It is heart-warming to see city dwellers across the globe cheering healthcare workers from their balconies for risking their own health to save others, often working without Personal Protective Equipment.
We don’t have many balconies in Minnesota, but as these Xcel Energy employees show, we too appreciate healthcare workers, along with other first responders like police, grocery employees, and postal carriers.
Child protection staff are also first responders. Similar to healthcare workers, they make agonizing decisions, experience personal heartbreak, and work without PPE. But caseworkers additionally endure public hostility, shoulder crushing paperwork, and are not infrequently threatened and in physical danger.
When you are applauding first responders, in person or mentally, please clap for child protection workers too. It is one of our toughest and least appreciated first responder jobs.