Hope for Our Field

Posted on May 30, 2010 by elizabethlombino

Social Workers are overworked.  I’ve met a bunch over the years and for the most part, they seem frazzled and stressed out.  Being a Social Worker myself, I know I can get pretty frazzled and stressed out as well.

We spend so much of our time and energy taking care of other people.  It’s part of our profession; we are trained to help others.  We teach them the skills they need to function in the world.  We have these skills at our finger tips and we are able to share them with our clients like its second nature.  Yet for some reason we are unable or unwilling to apply these skills to ourselves.  We are not adequately taking care of ourselves.  This often translates to the high stress and unpleasant attitude I’ve been seeing.

Lately, I’ve met with several Social Workers who are not able to effectively do their job.  Our clients access many services and so we as workers need to communicate to coordinate care.  In doing so, I get to see how other social workers do their job.  How they interact with clients. How they deal with their day. It’s not pretty.  I’m seeing a lot of overworked people.  Professionals who are not acting very professional.  Details are being missed, schedules are being ignored.  It’s not pleasant.  I don’t take a lot of this personally.  I know it’s the hazards of our profession.  It’s what can happen when a person spends countless hours caring for others and neglecting themselves.

With all of this stress and negativity it can be difficult to find hope. Yet I believe that there is hope for our profession.  I may have encountered several stressed out Social Workers lately, yet I have also met with dozens of compassionate and passionate Social Workers as well.  Times are difficult now for everyone, so we are not exempt from feeling the pressures of daily living.  At the same time, we have the advantage of our training and resources to help us prosper.  We have helped clients through some of the most heartbreaking times of their lives; we can help ourselves get through the stress. 

As a profession, we need to continue to stay connected and take care of ourselves.  We need to practice what we preach to our clients.  We need to stay motivated and passionate about the work that we do.  We are all entitled to a few bad days.  We are all allowed to feeling a bit stressed out and frazzled.  The key is to take steps to combat the stress and focus on the positive.  We must do this in order to best help our clients and to best care for ourselves.

Filed under: Compassion Fatigue, Hope Notes, Self-Care, Social Work, Strengths Perspective, Stress Reduction | 1 Comment »

New Yorkers Care about Homelessness

Posted on May 28, 2010 by elizabethlombino

New Yorkers Say They’ll Pay Higher Taxes to End Homelessness – Our latest post on Change.org

New Yorkers care about homelessness. Want proof? They say they’re even willing to pay higher taxes for better homeless care.

That was among the findings in a new report (pdf) from the Institute for Children & Poverty. The public opinion poll of 1,000 random New York City residents was conducted via telephone in January 2010.  The findings reveal that most New Yorkers agree with the mission of this blog; ending homelessness should be a priority.

Homelessness is on the minds of many New Yorkers — and with good cause. Over 80 percent of the respondents thought about homelessness at least once within the past month and one in three thought about it almost every day. Nearly 65 percent have been aware of an increase in homelessness within the last six months. (According to the “daily census” on the Department of Homeless Services website, 35,761 individuals were homeless in New York City yesterday.)

What’s more, over 20 percent of respondents believe they are at risk of becoming homeless. Notably, the respondents with the highest perceived risk and exposure to homelessness are those who are low-income or unemployed minorities with children.

To read more, click here.

Filed under: Consulting, Homelessness, Hope Notes, Social Work | Leave a Comment »

New Yorkers Say They’ll Pay Higher Taxes to End Homelessness

Posted on May 28, 2010 by elizabethlombino

Post originally published on Change.org

New Yorkers Say They’ll Pay Higher Taxes to End Homelessness

New Yorkers care about homelessness. Want proof? They say they’re even willing to pay higher taxes for better homeless care.

That was among the findings in a new report (pdf) from the Institute for Children & Poverty. The public opinion poll of 1,000 random New York City residents was conducted via telephone in January 2010.  The findings reveal that most New Yorkers agree with the mission of this blog; ending homelessness should be a priority.

Homelessness is on the minds of many New Yorkers — and with good cause. Over 80 percent of the respondents thought about homelessness at least once within the past month and one in three thought about it almost every day. Nearly 65 percent have been aware of an increase in homelessness within the last six months. (According to the “daily census” on the Department of Homeless Services website, 35,761 individuals were homeless in New York City yesterday.)

What’s more, over 20 percent of respondents believe they are at risk of becoming homeless. Notably, the respondents with the highest perceived risk and exposure to homelessness are those who are low-income or unemployed minorities with children.

The poll also found that many New Yorkers are not pleased with the way the city government is responding to homelessness. Seventy percent of respondents rate the city’s job of handling homelessness as poor or fair. Those New Yorkers who report higher perceived risk of homelessness feel as if they are being let down by the city.

So what do New Yorkers want to see happen? Many support more government intervention to help reduce homelessness, especially for homeless or nearly homeless families. Close to 75 percent of respondents said they believe in a person’s “Right to Shelter” and approve of government involvement in the prevention of homelessness. And here’s a very interesting statistic that some popular media would have us think is fabricated: about 50 percent of the respondents would be in favor of tax increases in order to reduce homelessness.

Overall, New Yorkers care about homelessness. They fear becoming homeless themselves and are willing to help out those in need. Thankfully, some news media are picking up the story. With widespread attention, this report will help in the advocacy for greater services and city response to this issue. And with that we’ll be one step closer to ending homelessness.

To read the post on Change.org, click here.

Filed under: Change.org, Homelessness | Leave a Comment »

Featured on AboutHomelessness Blog

Posted on May 28, 2010 by elizabethlombino

Thank you to the National Alliance to End Homelessness for featuring one of our blogs in their Friday News Roundup.  Here’s an excerpt:

Individual stories are perhaps the most powerful argument for permanent housing. Rich and Elizabeth Lombino shared Gina’s story on Change.org’s End Homelessness blog this week. After struggling with incarceration and addiction, Gina finally had her own home for the first time at age 57:

After a few more months of apartment searching and jumping through some administrative hoops, the day finally came for Gina to move in. The next day, she came to see Elizabeth. Through tears in her eyes, Gina spoke of the pure joy she felt at having her own apartment. She felt truly free and alive. She had accomplished a dream that she never thought would come true for her. She spoke at length about the incredible feeling of having her own key and a door to open with it. She said, “I always hoped I would have my own key to my own home. Now I have it. Putting that key in the door of my apartment is the best feeling.”

To read more, click here.

Filed under: Homelessness, Hope Notes, Social Media, Social Work | Leave a Comment »

Help! My Child is Sick

Posted on May 27, 2010 by elizabethlombino

Okay, if any of you parents out there have ever had to deal with a sick child, please comment and let us all know how you get through it.  And if your child has never been sick, then please refrain from commenting so the rest of us don’t feel tempted to throw something at you.

My daughter, Mia, has had strep throat now for 4 days.  She is a total mess – fever, vomiting, diarrhea, not sleeping well, barely eating, cranky and tired.  My mothering instinct is turned up to 11 (another Gen-X parent reference) as I do my best to take care of her.  It breaks my heart to see her in pain.  I cuddle her, rub her back, let her watch any and every movie she wants 347 times in a row, and just be her Mommy.  I’d do anything for her and I wish I could take her pain away. 

She’s been a totally different little girl these last few days.  Before we knew it was strep and she just seemed a little sick, I offered to go t0 McDonald’s for lunch.  It’s her favorite.  Usually at this offer, she’d gasp, her eyes would get wide with the hunger for those damn french fries, and she’d scream, yes, Yes, YES!  We’d then spend the entire car ride there trying to guess what the prize would be.  She’d then wolf down her entire kids meal in less than 5 minutes.  Then, on a McD high, she’d pass out for a good 2 hour nap.  Well, this time, with the same offer, my child looked at me with a blank stare and said “no”.  No?  I actually had to ask her again.  “No, Mommy,” she said, “I want mac ‘n cheese.”  Wow.  I was shocked.  I was also glad that I wouldn’t have to deal with the irresistible temptation of those damn fries.  I was also fully aware that my daughter wasn’t just sick, she was sick.

So here we are, four days later, and now I’m the one who is a mess.  I haven’t been to work in three days, we’ve been home with very little contact with the outside world – thank goodness for Facebook! – and since she’s in need of constant care, my self-care is suffering.  Okay, here’s a perfect example of when Mommy Self-Care is both incredibly needed and incredibly impossible all at the same time.  Take sleeping – Mia isn’t sleeping well at all.  She’s getting up several times a night and therefore I am getting up several times a night.  Since I’m not sleeping well, I’m already at a self-care disadvantage.  I know that.  I also know that I need to take every opportunity to take care of myself as best I can.  When she’s watching Ice Age for the 24th time in a row, I’m writing this blog, writing in my journal, stretching, and doing something to help me feel a bit more energized and connected.

It’s not easy.  Being a Mom isn’t easy. And I include you Dads in this as well – my husband is an even bigger mess as his sleep is broken and he then drags himself out to work every day.  Having a sick child really challenges your parenting skills.  It’s almost a test to see how the entire family can survive.  Okay, that’s a bit dramatic.  But I know that I’ve had to be more on point these last few days with Mia.  I’ve had to pay even more attention to her needs and to my own needs as well.  It’s a tricky balance.  And it’s even trickier with only 4 hours of sleep.

Filed under: Hope Notes, Just for Laughs, Motherhood, Parenting | Leave a Comment »

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