The roles of the group home direct care worker

An attempt is made to make a clear statement concerning the roles of the direct care worker in group home treatment programming. For several reasons these roles have not been adequately defined over time. The roles include descriptions of the direct care worker as therapeutic counselor, as manager, as teacher and as relationship builder. The direct care worker is identified as a generalist, a role on the treatment team that is no less important than the role played by the social worker and the psychologist. In the final analysis the professionalization of the direct care worker will depend upon the development of a national focus which can be translated into real college preparatory curricula; into standards which can be utilized to develop certification procedures, and into a hierarchy of jobs for which the direct care worker is the first step.