I have a job interview this Wednesday and I’m prepping for it by reading over my resume, work history, and some important social worky type topics. There’s a clichéd tendency for job applicants to use fancy buzz words on their resumes and in their interview to make them sounds smarter and more impressive. I was advised by two of my co-workers to be sure to mention “recovery model” and “harm reduction” during my interview, because its relevent to the job.
The risk with this strategy is when the interviewer decides to call your bluff and ask you what you’re talking about. To use a favorite phrase, “What does that mean?” Getting caught using a buzz word but not knowing why its a buzz word is a death blow. Might as well just say, “don’t hire me”.
I try to make it a point to not to use a fancy tactic that I’m not comfortable with in a high stakes situation. But, my co-workers’ advice has merit. I have a working idea as to what the recovery model and harm reduction are, but I don’t have a good, recitable definition. So I decided to read a little about it.
Something from the recovery model Wikipedia article caught my eye. Under the subheading Concerns:
However, the critics have themselves been charged with undermining consumer rights and failing to recognize that the model is intended to support a person in their personal journey rather than expecting a given outcome, and that it relates to social and political support and empowerment as well as the individual
Emphasis mine.
This sentence got me reflecting on a major aspect of social work, and I guess life in general. Beginning social workers come into the profession expecting to be knights in shining armor, silver bullets, magic cure alls. They expect to be the one who will fix all of a person’s problems once and for all. That they, fresh out of college, have all the answers and if only their clients would just follow their advice, everything would be better.
I felt that way when I started out. And after the first year or so, I started to realize that was all nonsense. I wasn’t the ultimate treatment or the magic cure. I definitely didn’t fix anything. Sure, I’d have quite a few success stories, the most sobering observations were the recidivism rates. Work in the same place long enough and you’ll eventually see the same faces come back for more help over and over and over again.
I definitely wondered if I making a difference? And then I started realize something else. I don’t “fix” anything. That’s not what I do. . I help people fix themselves. I help them recover. Sure, our performance measures and service deliverables depend on certain “outcomes”, but those outcomes aren’t often true signs of healthy recovery.
I’m not the “end of the journey”. A person’s journey doesn’t end, doesn’t finish until they die.
I’m merely a pit stop along the way. A refueling station for refreshment and maybe some maintenance. A support person to provide empathy, validation, strength, guidance, and little advice.
For some people receiving services, it’s their first time. They’re fresh and new to the “system”. For others, they’re veterans and I may be the 2nd, 5th, or 25th counselor they’ve had in their lifetime. What’s important to remember is that everyone has their own unique past and future. Everyone’s history is different with different experiences and different lessons learned.
By the time a person reaches my rest stop on the road of their their own personal journey, they could have learned a whole lot, or very little.
I constantly have to remind myself that if I manage to help someone succeed, all other things being equal, it could simply be because we met when they were “ready” to succeed.
Likewise, if the person I’m working with doesn’t succeed, it could simply be because when we met, they weren’t “ready” yet.
I think this is why I work much better with 40-60 year-old homeless people rather than the 25 and under crowd. A 40 year old homeless man usually has at least 20 years of learning under his belt. A 19 year old homeless man is just starting out, and often hasn’t learned anything yet.
To utilize another metaphor, sometimes I get to help harvest crops. Sometimes I get to help tend to the crops. But most of the time, I’m planting seeds.
Tags: homeless, Homelessness, planting seeds, Social Work
