Week # 14

Monday: I worked in the office most of the day. I had some individual meeting time with my field instructor to make sure that I was on the right track and would have everything on my learning plan complete by the end of the semester. I also had another session with my grief and loss group. Since it was the last period of the day, I think they were ready to go. They were a little rowdy, but they are talking more to each other. One of the students made a comment to her counselor that they liked the group and did not know that there were other students who had lost someone close to them. That made me feel pretty good because even if the students do not always listen and pick up on what I want them to pick up on, they at least know now that they are not alone.

Tuesday: This was a pretty busy day. I started by interviewing a Medical social worker at the corporate building for Marion County Health and Hospital Corporations (for my course objective #16). I began by asking her the different types of jobs that she has done as a social worker and which ones she liked and disliked. She was very open which I appreciated. I feel that sometimes, because someone knows that we are going into the field, they try to sugarcoat it and avoid talking about some of their bad experiences. Bad experiences come with any job and social work is a tough field; we all know that coming in. Anyhow, she was very open about her answers. I interviewed her about how her experiences have made her more aware of herself and her own beliefs. We discussed the grieving process. She spoke about a former client that she had in another position and how she lost her husband while she was their family's social worker. She talked about thinking how strong this woman was and how hard it must have been for her. While this was going on in her workplace, the social worker said that someone close to her was also becoming very ill and eventually passed around the same time of the client's husband. She said that, in a way, it gave her hope to move on because her client had done so. I thought that was a very interesting story about how our clients affect us sometimes just as much as we affect them.
After that interview, I headed over to meet with an HIV Outreach worker for another interview (Objective #6). This worker is also HIV positive and goes into the community and speak out about HIV education and advocacy. It was pretty inspiring especially considering the medical affects that someone has with HIV. This person is a very active member of the community and feels passionately about sharing their story with others. The main topic of the interview was support systems and how the client's life has changed since they have been diagnosed. They had some very interesting things to say about their own journey and coming to terms with the virus and their own addictions.
After that, I went to work with Covering Kids and Families and shadowed an employee at the South District health office. We did not have too many clients, but the afternoon went by quickly. I will be returning to work with them next week.

Integrative question for the week: (HBSE) Although I do not have client contact everyday, I do have to evaluate from some of the different things that I have done. For example, another intern and I did a presentation at a high school about abstinence. I measured the success of our presentation based on the pre and post test scores of the students. How much did they really learn from our presentation? It was pretty interesting to see how they reacted to some of the facts I presented and that was another way I gauged my performance. If I saw eyes when I looked around the room, I knew I was doing something right because they were at least paying attention. I tried to keep them engaged in discussion and really push a couple of points that I thought were necessary that they know when they left the room. I could have always had them fill out an evaluation, but I think that a lot of them would have ended up on the floor not being filled out. I think at the end of my grief and loss group I will have them fill out an evaluation so that I can know what to work on.