Greetings from Social Work Land!

welcome to alldeaf :)
 
queenravenclaw said:
Read the first post interestingly enough I am in college to be a child and youth worker. I deal with children's behaviours. I can work in many settings im actually hoping for residential work setting. i'm short too. I'm 4'8 actually. I want to work with kids who have had the same problems as me in the past. Such as self-esteem and had made bad choices of coping mechanisms. i"m only in my first year.
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Me too... my state has a program where we commit to working for DCS for 2 years, and the state pays for our senior year... so I know I will be working with children and youth, but not sure in what capacity. I'm hoping to either work investigating abuse allegations, or with children in foster care. I would like to make sure allegations of abuse are taken seriously and investigated correctly. It seems like too often children who aRE abused are ignored, while parents with low skills have kids removed instead of getting help to be a better parent.

I'm 5 foot tall... my husband is 6'4" lol Nice to meet you!!!!!!
 
Welcome.

My dad was, in one of his many careers, a supervising social worker for the state of California.

I try not to let the fact that he was a social worker prejudice me against the rest of you. Terrible, terrible man at home behind closed doors. Extroverted charmer to the rest of the world.

OTOH, the social worker who oversaw our adoption of two kids in '92 was a sweetie, and still keeps in touch and passes mail along from the birth mother to our girls.=)
 
Grayma said:
Welcome.

My dad was, in one of his many careers, a supervising social worker for the state of California.

I try not to let the fact that he was a social worker prejudice me against the rest of you. Terrible, terrible man at home behind closed doors. Extroverted charmer to the rest of the world.

OTOH, the social worker who oversaw our adoption of two kids in '92 was a sweetie, and still keeps in touch and passes mail along from the birth mother to our girls.=)
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Glad that you had a good social worker come to redeem the reputation of the profession! I know my dad was the same... no one could imagine who he was when we got in the car or in our own house. Monster at home, funny gentle guy outside. I think my dad was bipolar, though he died before the diagnosis was popular.
 
Jana, most of my clients were able to live with roommates, hold assisted jobs <job coach or "sheltered workshop"> or part-time cleaning or fast-food help jobs and do most or all personal care, with the exception of a few people; most could also use public transportation.

I learned to drive very late myself - as a requirement for this job, actually. During the time that I was learning, my husband, my dad or another caseworker would take me to do home visits.

My main tasks in addition to types of things above, were to check and see how things were going with roommates, jobs, food in the home, any safety things, especially with some of the clients who had mental illness.
yes, that was tricky.

With a couple of people I escorted them to appt.'s, shopping and so on; also overall encouragement with learning new skills, goals, attempting leisure activities. One client's goal might be to learn to write checks or make arrangements to go on a trip; another person's might be to learn to give eye contact or respond to a smile.

guardianship issues were complicated due to the process involved and if someone could have really used a guardian but wouldn't consider the possibility....
or there was simply no one to do it

yeah, hope for a very pro-active and communicative supervisor..find out how she handles things in situations A, B, C, D and back-up plans for situations A, B, C...and what happens with situation N or Z??

here's a conglomeration of a scenario one might find
<remember this was pre-"everyday" cell-phone-use>

Today is a day a new client is supposed to move into the group home.There's problems with the moving truck and we have to wait for a new one. Myself and some other staff get together and decide to start hauling stuff in our own vehicles.

Clients A <Pam> and B<Latika> have an argument in their group home over who was supposed to take out the garbage on the morning that client A was supposed to go to her cleaning job.

Client C<Marquis> is upset that client D <Pedro> moved the salt and pepper shakers after he filled them to just the right amount and arranged them just so between the tomato soup and green beans.
Pam forgets to get off at the right stop for her cleaning job and continues riding, getting lost.

Case Manager calls to check to make sure Pam arrived at the job; on another line is Pam's job coach wondering where Pam is and why didn't she show up?

Case Manager goes to home and find that Marquis and Pedro are still arguing about the salt and pepper; the pepper container has been knocked off the table and spilled everywhere.
the bag of garbage is in the living room on the couch

no one can remember what time Pam left or what tv program was on when Pam left <might provide another way to know what time that would have been>
CM calls bus company to try and find out who the driver might have been during the possible <guessed> time frame when CM hopes that Pam left for her job, based on the scheduling discussed between Pam, coach, job site manager and CM.

Pam's brother calls upset because job site manager called him asking him where his sister was and now very concerned that she seems to have gotten lost.

Latika is upset with all the arguing and worried that Marquis and Pedro are not her friends anymore.
She's especially worried about Pedro because he is her boyfriend.


and so it goes....
 
Jana and Grayma,

I'm so sorry that you had terrible experiences with your dad!

I'm an only child and was "daddy's girl".
My parents aren't really able to express direct love to each other and as a young kid there was a lot of yelling and drama, especially from my mom, whose own mother was very abusive.
But they are able to show me affection with plenty of hugs and kind words.
My dad and I have always been close.
 
Grayma said:
Welcome.

My dad was, in one of his many careers, a supervising social worker for the state of California.

I try not to let the fact that he was a social worker prejudice me against the rest of you. Terrible, terrible man at home behind closed doors. Extroverted charmer to the rest of the world.

OTOH, the social worker who oversaw our adoption of two kids in '92 was a sweetie, and still keeps in touch and passes mail along from the birth mother to our girls.=)
Click to expand...

How do you know she wasn't just the same as your dad?
 
Dogmom, WOW that sounds complicated on multiple levels. Interesting how fragile the balance seems to be in situations like that. One wrong event and everything goes wrong. Man. I would have trouble sleeping at night, wondering if everyone is okay.
 
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