1. Strangers come up to you and tell you their life story and before you realize it, you've completed a psychosocial assessment, refereed them to a support group and given them the name of a counselor to call.
2. You know the suicide crisis phone number, the food shelf and the community shelter phone numbers right off the top of your head.
3. You know where to find "free" anything (cloths, food, equipment, transportation) but you are not eligible for any of them yourself.
4. You are considered an "expert" with financial assistance for your low-income individuals but you can't keep your own checkbook balanced.
5. Staff you work with will pull you aside and consult you on their "hypothetical" problem and you can't charge them for your advice.
6. You have a file or a list posted in your office on "Stress Reducing Techniques."
7. You see a patient/client outside the work setting you immediately avoid talking to them for fear they will tel you how "really bad" they are doing and make you feel obligated to follow-up with them later.
8. After a long week of solving other people's problems, you recognize that you haven't dealt with your own at home.
9. You don't know what "sick days" are and you call your vacation time "long mental health breaks."
10. You have community resource phone numbers at your fingertips but can't remember your kids' dentist, doctor or teachers' phone numbers.
11. The clinical staff find the patient/family situation appalling and in urgent need of intervention and in your "social work" opinion, you don't really think it's all that bad (and question what the fuss is all about?!)
~This list written by: Rena Sespene-Hinz LICSW
I thought that this was a trip and found myself transposing "social worker" with "chaplain." Can we come up with a "You May Be a Chaplain if..." or "You May Be a Pastor if..."
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