[Daniel]

Originally Posted by u-dog

take a deep breath!

If caseworkers are underpaid and given UNDOABLE amounts of work IT IS NOT THEIR FAULT!!!!! It is ALL OF OUR FAULTS. We do not take seriously the needs of the elderly, the mentally ill, children in dangerous situations. We would rather have nice houses on the lake, big cars, and cool gadgets then we would like to pay the necessary taxes to see to the needs of the disenfranchised and vulnerable. THEN when we discover that the unfortunates are being neglected we turn on the powerless people at the bottom rung of the ladder. People with little or no power!

And the truth of the matter is that jumping down the throats of underpaid, undertrained and overworked people will NOT get the needs of the vulnerable met. It will either get you shuffled to the bottom of the pile or it will get you another underpaid overworked caseworker who know EVEN LESS than the first one.

HENCE my advice. Be positive, be supportive, be cooperative. be persistent, be friendly and helpful.

I know ALL OF THIS from first hand experience both personal and professional.

I do not want to fight, but do you think I'm stupid or something? I'm not advocating 'jumping down the throats' of anyone. I'm suggesting that the way to get this young man help is by asking the hard questions and getting help from the appropriate sources. I mean let's GET REAL here. You are acting as if it is the social worker who is suffering.

Get a grip my friend!

It's the client and the family that is suffering. And if something isn't done right away to deal with the problem, the situation is not going to get better. That's the objective here. If the social worker is overworked blah blah blah then that's a problem, but that's not the problem that needs solving here.

And for you to go off and throw the blame on society blah blah blah is a pure cop-out. That isn't going to solve anything. As they say in social worker lingo- it's not the 'presenting problem'. It's not the problem that needs solving here and now.

I'm advocating for dealing with the problem. Being 'nice' isn't going to solve it. Sure. It may help. But really dealing with this kind of thing means that someone has to take action.

And if that means being a son-of-a-bitch: so be it.

Think of me what you will- but I'm not backing off on this one.