Introduction
Research Questions
- How did TANF staff and families receiving TANF experience the pandemic?
- What strategies did leaders implement to improve their well-being?
- How might these strategies be continued moving forward?
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other human services programs faced unprecedented challenges managing the COVID-19 global pandemic. They were tasked with serving America’s most vulnerable families as they navigated difficult economic circumstances and public health risks. Across the United States, researchers documented high rates of anxiety, depression, and psychological distress as a result of the pandemic, particularly during the early months (Aknin et al. in press; Jewell et al. 2020). The pandemic took its toll on state and local TANF program staff, in addition to families. Racial violence and unrest compounded the challenges of managing COVID-19. TANF program staff reported that they and the families they serve were showing signs of stress, including lack of focus, fatigue, agitation, and a sense of hopelessness. In response to these crises, TANF leaders adapted in new and innovative ways to support staff and families. In this brief, we capture how TANF programs adapted to promote staff and participant wellness and the innovative adaptations that leaders might consider adopting or sustaining moving forward.
Purpose
The purpose of this brief is to share how TANF program leaders might apply the lessons and incorporate the practices used during the pandemic to address persistent stress and trauma and to support staff and participant well-being beyond the end of the public health emergency.
Key Findings and Highlights
Strategies program leaders used and could considering sustaining to reduce stress and promote wellness for TANF program staff and participants include:
- Create flexibility (for example, for staff, offer flexible working hours, and for participants, offer flexible meeting hours, the ability to schedule their own appointments, choice in the modes of contact, easier methods for curing a TANF sanction)
- Provide a safe working environment (for example, reconfigure offices to enable appropriate social distancing between desks, require masks on-site, install plastic shields around workstations, issue guidance to staff about how to manage interactions with participants who are frustrated)
- Institute regular check-ins (for example, frequently check in with staff, ask about stress and well-being, administer regular wellness questionnaires with staff)
- Prioritize self-care (for example, carve out space and time to practice mindfulness, support the maintenance of healthy workplace behaviors, include self-care and staff wellness as a job competency, improve access to mental health resources)
- Cultivate connection and community (for example, actively engage community partners, hold focused staff meetings on building connections among staff, use interactive tools)
- Talk honestly about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Racial violence and unrest compounded the challenges of managing COVID-19. It also created an opportunity to advance the dialogue about DEI. (Strategies leaders used and may consider sustaining include: hold webinars to discuss strategies to advance leaders of color, schedule regular team meetings to discuss microaggressions in the workplace, foster open and honest dialogue about the oppression people of color have experienced)
Methods
- Web-based surveys with TANF program leaders and staff between January and March 2021 (roughly 100 respondents within six states [California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont])
- Observations during virtual community groups with state and local TANF program leaders and staff (roughly 100 group discussions held between May and September 2020). Community group members were from state and local programs in California, Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Vermont.
- Informal virtual conversations with TANF leaders, staff, and participants representing about a dozen programs for which the SPARK project provided individualized technical assistance
Citation
Derr, Michelle K. (2022). Supporting Mental Wellness for Program Staff and Participants: Strategies for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Leaders. OPRE Report #2022-63, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Glossary
- TANF:
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
- SPARK:
- Supporting Partnerships to Advance Research and Knowledge
- DEI:
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion