Stress Management

This week I begin to feel the weight of interning. On Tuesday, I was assigned to home visits. My home visits were with families who had just arrived in the United States the week before. The first family was quite happy but they had moved in with a U.S. tie (family members who were already established and living independently on their own). The second family had a U.S. tie but they were placed in their own apartment (due to their family members not wanting them to live with them).When the family arrived at the apartment they found the apartment to be acceptable but they did not feel that the furnishings were acceptable. World Relief has a list of supplies which we provide to families. Each member of the family is supplied with a single towel, wash cloth, fork, spoon, bowel, cup, chair, bed, etc.. They are given one pot for cooking and no baking dishes. All the supplies are very, very meager. The family was distraught as to how they were to manage with these supplies. I felt for the family because I am not sure how I would manage with such meager supplies. I was so disturbed by everything that I when I crawled in bed I could not get my mind to stop racing with the challenges my clients are faced with. They are exiled from their country and they must run for their lives to another country where (depending on the country) they are treated as animals. Many of them are denied medical access and the ability to work. In some countries they are forced to live in a certain area of the city which most likely is a tent city outside of the city. It can take up to two years for their refugee status to be approved for entry into the United States. Finally, they arrive here to find a whole new struggle awaiting them. The majority of them are unable to speak English fluently so their work options are few. Some have college degrees or were practicing doctors at home only to come here and work at the airport in food service (where many of our clients are employed).

I am finding that I am four weeks into interning and I am seeing much more and feeling much more. There is so much work to be done in my agency and so few people to do the work. On one night, I stayed an hour and a half past my time to leave in order to assist two clients. The fact I stayed caused me to be late to pick up my own daughter. I realized that night that I needed to set healthy boundaries for myself albeit I am simply an intern. I was in conversation with one of the case workers and found she is considering going back to school or finding different employment. I believe she is completely burnt out with her position. I was asking the Social Worker what she does for self care and she seems to not have anything set in motion at this point either. She is working 7 days a week  attempting to juggle two full-time jobs. Self-care is an area that this agency is lacking in and one which they desperately need to consider. It is a stressful job. They are a commissioned by the government and there is a lot of bureaucracy employees deal with. The clientele is delightful but the majority of the clients are stressed and worried which adds to the stress load of the staff. The agency did have a social hour this past week in which staff members were invited to hear a guest musician play music. I hope they will consider making events like this a common thing and I hope they will require staff to make time to attend.