[nabs] Houston, we have a problem - Please Read

[NABS SecondVP]

Hi Everyone,
   If I may, I'd like to draw on your collective wisdom and
experiences. I have a bit of a quandary. Here's the set up.
   As I have mentioned before, to get my MSW I need a student
internship. I'm interning at a facility that provides therapy,
housing, employment, and other sorted services to people who are
mentally ill, or who have a dual diagnosis of mental illness and
substance abuse. This is my second full week there, and I think I have
a pretty good understanding now for the lay out of the building.
Yesterday, I met with my supervisor and we talked about the different
roles I'll be filling at the facility. Because I'm new, he wants me to
get acquainted with as many participants as possible, which I am so
happy to do. To do this, I'll update their personal data in the
computer system, which is totally accessible to me (WOOO!).
   Yesterday, I met with one of the individuals on my list to update
his data. My supervisor helped me locate this man; the supervisor
guided me to him, introduced me, and then me and the participant went
off to do the updating of his file. My supervisor gave me a list of 33
participants that I have to review their files. Great, fine,
wonderful, whatever you want.
   The problem comes in with locating the participants. Some
participants come five days a week, some come Mondays/Wednesdays only,
some come only Tuesdays and Thursdays, etc. I'm only there on Mondays
and Fridays, and have no idea which participants attend programs each
day. My supervisor told me I could ask a staff member to tell me from
my list what participants were around that day, which is fine. But
then he said he wants me to locate the participants independently.
Actually, he said that I needed to develop a "professional persona" at
the agency. He said that the staff was willing to help me however I
needed, but I couldn't rely on them all the time, and that he
certainly wasn't going to lead me to every person on the list. I got
the feeling he was intimating I was relying on the staffs help for too
much...I didn't know I was, but may be I am, who knows? He said that
the other staff is there to help me, but that isn't their sole
function (well, duh) and that at every job I'd have to develop ways of
doing things to compensate for my blindness. This, I totally agree
with, of course. It sounded like he didn't want me to use the staff to
seek out participants with me. THis is very concerning because I don't
know these participant's voices, so I can't just wander around the
facility shouting "hey, Lorraine, I hear you, let me interview you!"
or barging in on a conversation if I hear Mark's voice.
   Let me explain to that between classes the participants wander all
over the building. Some are out back smoking, others hang out and play
pool, watch TV, or socialize in the massive room where there are
chairs and tables for meetings. I have no clue how I'm supposed to
seek out these people without sighted assistance. I won't know if the
people I'm looking for are in a group/class, hanging out, or out back
smoking. It doesn't sound like he wants me to utilize the staff to
help me find them, so the only other thing I can think to do is go up
to random people in the hallway, hope they're participants and not
staff, and ask them if they've seen Person X or Y. But I'm not sure if
this is creative or goes along with helping me build a professional
persona.
   This whole thing is giving me a tremendous amount of anxiety and I
have no brilliant ideas to resolve it that might appease my
supervisor. My fiance, who is sighted, said that me doing the activity
entirely by mself would be like me walking around, poking people to
see if they're breathing and asking them if they were John or Hilda;
entirely ridiculous, but maybe he's right.

   So my question, oh wise group members, is can you think of a
solution for me? Am I being entirely over reactive about this? And
what can I say to my supervisor, if anything, because I'm not sure if
I should let him know how entirely freaked out this makes me.

Please and thank you for any help you can give,
Caitlin