Reflection

The way I used my creativity was helping to come up with a solution on how to help the patient in need. I may not have had much input what I did contribute they took into consideration, and as well as when my mentor was talking to me about many cases and how much they changed her life, and when she explained the decisions she made, I would create my own scenarios and make my own decisions with the well-being of the patient in mind. I used my communication skills by talking to the other social workers and seeing how it is that they do their job and what they do in order to accomplish everything they need to do. I've also learned that I need to listen to everything that occurs around me because it could be relevant to a case that I can be handling or dealing with.

What I gained from this capstone project, socially I would have to say that I feel a lot more comfortable talking to people now and actually being open and putting my own opinion out there without having to feel scared about what other people are going to think, I've learned that my communication skills aren't as bad I thought they would be. Personally I learned that I am a lot stronger than I give myself the credit for. I know that I am a very emotional person and that a lot things do make me want to cry, but I also know that with years of practice and if I can maintain myself then I can do anything and I can help out anybody that needs the help.

There were a lot of challenges that I had to encounter, for example the commute from San Bruno all the way to San Francisco after school. I'd have to take Bart, and then my mentor would be nice enough to drop me back off at home, and even on the car ride back we'd continue to talk about more cases and how the life of a social worker is. I learned that being a social worker your schedule has to be very flexible because you never know what will occur or who will need you right away. I learned that I need to control my emotions which I think will be the biggest obstacle for me, I encountered that by thinking about the brighter things, the brighter outcomes that are yet to come.

Farewell

It's amazing to see the drastic change that social workers make on a persons life. I never even realized how much they mean to the world until I witnessed one first hand my 7th grade year, and now that I see how many different types of social workers there are it makes me just that much more excited to keep learning and engaging myself in the different types of fields. It's sad to say goodbye, but I know that my journey is only just beginning and I have so much ahead of me.

Last hours pt.3

Another thing that popped up into the conversation was, wage. Of course everybody knows that social workers don't make a lot of money, and honestly that has never been a factor for me or even been remotely close to changing my opinion on what it is I want to do. They don't make as much as other occupations make, and I have to come to realize that. But one thing that she said to me that really made me not care about my wage was the rewarding feeling you get after you help someone that you can't get with a million dollars. Being able to help, is more than enough "money" for me. I don't need a lot of money in order for me to feel like I can live well, with me helping and making a difference in the world, that worth more than winning the lottery.

Last hours pt.2

As I was talking to a couple more of the social workers they told me about how it was going to school and what they had to go through in order to be where they are now. I've heard a lot of different opinions and I honestly don't know who to believe. One of the social workers told me to take sociology as a minor and to major in social work. While another told me to minor in social work but to major in sociology because that's what got him to where he is now. Although I don't know which one I'm supposed to major or minor in at least I know that whatever I choose to do it'll get me far.

Last hours pt. 1

It was such a bittersweet moment to have ended this journey. In many occasions I didn't want to keep going, just because of all the cases I had heard and about all the things can happen on scene, and you have to know how to act and what to do at that exact moment. As my mentor said, she felt like quitting a lot of times too, yet she didn't. This gives me the motivation to keep going and never let anyone tell me I can't make something of myself.

Mixed Emotions

Sometimes I feel like I'm not cut out for this job and sometimes it feels like I'm not capable of maintaining myself to keep it together. Yet again, I want to be able to help kids and tell them that everything will be okay and that things will get better. That everything happens for a reason. I may not want to help kids with special needs to be specific, but I do know that I want to be able to help all kids, in any situation that they've been through, because they are our future.

How I feel

Seeing all of this and actually getting to experience a lot of these cases first hand seems to amaze me every time. I've been through a social worker and know how much it sucks to have to listen to them and have to take all their advice in, but at the same time not wanting to because you feel as if you don't need their help at all. However, I knew that all they were trying to do was help me be better and make something of myself. To now let this bump on the road knock me over and prevent me from getting him and keep moving forward. Seeing how passionate she is with her work, and with what she does, makes me feel that I can be just that if I work hard enough and if I can focus on doing just that.

Her feelings

The case with the epilepsy and the case with the couple plus the case with the baby girl who passed away, were all reasons that made her want to quit. Especially when the epilepsy and couple passed away in the same month, but the wife in the couple had told her to always follow her heart and what she wants to do, and just because things are starting to get a little rough, that that doesn't mean its not worth it. Till this day she thanks her because if it weren't for her wise words, she would not be here right now, helping all the people she's helped.

Case #4 (Continued part 2)

As he was still kept in hospice she said she remembered that the case manager of the home was being very demanding. She said that my mentor wasn't doing all that was needed for him when they were trying to advocate to bring his phone bill down. Yet her manager didn't know that she had spent hours with him doing just that. She remembers having a lot of heated discussions with her manager due to the conflicting opinions on what should be done and what shouldn't. She would go visit him at the hospice a lot of times, and would bring him a burrito because that was his favorite food. She believes that that was the last time she ever saw him before he passed away.

Case #4 (continued)

My mentor talked about her approach and how she handled his case, she said she tried treating him like she would with anyone else. No special attention would be needed in this case. She would push him to do things, yet she'd be straight forward and to the point. Due to this she won his trust over. He soon was diagnosed HIV positive, he had a lot of partners and continued to pursue many gay scenes. Soon after, he was positive for AIDS which he later was admitted into a hospice. My mentor assisted him to be transferred from a skilled nursing facility to a hospice where they would take better care of him. She said that she would try to make him feel better by joking around with him saying that he had a lot more makeup than she did, and would ever have.

Case #4?

So this next case that I was introduced to was about a man who had epilepsy and had a very high functioning. He was gay and was very dependent on a lot of things as well. He was very abusive and he was considered to me "mentally retarded". Although my mentor believed that he wasn't at the center due to his "mental retardation" but due to his epilepsy. He soon left the center to go move back in with his family, yet she didn't transfer him to the center in east bay because she knew how much he loved to be in the city and how much he just loved San Francisco. Another reason why she never let go of his case was because she didn't want to give the case to another social worker because that social workers life would be very difficult after having to deal with him.

Today

So today, I went down there to visit my mentor once more. I had to get a tour again because for some reason you just can't get used to the fact that there are about a million hallways that you can go through. I sat through a meeting about the same case I had last time, and it's amazing to see how engaged people are and how amazing it is to see a whole bunch of people just get together and talk about everything, and actually take time to plan out how their going to make her life better. These social workers always seem to amaze me and keep inspiring me to want to be a social worker even more because I know that there aren't a lot of social workers who do their job the way this center does theirs.

Her experience (continued)

We talked for what seemed to be hours, although it was only like 2. She has been with the Golden Gate Regional Center for almost 30 years, and she has learned to endure different things. Every day is a learning experience for her because she doesn't know what will walk into her door or what kind of case she will have next. She's not so much in the field anymore, but she does train and manage her team to be one of the best throughout this center. She specifically said that it's this "excitement" that still manages to keep her there and keep her wanting to know more and find out a lot more than she has seen already.

Her experience

We finally had some time to sit down and simply talk more about her experience and how everything flows together and why it flows together with her. Here's a little background history on her, her sister has a condition, to be exact I'm not too sure. However, she knew and learned how to deal with her sister and she loved her sister dearly. So as she was growing older she realized that what she wanted to do was to help out kids that were like her sister, because she knew that that wouldn't be an easy task, yet she also knew that someone had to do it, or else nobody would.

Continuation

Anyway, what happened was that the baby was soon born and there were a lot of complications to her, and a lot of work had to be done. Her parents weren't going to give up though. They fought and they still continued to fight for their baby girl. Until sadly, the baby girl passed away. This was a tragic accident and because the patient was so young this almost drove my mentor to quit being a social worker. But one thing she learned was that, her parents learned to appreciate everything a lot more, and they said it was all thanks to her.

Another case

As we still continued to talk and discuss how it was going to be for me to actually be a social worker, she told me about what other types of cases she had to endure. For example she talked about this one case where, it was a couple and they weren't disabled or anything of that matter. So why were they in this social workers office right? Well, turns out their baby was diagnosed Down syndrome. So it wasn't the parents who were there for them, but for their child.