September 14, 2011
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Day 2 about Family
I also used my mom for a college paper.
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I interviewed “Bailey,” who worked as a youth assistant at the “Drop-In” (a place children and teenagers can go after school, located right next to Tech High School in Indianapolis). Bailey’s job description is to develop a map of where kids hang out, be at the Drop-In, develop relationships with the children, and then help them and their families. She received her Bachelor’s of Science in Human relations with Sociology minor from the University of Indianapolis.
Bailey choose this job because “I work with children and youth, and I like that. I also like to listen, and I get to do that a lot.” Stress has been her top problem. Bailey She feels that her job description led to a lot of that stress. Working in human services, the job is never done—there is never a time where the people stop coming and you have finally “fixed” them all. It is a continuing process where every day is failure and success.
Because of this, Bailey often felt that “I was not able to direct my time well—I couldn’t tell when I was done, because they still had problems and struggles that came up.” Though the feeling that she was still helping the children pulled her through, she found that changes did not seem to last and so many people were still hurting. Despite the personal stress, Bailey said that “Organization, having a strong focus that you can pass on, discipline, and creativity” were some of the top personality traits needed for the job.
As far as specific cases, Bailey felt the families that she worked with closely only seemed open to help because of how they could benefit. They wanted their “agenda” to be met, rather than meeting the real needs. She learned that without her personal faith in Christ, it was hopeless to try to help people.
For reported child abuse, Bailey would go to the scene and have to strip-search the child for bruises or signs of abuse. If anything was found, they were written up. If for any reason the child had to be checked again (another call), the same thing would happen. For the third offence, the child could then be taken from the home. Bailey’s opinion was that “It is almost impossible to tell the difference of bruises from a child naturally growing up from a bruise inflicted. Making the call to take or leave the child in the home is very difficult.” She also made sure to point out that there is such a large load on each social worker that to give each situation the time it deserves is almost impossible.
Bailey’s advice for those entering the field would be to have their priorities set in their personal life. This affects everything; especially how well they can deal with the stress level of the job. Her answer to whether or not a person has to have the same experience in order to understand the client was NO: “Because there are different things that translate themselves. I didn’t do drugs, but I struggled with other addictions and failure and so could relate and offer hope in the areas where I had overcome.”
On a positive note, Bailey added, “I am so glad to see that the present focus is increased prevention, because that is of far better value to the children—to assist them and help them before things get into a situation where foster care or other services is needed.”
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Hmmmm. This stuff runs in the family…
