The (a)typical week of a social worker

Monday: Come into the office to the dreaded red light on my phone, spend the morning answering/avoiding phone calls, and then leave for a far away visit. Because social workers have to drive long distances to see their clients.

Tuesday: Paperwork. Do a visit for another coworker who did NO visits for the month before she was transferred/promoted. In between visits, wait in McDonalds... a woman recognizes the county cell phone, asks if I am a social worker, then launches a tirade about how her children were taken from her and adopted away. She's emotional and manic. Another random woman (kids also taken away) commiserates/sympathizes with her. Eventually, even that second woman notices that the first woman is a little nutso and slowly walks away. More of her talking just confirmed the fact: She mentions she was psychiatric hospitalizations and then I even notice suicide gashes on her arms... the vertical ones along the vein meaning they really wanted to kill themselves. Nice. I wonder why her kids were taken away. I told her "well, I think it's best at this time to focus on YOU... you're still going to West Central (Dept of Mental Health), right?"

Wednesday: More last minute visits. Heaven forbid you should be sick, because then then you're rushing at the end to do your visits and make up for other people's not doing their visits. Listen to concerns from a caregiver that one of the kids she cares for might have been sexually abused in the past. Joy. And then come back to hear that one of my kids (8 years old!) was put on a 5150 (72 hour psychiatric hold). Sad. Visit him at the hospital.

Thursday: More relaxed. It's the first of the month, so I'm getting TONS of calls "Where's my bus pass?" Ugh. Stop by my favorite dead beats / crack heads to show the court "reasonable services" even though they clearly don't care about their daughter. Surprisingly, they're not there.

Friday: Come into work even though it's my regular day off to write the court report for the coworker that transferred without writing it. Did I mention that I don't know this case at all and the only information she documented was "CSW made regularly appointed home call." Nothing about the condition of the home, her observations...NOTHING that could indicate what recommendations I should even make. Boo.