A bit about my job

So I realized I haven't written about my job yet on here. I know I did all the time on my old blog.

Anyways, I work with people who have traumatic brain injury for a living. They also have a lot of other issues, such as mental illness and lots of medical problems.

Work can be very draining, but also uplifting. I really enjoy what I do for the most part, although there are days where I swear I am going to quit and go work for Starbucks. I find though that once I vent for a bit to my colleagues, I am fine and actually excited to jump into my role. I have thought and thought about for years now what else I would like to do with my life (I have been in the social work field since 1998) and I honestly can't imagine doing anything else---or at least not anything that is not associated with helping people.

The hardest part of my job I think is dealing with my boss some days, as well as clients and their families who expect me to be a magician, and fix major problems that are often beyond repair, or that will take years to come to a band-aid solution at best. There are also always people out there who feel a strong sense of entitlement to be provided for, and given things, and freak out on me if I don't do what they say and help them get what they want. Even if they do not rightfully qualify for whatever it is they are seeking. I will advocate for you if you need something, but I am not going to lie for you, or enable you either.

I have a lot of people in need of housing right now, but there's little to no funding to pay for it. There are not usually landlords or management companies willing to rent to a disabled person, or a person who is not only disabled but who has a criminal record that's also quite current. Housing issues are the hot-topic at work for all of us I think.

One of my challenging cases right now is a woman who has severe cognitive impairments, but who is also bipolar. She has also chosen to not be on medications to treat her mental health diagnosis for going on two years now. She recently lost her mother, who was very well-off and is fighting with her sibling over the settlement of the estate. You can imagine the types of phone calls I get from her oh, say, 10 times a day. I turn my work cell off after hours for boundary reasons, and get calls from her from midnight on to greet me as well each and every work day :).

I also have another guy who is med-seeking. That's a fun one, especially because there are limited resources on Long Island for people on Medicaid only who need pain management, and he has already burned his bridges with the ones that do exist.

I also have a co-dependent mother and son. They drive me nuts and we actually may be terminating with them in the very near future, which I fully admit I am not sad about :)

I have lots more I can probably write about----and I will in another blog post. I do have to go play with my son now though.