Arizonas Children Association Apache Junction, AZ Provided Crisis intervention services as needed and referred clients to appropriate level of care. Attend court hearings as required and represent the agency File client records in green books. Domestic Violence Advocate (Part-Time) 2012 - 2013 Anixter Chicago, IL Assist clients with obtaining health care, dental care, sustaining care and/or mental health services. Certified in CPR and behaviour crisis intervention through agency. Renewed all my previous health care certifications. Retained a working relationship with county agencies such as Children and Youth Services and Mental Health / Mental Retardation. Education Master's Degree Psychology 2013 - 2014 Arizona State University Phoenix, AZ Bachelor's Degree Psychology 2010 - 2013 University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, IL


Scott Murphy Case Worker Contact Info Detroit, MI (780) 555-8339 smurphy@example.com Skills Community PartnersCommunity AgenciesIndependent LivingSpecial EducationProgram ParticipantsCommunity SupervisionInitial PlacementEmotional FactorsMedical RecordsCommunity Resources Employment History Case Worker 2017 - Present The Salvation Army Detroit, MI Diagnosed mental health, emotional and substance abuse disorders. Provided direct advocacy & support services for at risk teen mothers & their families. Conducted complaint investigations concerning child abuse allegations and/or regulatory and legal compliance issues. Case Manager Internship 2016 - 2017 The Salvation Army Detroit, MI Work closely with law enforcement, school districts, and mental health agencies. Provide crisis intervention services to youth, parents, and families in designated communities throughout Ocean County. Scanned all authorized ETARS in patient's medical records as well as facility denial correspondence. Provided advice and counsel to customer insurance needs. Juvenile Probation Officer 2014 - 2016 Guard Management San Diego, CA Identified/completed risk assessments of child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, drug/alcohol abuse and mental health history. Prepared warrants, Probation Violations and Reports for the Court. Developed and coordinated individual treatment plans for youth with teachers. Issued warrants for probation violations. Managed the operations and service delivery of a team of probation officers and related staff in the provision of probation services. Education Bachelor's Degree Criminal Justice 2011 - 2014 Ashford University San Diego, CA


Patrick Anderson Case Worker Detroit, MI (490) 555-9124 panderson@example.com Experience Case Worker2019 - Present The Salvation Army•Detroit, MI Investigate and make recommendations concerning family situations involving neglect or child abuse; investigate allegations of abuse in foster care. Managed a caseload of clients in need of mental health and addictions services. Participate in weekly treatment team meetings with the nurses and doctors in developing treatment plans. Utilize all enforcement actions to collect and enforce child support obligations. Assist social workers atinvestigative interviews, home-visits, filing court documents. Reported Child Abuse and/or Neglect to CPS. Social Staff Worker2018 - 2019 Via Christi Health•Pittsburg, KS Refer to mental health service team. Served on the Social Work Month Committee, Patient Care Satisfaction Team and Stroke Committee and support group. Provide outpatient and in home infant mental health treatment to children 0-using Child ! Attend patient care conferences and interdisciplinary team meetings. Care Coordination for Children with special health care needs. Foster Care Worker2016 - 2018 KVC Behavioral Healthcare•Pittsburg, KS Request, input, and track client records (educational, medical, mental health, and birth records). Planned and facilitated case plan conferences to create tasks needed to achieve permanency for the children. Completed psychosocial assessments and documentation in the electronic medical record. Managed a caseload of 18 families that included birth parents, foster parents, and children placed in care. Connect birth parents to specific services to address initial family disruption. Skills Classroom ManagementTreatment PlansPublic AssistanceParental RightsState AgenciesMDSCPRCommunity AgenciesMental HealthLaw Enforcement Education Bachelor's Degree Psychology2013 - 2016 University of Houston•Houston, TX

Create My Resume

Build a professional resume in minutes using this template.

Case Worker Skills and Personality Traits

We calculated that 20% of Case Workers are proficient in Social Work, Crisis Intervention, and Patients. They’re also known for soft skills such as Emotional skills, Communication skills, and Interpersonal skills.

We break down the percentage of Case Workers that have these skills listed on their resume here:

Social Work, 20%
Monitored and documented weekly progression of participant's goals while communicating with physicians and social workers.
Crisis Intervention, 8%
Provide crisis intervention, manage incidents and communicate information to the Corporate Compliance Department according to Agency policy.
Patients, 7%
Consulted with interdisciplinary team in order to ensure appropriate referrals and discharge of homeless, psychiatric and geriatric patients.
Substance Abuse, 6%
Managed an intense caseload of mentally-ill clients at this nonprofit community organization providing innovative mental health and substance abuse services.
Community Resources, 6%
Establish and maintain collaborative working relationships with homeless shelters, other community resources, and other supportive service providers.
Child Abuse, 5%
Investigate allegations of child abuse/neglect taking necessary actions to ensure child safety and well being.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Case Worker Resume templates

Build a professional Case Worker resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Case Worker resume.

Most case workers list "social work," "crisis intervention," and "patients" as skills on their resumes. We go into more details on the most important case worker responsibilities here:

Emotional skills can be considered to be the most important personality trait for a case worker to have. According to a case worker resume, "social workers often work with people who are in stressful and difficult situations" case workers are able to use emotional skills in the following example we gathered from a resume: "evaluated and recommended appropriate actions necessary to resolve family emotional and/or physical stress situations, which caused child abuse or neglect. "

While it may not be the most important skill, we found that many case worker duties rely on communication skills. This example from a case worker explains why: "clients talk to social workers about challenges in their lives." This resume example is just one of many ways case workers are able to utilize communication skills: "update notes in vanguard and hospital computer systems every time communication is made with a patient. "

Interpersonal skills is also an important skill for case workers to have. This example of how case workers use this skill comes from a case worker resume, "social workers need to be able to work with different groups of people" Read this excerpt from a resume to understand how vital it is to their everyday roles and responsibilities, "utilized strong interpersonal skills with clients and colleagues conducted group therapy completed intake assessments conducted urine analysis participated in team meeting"

A thorough review of lots of resumes revealed to us that "organizational skills" is important to completing case worker responsibilities. This resume example shows just one way case workers use this skill: "social workers must help and manage multiple clients, often assisting with their paperwork or documenting their treatment." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical case worker tasks: "included were oif/oef veterans interfaced with veterans, providers, and organizational clients monitored the exam process"

As part of the case worker description, you might find that one of the skills that might be helpful to the job is "problem-solving skills." A case worker resume included this snippet: "social workers need to develop practical and innovative solutions to their clients’ problems." This skill could be useful in this scenario: "assisted and resolved adoptive parents and adoptive youth issues in crisis situations. "

See the full list of case worker skills.

After discovering the most helpful skills, we moved onto what kind of education might be helpful in becoming a case worker. We found that 64.4% of case workers have graduated with a bachelor's degree and 12.1% of people in this position have earned their master's degrees. While most case workers have a college degree, you may find it's also true that generally it's possible to be successful in this career with only a high school degree. In fact, our research shows that one out of every eight case workers were not college graduates.

Those case workers who do attend college, typically earn either a psychology degree or a social work degree. Less commonly earned degrees for case workers include a criminal justice degree or a business degree.

Once you're ready to become a case worker, you should explore the companies that typically hire case workers. According to case worker resumes that we searched through, case workers are hired the most by Access International, Inc., The Salvation Army, and Miriam Hospital. Currently, Access International, Inc. has 17 case worker job openings, while there are 16 at The Salvation Army and 11 at Miriam Hospital.

But if you're interested in companies where you might earn a high salary, case workers tend to earn the biggest salaries at Appalachian Regional Healthcare, UMiami Health System, and Miriam Hospital. Take Appalachian Regional Healthcare for example. The median case worker salary is $53,369. At UMiami Health System, case workers earn an average of $52,539, while the average at Miriam Hospital is $51,866. You should take into consideration how difficult it might be to secure a job with one of these companies.

View more details on case worker salaries across the United States.

We also looked into companies who hire case workers from the top 100 educational institutions in the U.S. The top three companies that hire the most from these institutions include Jcca, Children's Service Inc, and Catholic Charities Health and Human Services.

In general, case workers fulfill roles in the non profits and health care industries. While employment numbers are high in those industries, the case worker annual salary is the highest in the education industry with $40,730 as the average salary. Meanwhile, the professional and finance industries pay $40,252 and $39,577 respectively. This means that case workers who are employed in the education industry make 10.5% more than case workers who work in the non profits Industry.

The three companies that hire the most prestigious case workers are:

Access International, Inc.17 Case Workers Jobs
The Salvation Army16 Case Workers Jobs
Miriam Hospital11 Case Workers Jobs

Build a professional resume in minutes.

Our AI resume builder helps you write a compelling and relevant resume for the jobs you want. See 10+ resume templates and create your resume here.

Don't Have A Professional Resume?

What Family Specialists Do

A Family Specialist performs social work for families in need. They are focused on helping individuals and families to improve their lives.

In this section, we take a look at the annual salaries of other professions. Take family specialist for example. On average, the family specialists annual salary is $1,344 lower than what case workers make on average every year.

While their salaries may differ, one common ground between case workers and family specialists are a few of the skills required in each craft. In both careers, employees bring forth skills like social work, crisis intervention, and substance abuse.

As far as similarities go, this is where it ends because a case worker responsibility requires skills such as "patients," "customer service," "intake assessments," and "mental illness." Whereas a family specialist is skilled in "social services," "child development," "family support," and "provide technical assistance." So if you're looking for what truly separates the two careers, you've found it.

Family specialists tend to make the most money in the technology industry by averaging a salary of $55,461. In contrast, case workers make the biggest average salary of $40,730 in the education industry.

The education levels that family specialists earn is a bit different than that of case workers. In particular, family specialists are 5.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a case worker. Additionally, they're 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

What Are The Duties Of an Advocate?

An advocate is a voice for the voiceless. It is their responsibility to speak on behalf of an individual or a particular cause. Most of the duties will vary depending on the line of organization or duty involved; however, an advocate must have extensive knowledge or background on the subject matter. Furthermore, an advocate must be present at gatherings regarding the cause, assist in the negotiation and mediation processes involving contracts and legal documentation, provide or convey accurate information, and defend what they represent.

Now we're going to look at the advocate profession. On average, advocates earn a $1,962 lower salary than case workers a year.

Not everything about these jobs is different. Take their skills, for example. Case workers and advocates both include similar skills like "crisis intervention," "patients," and "substance abuse" on their resumes.

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, several resumes showed us that case worker responsibilities requires skills like "social work," "foster care," "intake assessments," and "public assistance." But an advocate might use skills, such as, "cpr," "cleanliness," "safety planning," and "advocacy services."

It's been discovered that advocates earn lower salaries compared to case workers, but we wanted to find out where advocates earned the most pay. The answer? The government industry. The average salary in the industry is $40,536. Additionally, case workers earn the highest paychecks in the education with an average salary of $40,730.

In general, advocates study at similar levels of education than case workers. They're 1.5% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

What Technology Do You Think Will Become More Important And Prevalent For Case Workers In The Next 3-5 Years?

Jennifer Kukis

Professor/Coordinate, Lorain County Community College

Well, tele-health services will increase and, I think, we will see other types of social services using virtual means, such as Zoom, to provide services and offer programming.

How a Social Services Specialist Compares

A Social Services Specialist provides social services to children and adults in communities, facilities, institutions, or hospitals. They develop and implement specialized treatment programs.

The social services specialist profession generally makes a higher amount of money when compared to the average salary of case workers. The difference in salaries is social services specialists making $6,900 higher than case workers.

Using case workers and social services specialists resumes, we found that both professions have similar skills such as "social work," "crisis intervention," and "patients," but the other skills required are very different.

As mentioned, these two careers differ between other skills that are required for performing the work exceedingly well. For example, gathering from case workers resumes, they are more likely to have skills like "customer service," "intake assessments," "mental illness," and "public assistance." But a social services specialist might have skills like "discharge planning," "term care," "mds," and "nursing home."

Interestingly enough, social services specialists earn the most pay in the insurance industry, where they command an average salary of $64,884. As mentioned previously, case workers highest annual salary comes from the education industry with an average salary of $40,730.

Social services specialists are known to earn higher educational levels when compared to case workers. Additionally, they're 10.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Description Of a Case Management Specialist

In healthcare facilities, a case management specialist is in charge of ensuring that patients get quality service. Their responsibilities often include handling admission and discharge procedures, preparing and processing documents, gathering and organizing patient information, and developing strategies to optimize case management operations. There are also instances where they must address patient concerns and issues, resolving them promptly and efficiently. Furthermore, as a case management specialist, it is essential to function while adhering to the facility's policies and regulations.

Case management specialists tend to earn a higher pay than case workers by about $94 per year.

While both case workers and case management specialists complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like social work, crisis intervention, and patients, the two careers also vary in other skills.

Even though a few skill sets overlap, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a case worker might have more use for skills like "child abuse," "customer service," "foster care," and "intake assessments." Meanwhile, some case management specialists might include skills like "patient care," "discharge planning," "care coordination," and "management services" on their resume.

In general, case management specialists make a higher salary in the technology industry with an average of $55,377. The highest case worker annual salary stems from the education industry.

The average resume of case management specialists showed that they earn similar levels of education to case workers. So much so that the likelihood of them earning a Master's Degree is 2.2% more. Additionally, they're more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.1%.

Updated October 2, 2020