Guerrilla Social Work

Have you ever had conversations with people who can’t seem to get past their beliefs about a situation? You hear things like, “we can’t do that” “they won’t let you” “They can’t afford it” I have to wonder if we believe things simply because they are the things we have always been told, when was the last time you challenge a long standing “truth”? How did it turn out?

Structural social work practice focuses on the structural or systemic cause of a person’s problems rather that on the person or their environment. In a course I took it was suggested that a structural focus was difficult in a generalist social worker’s daily practice. Do we focus on our client and what they can do now to improve the quality of their lives or do we focus on change the systems that is causing all of the grief. Although the goal of social work is to address both, there are only so many hours in the day and crisis crayons in the box.

We don’t recognize how much power we have to affect change. Or a better way to put it is we have a lot of power to prevent change. Every time we accept that something can’t be done or choose to not ask because we already know the answer we don’t take an opportunity to change things.

Example? Okay how bout this one. Housing. You’re a social worker on an inpatient unit in a hospital. You are doing discharge planning and this client will need a place to live. Let’s make it easy, they were living on their own before being admitted and the functional assessment has them reasonable independent. However they are on a fixed income of about 1188$ per month. (This is the amount paid to people on AISH in Alberta.) You know there is a 3000 person wait list for your city’s social housing program, the mental health housing program won’t take your client because they have used drugs or alcohol in the last 5 years and you know renting market value is too expensive.

Three myths. One, social housing wait list, yep, it’s pretty long. Have you done and application anyway? Did you call, is there any other programs run through them like rent supplements, or rapid exit that requires the application? The mental health housing, are you sure they won’t accept your client? Did you call and try to get an intake meeting?

Admittedly, these myths exist because they have been reinforced so many times. Maybe you won’t have a lot of luck but at least you can make a call, find out how it really is and maybe start building the relationships that can lead to change.

But that’s more like the structural social work but you really do need to focus on your client right now, discharge is approaching fast.

This leaves market value housing, this myth we can challenge maybe even bust. Yes, market value is expensive and your client is very low income, but so is anyone in Alberta working for minimum wage. Look at the options, a one bedroom apartment around 900$, a basement suite around 600$, a sketch below code basement “suite” around 600 to 700$ or shared accomidations for 400$ to 500$. Expensive but do able.

You might need to get out of your and your client’s way. Maybe they need some support in learning how to rent a place, Maybe the need a list of places to start or help getting a damage deposit. Either way they are getting discharged and what you offer them will decide whether or not they are housed or homeless.

Self care, which is different than self love. (if it’s not, you doing it wrong and you should be in private.) Self care is a very important part of our practice. We can get into some pretty heavy stuff and the vicarious trauma can take it’s toll.  But there is another trap I have seen people fall into, a never ending cycle of self care that never quite brings a person back to a place of strength.

I’m thinking that some people understand the idea of self care, but don’t really know how to do it in a way the is helpful. The activity that is you choose to re energize your self is not as important as how and why you are doing it. Self care, at least in my opinion, is not about reward. It’s not about sitting in a bubble bath drinking wine and having some “me time”. Going to the gym to work out and then having a chocolate sundae doesn’t help much, going to the gym and then eating a healthy meal does. When you workout you tear down muscle and it is the healing of the muscle that creates new muscle and greater strength. To put another way, when someone is recovery from surgery or an illness the recommendation is usually not to lay around. You have to keep moving to rebuild what the illness took away. You have to do it in a slow and deliberate way so you don’t get hurt, but you still have to do it.

We spend our time working in difficult, sometimes heartbreaking situations. We are often over worked and under resourced. If our days are spend  breaking down our resilience, then we go home and soak in the tub to escape the day it is unlikely we are giving ourselves what we really need. All this will do is let the muscles we tore down atrophy. If we really want to grow our resilience, to recover from our day, we need to move slow and deliberate and engage in activities that will feed us in a healthy way and let us recover stronger then we were.

How about I get to point. If you want to do more than just survive in this field you’re going to need to learn how to learn how to restore your resilience. Everyone is different and you will have find the things that fit your life and interests, but I’ll share what I do and more important, how and why I do it. It will give you a place to start.This is a blog post, there is no really way to make this sound like it wasn’t easy. None of these things happened over night they all took a lot of work and time to get set up and working. The job related ones were hard won lessons.

At work:

1. I have set things up so that I live close to wear I work. This way because I have to take my car I at least don’t have to deal with a crappy commute. Not everyone can do this but at least take a look at what you can do. A change that shaves a half hour off the commute is 2.5 hours a week that is now yours.
2. I understand my role. Not as easy as it sounds but in my current job and my past job I know what I am supposed to be doing. I’ve read the mission statements, I’ve look at the ways my job fits into that mission. I understand the values identified by the ACSW and how to bring those into my job. This is more than a job description, I know why I am there.
3. I know that at some point the shit is going to hit the fan, I’m ready for it. When I am over my head, behind in paperwork, or too busy to even pee, I stop for a second, breath and take time to focus. I tap into my resources and co urkers, co-workers.
4. I volunteer for additional training and committees. Again, training, connections and a way to contribute to my organization in other ways.

Building a foundation at work sets me up to keep it together.

Outside of work:

1. I volunteer my time. Episodic and long term. It let’s me build connects, learn skills but most important it allows me to have a positive effect on my community in ways that are different from my job.
2. I go to school. Yes, school contributes to my skill base, makes me better at my job and it challenges in a very different way than my work does.
3. I go to yoga. Yoga requires that I focus my energy, pay attention to my body and to be mindful. Yoga is a very deliberate activity I need to be in that moment.
4. I have hobbies. I blog, podcast, I’m learning how to draw. I get into things that interest me. Some are close to social work, some are really far away.
5. I have friends. Wait, this is not any where near as simple as it sounds. I have variety of friend and acquaintances and I spend time to nurture them and grow them. I have some close friends that I meet every week for breakfast, we’ve known each other for years and have invest a lot in each other. I have past co workers and acquaintances that I schedule group bar nights with or random lunches. I make sure I put it in my calendar to call or email people and set up time to get together.
6. I lay on the couch. Okay it’s a bit like the bubble bath thing, but I don’t do this because I am “destroyed”. I do it because there is a move on or a magazine or blog I want to read.

Taking care of yourself, or “self care” is something that you need to learn, something you need to practice. It is a skill. So start working on it, make a plan, explore some ideas and write down what works.

(just a note, I tend to not proof read so there may be some errors)