everyone trying to help at once!

[the owl]

When I was a homeless youth, I had a case worker, a social worker, councilor and family therapist who all wanted to hear my story... in the end it felt more like they cared about their stupid record keeping than they did about what I needed.

I went in to job support the other day, and the person there really reminded my of "the good ol' days" when they took 40 minutes to modify records... they asked me questions they had already asked me, and got the same answers... they gave me a paper to read while they worked, and at the end, once I was fuming, asked me if I needed any help from them.

Stupid bureaucracy!

[LadyHrtCares4u]

I'm sorry you were treated like that.

[chimeric]

Bureaucracy, as Frank Herbert interestingly claims in his Dune series of books, is the antecedent of aristocracy.

[UnitedWayJohn]

That sounds so frustrating. My deepest apoligies for all who have experienced this. As service providers we are often responsible to funders for certain information, and it also helps keep track of an individuals progress as well as being able to remember the things that we had talked about during the meeting. However, we often go wrong when that information takes priority over the person in front of us.

When you were in that situation, what would you have suggested as a way the other person could acknowledge your needs and feelings, while also collecting the information he/she was responsible for collecting (sometimes legally)?

[Jor-EL]

Originally Posted by UnitedWayJohn

When you were in that situation, what would you have suggested as a way the other person could acknowledge your needs and feelings, while also collecting the information he/she was responsible for collecting (sometimes legally)?

In the event The Owl does not respond to your query, I would like to suggest the following:

Old school approach....

When the individual walks into your office, I would suggest that you sit facing your client with a small notebook in your hand. Ask your questions, intermingled with some small talk ("nice weather were having today," "have you seen any good movies lately," etc...) and as the individual answers the pertinent questions, jot down those answers in your notebook. Try to write down your information in an inconspicuous way. Try to maintain a personal approach to the meeting. After that mandatory part or the interview is finished, put the notebook down and continue with whatever else needs to be attended to.

Only after the individual leaves your office, should you start methodically entering all that information into the computer's database. In fact, if you are seeing several clients that day, save all that impersonal computer entry stuff until the very end of the day after all your clients have left.

Notebooks are cheap and if you grid them off in a table-like fashion (columns, rows, headings and such), you can quickly jot down large amounts of data with a pen or pencil while still intimately interviewing your client. This is basically the method most therapists use when gathering info.

One notebook per client, date the sessions of course. This would allow you to quickly look back at a previous session and see if any advancement was made. Old school, but far more intimate.

This would seem to be a more personal and less annoying way to gather the information that the funder requires.

This might take a bit of practice to perfect the art of it, but I think it is well worth the effort.

[findingmyself]

Just get off the bullshit and help people, get that new world order dickery outa here....

[UnitedWayJohn]

Jor-El Thanks for the in depth reply. The old school way of jotting down important points in a notebook is certainly helpful. I usually try to take a conversational approach to doing assessments and get to know the person in front of me. It's not always easy, especially for me, to remain focused on the client and tuned in to what he is saying when you know there is a whirlwind of data that needs to be collected in the process, but it's hugely important. Relationships are what motivates change, so protecting that relationship is important.

I've even found it helpful to acknowledge up front the fact that you have to get some basic housekeeping stuff down. Acknowledge that it's awkward and promise that once you get through the generic questions, you can put it aside and give the person's needs your full attention.

[findingmyself]

Yep get the info so you can milk the person who needs help for all the federal funding you can......

[mike22]

fuck me someone gave you a paper.Dont know what im doing wrong then.lol