By Jill Burke, May 3, 2019, KTUU
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) — The Alaska Citizen Review Panel — a voluntary body with non-enforcement oversight of the Office of Children's Services — says the agency is making some much-needed internal improvements.
OCS employees are "people who have some of the hardest, some of the most thankless jobs in the state — there's no sense of self care, there's no sense of helping each other, or that awareness that 'We have a hard job and it's killing us'," CRP Chair JP Ouellette told legislators in a recent hearing.
A professional mediator in his daily life, Ouellette views workplace wellness as an issue just as important as increased staffing and reduced turnover. To do meaningful, thoughtful work, he says staff need meaningful, thoughtful support from their supervisors.
Workplace wellness is so important that it's one of the panel's top recommendations for improvement to OCS.
Exit interviews with outgoing staff confirm the need for internal change, Natalie Norberg, director of the Office of Children's Services, said earlier this week.
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