Inserting thoughts into brains one child at a time!

I love the work that I do. I love what the role stands for in general. Caring for the underserved and disadvantaged populations of the world. Taking a non-judgemental stance when working with people and analyzing their big picture and empowering each and every person. Listening to the client and hearing what it is they need as opposed to what the "system" believes that they need. These are the fundamental characteristics of social work, and for the most part they are transferable from the US to the UK. Beyond those basic ideas that this work is predicated on, there is little that is the same. I have wanted for some time to write about the major differences between social work in the US and social work in the UK. Many of my colleagues and the student social workers ask me if it is very different....and the truth is, it REALLY is incredibly different.

First off social work in the UK is almost entirely associated with Child Protection. Part of the struggle in my current role, is trying to reduce the stigma that is associated with being a social worker in this country. While there is a stigma that is similar in The States, i.e. if you are a social worker, your job is to take people's children away, it is much more pronounced here. You even say the words "social worker" and you can watch people shifting their weight in their chairs and tensing up almost instantly. At one meeting, I introduced myself to about 50 parents, one of them expressed fears that I was going to "put thoughts in their child's head". As irrational as that may sound, I respect her fear as it has been fostered over many years of media vomit about the shortcomings of social service in this country. I really can't stress enough how much people genuinely HATE social workers here. Several of my schools have even asked "can we tell families that you are something other than a social worker?" I politely say "no you may not". If I wasn't called a social worker, and families actually began to trust me and realise that I am not some malevolent villain, how would the perception of social workers ever change? Not to mention I worked my a** off to get to where I am and I earned the title!

As some of you reading this may know, social work in the States is actually quite clinical... hence the title "Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)". In the States, social work is arguably the most versatile graduate degree one can have. You can work in a hospital, a prison, an outpatient clinic, a rehab, a school... the list goes on. But in each of these posts there is some level of therapeutic work going on. Particularly in schools. In every school across America, Elementary, Middle, and High School, there is a social worker doing some sort of work that at least has clinical components. Here, in the UK, there are not social workers in every school. Schools actually have to "buy" a social worker from the local government and they are not in the same school every day. They bounce from school to school, being at each only one day per week. That, of course, has it's ups and downs. I like having a different atmosphere every day, but it is incredibly difficult to sustain relationships with parents, children, and school staff when only seeing them one day a week.

Another major difference is that in the UK they have 7 different people in 7 different positions to do the job that 1 social worker does in the US. In every school they have a Home School Support Worker, a Learning Mentor, a Behaviour Support worker, an Attendance Welfare Advisor, a Special Education Needs Coordinator, a Child Protection Lead, and a school Counsellor. In the US one social worker does the jobs of all of these people. You can imagine that for families it can be frustrating to have involvement with so many different members of staff. It has been difficult for me as well, as I am trying to solidify for myself and for the schools what exactly my role is. There is so much overlap with these other workers that it can get very confusing and has sometimes left me asking the question "why did this school even ask for a social worker"?

The truth is, a social worker is really the only person out of the aforementioned group that is qualified to do all of those jobs..., and from the way that senior management has been talking lately, I think they are attempting to make a shift towards putting a social worker in every school and try to slowly get rid of some of the other positions.

Even in other positions, other than schools, social workers are basically, what we know in the US to be, glorified case managers. Basically just assessing and making outside referrals, making sure files are up to date, etc. For example, even in Community Mental Health Teams, there are many social workers, none of whom are doing any direct provision of mental health treatment, which I find quite shocking. They are basically "assistants" to the psychologists and therapists. In the US, in settings such as these, social workers and psychologists work side by side, doing the same exact therapeutic work.

I feel very fortunate to have acquired the position that I did because there is so much opportunity for autonomy and for my own interpretation of the role. I have made it very clear that mental health is my interest, and I feel certain that the schools are understanding the type of work that I am capable of doing. I actually just received a referral yesterday for a mom who is suffering from severe panic attacks and her GP (General Practitioner, aka what we know as a family doctor) is doing nothing to help her. The school, knowing my background and training, directed her to me for treatment. I am hoping that those are the sorts of things that I will continue to do within the schools, because that is what I love. And I certainly didn't go to school for six long years to be a case manager! Again, I think my previous experience played a huge part in why I was actually hired...a qualified social worker that was trained completely different from every other in this country.

Well, all of this should give you some idea of what I'm talking about when I say "It's VERY different!" And now, I must head to my wonderful job for the day and then come home and pack to get ready for GERMANY TOMORROW!!! Woot Woot!!!!

I'll be sure to let you in on all of the crazy details when I return! Happy Easter everyone, and I hope you have a great holiday weekend!

P.s. Yes Dad, relax, I will get you a damn Harley Davidson t-shirt from the motherland!

I Love Me Some Scotts

Well Scotland is quite something! Edinburgh was one of the most beautiful cities I have seen, in my limited experience. Cobblestone streets and buildings that have seen the likes of hundreds of years, weathered and worn. Beautiful, happy people...really just a damn good time. We set off for The Calcutta Cup which is the rugby game between arch rivals, England and Scotland. I also had a separate agenda of finding the equivalent of Scottish born Gerard Butler and having him fall in love with me in under 48 hours and proposing to me in the castle....

Hmmm.... *sigh*......

I was itching to get out of work on Friday and basically bounced the whole walk home because I was so excited for my first bit of European travelling. The whole trip seemed to be defined by "just made it in the nick of time" type moments. By the time my flatmate and I left the house we realized it was too late to take the tube because we would have had to switch trains and what not. We had to take a train from Kings Cross to Luton Airport, so we decided to take a cab to the station. To our dismay, when we walked in there was a horrifically long line for tickets... and our train was going to leave in 7 minutes. Shari ran over to a rather portly, balding, worker and after just a few seconds, waved me over. After working her charms ever so cleverly, the man let us jump the line and we literally RAN down to the train and the doors closed right after we jumped on, panting from the full on sprint. We got to the airport with literally 15 minutes to spare before our flight left, and were the last ones on the plane! It was a close one all the way around...

I have heard people gush about staying at hostels for years, but have never had the experience myself. After imagining it for so long, I suppose I had morphed the concept into some sort of twilight zone experience. Well let me tell you...I wasn't that far off!

As soon as I walked in the door of Castle Rock Hostel (voted number 10 in the world) I fell in love. Suits of armor populate the corners and funky pictures of castle-esque themes adorn the walls. And the people are incredible and are all there for the same purpose. Because they are young, love to travel, experience new things, and have a lets get crunk kinda time.

So basically... it's college life, frozen in these little accommodations all over the world. And it is fan-freaking-tastic!

This was how night #1 went....

We went out shortly after arriving and made our way down to a stretch of pubs on a street below the hostel. Some French men joined our table and chatted with us for a good hour or two. They also were in town because of the Rugby game and 16 of them had traveled to Edinburgh for their friends bachelor party (whom they managed to pressure into wearing a kilt the entire time). They also pretty much saved our entire weekend by informing us that the game was actually on Saturday, as opposed to Sunday like we thought. WOW. That could have been TRAGIC. Thank God for the Frenchmen!

We then travelled down the lane to Biddy Mulligans, which we became "regulars" at in just a short weekend. Several pints and a jagerbomb later, I remember a strange young man with a bic'd head, his older awkward friend, and the whole pub breaking out into song every ten minutes. Scottish people LOVE to sing... they sing all the time, in unison. It was one of my favorite things about Edinburgh.

Back at the hostel, Shari was talking to the front desk guy (she has been at this hostel before) and I made my way to the Great Room. Think of it as a student lounge in college....aka the most freaking fun you could ever possibly have. It was like a straight shot of "youth" mainlined into the crick of my arm. I found my way to the nearest couch where a bunch of people were just hanging out. Met some guys from Romania and Spain... who were pretty cool... at least i think they were. I know we talked about my motorcycle, each others homelands, and what brought us to the hostel. At the young hour of...oh, hmmm.... about 5AM I finally crawled up to bed and didn't have to wait long for slumber to find me.

Day #2:

Went back to Biddy Mulligans for breakfast (bangin omelets). I wasn't moving too fast because I over did it on the "fun" the night before. Explored some cute shops picked up a souvenir or two, including my beloved travel gnome key chain which ended up being stolen from a bathroom (long story). Then we caught a bus and made our way to Murrayfield stadium for the gameeee!!

On the top of a double decker bus, we got the birds eye view of tens of thousands of people... half of them who were men in kilts... all making their way towards the stadium. Just like the Pats game we went to...the seats were FAB!


I had been praying all day that this would be the day I met my Gerard look-a-like...and while we were walking to our seats, I happened to catch the eye of the man I would be sitting next to. And he...he was....about the farthest from Gerard Butler one could get :( . Not even remotely close to Gerard. He was basically the complete and total opposite of him. What could have been my future husband, was actually five rows down from me, but because the universe hates my life, it wasn't destined to be. The only good part about sitting next to him was that he gave me his Scottish hat, and offered to buy me a drink. However, he came back with no drinks because he said the Police arrested him outside because they thought he was someone else. Riiiggghhhtttt. As Shari called him... "dodgy" very "dodgy". Unattractive AND a potential criminal, sweet! I was then harassed for my phone number and to have a drink with him after the game...luckily with some slick maneuvers I was able to escape that little scenario.

The game itself was rather boring as far as rugby games go. And even more anticlimactic was the fact that no one won. It was a tie! But the experience was phenomenal in itself. Hearing 60,000 Scottish people sing in unison, several times was pretty awesome. I really like the sport and hope to get more into it in my time here. After the game, went and had some Italian, then went back and passed out cold because my body said I wasn't allowed two nights in a row of all that fun.

Day # 3

Spent all day exploring the city. Architecturally breathtaking, with views of castles on every street and just a really cool old-world feel. One of those places where the structures seem to tell a story of the years gone by.

I was dreading the overnight bus trip back to London that left at 10pm. I'm not the type of individual that finds it easy to sleep on public transportation. So I thought it was a fantastic idea to do a pub crawl in order to make myself "drowsy" enough to sleep. Fast forward through six Scottish pubs later and I'm trailing behind Shari, backpack in tow, late for our bus, singing the "I would walk 500 miles" song in a poorly imitated Scottish accent the whole way.

Needless to say, I did sleep on the bus. Pretty much for the entire 10 hour ride. Arrived back in London at nearly 8am, managed to run home, shower and run to work by about 9:30. That was not a pleasant day.

So all in all, BOMB weekend. SO fun!! I am a traveller to my core and intend on doing a whole lot more of it!

Stay tuned for more adventures...and hopefully soon to come...another update on the job!

School Is Too Cool.

Those who know me well know that I've had my share of ups and downs. My downs were pretty far down. In fact they were comparable to living with Lucifer himself. I'd like to think that I learn from my mistakes, and if that's true... after a good solid 7 or 8 years straight of nothing but mistakes, theoretically, I could be the next edition of a Britannica Encyclopedia set with all of that knowledge. I fully believe that some wounds run too deep for time to mend. I've done so many things wrong in my life, and there are times when I look back on all those years and my heart gets heavy and I think "What would my Mom have thought of the person I was?" The weight of that is almost too much to bear, and I have to swallow hard to push the guilt back down.

There is one thing that negates my near-decade of faults and fumbles...and that is my education. Each year that goes by I value my education more and more. It is a powerful tool in the sense that even when I feel stripped and vulnerable, it serves as an impenatrable, untouchable sheild. And for me, it is the one thing that erases all of my wrongs, and I know with every fiber of my soul that if there is only one thing I did right... it was that. Even moreso, if there is one thing my Mom can be proud of me for, it is my six years of higher education. My heart is at peace when I think of such things.

My education acted as it's own entity, my own saving grace that plucked me from the wrong path and steered me toward the right one. My education brought me here. All of this is so clear to me now, being here in London, with this incredible job...living a life that I once thought could only be fantasy. I haven't even really started full force into the work in schools yet, but this job is everything I could have ever dreamed of for my career. I am so lucky and so blessed and I thank God every day.

Forgive how whimsical this all my sound, but the experience I am having in these last two weeks is like no other. It's like a convergence of the totalities of my life experience, meeting all in an East corner of London, known as the Isle of Dogs. I am so so so happy. And while I miss my dear friends and family back in the States....something about this feels inherently...right.

I will continue to update about actual, real details of the job....but I just had to get the mushy "I love my life" stuff out of the way. Thanks for following along, and I hope all of you are well!

Until next time, you stay classy ______ (insert name of city you occupy)!!!