So…yeah I’m back!  Still as frazzled with balancing life and work but I’m alive!

So I don’t know much bout what to say this time beside avoiding being a zombie.  I say this because I’m taking a mental health vacation soon!  Basically with the demands and deadlines from being a case manager, burnout and turnover is a prevalent topic.  Heck my boss, mind you in a joking manner, always tries to prep for “the next vacancy.”

Take my case load for instance: I have about 18 juveniles I need to see in 2 different cities.  One city is about 45 minutes away and the other is bout 20 minutes away in the other direction ahaha.  Say nine kids in each city, most of them I need to meet with them AT LEAST 2.5 hours a month.  Doesn’t seem that bad at first but 2.5×18=45hrs i need to see clients.  Consider 4 weeks at 40 hours…so 160 hours of work time.  45 hours out of 160 doesn’t seem that bad until you add in 45min drivex2, down and back, and 20minx2 so…round to 3 hours of driving.  double that as i go to each city at least twice a week…and half for Friday.  Therefore…say 8 hours driving a week, a month is 32hrs . Up to 77 hours.  Then each day the kids have lunch around the same time, so 5hrs a week, 20 a month.  Up to 97/160 hours, getting close huh?  Now for more maths!!!  Each meeting needs to be documented as a progress note, those per person should take around 10-15mins…lets say 15mins to account for brain lag.  So i would see the kids for 2 2 hour sessions and a 30 minutes, for simplicity sake.  That’s 3 visits a client, at 18 clients…that’s 54 visits at 15 minutes a note for each visit.  So that’s…13.5 hours of notes which adds up to 110.5/160 hours.  Now lets include the various times needed to go get the client, wait for the school to get them, or other miscellaneous times per kid…say an hour a kid for each month.  That is easily 18 hours…so 128.5/160 hours.  A have an intensive meeting with other staff twice a month at an hour each and about two case manager meetings a month, 1.5 hours each.  Meeting times equal to 5 hours easy. Up to 133.5/160 hours.  So a pretty full but manageable schedule right?

AHAHA, wrong.  Now the unknowns and unplanned items that are never constant.  Things like testing, sick clients, vacations, school breaks, paperwork, and parents.  Ah parents…coupled with paperwork can be a very potent kick in the buns.  Every three months client’s need their paperwork updated.  I need to meet at least with the parent to update the paperwork…usually lasts 1.5 hours, not bad.  The real problem is tracking down some of these parents.  Calling, leaving voice-mails, stopping by the home to leave cards/notices, or even sending courtesy letters.  This takes up tons of time and can stress you out.

So yes my job is stressful just with meeting clients, not taking into account dealing with clients diagnosed with ODD, bipolar, schizo-affective, ADD/ADHD, or some kind of anger issue.

But I love my job and wouldn’t have it any other way. When you do meet the parent/guardian and hear them tell you how their child always looks forward to your visit, draw pictures for you, or just have that huge smile on her/his face…makes you feel good about what you do.

And because I’ll prob just rant about burnout like I just did, here are some links ahaha:

http://www.news-medical.net/news/2006/01/10/15321.aspx

http://www.friedsocialworker.com/socialworkburnout.htm