Social Services Agency

The need for your work has never been greater. Communities across the country are dealing with real hardship. Yet social workers—over 800,000 across our country—keep showing up.

Over the past few weeks, many of you have reached out with concerns about the ER/Intake merger. What we’re hearing is consistent: the merger is happening alongside existing challenges in ER—staffing shortages, workload pressures, and shifting responsibilities—and it’s having a real impact.

Join the OCEA Members Luncheon at GGRC to receive important union updates from OCEA leadership.

Your union met with Orangewood management Dec. 10, 2025, to discuss ongoing safety issues. We have a follow-up meeting next Wednesday, Jan. 14. Here are the subjects we discussed and progress that was made.

To ensure concerns are addressed more reliably, we are temporarily shifting to a different process. OCEA representatives are now meeting monthly with management to discuss the issues members raise with us.

As a direct result of increased outreach and concerns from members, your OCEA staff and Orangewood management are again meeting periodically to address those concerns. Here are a few items that we discussed at our recent meeting.

Recap the August 5 CFS Membership Meeting.