Self Awareness Log No. 2

* Seeking feedback is important because it gives a worker some idea of how they are working - what they are doing well and what could be improved.

Starting my career as a social worker and working with children and families is where I feel as though I belong. I have the compassion, the drive and the withstanding endurance to make the area of child and family social work my passion. Working with children requires patience, dedication, resilience and so many other trusting characteristics. Relationships within children’s immediate families have a profound impact on their state of being. Becoming a child and family social worker is undeniably tough and arduous work but the reward of seeing families meet their set goals and becoming a stronger more united family unit come to fruition surpasses anything else. When I become a child and family social worker, my job days will be over and my career starts. Going to worker everyday knowing that I’m making a difference will be the best feeling. A great person once said, “It’s your mistakes that make you human, and it’s your humanity that makes you influential.”

Self-Awareness, self-concept and emotional intelligence are effective managerial concepts that will result in leadership success. According to Stanford University, having these soft skills are indispensable traits that good managers should develop to be successful leaders. Managers strive to become aware of who they are, what their values, attitudes, skills, and abilities are. These values drive them to achieve and will eventually result in them become more effective. (Showry & Manasa, 2014, p. 15)

Thanks Vanessa, you did a great job defining the role and use of supervision. I did not know if you noticed that Our Lady of the Lake mission’s statement is in perfect line with the social worker code of ethics. I would like to share what I found in similarity with our mission statement. According to the National Association of Social Work (2010), the mission of the social work profession is rooted in a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers throughout the professions’ history, are foundation of social work’s unique purpose and perspective. Service, Social justice, Dignity, Dignity and worth of the person, Importance of human relationships, Integrity, and Competence. This constellation of core values reflects what is unique to the social work profession. According to Kiser (2012) the field supervisor is key to student learning in any human services internship. Ideally, supervisory relationships are based on trust and mutual understanding. Great job and good luck.

On September 21, 2015, I met with Ms. Katie, a student in the MSW program at NCSU, to conduct an interview. We met at Starbucks in Cary, in the crossroads shopping center. Ms. Katie’s responses helped me learn and think about social workers in the child welfare social field. As a prospective social worker, my questions were formed based thoughts that I was concerned about my responsibilities in the social work field..

A social worker’s field placement and internship experience are the uttermost integral component of his or her social work education. This experience can vary in both quantity and quality depending on the type of leadership and guidance the social worker is receiving. Supervisors play a fundamental role in the guidance and training of a new social worker during his or her internship. Having similar work styles as your supervisor can lead to a satisfying field placement experience.

The social work field has been a consistent portion of my life for the past six years. I was employed by the Mental Health Resource Center (MHRC) from 2011-2016. From 2011-2014, I worked as a case manager. In this capacity, I worked with families who had children removed because of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. My goal was to recommend services which would alleviate the reasons for removal. However, if the parents did not show any behavior change and were not successful in completing their court ordered tasks, we would have to change our goals to what was in the best interest of the child. In addition to recommending services, I ensured that children received therapeutic intervention, had visitations with their family at least three times a week, transported my clients to appointments, enrolled children in school, prepared court documents, requested records, and documented my efforts to reunify. From 2014-2016, I was promoted to supervisor. My unit consisted of five case managers and a case coordinator. My role was to guide, teach, and

I had the opportunity to interview Rebekah Bohannon, NCC, LPC- MHSP, Regional Clinical Director of East Tennessee for The Next Door. This facility functions as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center for currently incarcerated women. Services such as work force development, medical treatment, drug and alcohol treatment, clinical mental health services and a family enrichment program are just some of the services this facility provides. Rebekah currently provides clinical supervision to me, both at the graduate student internship level and at an employment level. In describing her role as a supervisor, she state, “working as a clinician is a wild ride, but working as a supervisor is an even wilder ride” (Bohannon, 2016). This provides an accurate description of the picture of clinical supervision I acquired from this personal interview, as well as, my experience with Rebekah operating as my supervisor.

Connection to the staff: In class we have learned that agencies lack staff, and therefore, reduce the effectiveness of the umbrella concept. My supervisor told me that she is thankful that I came to help her because the work piled up on her quickly. I have learned doing my job has contributed to the community, thus accomplishing my

3.1 Supervision is an important source of feedback and we discuss my work and how I am doing, what I am doing well and what needs to improve. Supervision feedback could be formal like in supervision meetings but also informal when talking unplanned. For example, my manager will come in, in the morning and ask ‘how did it go last night? And after explaining, she will tell me fine but next time add this to what I haven't done today. My colleagues and the service users are important too for giving me feedback, for showing me what I am doing well, the areas I need to improve on and work on.

In this internship I expect to gain a further knowledge and understanding of best practices in working with marginalized populations. I also hope to make connections with fellow social workers that share similar passions and values.

The Department of Human Services Family Assistance Division is headed by the Field Management Director 1, Yolanda Shegog-Wright. The Field Management Director 2 positions are held by Beverly Moore and Deidre Iglus. These two positions report directly to the FMD 1. The FMD 2’s manage the four Office Supervisor 1 positions as well as the ten Field Management Supervisors. The Field Management Supervisors manage approximately nine eligibility counselors. Two Office Supervisor 1’s manage eight Secretary positions each while the other two OS 1’s manage the remaining support staff with includes Clerk 1’s, Clerk 2’s, Mail Clerk’s, and Eligibility Clerk’s.

Maurice William’s understands that social workers get tired because of their relentless job responsibilities, therefore, she makes sure they don’t experience burn out since it is her responsibility to keep the families intact (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). Since she is not out in the field visiting the homes, she puts her faith in her upper management team to be able to listen and pay attention to any problems or potential future problems (Laureate Education, Inc. 2011). Since she is unable to be out in the field, Williams uses her supervisory skills to train her staff to be able to identify potential problems and also to report back to her what the problems are. If there were problems out in the field (i.e., foster parents, foster children), she shoulders the full responsibility to make sure that the problems are addressed and resolved, or modify changes that are in the best interest of the children.

I have noted several weaknesses with Mr. Belcher’s organizational chart. The simplicity of the flow chart can be confusing and misleading. There was much confusion noted in the third and fourth tier. The third tier contained three positions (the Assistant Director of Residential Services, the Program Director and the Team Leader/Clinician) which according to the chart these positions are equal but their titles seem to dispute that. One may ask, is a Program Director higher in the organization than an Assistant Director. The fourth tier of the chart has the positions of 2 Psychiatric Rehabilitation Counselors and a Registered Nurse. I have noted two aspects which may lead to confusion. Firstly, one may ask why these positions are reporting

This part will discuss self-awareness and continuous self-development through analyzing a number of prior researches, then come up with the link of them to support my role as a manager in the future.