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

[Rhonda Partain]

Hi, is there a schedule of some sort that you could access to know which 
participants are there on which days?  There must be a list that shows who 
should be there for what classes and for what times?  Could you go in to the 
brake area and announce that you are doing  information updates and ask if 
Meg Smith is in the room?  I know this must be frustrating, I hope  you 
figure it out. Have you been introduced to all the clients there? Do they 
have some sort of general meeting so clients can get to know new staff or 
interns?
Rhonda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "NABS SecondVP" <secondvicepresident.acbstudents at gmail.com>
To: <nabs at acb.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2011 12:09 PM
Subject: [nabs] Houston, we have a problem - Please Read


> 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
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> signature database 6497 (20110927) __________
>
> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
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The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

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