The governor of Kentucky believes social workers are increasingly becoming burned out, creating more risks for vulnerable children and families.Gov. Andy Beshear stopped in Louisville on Friday morning to meet with employees of the Department of Community-Based Services (DCBS) and highlight his multimillion-dollar proposal for 350 additional state social workers.“They fully support the families that they're working with, it's time that the state fully supports our social workers,” Beshear said.The average number of cases Kentucky social workers have is more than double the nationally recommended average of 15-18 cases per employee.In Jefferson County, some DCBS social workers had closer to four times that amount.“There's so many workers that don't even make it past a year or two years,” said Amanda Crowell, a supervisor at DCBS in Louisville.Crowell has more than 10 years of experience with DCBS.She told WLKY News that social workers’ nonstop workload is straining employees so much that many of them are quitting, especially since the job often exposes employees to traumatic situations.Even those who stay, she said, are forced to “put the fires out” on the most pressing cases. It often leaves other children and families unserved.“I had to work on cases where (there's) a child at the hospital with broken bones versus the 6-year old that's not going to school. You have to weigh that,” Crowell said. “But the family over here still needs those services, and if we don't get them connected, we could be in this situation over here at that point.”During his January budget address, Beshear mentioned the additional workers. It’s a roughly $30 million plan and aims to shrink caseloads.“Imagine taking a job where you want to step in and protect a child when they need to be protected, only to have so many cases on your desk that there is no way that you can be there for every single child when they need you. It's heartbreaking, and it's wrong,” the governor told reporters Friday.Crowell supports the plan, but she said the conversation must also include a discussion on making pay more competitive. “There’s over 150 JCPS schools. We have numerous hospitals, not to mention that we're divided by a river that a lot of people can just go right over to Indiana and have more opportunity there, too, just to work and do things that are probably less stressful and get paid a little more,” Crowell said.