Meet Heidi Hanson, MSW
Child Welfare Dependency Case Manager
"[I chose the FSU College of Social Work because of] the flexibility that it gave me as a working mom, working 40 hours a week, and having a family to take care of."
Heidi Hanson earned her BSW online from Indiana Wesleyan University, and her MSW online from Florida State University. Social work positions that Heidi has held include working for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Public Housing, and for a federally-qualified healthcare center. She has worked to assist people with navigating the bureaucracy behind obtaining food stamps, Medicaid, and Medicare.
"A dependency case manager is someone who works with families that have been involved in child abuse cases. Their primary goals are to protect children from abuse and to help families stay together while working past their trauma. They do this by connecting parents to resources such as medical care and housing. They also visit families at home to evaluate their situation and prepare documents to support the parents' rights during a court case. In addition to knowing a lot about social services and child protection, dependency case managers need to be understanding and truly dedicated to the children whose cases they manage, as many are on call around the clock." - Zippia.com
Currently, Heidi serves Brevard as a Dependency Case Manager in the field of child welfare. In this position, her work varies from day to day. Some days she is completing paperwork, including updates on her families for the courts. Other days she works in the field, visiting her families in their homes, checking on the welfare of the children and their caregivers.
Having recently earned her MSW, Heidi is planning to obtain her social work licensure and work in clinical social work, still serving children in the child welfare system.