Last week

It's edging closer to the end of the school year, and I'm surprised to see so many kids getting in trouble. Lots of public defenders have come to me this week to discuss the need for a disposition coordinator on at least one of their cases. I was able to witness a very thorough referral to a disposition coordinator (Lela) from one of my favorite attorneys. He came into the office to get a referral sheet, but the referral sheet only has so much room to write. The attorney explained that he thought this kid needed out of home placement. The youth had been so compliant with structured environments, but he and his mother did not get along. Many successful placements were visible on the youth's "list history" when he was out of the home, but now he's back in detention. The public defender seemed to really like the youth. Lela said she would see what she could do since the youth was turning 18 in less than a year. She had some independent living options in mind.

Sophia is gone this week, so Lela is my main squeeze. She came to tell me this morning about a case that she worked so hard on. The client was almost definitely facing boy school, but she managed to get him into Fairbanks. He ran from the placement last Thursday, and no one knows where he is. Lela suspects he'll be hiding out until September when he turns 18. Lela dug really hard to find some area for work with this kid. He got his wish that he not be sent to boy school, but the placement facility he was sent to (Fairbanks) was also unsatisfactory for him. This puts Lela's credibility on the line. Lela's job is to search for alternatives to detention to present to the judge if she knows the client might not benefit from being locked up in boy school. She intends to serve the kid's best interest, but if he comes back to the center in cuffs within the next few months there's not much she can do. She said the client reported a desire to succeed in a program at Fairbanks. He also reported being the only kid there whose family hadn't had any interaction/family therapy. By the end of the day, Lela got another report concerning another youth she placed at a facility that was also on the run.... not a good week.

I also spent time this week researching a program that I learned is no longer being funded. The program is call "Domestic Diversion." The program is losing funding because it cannot stay afloat in a system that has so few resources. The sentencing consultants only have funds enough for 4 more kids to be in the program this year. Grant writers were faced with the delimma of losing a social worker or discontinuing the program. Domestic Diversion cases arise when there are juvenile detentions or disturbances resulting from any form of domestic violence. In order to protect the child, further investigation and counseling must take place. This program puts the two family members through group therapy. It takes two people to fight, and every time a domestic battery case gets sent to one of the disposition coordinators it is up to them to decide what to do with it. If the youth was just acting out or does not get along with the other guardian/parent, something must be done to alleviate the situation. Domestic Diversion cases are prevalent, but this program will no longer be available.

Earth Day!

Earth Day!
Earth day’s today!
Let’s Celebrate!
Start your cars
And drive irate.
Don’t care for less,
Pollute some more.
No time to guess,
Global warming: lore.

Earth day’s today!
What is this mess?
I call it Earth
(and why digress?)
What once was beautiful
has long been lost
To Cyclops kittens
and low, low cost.

Earth day’s today!
But fish are dead…
And trees and birds,
All things we dread
to lose, forever-"No fault of mine."
Don’t think of nature as divine...

“I just don’t care,”
Too many say.
Let me do my hair!
Delay, delay…

Those quick to employ the “cannot act”
Might not know just how tightly packed
The human conscience seems to be,
Cuz’ all we know is "me, me, me."

Sacrifice is soon to come,
And corporations hold the greatest sum,
of the blame that's to be had,
That feeds our needs where greed succeeds:
The greed we hope is ‘just a fad.’

One day we’ll see,
We’ll all find out,
What this short life was all about.

The time: too late,
It’s all been done.
No discovery left,
No battle won.
We now accept our way of life,
Destructive, gross, and full of strife,
No change be had!
Destroy! Consume!
Denial’s here to drive you mad.

It takes much more
To change the lore:
Centuries pass,
We still ignore…

Earth day’s today!
Not week, or year,
Few people know,
Or care to hear,
The cry that earth
Sends out in fear:

“I’ve warned you time and time again,
Just keep it up,
I won't say 'when'!
And, by the way;
The heat is real!

Stop warming all my ocean shelves,
the permafrost, the pretty trees!
You’re surely going to kill yourselves!
Your way of life brings such unease…”

But slower still,
The earth will burn,
And no one’s stomach will even turn.

Smell the air.
Today’s the day!
Hold back the cough;
Your lungs obey.

One time a year,
No globe unites.
We do not fear our dismal plights.

Let’s work on that.
Less talk, more act.
Without huge groups,
The solution’s ‘wack,’
So try to think of ways "we can."
Ignore the drive to be a fan
of all the products made by man.

Media is one way that's best
to force denial in this great mess,
but it can also be your tool
for making oil way less cool.

Try real hard to find a way
or reason why we have this day.
Make it your own,
go out and play!
Earth day’s today!
Get off the phone...

Week 15

Moving Week! Sophia got a new office across the hall. She now has a window, so her life has improved 10-fold. I advised her on some Feng Shui, but there's not much space to work with. Since her old office won't host any people (theoretically), the gi-normous filing cabinet that I have bonded with over the past semester will be moving in. This is quite the accomplishment since all the open cases will be located with the people who need them most (plus, it was a lot of arm work). Sometimes the sentencing consultants get referrals and want to look for past materials concerning a client with a history at the agency. Previously, all the files were housed in a copy room 20 blocks away. Hopefully, the cabinet's new location will be an increased convenience for Lela and Sophia. They won't need a file fairy like me anymore! The majority of the week has been dedicated to stress: stress about final products, stress about computer viruses following me everywhere, concern for end of the year events, painful experiences with my checkbook and the state of Indiana (taxes), as well as final papers for other classes.


Integration question:
HBSE/micro: What HBSE content deals with endings? What do you know about client life stages and how clients handle endings?
Human Behavior in the Social Environment can deal with endings in the termination stage. Concerning client life stages, I recall another professor operating on a wave theory. Stages come along the ongoing wave. The client will decide whether the pace is too fast or slow depending on their stage of development. However, endings are dependent on the client's personality. If readiness to end isn't there, complications will occur. I think it's good to share feelings about ending before cutting it off entirely.

Practice/micro: How have you experienced successful endings? What do you already do now to help your clients experience successful endings? Regardless of the situation, if the kid gets to go where he knows he will do best, success has been achieved. There have been situations where kids want to live with an Aunt or brother and have been court ordered by the judge to be there, but the court will often order otherwise. I can't say I've experienced successful endings because I don't really have any say-so in what is suggested to the court, but I have had updates on cases that were being researched that were half successes where the judge will meet probation, the state, and the PDA in the middle.

Week 14

This past week, I went to a couple court hearings. They were interesting in their own ways. The first of the two kids going to court was wearing his own clothes because he had been on suspended commitment. Against a few odds, the kid was sentenced to complete programs at Lutherwood. Lutherwood did not have a bed open until Thursday, so the judge allowed him to go back home for a couple days at which time he was court ordered to be dropped off at Lutherwood. The second morning, a similar situation occurred where the placement facility was not yet ready to accept our client since he had been there two times previous. The kid was detained at the time of his court date because of a charge back in October. Sophia, his disposition coordinator, wasn't referred his case until the beginning of this week (it would have been far more helpful to have known back in October!). Anyhow, the placement facility wanted an interview but had not gotten in contact about a date. This kid's judge was covering for his chief magistrate, so he was extra careful to do things right. He made sure to review client rights and confirm with DCS, the state, probation, and the public defender. It was very interesting to watch. I can't think of another situation where I would have such privileged insight into the world of juvenile justice.
The last part of the week was spent at Resolute-a placement facility for sex offenders. Sophia and I visited a client that both of us had spoken with while he was in detention. ST Client requested a visit and was very happy to see us. We got some insight as to the quality of the placement and what was working best for him. It was wonderful to see that he was thriving. One of the therapists took special interest in me because I'm studying social work. He graduated from IUPUI Master's program, and he was telling me all about the reasons I should study the 2-year program because the advanced program speeds through everything.

Research/micro: What are the ways you can evaluate your practice with clients?

Process recordings! haha. After inscribing and reviewing tape recordings, one can really begin to understand how others will perceive your questions as well as feedback. I also like the idea of feedback from a third party such as a supervisor/field instructor who has witnessed client interactions.

Policy/macro: What does the law say about your need for continuing evaluation and education? The Code of Ethics (social work law) mentions the need for both continued evaluation and education. "...social workers should exercise careful judgment and take responsible steps (including appropriate education, research, training, consultation, and supervision) to ensure the competence of their work and to protect clients from harm."

access to Code of Ethics online: http://www.socialworkers.org/pubs/code/code.asp

Week 13?!

I can't believe how many new learning experiences have come to pass! All of a sudden it's feeling like the end of the school year.
Week 13 was an adventure to be had. About once a week, Sophia and I meet with kids while they're detained in the detention center. They talk about the bad food, the point system, the cool and not so cool staff, but mostly how much they want to leave the detention center. While Erika was visiting the site, Sophia had arranged for a tour in order to put some things into perspective. We had a heck of a time booting-up before the tour because we had to wear these goofy belts with a tracking device and a panic button. When all was said and done, my supervisor Sophia, her supervisor Judy, Erika, and I had the unique pleasure of seeing behind the scenes of the Juvenile detention center. Our tour guide showed us how the juvenile delinquents are divided up by careful consideration of maturity level, status offense, as well as age. The atmosphere was very jail-like with loud buzzing doors and consistent walky-talky commotion to boot. We got to see inside of a tri-level dormitory where about 15 kids might live. Attached to the sleeping quarters was a counselor's office. The place was being rennovated, and the only person present was a janitor. I thought the architects did a very nice job constructing areas for almost full visibility of the inmates. Throughout the halls we passed inmates with the craziest hair being escourted to and from "special visits" from public defenders and other staff.
Anyway, Wednesday was the highlight of my week. That afternoon I got some practice with the process recording. I don't know if I will use that particular recording for the assignment, but it was really cool. I met with a kiddo who ran away from the last placement we asked the judge to send him to. He's been locked-up for about a year. We sat with him and let him choose from a series of words folded up in small slivers of paper. He had a lot of fun with this. Sophia took words like "family", "hope", "love", "drugs", "fun", and put them all on small sheets of paper. For the recording, the client and I took turns using the words in sentences that were meaningful to our lives. The client seemed to really benefit from this interaction. He is currently on spring break inside the detention center (I know, right?!) so he was truly bored. He's a talker, too. He actually cried at the very beginning. The word family reminded him of why he was detained the first time. He had been charged with child molestation for having sexual interaction with someone in his family. "Sad case"

Integration question:

Values & Ethics/micro or macro: Describe an ethical issue, concern or dilemma you experienced in the field. How was it resolved? I was became concerned about a particular client who was committed to the Dawn Project in order to address her delinquency issues. I attended some of the latter meetings for the client's (female youth) case, and her assigned counselor seemed very distant to the client in the first meeting. The group members in attendance at the meeting (including the counselor's supervisor) discovered that she had been through several counselors. Further information revealed that the counselor recently visited the home of the client, didn't get much of a response from the client and left early because the youth wasn't opening up. An advocate at the meeting confronted the counselor about not having enough patience with the youth. The counselor came back to subsequent meetings with an improved relationship because she realized how bad it looked to meet with the client less than she's supposed to. She also admitted to calling instead of visiting 3 times a week. They resolved to meet at least once, maybe twice, with the youth alone, and meet at least one time with some other family present.

Week 12

Some of the things I got to do at the agency this week were: finish filing and tour Valle Vista hospital in Greendwood. I managed to catalog 10 boxes of closed files of the kids who are now aged-out of the juvenile system. This was a huge task that has taken me several weeks to complete. Touring Valle Vista was an awesome experience as well. We were greeted by an enthusiastic tourguide who treated us to some Starbucks coffee and pastries. The group got to meet and ask questions of several staff members. The group also saw the various wings of the hospital. Several staff members advised me getting my masters directly after BSW. I do believe I'll take their advice!
Integration question:
HBSE/Macro: How can you determine what the formal and informal boundaries are in a community? Defining community boundaries is easier when one is within the community. However, speaking directly to members of the community in a face-to-face environment makes for a more comprehendable set of instructions about how to operate within boundaries.
*Alternative: Research/macro: What does the research show regarding how often boundary violations occur and in what areas? Provide the link to the abstract or article and citation.
I wasn't able to login to EBSCO host, but I did find an outdated article PDF version at <http://drmwilliams.com/pdf_files/Boundary_Violations.pdf>. This article discusses boundaries when using psychotherapy. Most of the boundary violations include things that have been ruled-out because of the Code of Ethics such as sexual intercourse with a client or accepting gifts. The article addresses boundary issues as if to warn against them. One would be under the impression that boundaries are crossed often in this field.

Week 11

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week really brought a lot of open cases together for me. The first day, I researched 5 clients and created files. I did some copying and faxing in the afternoon. I also attended a couple meetings with probation to discuss agreements/disagreements on dispositions of clients. I was familiar with one of the cases which can be referred to as 'Mimi.' This youth is another one of those 'sad cases' where no one can do much of anything in the line of what the youth wants because the family is searching for stability. At the meeting, it was decided that Mimi should have a short-term placement option before being placed in a home where Dawn services can be in place. The home study we did investigated a man that the youth formerly knew as Dad until a couple years ago. Youth's biological dad is in a nursing home at age 36, and Mom is bipolar. I really hope the youth will be placed at the location of our home study, but many involved parties have apprehensions about such a placement because the homeowner (whom only Sophia and I have met) seems 'creepy.' Wednesday, my immediate supervisor was out of the office, so of course the fax machine had to run out of ink. Lela and I struggled to locate an unused toner cartridge to replace it with. Then, I tried to find an electronic copy of a form which led me to help Lela obtain electronic copies of forms she needed. The success rate of such an activity has yet to be determined. Lela and I also met a new client in detention. He was only 12, but tough enough to talk without using any diction. He was restless, difficult to understand, and fresh out of 5th grade. He did a lot of complaining about the food in detention. Then I found five dollars.
Integration question:
HBSE: How might your assessment of a client differ from that of another person on your team, such as a nurse, doctor, or teacher? I've already noticed how my evaluation of a home study compares to the impressions a probation officer gets from a client. Every one has a story, and every one has a different take on black and white documents proclaiming anything from prison sentences to church affiliations. I may have met with a client who cried to me and passionately expressed his/her hopes for disposition while the only person another team member has done is seen the client's name on a piece of paper and talked to his/her mom on the phone. We both show up at the meeting, but other members might be quicker to assume the worst when they know very little about the client's defense which doesn't always matter to every member of the team. I quickly realized how important it is to have different sources when peicing together a story. However, the system is under-staffed and overloaded with bad situations.