My Journey Through Mental Health Education

A Journal Entry Series

We are knee-deep in what it means to be a Social Worker. It is just an introductory course but the discussion rooms are hot with debate. The instructor is great a prompting them! So in one of the feeds', a classmate's understanding of the position (based on a short video) was a little heavy with judgment. I decided to respond (at length LOL). I thought it was pretty good and my instructor agreed.

So glad you brought this up! It is VERY true that Caseworkers need to dig a bit deeper than their textbook knowledge. All of their senses need to be like SpideySenses that receive everything beyond the obvious. A dirty home (within reason of course), a home without much food, and a home of multiple family members have NO time or energy to hide anything. Their struggles go deeper than most can imagine or would care to imagine (that says everything). Most of the time those families are either begging you to take them off their hands or begging you to not because it isn't true. Those who beg to be relieved of caring for their children are the ones that caseworkers are forced to "keep together at any cost", even though you KNOW these kids won't make it. Or they WILL and before you know it, you are visiting their home because of their kids. That is the TOUGH part that leaves you in tears and stressed out. Because, even though you are HIRED to HELP by the government, their rules say DON'T (well, until the child/children are near death in the hospital).

The SpideySenses are for the sneaky abusers hiding behind the middle-class veil. Those are rarely reported unless it's done through a teacher or administrator in a school, an after-school program, or if they are lucky, a friend's parent (that isn't more concerned about the friendship). Those visits are the ones that the parents/caregivers HIDE abuse through blinders like ALL of the programs and achievements so HOW could they possibly be abusing them. YEP, those houses! OR you hear about how clumsy they are. So clumsy that they should probably book an appointment to make sure it's not something else (this is my FAVE). YOU cannot call BS, you cannot question too much, and the only thing you CAN do is to NOTATE everything you see. IF it meets further investigation requirements(keyword) THEN we dig deeper. But that process is approximately 6 months. A lot can happen in 6 months. IF they are tweens or teens, it goes one of two ways for them, bad crowd and bad choices or depression.

It takes WAY too long to SPEAK on behalf of an abused child and with every moment it takes it's a moment more of that. Each moment destroys the child inside and warps who they would have become. Some of them don't make it out alive one way or another. Those who do spend half a lifetime trying to rebuild and figure out who they are. OR they numb the pain with anything that works, creating even more mental chaos and a life of slavery to your past. Why isn't social work more important than the police? IF it were, and they helped stabilize humans who are out of control and properly guide them at a young age, wouldn't there be far less crime?

Surprisingly, I actually go a response from the classmate I was addressing. No kidding. Even though it IS a requirement to INTERACT, they rarely do. You primarily see a ton of agreeing with the original poster of the comment/reaction. But HEY this one did but she did it privately. In an email, she expressed that she had NO idea how intense the position will be. She had planned to make that her career until our discussion.

Do I feel bad? No way! I KNOW how hard that job is AND had anyone told me ahead of time, I never would have even shadowed/volunteered (for CEUs). But the good news in all of this is that she is now going to direct her focus to TEENS! WE have a huge population of them in NEED of mental healthcare and assistance in navigating this crazy life.

I have NO problem accepting that switch at all! It takes a very special individual to work with teens and young adults 17-20 years of age. You have to put yourself back to that time in your life and remind yourself just how damn hard it was to navigate life, hopped up on hormones. WITH emotions that erupt like volcanos! Spilling yourself all over everyone in your wake. (YEAH remember that?) If you say no, you're in denial, LOL. So I say, let her go, she could be some good in a dark world for some of them.