Hello residents

Well, I am employed.

This is good, and I am grateful.

But....

I am working as a Director of Social Services in a nursing home. It is the first "for profit" kind of organization I have done social work for.....ever....

It is a bit different than the non-profit sector in terms of goals and philosophies. It is an organization in the health service industry, and yet they do not provide medical coverage for their employees. I am a department head, and yet I do not have a computer provided for me. I write correspondence to families, to other agencies, and I am constantly writing social/psychological histories, reports, and summaries...and yet I do not have a word processor or printer. Employees provide their own, and then apparently pay for the ink cartridges to print out work related correspondence and reports.

The job also involves working directly with people who are completely dependent, often in pain, suffering from dementia, fear, hopelessness, and depression. A typical day will involve helping residents cope with loss (of family, friends, mobility, function), and also dealing with family members who are understandably overwhelmed and distressed. I do intakes, assessments, administer mental evaluations and depression scales, do social histories, set up care conferences, set appointments for residents, deal with all issues related to behavioral problems (anger, wandering, exit seeking, smoking, striking at staff or other residents, sexually inappropriate behavior, terrors, delusions)...and this is all done with the assistance of a single part-time social worker who will not be available in the summer. The biggest single time consuming task is charting and doing these things called "MDS's" for Medicare, which involve filling out a form evaluation and then writing a summary of varying detail at 5, 14, 30, and 60 days, as well as quarterly and annually, creating behavior/mood treatment plans, and charting (narrative form) each and every interaction with each and every resident.

In previous jobs, I would have 45 minutes to spend with a client, and 15 minutes of accompanying paperwork. In this job, it is exactly reversed. This is hard for me, as what I really want to be doing is spending my time with the residents-and finding ways to make them smile. It does not require much to brighten an otherwise gloomy day, but in order to be involved in that, I need the time to go to them.

Still, there are some wonderful things.

There is the developmentally delayed little old lady who rolls around in her wheelchair all day. She rolls by my office, and in her little tiny voice yells "Hi Jo Jo!" Back and forth, all day long. She comes into my office for pretzels and hearing aid batteries. I have to make sure she eats the pretzels, and not the batteries.

There is the WWII veteran with no legs who likes M and M's. I keep them in my office, so he searches me out daily for his allotment. As I am dispensing the candy, he tells me the EXACT dates of his military service, and all major events related to it.

There is Tenacious J. She is suffering from an assortment of mental conditions. She is adjusting to the loss of the previous Director of Social Services, and testing me out a bit. She will roll to my office 7-8 times a day, and make a variety of demands. "Go see if my laundry is done." "Find my bracelet." "Run to the store and get me some teddy bears of assorted colors." She is usually grouchy, but I have managed to make her smile every single time she comes to see me. Humor works with her. It is truly amazing how if I have my heavy pine door closed (trying to do paperwork), she manages to open it and roll right on in. She makes me smile too, although sometimes through gritted teeth.

There is the wonderful woman who has had five strokes, and has lost her ability to walk. Our physical therapist (who has the bedside manner of a bull in a china shop) has informed her she will not walk again. This woman will not hear of it, and has been dealing with this news with anger (at him) and denial. Her husband is with her every single day, and rubs her feet, feeds her, holds her hand, and generally fusses over her in a touching and tender way. It warms my heart, and pains it at the same time.

There is the 72 year old man who was an active and vital manual laborer before having a stroke 2 months ago. He is Mr. Macho, and dealing with the loss of function and resulting dependency is terribly difficult for him. He gets so frustrated because he can't recall words, and has lost function on his dominant side. He has to speak slowly, and can be difficult to understand...and deals with his frustration by exercising the emotional option left open for men of his generation...ANGER. For someone with speech difficulties, he manages a pretty crisp and clear "F^#K OFF"...

There is the guy that reminds me of Paul Newman. He was obviously movie star handsome as a young man. He still has the thick snow white hair, and piercing blue eyes. He is always smiling, and those blue eyes are completely full of mischief. The nurses have to watch out. He has a bit of dementia, but could still convince you that the sun goes around the moon...

Mr. Negativity is recovering from several surgeries. He has post-traumatic stress from being trapped in a structure fire as a young man. Our facility has recently undergone inspection with the fire-marshall. We conducted a number of fire drills and system tests (alarms going off a lot)...when the alarms sound, the magnets holding our THICK solid wood doors release, and they all slam shut...he is normally bed bound-but in those instances we have to get him down from the ceiling...

Anyway...

It is a colorful place to work. I am learning a whole new skill set, and I am hoping I will be able to make a positive difference for these people and their families. I can see that it will be challenging to navigate the organization itself-and I am not working with the tools or resources necessary to do the job as it really needs to be done-but I think I will find a way. It will be good for me. The lack of medical coverage alone assures that I will be moving on at some point (probably after Coley finishes at WSU), but I think I will be better for the experience...

Thank God spring is almost here.

bushwhacked

I shortened it just a bit....

Published on Sunday, February 11, 2007 by the Toronto Sun (Canada)
Squandering Billions in Iraq While U.S. Suffers
by Eric Margolis

Our minds boggled last week at U.S. government estimates that President George W. Bush’s so-called “war on terror” (including Afghanistan and Iraq) will cost at least $690 billion US by next year. That’s more than the total cost of World War I, Korea, or Vietnam, and second only to World War II’s $2 trillion.

This means that by 2008, Bush’s wars in the Muslim world will have cost each American man, woman and child $2,300.

As kings have found since the dawn of time, in war, money counts as much as armies. Wars always cost far more than originally projected.

A primary architect of the 2003 Iraq War, former deputy secretary of defence, Paul Wolfowitz, assured Americans it would only cost $40 billion. The cost of occupying Iraq would be paid, he claimed, by plundering its oil. Wolfowitz now heads the World Bank.

Speaking of epic idiocy, enter the man selected by Wolfowitz to become proconsul of U.S.-occupied Iraq, a bumbling conservative Republican hack named Paul Bremer.
During the 14 months he ran Iraq, Bremer committed two enormous follies. He dissolved Iraq’s army and police, then fired all government employees who were members of Saddam’s Ba’athist Party. Iraq was left without security forces or functioning government. Chaos ensued.

For a few hundred million, the U.S. could have hired much of Saddam’s army, security forces and bureaucrats. Instead, the Cheney/Bush administration declared them outlaws and began using Shia militias and death squads to fight the Sunni resistance, triggering today’s ghastly Sunni-Shia civil war.

Chaos in U.S.-occupied Iraq, and the collapse of its banking system and Ba’ath Party-run social programs, forced Washington to rush 363 tons of $100 US bills to Baghdad. This money, which belonged to Iraq, came from the UN-run “Oil for Food” program.
Bremer’s people dished out $12 billion US by the truckload. Another $800 million US was stolen by U.S.-appointed officials of Iraq’s defense ministry.

But $12.8 missing billions is just the tip of the iceberg.

This week, House Democrats opened hearings that finally began to expose the tsunami of corruption that accompanied the occupation and plundering of Iraq. Billions more of fraud and thievery concealed by the White House will likely be uncovered.

The White House wants to help pay for its foreign wars by slashing spending on health and seniors. While the Washington, D.C., police no longer dare patrol crime-infested southern parts of America’s capitol, “President” Cheney and “v-p” Bush are sending the 82nd Airborne Division to try to pacify Baghdad. If this isn’t the extreme theatre of the absurd, I don’t know what is.

less depressing?

Since my last post kinda depressed me, I thought I should put up pics. Pictures make me smile, unless they are pictures of things like smog, or George Bush Jr.

Yeah, go ahead. Reply away.

keep on swimming, keep on swimming...

Do you ever get that feeling of impending doom?

I didn't get that job. Nope. Sure didn't.

This is problematic.

Turns out they had someone apply who had actually BEEN a Head Start manager for another agency. The director assured me that I did wonderfully in the interview, and that I was one of their top choices...so I ALMOST got the job, which is a bit like ALMOST being pregnant...

which does make me feel better in the self-esteem department...

but does nothing for the fact that I am in DEEP doo-doo in the checkbook department...

So, as Dory says in Finding Nemo, "gotta keep on swimming."

I have applied at University of Idaho, and at the local Community Action Center. The first job pays well, and is a long shot because it will be highly competitive. The second job pays not-so-well, and may still be a longshot because I am overqualified. I spent one afternoon kind of immobilized, depressed, and questioning the meaning of life in general. But, that didn't help matters much. So, I am hitting the job trail in high gear for the rest of the week. There is a social services director position open at a care facility in Colfax, so I will be applying there. I am trying to avoid Idaho if possible, so I don't have to pay state income tax...but at this point I will take just about anything. I did get a tutoring position at WSU again, but it is one night a week, and that might pay for a gallon of milk or two. I will be grateful...and have sufficient calcium.

So again, please wish me luck!