#social work
i went to the doctor yesterday.
+ started gardasil!(-‿◦☀)
when my doctor first mentioned this to me, i was like, I thought gardasil was for 13-year-old girls so they wouldn’t get HPV, not old slags like me who have who knows what kind of sewer garbage swimming around in my anus. but, lo and behold, they say that getting this vaccine is supposed to reduce the instance of anal cancers in hiv+ people something like 78%. so i like them odds.
- got flagged down and hassled by case management.(⊙_◎)
i have sort of determined that case management at this place is kind of useless (for me, anyway). in the less-than-a-year that i have been getting medical care there, i have been assigned three different case workers, because people keep quitting and/or getting fired. i have said before and i will say again, rapid turnover in social services hurts poor people. often there are good reasons that people leave when they leave and bad reasons that people get fired when they get fired, but it usually has something to do with 1) organizational culture (white at the top/POC at the bottom, authoritarianism & bureaucracy, other weird internal hierarchies) and 2) normal shitty labor stuff (overwork, low pay.)
they were really unprofessional about several things (talking to me about private stuff in the waiting area where everyone could hear, trying to get me to sign a blanket un-filled-out HIPPA and had previously visited my house and talked about stuff in front of people staying here who don’t know about my status); and to top it off, yesterday my new “care navigator” called me “he” and “him.”
at my age i really feel like i should have a thicker skin about this, but it kind of managed to ruin my day. really the only place this happens to me is in health care settings, in part i think because most of the time people talk to you while staring at your electronic records on a computer screen because everything has to be so meticulously documented, and there is a big SEX: M(T) right by my name. it’s such a bummer. also, i really tend to internalize this kind of thing. it’s hard for me to stick up for myself because i assume that being misgendered is always *my* fault somehow. more on that later.
to summarize, dear doofy case managers:
however,
+ my viral load is undetectable!ヽ(*≧ω≦)ﾉ
which is cool and all, but “undetectable” is imho kind of bullshit, if for no other reason than they keep moving the target. scientists keep developing progressively more and more sensitive tests for HIV antibodies, so what used to be considered “undetectable” and awesome is now considered problematic (depending on how OCD your HIV doctor is, and most doctors became doctors by being kind of obsessive about everything.) like, tests used to bottom out at 400 copies/ml (of blood), and then 176 copies/ml, and then (when i started getting bloodwork done) 40 copies/ml. right now where i get tested “undetectable” is under 20 copies/ml, which means you have to be extremely adherent to your treatment in order not to get a lecture that’s like, why aren’t you taking your meds? what’s stopping you from taking your meds? what are you doing wrong here? you need to take your meds! even if par chance you develop totally normal blips of viral load, which are common, like, in the winter, and when you get a cold.
anyway it’s still always good news to get tho. proverbially, w00t w00t.
Synchronicity: a social worker at the vet! Also boys and period blood
Story time!
If you don’t know, I work in a homeless shelter trying to get the homeless population in my city housed. My client yesterday is an old paranoid schizophrenic who spent the majority of the meeting hitting on me while I was trying to do his paperwork. I shut that shit down firmly.
But anyway, I’m minding my own business walking to the shelter today and trying to cross a busy street. While I’m waiting for the light; I hear some heathen catcalling me, and it goes something like this:
“Heyyyyy, yo beautiful! I like the way she walks.”
I’m thinking to myself, “What in all holy hell?” Bear in mind that I’m dressed like a frumpy lumberjack with a flannel and jeans, so I don’t know what part of this outfit is so damn attractive to this dude. While I’m ignoring him, the fellow goes, “Aww, I don’t think she like that.”
In any case, I turn to this fool to rip him a new one and replied, “You said WHAT, now?” And I realize that it’s my same client from yesterday. But ol’ Romeo doesn’t recognize me because I’m wearing my glasses. I take them off and look at him and say, “Now, (name), I know you know better than that.”
And the look on his face was priceless. He places his hand on his heart and leans back and wails, “OH! UH OH, THAT’S MY CASE MANAGER!” And his friend loses it.
And that’s how my week is going.
We are excited to celebrate completion of our second year. With more than 30 projects done in past two years, which value more than PKR 9million rupees in total, with more than a 100 volunteers and thousands of supporters, we have made it a very active Platform for the youth of Pakistan.
We will launch our report tomorrow. Be ready!
Celebrate your Independence with your heart tomorrow.
Anyone worried about how to prepare for your MSW grad school interview, Here are the questions I was asked verbally at my grad school interview. Please everyone feel free to add the questions you were asked to alleviate some of the stress that prospective MSW candidates face. This is obviously paraphrased to the best of my ability.
Section 1) Why did you choose social work? Why this program?
Section 2) What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?
Section 3) What are your future short term plans/goals? Long term plans/goals?
Section 4) What abilities do you bring to the MSW program?
Section 5) Do you think the learning process or grades are more important?
Section 6) How do you contribute to the value of service? What population do you feel you have the least experience with? What population do you feel the most uncomfortable with?
This is from the written section- we had an hour.
Section 7) How would you respond to someone in class who states that LGTBQIA students bring oppression on themselves by “choosing” to be gay?
Section 8) If you thought you did really good on a paper and then your grade was low, what would you do?
Section 9) (This was the weirdest question) If your professor was wearing an outfit that you found distracting or affected your learning, how would you handle this?
My interview lasted about 2 ½ hours. I hope this helps. Good luck to all of us.
Black History Month 2017: Donald Galloway, Disabled Social Worker Who Fought for Inclusion
Image of two disabled men strolling and rolling down an outdoor pathway. Man on the left is Donald Galloway, tall Black man with an afro with a guide dog by his side. Man on the right is Ed Roberts, white man who is in a wheelchair. Both men are facing the direction of the camera while in mid-stroll/roll. Photo credit: Ken Okuno.
For my last feature for Black History Month, I will spotlight…
Online Disability Advocacy & Social Work: Survey Participation Needed!
On Thursday, October 13th, I will be hosting my first Twitter chat as a #MacroSW partner. I was invited to be a partner for MacroSW(Macro Social Work) over the summer. Macro social work focuses on “big systems” – advocacy, community building, politics, policy, etc., and how those systems affect how we engage with our communities and how we interact with those systems. Though I love micro…
