Blue Jean Social Work

Blue Jean Social Work

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Out of the Blue

It has been months, now, since my last post and I want to offer a bit of an update and explanation. Thanks to my fellow bloggers who checked in on me–neglecting this blog for the last quarter of the year certainly was not the best demonstration...

Published 10 Jan 2009 6:21 PM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: Uncategorized
Leave of Absence

I’ve been MIA for a couple of weeks now, and may be for about a week longer. The supervision transition has been especially intense, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I’ll be back before you know it. ...

Published 28 Oct 2008 10:30 PM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: Uncategorized
Power and Preservation

After a year and a half of working in family preservation, I have a greater appreciation for the value of keeping things intact. Separation causes trauma, and it often means that family members function less well as individuals than when there was a unit...

Published 14 Oct 2008 3:17 AM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Everyday Events in Social Work, Uncategorized, agency self-preservation, social work client empowerment, non-profit liability, non-profit policies
Client Treatment

One difficulty of transitioning from one job to another in a resource-limited non-profit is that for a fluid few weeks, one can find herself just having to do both jobs. I’m down to one case, but I’ve also started supervising my team. One...

Published 4 Oct 2008 11:24 PM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Social Work Themes & Issues, approach social work clients, social work supervision
Shifting Targets

Risks aren’t static. They fluctuate about as much as the human beings facing them; often there’s a relationship, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes safety risks change rapidly: a domestic violence perpetrator gets locked up for five years...

Published 29 Sep 2008 4:11 AM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Everyday Events in Social Work, child welfare, Uncategorized, foster care adoption, adoption
Feeling the Rush

I am a crisis intervention social worker. Much of the time, the crises are the sort that gradually get resolved over my intensive 28-day interventions. The children are at imminent risk of removal, but that does not mean my clients are hyperventilating...

Published 21 Sep 2008 8:20 PM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Everyday Events in Social Work, crisis intervention, housing crisis, child wefare
Transitions

About three months ago, my supervisor called me into her office and asked how I would feel about doing her job in a couple of months. I have not been writing about this development because I didn’t want to count chickens before they were hatched...

Published 13 Sep 2008 4:01 PM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Social Work Themes & Issues, supervision, promotions
The Capitalist Social Worker Part II: Lessons from Sales

As promised, I’m back with more capitalism. The second business book I read was also hard to take seriously at some points, beginning with the title: The 7 Triggers to Yes: The New Science Behind Influencing People’s Decisions. Actually there...

Published 10 Sep 2008 4:47 AM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Social Work Themes & Issues, communication, sales, persuasion
The Capitalist Social Worker: Using Business Communication

In my time doing this job, an ongoing theme has been coming up with effective ways to make people’s lives healthier, usually by achieving improved choices or behaviors. I don’t relish the idea that my job is to make people to change how they...

Published 5 Sep 2008 1:47 PM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Social Work Themes & Issues, Uncategorized, business communication, communication
Pen Name Election Results

It was quite interesting to watch the returns come in on my future pen name. It was a bit of a challenge to tally them, as some people responded to the survey, some in comment form, and a large number via e-mail. Overlaps were sometimes present and hard...

Published 3 Sep 2008 2:02 AM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Uncategorized, pseudonym, pen name
Poverty’s Relationship with Child Abuse and Nelgect

This afternoon a contributor, mb, opened up a new dimension to my prior post on Political Action. I originally responded to him or her in comment form. And then I kept on adding thoughts, reconsidering, and adding more, and it got to be quite substantial...

Published 28 Aug 2008 1:57 AM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Social Work Themes & Issues, research, correlation, causation, poverty, child abuse and neglect
Political Action

For the first time since undergrad, I am participating in full-on community organizing and even political action. I’m a little ashamed to admit that friends at church had to drag me into it instead of the opposite. The macro piece of social work...

Published 26 Aug 2008 1:52 PM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: Uncategorized
Pen Name Election

My inclination toward essay-style writing has recently made me consider submitting a piece or two to print publications. I do not yet know much about this process, or if it will be fruitful in the least. However, I believe that for the sake of my clients...

Published 21 Aug 2008 2:14 AM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Uncategorized, pseudonym, confidentiality, nom de plume, pen name
Fear

This morning my client left me a voice mail from an untraceable number. “I’ve gone out of town,” she said. “I’ll be with my mother in [a city two states away]. I’m working on giving her guardianship of the kids. I’ll...

Published 19 Aug 2008 2:06 AM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Everyday Events in Social Work, child welfare, Social Work Themes & Issues, fear, fear-driven behavior
Race and Redemption

My ancestors never owned slaves, nor were they members of the Ku Klux Klan. In fact, as a third or fourth generation immigrant, depending on how you count, my family was not even in this country for many of our worst racial atrocities. My parents never...

Published 15 Aug 2008 8:34 PM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Social Work Themes & Issues, cultural competence, race, diversity, white guilt
Relationships and Success

“If they told me I had to jump through flaming hoops wearing gasoline drawers to keep my kids, that is what I’d do.” If ever I heard inspiration from the mouth of a client, I heard it last week. Every once in a while I feel a bit unbalanced...

Published 10 Aug 2008 10:01 PM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: substance abuse, relationships, social work, child weflare, Everyday Events in Social Work, support network
Portrait of the Social Worker as a Young Professional

I returned to work today after a week of vacation and it felt good to be back. I felt rested and collected, and the prospect of work had me filled with calm, positive energy this morning. For the moment, I’m in a place where I simply feel comfortable...

Published 5 Aug 2008 3:20 AM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, professional development, child welfare, burnout, Social Work Themes & Issues
Tools

I’m on vacation this whole week, which is why I’ve been MIA and am also lacking stories from the field. I thought I would try something a little different in this post. I’ve noticed that so long as clients are somewhat literate, many...

Published 31 Jul 2008 9:32 PM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, child welfare, Social Work Themes & Issues, Social Work Odds & Ends, social work tools, social work handouts
Progress

In social work, certain moments make it all worthwhile. These are not Hollywood moments. To non-social workers, I doubt they would seem like cause for much celebration at all. In fact, many of these moments are so brief and so simple they cannot even...

Published 25 Jul 2008 5:00 AM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Everyday Events in Social Work, child welfare, Uncategorized, success, progress
Welfare

On Friday, I spent four hours at the welfare office, three hours and forty minutes of which was spent waiting. I would have liked to have used this time with my client productively, but with confidentiality restrictions, and everyone and their brother...

Published 21 Jul 2008 5:32 AM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Everyday Events in Social Work, child welfare, Social Work Themes & Issues, welfare, welfare administration, welfare policy
Cognitive Impairments

I’m back, and I’m sorry for the extended absence. I’m on a special ethics project at work, which has been a big time sucker–more on that in another post. For now I think it’s important to turn my attention back to my regular...

Published 16 Jul 2008 4:45 AM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, child welfare, Uncategorized, low functioning, IQ, adaptive behavior, developmental delays, life skills, cognitive impairments
Cognitive Conditions, Culture, and Conflict

The client with whom I had a confrontation a few weeks ago told me, with utter incredulity, that she had been diagnosed as “antisocial” a year before. How could she possibly be antisocial? She was constantly interacting with people. She was...

Published 8 Jul 2008 5:54 PM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, Everyday Events in Social Work, child welfare, racism, mental health, antisocial personality disorder
Independence

It’s the Fourth of July, and I am thinking about independence, and what a strange, fierce American value it is. More than once now, I’ve had CPS workers tell me that their goal for a parent is simply that they become “independent,”...

Published 4 Jul 2008 3:37 PM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, support network, Social Work Themes & Issues, Uncategorized, team work, solidarity, interdependence, independence
Burnout

My coworker is looking for a new job. It’s a let down for me, especially since he joined our ranks more recently than I did. He’s a great worker, too. He’s fun and has a natural connection with kids. When he does manage to get hired...

Published 1 Jul 2008 4:57 AM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, child welfare, burnout, Social Work Themes & Issues, hope, realism
Privilege

“Well, he put his pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us, and I thought he should know that,” my client reasoned a few days ago while explaining how she managed to lose her last job for telling off an uppity co-worker. Our focus...

Published 27 Jun 2008 2:46 AM by Blue Jean Social Work

Filed under: social work, child welfare, Social Work Themes & Issues, social class, social awareness, privilege

Blue Jean Social Work

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

Archives

Out of the Blue

Leave of Absence

Power and Preservation

Client Treatment

Shifting Targets

Feeling the Rush

Transitions

The Capitalist Social Worker Part II: Lessons from Sales

The Capitalist Social Worker: Using Business Communication

Pen Name Election Results

Poverty’s Relationship with Child Abuse and Nelgect

Political Action

Pen Name Election

Fear

Race and Redemption

Relationships and Success

Portrait of the Social Worker as a Young Professional

Tools

Progress

Welfare

Cognitive Impairments

Cognitive Conditions, Culture, and Conflict

Independence

Burnout

Privilege