[humanser] Internship issue

[Mary Chappell]

Sharon,
Congratulations on your internship placement. I too, am looking at VA's with
specific work in inpatient PTSD and in domiciliary housing for my
internship. I have found having the documents created in an accessible
format that is user-friendly for all works best. I work on an inpatient
general psychiatric unit where we've gone paperless. Nurses, social workers,
medical students, attending physicians, everyone appreciates my systemwide
forms. Consistency of form is maintained. All entries are legible, and
everything is accessible. In my training experiences the IT guy at DBVI has
drafted the forms. At my employer, a training hospital, the IT department
did the same. Her in DC there is a specific government based office that
addresses accessibility. I could put you in touch with a rep from that
office who, incidentally, is blind and could offer really pertinent
guidance. If interested, contact me off list at mtc5 at cox.net
Mary
. 

-----Original Message-----
From: humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Sharin
Sent: Monday, November 30, 2009 5:35 PM
To: 'Human Services Mailing List'
Subject: [humanser] Internship issue

Hey everybody,
 
I've been trying to come up with a solution to this and decided if anyone on
the list had any thoughts. I am a 2nd year MSW student. My field placement
is at the VA in the Domiciliary psychosocial rehab program. Although the VA
has a paperless system, there are still some printed materials, intake forms
and various housing apps, that social workers complete for their clients.
When I try to talk with my supervisor about how I can go about doing this,
she just says not to worry about it, that she can do these forms. However, I
find this to be completely unacceptable, especially since the VA often hires
interns. I will certainly not be hired if I need people to do my work for
me. I have thought of scanning the image and filling in answers to the
intake form on the computer and then printing out the form. However, I think
things often look different after they are printed out again. In terms of
the housing and other applications for my clients, I feel that they should
be filling them out and I could help them figure out what to write, since
out vets are supposed to be able to live with some level of independence.
But this doesn't seem to be the way things are done. Any suggestions would
be appreciated. 
 
Thanks,
Sharin