Social Worker Burnout

Yesterday I travelled with one of our social workers to Los Angeles, California to handle a very tough client.  The apartment management had complained the client was non-cooperative in signing the additional apartment agreements.  Upon arriving we tried to get the situation resolved.  The client was a middle aged CI oral deaf lady who refused to agree to the apartment terms.  After 3 hrs the apartment manager took me out to dinner.  When we returned, we found the social worker crying on the sofa in the meet room.

Burnout. I took over and administered some 'shock therapy' to get her to sign the agreements.  She became combative.  We decided to be more firm, 'no agreement, you move out next week, period, and no more help from us', and remained that way for the next 2 hrs. The client finally caved in and signed the papers.

I saw all this beforehand when the client first came into our office.  She was being kicked out of her old apt because of similar issues.   I could say, I knew that she'd be an un-cooperative client and told the social worker to phase her out immediately.  The social worker is soft and she decided to take her in and help her under my objections.  She found her a new place under our low income housing partner line-up and moved her into there last week.  This went on until yesterday when we had to deal with her combativeness with the property management over the rental agreement.

I know social workers have a high burnout rate and there are rules to follow to prevent future burnouts and preserve their ability to help more people later on.

I have no problems with social workers phasing out their clients the moment they become either non-cooperative or verbally combative.  This happens to approximately 15% of the clientile.

It's a rule I normally follow and suggest other social workers follow as well.

We give them free help and they need to respect that, else, we show them the door.

Most clients are cooperative to our help in getting their issues resolved.

We don't need to let our clients mess up our sanity, our stamina, our personal health, and our ability to help others in the future.

Richard

My Presentations At An Oral Deaf School

A little while ago, Mohammed and I taught safety awareness at the San Marino School Hard of Hearing program.  Its a school that places strong emphasis on oral deaf education.  Through these small presentations, the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center has made life safer for these young deaf children.

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TDD In Santa Ana Transportation Center

I managed to get a TDD at a major transportation depot in Santa Ana, California.  This hub handles rail, buses, and shuttles.

They had 18 pay phones many in booths of 4's.







It took me 3 months to get this accomplished whereas a sign language based organization had been trying for 2 years to accomplish the same thing.

DEAF DOOMSDAY CLOCK

DEAF DOOMSDAY CLOCK

Most of us already know what the doomsday clock means. For those who havent heard of it should consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Clock for more information.

How about one for the deaf world? Deafness wipe out begins at midnight. The handle position on the clock shows how close we are to effecting a wipe out of the deafness condition globally.

As of today, the deaf doomsday clock is set at 4 minutes. What factors are used in determining the position of the handle on the clock?

MEDICAL OCCURRENCE - This factor relates to babies developing into deaf people. With the high incidence of Rubella outbreaks and the high occurrence of birth defects in the past, creating a higher population of deaf people back then, had pushed the clock back. Now with medical and ototoxic knowledge, vaccinations against rubella, genetic counseling, and preventive prenatal activities, is pushing the handle closer to midnight.

TECHNOLOGY - With the advent of technology that mitigates deafness such as cochlear implants, it pushes the handle toward midnight. When the Food Drug Administration opened investigation into one of the makers of the cochlear implants, it pushed the handle back a little bit just as bacterial meningitis would do. Stem cells entering the clinical trials phase could push the handle far closer to midnight. Ipods and the growing hearing loss epidemic from noise related causes are pushing the handle backwards.

ATTITUDES TO THOSE WITHIN THE DEAF COMMUNITY - Deaf community's attitudes toward to those within their community is a critical factor. Things that'll push the handle closer to midnight are actions like getting Jane K. Fernandes ousted from Gallaudet University. Deafhood cult hijacking many aspects of deaf community and their organizations would push the handle closer to midnight because deafhood has so far been a constant source of internal instability and scourge since the past decades. Only open armed leadership from people like Fred Schreiber would do a lot to push the handle back. Another brilliant example that pushes the handle closer to midnight would be deaf websites, particularly Deafread.com and Deafvideo.tv, end up banning deaf leaders for various, yet stupid, reasons.

ATTITUDES TO THOSE OUTSIDE THE DEAF COMMUNITY - Coexistence is a critical factor in determining the handle position on the clock. The deaf community's relationship with the hearing counterparts plays a strong role. If there is peaceful non-confrontational coexistence between deaf and hearing people, the handle will be pushed back. Things such as excluding hearing people from participating in social events like in the case whereas sign language students are being ignored by the deaf community like at The Block At Orange would push the handle closer to midnight. If we show the good side of being deaf to the world, then people will want to keep us in existence. However if the media continues to report the deaf community in some sort of a war with the hearing community through various forms of litigations and actions, the hearing people will be pushed to mitigating the deafness occurrence and the handle will be pushed closer to midnight.

So it's all up to you, the deaf community, to determine your fate, your future, and the handle position on the deaf doomsday clock.

Richard Roehm

DEAF DOOMSDAY CLOCK

DEAF DOOMSDAY CLOCK

Most of us already know what the doomsday clock means. For those who havent heard of it should consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Clock for more information.

How about one for the deaf world? Deafness wipe out begins at midnight. The handle position on the clock shows how close we are to effecting a wipe out of the deafness condition globally.

As of today, the deaf doomsday clock is set at 4 minutes. What factors are used in determining the position of the handle on the clock?

MEDICAL OCCURRENCE - This factor relates to babies developing into deaf people. With the high incidence of Rubella outbreaks and the high occurrence of birth defects in the past, creating a higher population of deaf people back then, had pushed the clock back. Now with medical and ototoxic knowledge, vaccinations against rubella, genetic counseling, and preventive prenatal activities, is pushing the handle closer to midnight.

TECHNOLOGY - With the advent of technology that mitigates deafness such as cochlear implants, it pushes the handle toward midnight. When the Food Drug Administration opened investigation into one of the makers of the cochlear implants, it pushed the handle back a little bit just as bacterial meningitis would do. Stem cells entering the clinical trials phase could push the handle far closer to midnight. Ipods and the growing hearing loss epidemic from noise related causes are pushing the handle backwards.

ATTITUDES TO THOSE WITHIN THE DEAF COMMUNITY - Deaf community's attitudes toward to those within their community is a critical factor. Things that'll push the handle closer to midnight are actions like getting Jane K. Fernandes ousted from Gallaudet University. Deafhood cult hijacking many aspects of deaf community and their organizations would push the handle closer to midnight because deafhood has so far been a constant source of internal instability and scourge since the past decades. Only open armed leadership from people like Fred Schreiber would do a lot to push the handle back. Another brilliant example that pushes the handle closer to midnight would be deaf websites, particularly Deafread.com and Deafvideo.tv, end up banning deaf leaders for various, yet stupid, reasons.

ATTITUDES TO THOSE OUTSIDE THE DEAF COMMUNITY - Coexistence is a critical factor in determining the handle position on the clock. The deaf community's relationship with the hearing counterparts plays a strong role. If there is peaceful non-confrontational coexistence between deaf and hearing people, the handle will be pushed back. Things such as excluding hearing people from participating in social events like in the case whereas sign language students are being ignored by the deaf community like at The Block At Orange would push the handle closer to midnight. If we show the good side of being deaf to the world, then people will want to keep us in existence. However if the media continues to report the deaf community in some sort of a war with the hearing community through various forms of litigations and actions, the hearing people will be pushed to mitigating the deafness occurrence and the handle will be pushed closer to midnight.

So it's all up to you, the deaf community, to determine your fate, your future, and the handle position on the deaf doomsday clock.

Richard Roehm

Gold Tidbits Here And There

Alas! The OC Fair is finally over. It was a grueling 3 week long outreach program.  The results are just grand!

We've been able to forge supply agreements with the makers of these 2 items below at the fair.





Yes we had a good handful of hearing impaired people working and selling stuff there.

Our safety coloring books were a hit there! We passed out 40,000 copies of our safety booklet that includes these 2 images below.





And we got ourselves a 3rd house for our housing program. We got invited to dozens of presentations. We got a handful of vendors for our AT Expo next year.

Finally, I gathered up a lot of elements to put a story together and thats the story behind the bleeding logo you see below.  You will find it soon!



We really had a great time in the island of sanity.

Richard

Jack Barr And His Followers Are Making A Lot Of Smoke Now

They're smoking up the air to cover up the fact that Jack made a hate video blog.  He removed it too late, I've been able to archive the video and I'll be presenting the vlog in presentations and places where no one can smoke up the air.

To be wailing about oral school abuse is a classic cop out. Oral schools of the past, of course were pioneering schools, they had to correct the mistakes that happened and thats in the past. Today's oral deaf schools are nothing close to what the so called 'oral survivors' are wailing about.

This even also goes a very long to say the ASL community would rather stick to the past than move on forward into the future.  That's a message from the deaf community that'll stick in the working ears like wax.

Richard

Jack Barr's Latest Videoblog Brings DBC Down To The Levels Of Hate Groups

There has been a lot of bloggng and videoblogging over Jack Barr's recent videoblog.

My take on this is Jack Barr has opened the door and the process of getting DBC identified as a hate group. His video blog clearly shows the ASL community’s never ending yearning to pick, using the most brutal methods available to them, on people who’ve made themselves free and independent from the claws of ASL.

The hearing folks are going to get this very understanding of DBC’s quest for using violence as a message. And they’re going to be pushing to get DBC identified as a hate and maybe as a terrorist group later on.

Richard Roehm