Weeks of March 3-13, 2008

I am behind on my blogs so I am writing about things I wanted to share that have happened. Please remember if this gets confusing that I am talking about the weeks of March 3 through March 13, and I will try to be as exact as I can about the days.

Up until this point I have slowly started helping more with supervision of the group and running activities. My supervisor, Amanda, had to take two weeks off work for medical reasons starting around February 28th, so one of the case managers who runs Hoosier House on Thursdays, Pam, took over Hoosier House. Before Amanda left she made packets for both of us on what to do, how to do it, and everything we needed to get it done! I don't know how she keeps track of everything she does, but she seems to always be prepared for everything! While she was gone Amanda wanted me to start the progress notes every morning (they are done for everyone everyday) and enter the consumers' daily times into the computer.

When each consumer begins at Cummins they sit with their case managers, therapists, doctors, and/or whoever else is needed to develop their treatment plan. The treatment plan includes all the goals and objectives the consumer will work towards while at Cummins, everything they are expected to accomplish, and how long the consumer will need services. Every day at Hoosier House the consumers are working on one of the goals and objectives on their plans (it is the same one everyday). So in the morning on the progress note I fill in the consumer's name, their consumer ID number, and which goal and objective they are working on (i.e. Goal 2, Objective 1). The consumer writes an individual goal for that day on the note as well (anything from be nicer, learn something new, to practice daily skills or learn how to balance my checkbook). Before the consumer leaves that day they go back to the note and write whether they achieved their goal, and they sign it. Then the supervisor fills in different things about their behavior, appearance, mood, attitude, and other things from a checklist on the page.

For billing purposes each consumer must also sign in every morning what time they got there, and every time they leave they must also sign out. Sometimes they leave to go see the nurse for medicine, or they have appointments with their therapists or the job coach. Each of these people bill for the short time the consumer is with them so we have to make sure insurance is not being double billed. A consumer cannot be at the nurse's office for 15 minutes getting a shot and be in Hoosier House at the same time, so we have to be exact about these things. When the consumer leaves for the day they sign their time out as well. Some consumers come everyday, some only come a few days or one day a week. It all depends on what their treatment plan says they need, and what insurance will pay for. Most of the people there have Medicaid (otherwise it would be EXTREMELY expensive to pay out of pocket!).

Long story short, I am in charge of all this. At the same time I run canteen in the morning. Canteen is like a small snack bar with sodas, chips, snacks, fruit, etc. that the consumers pay for. The proceeds from this buys more snacks, food for free lunch Wednesday, and food for regular lunch (lunch costs $2.00). You wouldn't otherwise think about it, but canteen helps teach budgeting and money-management , as well as problem-solving skills.

I figured I would describe alot of this in detail because I know so many of my peers are in practicums where they do nothing like this, and are curious about these kind of details in my kind of setting. We all are writing about our experiences with the clients, but not about the little things. We have to remember that as social workers so much of our work is paperwork. The mandatory paperwork and documentation is different at every business. I know some out there may not even do progress notes, or deal yet with the goals and objectives we have learned about. When I first dealt with this in the workplace I was so excited to actually see what I was learning from school being directly applied on the job! Here's a quote that I heard once that everyone should remember when it comes to the hours and hours of paperwork and documentation necessary in social work and all health care fields, "If it's not written down, then it did not happen". Remember, everything has to be documented!