This is from a couple years ago but is still very relevant to all of these alleged supportive housing programs out there. This is what they actually look like on the inside.

In the episode we discuss:

Failing our clients

Housing First implementation

Prospect of recovery for HF clients

Burnout, working overtime without pay

High caseloads

No support from management

A futile system

“I had to neglect my people because you gave me so many of them and at sixty hours a week, if that doesn’t cut it, nothing’s going to cut it...we were victims of this too, and our clients were.”

“What do we do when the cameras are there and what do we do when they’re not.”

“He looks like he’s on the verge of crying because his fucking dog just died but there’s no other option. The client can’t even help us because he’s too drunk because I don’t have time to take him to fucking detox. That was one of the moments when I was like ‘what am I doing here?’”

“You can work for months with motivational interviewing to get someone ready to go to detox and then they go and they discharge him because his insurance runs out and he dies.”

Have a social work story you want to tell? Write me at [email protected]

New music by Kate.

My appearance on A Broken World podcast!

Welcome to a new-ish series: I brought this over from the Rogue Social Worker TV YouTube channel! If you're on YouTube, please head over and subscribe, so we can reach more viewers.

I wanted to do more content on what social work is actually like in the real world. There is so much fluff and warm and fuzzy bullshit that we need to cut through in order to get at the heart of what we're doing here. This isn't some high brow theorizing. This is real talk about a profession we desperately want to love. We can love it again, we just need to tell the truth first!

If you're a social worker who can't seem to find a home, welcome. We will find some hope together in this mess

Welcome to a new-ish series: I brought this over from the Rogue Social Worker TV YouTube channel! If you're on YouTube, please head over and subscribe, so we can reach more viewers.

I wanted to do more content on what social work is actually like in the real world. There is so much fluff and warm and fuzzy bullshit that we need to cut through in order to get at the heart of what we're doing here. This isn't some high brow theorizing. This is real talk about a profession we desperately want to love. We can love it again, we just need to tell the truth first!

If you're a social worker who can't seem to find a home, welcome. We will find some hope together in this mess

Blaming the Victim, Bureaucracy, What’s Wrong with Homeless Shelters (they shouldn’t exist)

"All of the cumbersome, tedious, confusing steps we take. We make people jump through all these hoops to prove their deservedness or their worthiness of these resources that they should really just have from the start, without question."

"The right thing is often the practical thing. When you play out the tape on homeless shelters, on nursing homes, basically on any situation where we’ve shoved people into institutions, cohabitation, it’s always more expensive to treat people like zoo animals. It is always more expensive than just giving them what they need, just like everybody else."

"It doesn’t dawn on people, like our staff, how absurd it is to expect people to cohabitate. Whenever issues arise in the shelter, I always feel like it’s my job to remind people that, yeah, this is an unnatural environment--a bunch of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences are being put into a public space together where they can’t escape each other. There’s a reason The Real World is a show for entertainment. You put a bunch of people in a house together and see what happens. Because there’s no better fodder for drama than putting a bunch of people together and having them share their most intimate private behaviors. And I have to remind people, when they are not feeling safe around someone or when they’re not comfortable when they’re in the same room, that this is all a public space. It’s not your space that you can say ‘I don’t want him in here.’ I guess call your Senator. Tell her to close the shelter and use that $1,700 per month per person to house people."

Got a story about the social work/human services profession? Have you been a client or received any sort of social services? Shoot me an email! [email protected]

Finally publishing some of these old episodes where I document my time at the Community Action Program. Here we gooooo!!!

"So once again, even though I’m back in the field, it is still the same dog and pony show, and I just wanted to give that update. I feel bad saying the same things over and over, but it’s the truth. We keep spending money on things that don’t work and I’m sick of it. I’m so incredibly sick of it. We don’t give people the things they need to survive and then we blame them for it. That’s all I’ve seen in my adult life and in my youth as well."

Got a story about the social work/human services profession? Have you been a client or received any sort of social services? Shoot me an email! [email protected]

My wife and I talk client self-advocacy. It’s hard to advocate for yourself when your basic needs aren’t met.

Also, in case you didn’t get enough raw pain and vulnerability in the last two episodes, we unpack the con man situation from her perspective.

I’m still looking for stories from both clients and providers in the human service world! Email me at [email protected] to share your experience.

Music credit to Sage Francis “The Place She Feared Most”

Well this is embarrassing.

Again! Please be advised - I debated posting this at all due to the terrible sound quality. However, it is so important to reveal the painful, vulnerable truth, that I couldn’t not post it. So forgive the sound. It is very, very bad--even for a DIY podcast.

I’m still looking for stories from both clients and service providers in the human service world! Email me at [email protected] to share your experience.

 

Music credit to Sage Francis “The Place She Feared Most”

This is how con men do their thing. Pay close attention to these next two episodes. It’s a study in human psychology and ambition.

I debated posting this at all due to the terrible sound quality. However, it is so important to reveal the painful, vulnerable truth, that I couldn’t not post it. So forgive the sound. It is very, very bad--even for a DIY podcast.

I’m still looking for stories from both clients and providers in the human service world! Email me at [email protected] to share your experience.

 

Music credit to Sage Francis “The Place She Feared Most”

When we’re kids and something is unfair, we’re reminded that “life’s not fair.” But this begs the question: “Then why bother being fair to anyone, if someone can just take it all away?”

 

I’m still looking for stories from both clients and providers in the human service world! Email me at [email protected] to share your experience.

 

Music credit to Sage Francis “The Place She Feared Most”