Awake and Dreaming - Other blogs - Social Work Blog

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

it shouldn't have to happen...but what to do?

One of the things that has puzzled me in my job is knowing that there are many homeless who don't sleep in shelters, and yet not knowing where they are sleeping. As I've gotten to know more and more people I've been able to gain insight into...

Published 27 Mar 2009 10:28 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a (not quite) Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: alcohol, intoxication, IPDA, sleep, substance use, van patrol, winter, work

the night of 18 turnaways

As a write this, the Sophie cat is high on cat nip... I'm such a drug pusher, lol. It's a lot easier to laugh at her antics though, and encourage her to "use" then it is to deal with the human consequences of drug and alochol abuse and...

Published 24 Mar 2009 1:23 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a (not quite) Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: alcohol, harm reduction, homelessness, intoxication, shelter, substance use, thoughts, winter, work

Situational Ethics: A Case Study

Jared is a man whose burned a lot of bridges, and when I say a lot of bridges, I mean it. Jared is not welcome, ever, at any of the other shelters in town, and has been permanently restricted from many of the hotels, medical clinics and rooming houses...

Published 21 Feb 2009 11:51 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a (not quite) Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: attitudes, ethics, necessary evils, shelter, snow, substance use, winter, work

Situational Reactions (ethics)

One of the convenient things about having the drunk tank located half a flight of stairs away from the shelter is that when clients are intoxicated and behaving badly it’s very easy to have police or downtown watch who are dropping someone else of put...

Published 20 Feb 2009 11:45 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a (not quite) Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: attitudes, ethics, nights, substance use, thoughts, work

old and drunk

Whenever pension cheques come out the drunk tank fills up with those over sixty five, many of whom are definitely elderly. Some of them are still quite spry, but others are just WAY to old to be sleeping in a cold cell on an inch thick mat. And yet, every...

Published 9 Feb 2009 2:07 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a (not quite) Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: alcohol, health care, intoxication, IPDA, substance use, thoughts, work

self determination

I've noticed an interesting trend since I started working at the shelter. I suppose in reality I understood the theory of this, but I never really understood just how true it can be until I started working. People need to make their own decisions...

Published 5 Feb 2009 6:01 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a (not quite) Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: attitudes, detox, homelessness, social work, substance use, thoughts, work

why they stay

I tried to blog last week about how hard it is for people to leave the shelter... it didn't come across quite the way I wanted it to though. I really shouldn't blog when I'm so tired my eyes keep closing. So, my thoughts on why people don't...

Published 4 Feb 2009 10:05 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a (not quite) Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: homelessness, mental health, shelter, substance use, thoughts, work

health issues and homelessness

Everyday I am amazed by the number of people who come into the drunk tank with serious health issues who are on no medications other than pain killers. When a person is intaked we have to ask them about health issues as well as their medications so that...

Published 2 Feb 2009 6:46 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a (not quite) Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: health care, HIV, homelessness, substance use, thoughts

frequent caller

One of the things we try and work on at the shelter is cutting back on the number of 911 calls and wasted emergency room visits among the homeless. Studies of my city have shown that there is a group of homeless/mentally ill/both citizens make up an average...

Published 1 Feb 2009 6:19 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a (not quite) Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: attitudes, health care, homelessness, substance use, thoughts, work

Leaving the Shelter

I really want to be sarcastic about this picture. I really, really do, but I'm not going to be, because finding a picture of "empowerment" is hard. It really is. I mentioned earlier that the enforcer and I got in a fight, it was about empowerment...

Published 30 Jan 2009 8:31 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a (not quite) Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: attitudes, homelessness, mental health, shelter, substance use, the enforcer, treatment

blue christmas

As many of us in helping professions know, the holidays are not a happy time for everyone. In fact, for many people, the holidays are a time of stress, business, frustration and sadness. Society places great pressure on people to be happy and joyful while...

Published 23 Dec 2008 2:57 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: health care, homelessness, street ministry, substance use, winter, work

just another day on the street

They say you can tell a lot about a society by the way they treat their most vulnerable, the way they treat their very young, and their very old, the way they treat those who are unable to care for themselves. In Canada, for the most part, I think we...

Published 8 Dec 2008 6:52 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: homelessness, intoxication, substance use, thoughts, work

non sensical ramblings about homelessness (part 6)

It's interesting not being in school. I no longer am forced to really examine my thoughts, feelings and biases about things on a regular basis. In some ways that feels really nice, but in other ways I feel like I'm kind of losing out. I've...

Published 28 Nov 2008 2:16 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: attitudes, homelessness, pet peeves, policy, shelter, social work, substance use, thoughts, work

feeling safe

We're trying really hard this month to help people find accommodations outside of the shelter system. We've been filling up every single night and turning away more and more people as the weather gets colder. What's the problem? People don't...

Published 13 Nov 2008 8:22 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: attitudes, homelessness, pet peeves, substance use, thoughts

the usual

I've been trying to think of a good post, and a few are in the works, but nothing has stood out as really amazing. I wanted to write something though. So you get this. I find it amazing that my job can be boring. I see different people and encounter...

Published 25 Oct 2008 8:09 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: homelessness, nights, substance use, work

oh to be a social worker

I am SO sick of the staff at work hating me because I'm a social worker and trying to convince me that I'm horrible because of it. YES, I am a young, white, female social worker! I accept that! But, that's the way things are, and it's...

Published 8 Oct 2008 7:49 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: attitudes, homelessness, pet peeves, social work, staff relations, substance use, thoughts, work

story time

For the sake of the story, we'll consider only the present, not the circumstances that brought you to your current situation. Imagine with me, that you are a forty year old woman who stays in a shelter. All your friends live in the shelter. Many of...

Published 31 Aug 2008 6:25 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: substance use, thoughts

social injustice is killing people

Poverty sucks. That's all there is to it. Poverty is also a very complex issue, and like most complex issues, there is no easy answer. And certainly, throwing money at the situation is not the entire answer... not that anyone tries to throw money...

Published 28 Aug 2008 2:59 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: links, substance use, work

where do we put the emphasis?

I've been doing a lot of thinking about addiction and substance use treatment and prevention. In particular, where we place the emphasis and what our priorities are. It's a very difficult issue, with good arguments on all sides. And the thing...

Published 24 Aug 2008 6:18 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: attitudes, substance use, thoughts

supervised injection sites

I can't find the first article, but I really wanted to talk about this: safe injection sites . This is a big deal right now in Vancouver, and I want to follow the issue and see what happens. Basically, right now in Vancouver there's a place where...

Published 20 Aug 2008 10:53 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: links, substance use, thoughts

FASD (and more non sensical ramblings about homelessness)

I'm convinced a large percentage of our shelter population is to some extent affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. According to the Canadian Public Health Agency people with FASD have a hard time: handling money, such as paying rent and buying...

Published 16 Aug 2008 2:43 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: alcohol, FASD, substance use, thoughts, work

Warehousing the homeless part four

Can you believe I found this photo when I googled "transitional housing"? Oh well, google image search isn't perfect! Looks more like jail to me. Or I dunno...in jail you don't have quite so many roommates! Anyway, when I was talking...

Published 8 Aug 2008 6:53 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: mr. nice guy, shelter, substance use, thoughts, work

HIV and Crack Use

I found myself nodding in agreement with this study this morning. It talks about the fact that people, especially women who are HIV+ and use crack don't get nearly as much treatment as those HIV+ who are not using crack. In my experience I've...

Published 5 Aug 2008 2:31 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: HIV, homelessness, links, substance use, thoughts

detox , it's not like the movies!

I've spent the past six evening shifts working in our chemical withdrawal unit. Technically that's not supposed to happen, but because I'm not a permanent staff until August 10th, they can do what they want with me. And honestly, it's...

Published 29 Jul 2008 8:22 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: detox, social work, substance use, work

Warehousing the homeless part three

Wet housing. My city needs more of it. Or well, it needs more supervised wet housing. Specifically set up to house the "unhousable". I'm not saying it's a long term fix or anything, but it's the beginning of a solution. Skid row...

Published 26 Jul 2008 5:38 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: intoxication, substance use, thoughts

mood swings and me

Every now and again I have a crazy weird mood swing. Not often, not once a month, maybe once or twice a year? It really depends. Before therapy and well, becoming not a teenager I used to be permanently this way, a mood swing was what happened when I...

Published 26 Jul 2008 5:09 AM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: emotions, me, street ministry, substance use, thoughts, work

writers block

I had an awesome night last night. I had a couple clients just really open up. It was hard to hear in some cases; hearing dealers talk about the young people, mothers, pregnant women they've sold to. But it was good. Good for them especially. Now...

Published 25 Jul 2008 6:38 PM by Awake and Dreaming - The Ramblings of a Brand New Social Worker

Filed under: church, detox, emotions, evenings, substance use, work

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