Social Workers

[Rerun]

Just thought I would share what the Social Worker gave me to read last night.  There is no way I would talk to her, but I can't go anywhere and she knows it!

THE DEPRESSION WORKBOOK - A GUIDE FOR LIVING WITH DEPRESSION AND MANIC DEPRESSION  BY:  MARY ELLEN COPELAND, MS

TEN DAYS TO SELF-ESTEEM BY:  DAVID BURNS

THE FEELING GOOD HANDBOOK  BY:  DAVID BURNS, MD

MIND OVER MOOD-CHANGE HOW YOU FEEL BY CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK  BY:  DENNIS GREENBERGER, PHD AND CHRISTINE A. PADESKY, PHD

Help me think of a few books to give her!!!!
 

I'm An Idiot and Don't Know It  By:  Dr. Phill

[Epoman]

Just thought I would share what the Social Worker gave me to read last night.  There is no way I would talk to her, but I can't go anywhere and she knows it!

THE DEPRESSION WORKBOOK - A GUIDE FOR LIVING WITH DEPRESSION AND MANIC DEPRESSION  BY:  MARY ELLEN COPELAND, MS

TEN DAYS TO SELF-ESTEEM BY:  DAVID BURNS

THE FEELING GOOD HANDBOOK  BY:  DAVID BURNS, MD

MIND OVER MOOD-CHANGE HOW YOU FEEL BY CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK  BY:  DENNIS GREENBERGER, PHD AND CHRISTINE A. PADESKY, PHD

Help me think of a few books to give her!!!!
 

I'm An Idiot and Don't Know It  By:  Dr. Phill

Luckily I have a great social worker. She leaves me alone unless I ask her something and I like that. I don't want to be bothered by people psychoanalyzing me while I am having my blood sucked out of me.

[LifeOnHold]

I would bet those books have a disclaimer somewhere that says that it doesn't apply to people with chronic health conditions-- depression seems almost automatic and not unusual among dialysis patients.

I think 'positive, upbeat patients' are less of a strain on the dialysis personnel-- that's why they care so much about our 'attitude.'  But it's BS to think that a 'positive attitude' will lengthen your lifespan on dialysis-- they've already proved that cancer patients who are positive don't live any longer than patients who are negative.

The only thing that will absolutely lengthen your lifespan on dialysis is INFORMATION... you have to learn everything you can about your specific situation.  I have a 'bad attutude' and I've lived for 13 years on dialysis-- but I probably know more about my condition than most of my doctors.  If I had been the smiling idiot they hoped I'd be, I'd have been dead a long time ago.

[Jamie]

Dear fellow renal readers,

I'm very happy with the social workers in the dialysis unit. Matter of fact I speak to them often more so than the doctors....Jamie-G

[kitkatz]

A few books for your social worker (to bad they aren't written yet.)
     How to get along with a Dialysis Patient.
    How to Really Help the Dailysis Patients in your Unit
    How to Plan a Trip for your Patient that does Not make them travel an Hour each way to Dialysis
    How Not to Screw up Vacation Plans for your Patients
    Get off Your Ass and Get to Work!
    Show Up and See Patients More than One Day a Month

Uh oh! I am getting mean better quit while I am still nice.

[Rerun]

LOL   

How to be a Social Worker for dummies! 

[packerfan]

As a social worker in a dialysis center, I must say that I love my job and I love working with my patients, even the crabby and difficult ones! For myself, I do not try to change people's bad attitudes and crabbiness just to make life easier for the dialysis staff. I do try to get patients to focus more on the positives in their lives mainly because I believe life is more enjoyable when you focus on positives as much as possible. While dialysis IS a major part of your life, it is not your whole life. Some crabby people are able to channel their crabbiness to patient advocacy - in a tactful way- to make staff and administration aware of issues dialysis patients face. No one can understand any situation until you experience it yourself so many of us dialysis workers do not understand your feelings and needs completely because we are not on dialysis ourselves. I rely on my patient's input. As a social worker, I take seriously my job as patient advocate and if there are concerns, I do address them with staff. Social Workers are not perfect, and no one else is either. It is vital that we all maintain the attitude that the patient is the head of their health care team; a team that includes doctors, nurses, dietitians, and yes, even social workers.

[Black]

As a social worker in a dialysis center, ...

WOW!!  You jumped into the deep end of the pool first thing.   

I'm glad you're here as I'm sure many of us have questions you can probably answer.  You are now in a position to make a huge positive difference in many lives all over the world, which you would never have touched in any other way. 

Please go to the Introduce yourself section and let everyone know you're here.   This is a great group of very bright, educated and experienced people; I'm sure you will enjoy them. You'll probably even learn some things about dialysis patients you never knew,  which can help you with your job every day.

Get comfortable, maybe prop your feet up and get another cup of coffee, and get ready to be pleased and amazed by what Epoman has created here.

I'll save my questions and comments for another day and I do hope you will return to this thread often.

[kitkatz]

I wish our social worker would make it a point to see us when we are in the unit.  There is so much stuff that could be handled for other patients by her and not by the nursing staff.

[Zach]

The Social Worker at my Unit makes rounds at least once a week.     
She does a very good job listening to the patients and is truly an advocate for us!

[kevno]

Whats a Social Worker If I so one on the Unit I think I would have a heart attack   I know they have helped a few renal patients. Mostly if they have just come into the UK for dialysis. With their duel Passports. So it is free treatment for then, free flat for them, plus get the flat fully furnished for free too. That is the only help a social worker is. Never to any of the long term renal patients. Well thats my rant done with

[livecam]

They are helpful to patients who have unresolved needs.  The whole dialysis thing is pretty crippling in a lot of ways and there are many patients on their own.  To me they were kinda of a pita because it seems they were always coming around at the rare time I had just managed to snooze for a few minutes.  They definetly fulfill a need so I guess they are good to have around.

[Sara]

Whats a Social Worker If I so one on the Unit I think I would have a heart attack   I know they have helped a few renal patients. Mostly if they have just come into the UK for dialysis. With their duel Passports. So it is free treatment for then, free flat for them, plus get the flat fully furnished for free too. That is the only help a social worker is. Never to any of the long term renal patients. Well thats my rant done with

Wait, if you are a dialysis patient in the UK you get a free apartment, free treatment, and free stuff?  How can we sign up for that?!

[Zach]

Wait, if you are a dialysis patient in the UK you get a free apartment, free treatment, and free stuff?  How can we sign up for that?!

Do they stop dialysis in the UK for patients over the age of 70?  Or is it that they won't start it at that age?
I don't think a Social Worker can help with that issue.     

[kevno]

Only if you have a DUEL PASSPORT and not been in this country, not even visited for most of their lives. Plus Paddy is 87 years old, and is still very fit on haemo. We have a lot of patients over 70+ on the unit. The only thing is they are not put on the transplant list. So dialysis is the only thing they have.

Born here, been here all my life, as far as I am concerned Social Workers in the UK are a waste of time. BUT, that is only my point of view, with experience

[Duane]

Here's Brenda, my Social Worker. She is very special also to me and everyone at the center. Whatever you need help with she is there for you and has a list of referrals. Going out of town for a week, let her know and she arranges dialysis treatment for you where ever you go just let her know in advance, if it's an emergency still let her know, she will do the work for you. In this picture her hair is combed back in a ponytail.

[Sluff]

Duane, you are very lucky to have good people looking out for you. Your positive attitude helps also. It's great to have you here at IHD. You are a fine gentleman.

[thegrammalady]

i have been dealing with social workers for the past 22 years. i have a severely disabled child, now 22. i classify social workers right along with politicians and lawyers, something around the level of pond scum. there is only one in kevins short little life that i have ever liked. the last one that showed up at my doorstep never made it in the house. i had one in the school district years ago that would call county services every time kevin had a seizure. to her that ment i wasn't giving him his medication. her thought process went something like this......child has seizures, parents take child to doctor, doctor prescribes medication. seizures stop. child has seizure, parents not giving medication. and this from a supposedly educated person. yep pond scum.  that said we have had two social workers at my unit since i started dialysis. the first one was useless, if i had waited for her to do things, i'd still be waiting. the 2nd one is ok, karen doesn't assume anything she asks, " are you aware of this......."  mostly i only have to deal with her if i am going out of town. if i do ask something she researches it and gets right back to me.  i guess i can amend my list...there are 2 social workers that i like

[Duane]

Duane, you are very lucky to have good people looking out for you. Your positive attitude helps also. It's great to have you here at IHD. You are a fine gentleman.

Sluff, kind words will get you a  drink on me




EDITED: Picture removed - Sluff/ Admin

[andrea]

i have been dealing with social workers for the past 22 years. i have a severely disabled child, now 22. i classify social workers right along with politicians and lawyers, something around the level of pond scum. there is only one in kevins short little life that i have ever liked. the last one that showed up at my doorstep never made it in the house. i had one in the school district years ago that would call county services every time kevin had a seizure. to her that ment i wasn't giving him his medication. her thought process went something like this......child has seizures, parents take child to doctor, doctor prescribes medication. seizures stop. child has seizure, parents not giving medication. and this from a supposedly educated person. yep pond scum.  that said we have had two social workers at my unit since i started dialysis. the first one was useless, if i had waited for her to do things, i'd still be waiting. the 2nd one is ok, karen doesn't assume anything she asks, " are you aware of this......."  mostly i only have to deal with her if i am going out of town. if i do ask something she researches it and gets right back to me.  i guess i can amend my list...there are 2 social workers that i like

grammalady -

I realize this post is over a month old, but I wanted to chime in on this. Most social service workers are NOT social workers. In nearly every state, the only requirement to work in child services is a bachelor's degree. Not a degree in social work, but any degree. So these are people who have a degree in something like English lit or basket-weaving, and all their training is done on the job. That is very different from someone with a master's degree in social work who is licensed and held accountable if they are incompetent. To someone with the MSW degree, child service workers are a joke.

I'm not biting your head off - your experiences sound horrible and I understand why you would have a bad impression of social workers. I just wanted you to know that the ones you dealt with outside of the dialysis center are not real social workers, so please give the ones at your center a chance.  It hurts me to think that people are turned off by a bad worker or a bad experience, because not all social workers are like that. I work my rear end off for my patients, and while I'm definitely not perfect, I hope they understand that I'm trying to help them in any way I can. As far as I'm concerned, social workers who don't put forth an effort should have their licenses taken away.

[Meinuk]

???My dialysis unit has a social worker???  Actually on the sign on the door it says that there are there are THREE (it is a 30 chair unit running 3 shifts M/W/F & 2 shifts T/R/S)...  Once, I think I saw someone in the office.  Maybe it was a ghost.

When I started Dialysis back in January, I met with a social worker.  She told me all of the rules that the unit has, and how important it was to follow them.  (No eating, No visitors)  Imagine my surprise on my second night when a family came in, set up chairs around their dad's chair and set out dinner so that they could all eat together...  Needless to say, it wasn't long before I was getting takeout delivered to my chair for dinner.  (a tech called the order in for me) - also, I've had a couple of people come in to keep me company for at least part of my 4 hours....

And, once, when I was dialyzing on an earlier shift, a woman came up to me and started talking.  I had never seen her before, and she was not wearing a name tag, so I asked her who she was, and what was she doing.  She said, "I like to say hello to all of my patients".  So, again, I asked "Who are you?"  she then said that she was a social worker.  I then told her that it would be appropriate and professional to actually introduce herself to me before she started any conversation. - she never spoke to me again....  I miss her terribly..... NOT

[bdpoe]

Once again we come to the topic of Nurses and Social workers being the primary advocate for the patient when
in reality they are the primary advocate of their employers, co workers, mortgages and car payments.

Unfortunately in many circumstances, not just dialysis, a social workers case load is so heavy that they simply cannot
service their clients to the extent that many would wish.

Furthermore they are often undertrained even with a degree in Social Work or closely related field.

Sometimes they are restricted by their employer as to what they can and cannot do.

All State and Federal service agencies and non profits where possible should have an access line especially
for Social Workers but of course this all boils down to money, funding and politics.

At one time i wanted to become a social worker until I discovered just how bad many of these workers have it.
Two renal social workers told me that they are basically alloted an average of ten minutes a month per patient.
How much social work can you do in 10 minutes a month?

I've gotten wrong information from social workers in clinics, hospitals and ESRD Networks to boot!

I know there are some effective and dedicated social workers out there but I haven't run across any of them.

In their defense, imagine having an impossible case load, having to educate yourself on Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid,
healthcare options, non profit agencies, mitigating between staff and patients and trying to help patients with  variosu other problems with little support from the "higher ups."

Seems like the local colleges, ESRD Networks, SSA, or somebody besides AAKP could set up semi anual traing seminars
to update, train and network with social workers to help them be more effective.
......bd

[LightLizard]

Like most professionals I have dealt with since beoming ill, there are good ones and not so good ones.
Most of the social workers I've met have been very supportive and sometimes even helpful!
Of course, I've also run into the odd one that seems to have the impression that I've been living under a rock for my whole life, and then proceeds to tell me everything I knew before she/he was just a gleam in their daddy's eye.
I had a real difficult time with a physiotherapist, when I was hospitalised. I hadn't been on my feet in about seven months, and her plan was to immediately get me out of bed and start walking. I got fairly terse with her, I guess. Terse enough that I noticed that she made a point of putting my reaction down on her clipboard, and the other nurses on the ward started to handle me with kid gloves, even though I hadn't given them anything but gratitude. Mostly...heehee

love

~LL~

[keefer51]

BD i agree with everything you said. Well put. I just received a survey we fill out every year. The strange thing is we can't mail it in. We have to take it into dialysis where a box sits in front of the secretary. I am sure that they would open ones from the people who are going to bitch. So i wrote a big hello on mine! Our social worker is part time she has helped me on my meds and insurance needed for dialysis. I know she has a big heart and spends allot of time with our elderly patients. 1out of 5 i give her a soft three.

[bdpoe]

Been there, done that, bought the Tee Shirt and the Book.
Went to a well off fundie church, the kind with well dressed folks in expensive cars and homes
with a well known somewhat locally famous pastor who told me " we don't have any resources to help you."
(except for a short prayer asfter hearing my sob story about being desperate straights.)

Went to a psycologist and psychiatric nurse Hope things get better see you in three months see if these
pills help ( The pills solved none of my problems and things got worse.)

Have seen seven different social workers and am amazed at how little they could help me.
(I got more answers on the web sites than from them.)

Same with dieticians. One says one thing , another says something different. I was in the Hospital for a week
and loaded up on Chocolate milk, Mashed Potatos,  Ice cream, Cake and Bran Muffins LOL. Then I was told
"your numbers look good." HUH?

Ever try to get factual stright answers over the phone with Medicare, Medicaid, Health and Human Resources
DCF, The ESRD Network or others? Nobody has the time to roll up their sleeves and really help you so it seems at times.

There's so much more to this story than I can possibly share or even remember.

Do your state and federal legislators really give a darn???
.........bd

Mine needs her own Social Worker!   I can say "my fistula quit working, my Hickman fell out and my Mother died....."

She would answer "other than that are things going well?"    "if there is anything I can do, just ask"   

Good Grief!  How much do these people get paid to do NOTHING!