[humanser] Why did you choose your particular Human services profession?

Mon Oct 30 01:11:56 UTC 2017

Ashley – are you youth centers near you where the clients come to the center and you could work at it? Or possibly after school programs where clients are already located at school and you could work with them there? Karen

Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 29, 2017, at 5:41 PM, Ashley Bramlett via HumanSer <humanser at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Cheryl,
> 
> Your story and passion struck me.
> First, I can identify with those blind people who are college grads with little experience at work or in the world for that matter. I grew up with few friends and while my parents took me to typical kid outings and cultural attractions including parks, amusement parks, and Disney World,
> I did not have a typical childhood. Then, while my teenage friends were dating, driving their first car, and of course working part time, I did not. So, again my world was limited and my experience atypical.
> I never saw much of the real world till way into college when I finally got an internship.
> 
> So, your passion to  help people like I was, those 22 plus with little work experience, struck me.
> Did you finish rehab counseling degree?
> Its true regular rehab counselors do not counsel and IMO they should be called case workers because they are truly just managing a case, not counseling. But, Cheryl, there is a huge need for what you describe!
> Why not go into private practice helping blind clients? Found a nonprofit perhaps.
> You know the issues, you have the passion, and you have the skills for it all.
> 
> You could fill a void in which  regular rehab does not do. Part of the issue is what you said, many referrals and lack of funding for programs that will actually work.
> 
> Something to think about. Your dream may not be viable as a regular rehab counselor in the state agencies for the blind, but I see no reason why it cannot work as a private entity.
> 
> As for me, I'm still job hunting and wish to work in some sort of communications or human service area.
> A huge barrier for me is the requirement to drive. I come across part time ads all the time for activity leaders at senior centers, teen centers and community centers.
> As you all may know, this job combines your recreation skills and your empathetic communication skills to interact with the clients or participants.
> Cheryl,
> 
> Your story and passion struck me.
> First, I can identify with those blind people who are college grads with little experience at work or in the world for that matter. I grew up with few friends and while my parents took me to typical kid outings and cultural attractions including parks, amusement parks, and Disney World,
> I did not have a typical childhood. Then, while my teenage friends were dating, driving their first car, and of course working part time, I did not. So, again my world was limited and my experience atypical.
> I never saw much of the real world till way into college when I finally got an internship.
> 
> So, your passion to  help people like I was, those 22 plus with little work experience, struck me.
> Did you finish rehab counseling degree?
> Its true regular rehab counselors do not counsel and IMO they should be called case workers because they are truly just managing a case, not counseling. But, Cheryl, there is a huge need for what you describe!
> Why not go into private practice helping blind clients? Found a nonprofit perhaps.
> You know the issues, you have the passion, and you have the skills for it all.
> 
> You could fill a void in which  regular rehab does not do. Part of the issue is what you said, many referrals and lack of funding for programs that will actually work.
> 
> Something to think about. Your dream may not be viable as a regular rehab counselor in the state agencies for the blind, but I see no reason why it cannot work as a private entity.
> 
> As for me, I'm still job hunting and wish to work in some sort of communications or human service area.
> A huge barrier for me is the requirement to drive. I come across part time ads all the time for activity leaders at senior centers, teen centers and community centers.
> As you all may know, this job combines your recreation skills and your empathetic communication skills to interact with the clients or participants.
> It only requires a high school degree, plus some experience with that population among other skills such as good oral and written communication skills. I'm therefore overqualified in most respects.
> However, the job ad requires you to have a driver's license and ability to drive their vans. In other words, you have to actually drive in the job to transport your participants.
> Therefore, they will not consider me.
> 
> I don't know if you like what you are doing now Cheryl, but if you have  a passion to help young blind adults or simply adults who have not been given opportunities, I say go for it.
> 
> Ashley
> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: Cheryl Wade via HumanSer
> Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2017 9:43 AM
> To: Jonathan Franks via HumanSer
> Cc: Cheryl Wade
> Subject: Re: [humanser] Why did you choose your particular Human services profession?
> 
> Dear Jonathan and List,
> 
> 
> Boy, am I glad you asked this question! I think I actually could use
> some therapy just to make  sense of my decision and clean up the fallout.
> 
> 
> I chose to leave journalism and become a rehabilitation counselor
> because I knew so many people who were blind and who pretty much stayed
> in their apartments or lived with their parents. They hardly ever got
> around in their communities, had tiny nuclear groups of friends and,
> most of all, seemed to have no expectation at all that they ever would
> go to work.
> 
> 
> This problem grieved me for years. I decided I wanted to specialize in a
> practice with blind individuals at least 22 years old who never had
> worked for pay, and perhaps were overprotected by their parents. I
> actually wrote an outline of a program to deal with these problems.
> 
> 
> About two-thirds of the way through my program, I realized the system
> was not, not ever, going to support me in this goal. Whereas I wanted to
> search out these people on my own, the system is based on referrals and
> selection of service and, oh, my, there's no money to do that.. I also
> learned that I never would be an employment therapist. I would be a
> gopher, a case manager, pushing papers to get people into services but
> never, ever helping them deal with the root causes of their difficult
> lives. In my first job, I did indeed work as an employment therapist,
> but we had no technology or assessments in place to determine function
> or skills. It was just, do it, however you want. It was wonderful but I
> now have very little feedback to report from clients.
> 
> 
> So now I'm purely on the therapeutic side, licking my wounds that by now
> have festered and grown old. I am so sad, so disappointed, so terribly
> frustrated with my naive behavior. Now I have to answer questions like,
> "so, if we hire you, can we bill for your work?" I once was flatly
> turned down to even be looked at for a position in therapeutic work
> because, "you're just rehab." All my social work buddies were diagnosing
> folks and familiar with all kinds of disorders. My professor in the DSM
> class in the rehab program told us, "you won't have to make any
> diagnoses; the psych folks do that." While I was terribly relieved to
> know I wouldn't have to label people with disorders I'd not become
> familiar enough with, I quickly understood I would need to be one of the
> "psych folks."
> 
> 
> Please forgive my rant. I want to let college students understand that
> the two forms of counseling are very different and that, in Michigan at
> least, rehab counselors don't have much time for counseling.
> 
> 
> Cheryl Wade, MA, LLPC, CRC
> 
> 
>> On 10/18/2017 7:05 AM, Jonathan Franks via HumanSer wrote:
>> Fellow Federationists,
>> Many of us know that Human Services carries a vast range of different
>> types of professions. Also, many of us chose this field for a certain
>> reason. Whether you are working in your academic career or are already
>> an  established human services professional, we are all working to
>> serve our fellow human being. The question is why did you choose your
>> particular field and what drove you to make that decision?
>> 
>> Warm regards,
>> 
>> Jonathan Franks BSW
>> 1st Vice President
>> National Federation of the Blind Human Services Division
>> Graduate Student
>> MSW Program
>> Texas State University
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
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