on the down hill slide!

So its been a while since i have updated this blogg, finially have a few minutes to breathe and take the time to sit here and update what has been going on in my VERY busy life lately.First off i am loving my internship more then ever. Since i have last written i have been able to go on another home visit with a clinician. This home was different then any of the others i have been in. It was in a differnet form then the others, the others i had been in were clean and in order which i am safe to say that this last one was not. This last house had i believe 3 children living there plus bio family members of the foster parents that were there, so needless to say there was a lot of activity going on.


I have also had the oppertunity to do some more paper work type stuff which is interesting in its own way. I also had the oppertunity to set in on a follow up session of one of the kids "in care" with the psychiatrist. This was interesting (somewhat), just wish there would have been some sort of explaination of what was going on, what the psychiatrist was looking for and the paper work that she was doing while in with the children.

One fo the highlights of my internship so far was having the oppertunity to "help" with a teen (high school girls) group made up of clients of one of the therapists. It was "interesting" to see the process that these girls went through, in the hour and a half that they were together in the group. it was also interesting to see how once they found connections between theirselves and others in the group, that they were more welling to share and open up with the group. They were open in telling others ideas and advise that they thought might help them in what they were going through, because they had been through something similar in the past. I will have the oppertunity to sit in at least one more group with these girls as well as another group next week made up of Jr high girls.

i am pleased to say that i have learned several things during this internship that i am going to be able to take with me when i graduate amd go on with my schooling and eventually start my career. I cant wait to see what the next couple week hold for me as i finish up the last 60 or so hours that i still have to complete.

my "work" is getting better

hello, A lot has happened at my internship since my last post. I have gotten to do more hands on things, that gave me a look at what the work in the "field" is like. To this point i have had the oppertunity to go on 2 placements this is where they go do the paper work for children that have recently been placed in a home Sometimes this is also when the supervisor that does the intakes gets to meet the children. I have also had the oppertunity to go on a home visit with a clinician, this is when the clinician goes into their foster homes and basically does a check in with the foster parents and the foster children. Earlier this month i also had the oppertunity to go to Depelchins main camps in Memorial, it is 17 acres and beautiful. The reason we went there was that we had the oppertunity to go to a combined meetings of foster care ( meeting with all the foster care from all the campus's) these meetings were interesting because it gave us a look at a different aspect of what goes on in foster care... more of the behind the scenes stuff that can be rather tedious but at the same time it is some of the stuff that i find kinda interesting. The more i get to see the more i am thinking that this is what i want to do with my degree... do something in the foster care, adoption "arena".... i am also going to keep CPS in mind and do some research on what exactly is involved in working with CPS... right now i am keeping all doors open and keeping "my feelers" going exploring whats out there ....

clocked 39 hours so far.......

well i have now clocked 39 hours at my internship!!! I am LOVING "working" at depelchin. The people that i "work" with are so nice. You may be wondering what i have been doing. I have done a variety of "clerical" type things, such as sorting papers ( mound upon mounds) by "foster home." I have done a "audit" on the foster care "home" cabnets and foster care "kid" cabnets. Basically what i did is take a list of "files" ( when i say files its really binder's most of which are HUGE) that are susposed to be in the cabnets and check it against whats really in the cabnets... making a seperate list of "files" that are in the cabnets that are not on the list so they can be dealt with (so it can be determined where they are susposed to be). I also checked the "kids" files for information that was missing from the data that is stored on the computer.I have also done some file work for the counseling department when i have had "free" time or when my supervisor has been busy doing other things and couldnt get me something to do.
I find it kinda odd/ cool that there is still so much information that is kept on paper in actual files, with all the technology that we have now. when i first started i expected to not see actual files and instead see a huge data base with all the information on it. It is cool that a lot of it is still paper based so that it is easily accessable when needed and there whenever you need it ( like if a power outage or something happens,etc) I guess with all the confidential information that is contained in the files it would be hard to contain it on a data base.
well this is all for now... the adventure continues tomorrow with another 8 hour "shift"...

Finially Got started!!

Today I was finially able to start my internship . When I got there I was taken on a tour of the facility and its pretty impressive. there are 3 sections of sorts to what goes on at the facility, fostercare, adoption, and counseling.

After the tour my supervisor showed me what a foster care child's folder as well as a foster care "Home" file looks like. I was amazed at the amount of paper work that goes into both "types" of files. When you stop and think about it, its good that there is so much documentation because it makes sure that everything is done to ensure the childs well being while they are in the system.

Everyone that I was introduced to seems really nice, as is my supervisor. I think that i am going to be able to learn alot, as well as get some valuable experience from the time I get to spend at my placement site. I am really looking foward to seeing what else lies ahead for me in this new adventure!

phase 2 of adventure.... the waiting game

well as of this afternoon I have everything that I needed to get done for my internship done. I went monday and had the injection for the TB test and i went back this afternoon and got it read ( it was negative of course). Then I went to work ( Kroger) and faxed the results along with my syllabus to my supervisor at Depelchin. When I got home from doing that I had an e-mail waiting saying that she got my fax and another one saying that she is still waiting on 2 of my reference forms to be returned to her. So a while ago I sent e-mails out to everyone that I gave a form to because she didnt tell me who's form had arrived (she only gave me 3 to have filled out). So all that is left for me to do now is to wait till she gets the remaining reference forms, then i will be able to start "working" and obtaining my hours.
One of the requirements for the class part of my internship is to read 5 things, 2 of which have to be books. So since I have time now that I had told Kroger I wasnt available tuesday through thursday, because I dont know when they will tell me I can start "working" at Depelchin. I went to Hastings after I got the other stuff done and bought a book that I think I can use for the required reading. ( knowing me I will do more then is required since I LOVE to read) the book I bought today is called "Nurture Shock" written by PO Bronson and Ashley Merryman, it looks as though its going to be a fast / good read..... to be continued!!!

Beginnings

Well I thought I would try out this blogging thing, since I am about to embark on some new adventures that are going to take me places I have only dreamed of going. I started back to college yesterday! I am more excited about this semester then i have been about classes / college in a long time. I am only taking 1 class which is my internship class, in which i have to do 272 hours basically volunteering at a social service agency. I am lucky in that I am going to be doing my intership at a wonderful agency called "Depelchin Childrens Center" which is a agency that does adoptions, foster care work, tutoring, counseling among other things. there are several sites around Houston and the surrounding area.
The site that i am going to be "working" at does counseling, foster care work, and adoption work. When I went for my interview on Janruary 6th, I found out that they are going to let me sit in and observe counseling sessions, go on home visits with the people that do the foster care work, do some office work ( which will be informational because i will get a look at what the paper work looks like). They are basically going to give a look into most aspects of the agency, which I am excited about. I am finishing up the last few things that are needed before I can start obtaining my hours, should be able to start next week.
There are also some things I have to do for the class wihich are going to be time consuming but at the same time interesting. I am going to have to interview 3 people that work at the agency about their jobs. another requirement is that I read 5 things ( books, research articles, etc) that are related in some way to my placement or my job interests, I will then have to do a short annotated bibliography over the readings. These are the 2 requirements that I think will be most interesting, even though there are a few more things we have to do. All of which have to be included in a portfolio, which will be nice to look back on in the future!
I will defiantly be posting more as the adventures continue!