Greetings from Social Work Land!

JanatheShort

JanatheShort

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Hello everyone! :wave:

I'm a new member, a social work major in college who wants to learn more about the deaf culture and ASL to be a better social worker to children and families. I'm also here because I have always wanted to learn sign langauge, but was too shy to try and learn in a class in the past. I'm braver now and ready to learn some ASL, listen to some discussions, and hopefully make some friends!

I have a million questions, there are a million things I want to know or to understand better... but will hang out a while, listen to the discussions, and then later jump in with questions/thoughts/etc.
 
JanatheShort said:
Hello everyone! :wave:

I'm a new member, a social work major in college who wants to learn more about the deaf culture and ASL to be a better social worker to children and families. I'm also here because I have always wanted to learn sign langauge, but was too shy to try and learn in a class in the past. I'm braver now and ready to learn some ASL, listen to some discussions, and hopefully make some friends!

I have a million questions, there are a million things I want to know or to understand better... but will hang out a while, listen to the discussions, and then later jump in with questions/thoughts/etc.
Click to expand...

:wave: How tall are you? :hmm:
 
I think I will like you. You skip all the small stuff and go directly to the soul-searching questions!

I am five feet tall. Five foot one and a half if I wear heels, or make my hair tall. Five foot three if I do both.

I rarely do either.
 
JanatheShort said:
I think I will like you. You skip all the small stuff and go directly to the soul-searching questions!

I am five feet tall. Five foot one and a half if I wear heels, or make my hair tall. Five foot three if I do both.

I rarely do either.
Click to expand...

My stepmother was a psychiatric social worker although now long retired.

So I am predisposed to like people in that profession. :)

I am 5'4" and 3/4, so I am a veritable giant.
 
I am in awe of your tallness, oh heightful one! LOL

Psychiatric social workers are pretty amazing. Two of my classmates want to do that. Depressed people make me depressed, so it's a bad career for me.

I want to work with children and families when I graduate... I'm doing an internship in that field now. I think the organization I work for had four children with hearing problems last year. Not sure how many they have currently or how severe the hearing losses are, since my first day is Wednesday.

I'm thinking about doing international social work or becoming a professor later.
 
:wave:JanatheShort,

One of my college majors was Sociology. I took various soc. and Social Work classes and after college ended up as a Case manger working with adults with cognitive disabilities and on the severe end of the autism spectrum.

My aunt is a psychiatric social worker with gangs in CA. She has worked as a therapist with many different populations.

I'm short and littleI don't know what the numbers are since I suck with math - have LD.
Units of measurement mean nothing to me.
 
Hello and welcome to this sometimes moronic paradise, Jana! :lol:
 
Dogmom, wow that is so interesting! I loved the sociology class I took last year.

You worked as a case manager?? Ohhhhhhhh awesome! Did you like it?? What were your favorite and least favorite things about working in that particular type of social work job?

Your aunt works with GANGS??? Wow. I am impressed. I think I would be too scared.

Oh you are short too? AWESOME! Short people will one day unite and take over the world. I'm sure of it. LOL
 
welcome.

I believe that jana is your first name. Jana is a very pretty name. Actually I gave my daughters name as well. :)

in case, curious why did your mom picked the name for you? hehe
 
Thanks Frisky! Actually my real name is Janet but everyone online calls me Jana or JanaBanana. Jana is much prettier than Janet.
 
JanatheShort said:
Thanks Frisky! Actually my real name is Janet but everyone online calls me Jana or JanaBanana. Jana is much prettier than Janet.
Click to expand...



hahah yes I called my daughter nickname Banana too. She isn't fond of it but she only allows her poppa to call her banana, not me. LOL So your name is Janet. Gotcha! ;)
 
haha Awwwwww... only her dad can call her Banana. I used to babysit a girl named Hannah, I called her Banana too.
 
:wave: Jana

I don't know that I had a lot of purely "favorite" and "least favorite" things...I learned a lot from my Case Manager job, the clients taught me much as well as the other staff...some of the challenges were:

being the "go-between" among call the people working with and interacting with the client - that might be: the job coach, the client's work site supervisor, apartment manager, family members, client roommate, my own supervisors...

trying to retain "person-first" and "client-centered planning" as part of the above and also help clients frame goals or ideas - e.g.: "I want to be an airplane pilot" or "I want work on or to fly big planes" - well, how can we re-frame that?
what is someone really trying to get at underneath that...
so "why?"
client: I get to wear these pins and special cap and people like/admire/talk to me...

so, how can we take that to client goals or activities? what can we learn from that?

how can clients work together?? how can we build on strengths??

client sexual abuse...that was difficult, people with cognitive disabilities are more likely to have been abused or exploited at one time or another

As a person with a learning disability, I had a certain perspective and could relate...I was <am> also out as a bisexual person in case anyone wanted to discuss their orientation or general GBLTQ stuff with me. So I really appreciated being able to be there in that regard.

another challenge- clients with "dual diagnosis" - clients with cognitive disabilities and severe and persistent mental illness...

poverty...and guardianship issues...

medication management

paperwork, especially among agencies, and applying for rep payee stuff

-there's alot of stuff that happens day-to-day that college coursework doesn't prepare you for. S#@@t may literally and figuratively hit the fan and the supervisor is not available and the client is lost/combative/giving birth/homeless...take your pick....

-----------

in relation to ASL - I first took ASL as a class in college, taught by a hearing man, not so great....also during college worked in a rec. program for d/Deaf students and students with disabilities and there, learned more about ASL. The program had Deaf adult staff and one year, Deaf or CODA supervisor.
That was more of an overall learning and positive experience than the formal class.

My aunt has mixed feelings about her current work and she does work with some people who are hateful/hurtful...but she tries to see below that and not focus on ego <fear>It can be difficult.
She meditates and does a lot of spiritual stuff. She's Buddhist.
 
Dogmom, the idea of reframing is pretty interesting... I will also remember that for my work. Being the go-between might drive me crazy... I love organizing things (and people) but keeping track of humans who ometimes do and sometimes do not fulfill hteir roles... mmm. Not so cool. Guardianship also seems sad... did you have more trouble with people fighting over who got to take care of the client, or more people fighting over who HAD to take care of the client?

Yikes on dual diagnosis... teaching someone who is impaird in other ways how to manage a mental illness seems really complicated.

I guess when the crap all hits the fan, all you can do is wing it and hope for a really good supervisor? Any suggestions on how to deal with that?

Danggggggggg.... I would have to meditate a LOT to handle the gang members. That is one very sad situation. Have you heard of Healther Gruell? I watched her speak at our university about her work with a class of kids in a gang-ridden neighborhood... very interesting.

Hmm... interesting to see how you learned ASL. I hope eventually I'll have an opportunity to interact with the deaf/hoh population in a more natural environment... but no idea how to do that yet. :) Hoping the class will help.

Thanks for sharing your experience with me... it's really really interesting to see what someone working in the social service field actually DID in a certain job. :o)
 
Read the first post interestingly enough I am in college to be a child and youth worker. I deal with children's behaviours. I can work in many settings im actually hoping for residential work setting. i'm short too. I'm 4'8 actually. I want to work with kids who have had the same problems as me in the past. Such as self-esteem and had made bad choices of coping mechanisms. i"m only in my first year.
 
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