May 2009 - Awake and Dreaming

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dreamer takes a sick day

If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll have noticed a trend, for a relatively healthy 22 year old, I'm really not all that healthy. I'd given up posting about my sinuses, but in the past eight weeks, I've been to urgent...

Published 30 May 2009 2:11 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: life, sick, whining
Housing Part Four: Barriers to Safe Housing

So now that I’ve written about kinds of housing, reason people need housing, and what safe housing looks like, it’s only fitting to consider some of the barriers to safe housing. Why, in an industrialized nation such as Canada doesn’t everyone have safe...

Published 28 May 2009 11:01 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: beurocracy, homelessness, mental health, thoughts
Housing Part Three: What is Safe Housing?

What is SAFE housing? Now that we’ve looked at the types of housing and the reasons a person may need housing, I think it’s important to discuss what SAFE housing is. I happen to believe that all of the options I went through two days ago have the potential...

Published 27 May 2009 10:59 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)
Housing Part Two: Who needs housing?

I’m assuming that the majority of people reading this blog have some form of safe housing. This is simply based on what I know about the demographics of those who comment. However, I’m also going to make the assumption that at some point in our lives...

Published 26 May 2009 10:58 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: homelessness, mental health, thoughts
Housing Part One: Types of Housing

CB’s recent post about housing inspired me to do a short series of my own on housing, from a few different perspectives and looking at different types of housing as well as the different problems facing those who are looking for and attempting to maintain...

Published 25 May 2009 10:55 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: homelessness, thoughts
Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia

I had one of those eye opening moments the other day. We had a client present with all the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, and virtually no positive ones. Actually, rather then realizing that she had gone off her meds, we assumed she was on too many...

Published 23 May 2009 3:30 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: counseling, learning, mental health, thoughts, work
What I'm Reading this Week: Beyond the Razor's Edge

Redheffer, J. and Brecht, S. (2005). Beyond the razor’s edge: Journey of healing and hope beyond self injury . New York: iUniverse Inc. I don’ t usually publish book review of books I don’t like, but this one, well, there was something about it that made...

Published 22 May 2009 2:48 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: book review
Staff Meetings...

We had a staff meeting yesterday. All the staff in our organization. I can't say I was impressed. I am NOT good at sitting still for 2.5 hours listening to stuff that is mostly irelevant to me. Then our executive director was all like "how come...

Published 21 May 2009 1:32 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: pet peeves, staff relations, the intrepid one, whining, work
Poems on the Spot

He sits on the corner near my house. His sign says Poems on the spot It's his way of panhandling From his wheelchair He's a strange man I've tried for a long time To break down those walls Sitting with him At the Salvation Army His duct tape...

Published 18 May 2009 5:21 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: homelessness, thoughts
dreamer finds a boy (oh wait, I'm supposed to call him a "man")

You may have been wondering what happeneded to the dreamer over the past couple weeks. Where have her deeply insightful and thought provoking posts gone? Well, there is a simple answer, as happens to many of us, the dreamer has found herself a boyfriend...

Published 16 May 2009 5:30 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: intake, life, sophie, spiritual direction, the intrepid one, work
What I'm Reading this Week: Bad Therapy

Kottler, J.A. and Carlson, J. (2003). Bad therapy: Master therapists share their worst failures . New York: Brunner – Routledge. When I saw the title of this book staring out at me from the shelf I was immediately intrigued. Bad Therapy? Who writes about...

Published 15 May 2009 2:44 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: book review
Read More...

Published 14 May 2009 4:34 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)
The Service Eater

Most social workers have dealt with these clients. The clients who have been to every program under the sun and hope that yours will give them that something they need, that one extra push etc… The question is, what do you do with them? Something I’ve...

Published 10 May 2009 2:57 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: counseling, mental health, work
What I'm reading this week: Cracked

Pinksy, D with Gold, T. (2003). Cracked: Putting broken lives together again, a doctor's story. New York: Regan Books. I'll be honest, I liked this book until I realized who wrote it. Not being up on popular culture, I didn't realize that...

Published 9 May 2009 3:55 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: book review, substance use
Borderline Personality Disorder

You know, I’d never really understood the hype about Borderline Personality Disorder; I kind of thought of it as an over diagnosed phenomenon with a huge stigma attached to it. I’m starting to get it. I have a client with a diagnosis of BPD. I have one...

Published 8 May 2009 2:53 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: mental health, staff relations, thoughts, work
deinstitutionalization

Let me start by saying that I realize I'm touching on a controversial subject. I'm going to talk about it anyway. A few nights ago I was at a meeting about disability rights legislation. Yay advocacy and policy development! Anyway, at the end...

Published 7 May 2009 3:38 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: harm reduction, health care, mental health, thoughts, treatment
Spiritual Direction

So this evening, I went for my first session of spiritual direction. Or maybe that's too clinical. Perhaps I'll say, this evening I met with a spiritual director for the first time. It's something a mentor of mine suggested to me when I was...

Published 6 May 2009 3:23 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: counseling, life, me, spiritual direction
long time no post.

I'm still not posting much. I was out a lot today, no time for writing. Church, yoga, gelati, dinner, tossing around a frisbee with friends. Much to do. BUT, for those of you who twitter... So does Sophie Cat!!! Follow her on twitter :) http://twitter...

Published 4 May 2009 3:52 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: life, sophie, twitter
the investigation is over!

I wish I could do this to Mr. boss man at the shelter, unfortunatly, that would definitly get me in worse trouble then I was in. Some of you may recall that I was being formally investigated for unprofessional conduct...two months ago. Well, I finally...

Published 1 May 2009 12:16 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Social Worker (with a little help from her Sophie Cat)

Filed under: attitudes, crying, me, staff relations, whining, work

May 2009 - Awake and Dreaming

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dreamer takes a sick day

Housing Part Four: Barriers to Safe Housing

Housing Part Three: What is Safe Housing?

Housing Part Two: Who needs housing?

Housing Part One: Types of Housing

Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia

What I'm Reading this Week: Beyond the Razor's Edge

Staff Meetings...

Poems on the Spot

dreamer finds a boy (oh wait, I'm supposed to call him a "man")

What I'm Reading this Week: Bad Therapy

The Service Eater

What I'm reading this week: Cracked

Borderline Personality Disorder

deinstitutionalization

Spiritual Direction

long time no post.

the investigation is over!