A Week in the Life of a Social Worker

So I've decided to share a bit of my world. The experiences I have on a weekly basis as a social worker. By no means is it a job that stands out as being great or even particularly difficult; however, you may find some of the stories interesting as they tend to point to larger problems with society. Typically, children placed in "the system" come from poor, poverty stricken families. Typically, abuse or neglect at the hands of parental figures cause children to be removed from their home and placed into foster care. Once in foster care, it's truly a game of Russian roulette. Some foster parents want to help the kids, others are simply seeking a paycheck. Intentions become apparent fairly quickly. Often times, the kiddos entering the system exhibit any number of troubling behaviors. Many have been sexually and physically abused. Many know more about drugs than the caseworkers assigned to their cases. Eight year olds are very familiar with the human anatomy of the opposite sex and usually by the time they are sixteen, teenage girls are VERY sexually active, many raise children of their own while still in foster care. Many have been diagnosed as bi-polar, anti-social, or just plain crazy. They are ostracized by peers, treated as pets by foster parents, yet sometimes have as many as eight fairly well-educated adults tracking their progress. Notice up until now, I have not mentioned love. Often times, the lives of these children are as black and white as this page. They are forced to grow up much earlier than they should, often unprepared for the challenges that face them.

Anyway, whether this becomes an outlet for work-related frustration and anger or a project soon abandoned stands unknown at this point. I guess we'll just have to see.