The New Social Worker Vol. 20, No. 2, Spring 2013 | Page 9

there are vast disparities between the
services that are provided based on the
institution from which the individual
receives the service.

Classroom knowledge does not
prepare you for the emotional highs and
lows of working with people within this
system. I have seen people go from barely surviving to thriving, from depression
to elation, and from crippling self-deprecation to self-confidence. I have seen the
appreciation and heard the expressions
of gratitude. I have also seen people lost
within the system, falling through the
cracks because they don’t have the resources, financial or otherwise, to ensure
they can obtain the treatment they need.
I have worked with people who literally
died waiting to get into treatment.

Similarly, I learned a great deal in
University about the criminal justice system, how it is structured, how it operates,
and how the individuals it caters to are affected by it. I felt as if I had a good understanding after three years of reading books,
articles, and watching shows. I worked for
two years in a role that involved working
directly with the penal system.

Statistics and theories do not lend
credence to the visceral experience of
existing within a prison environment. I
have been privy to the dirty, cold, hard,
unforgiving sights that were as much
characteristic of the people inside the institutions (both staff and inmate) as they
were the structures that housed them.
I have heard the sharp and confusing
echoes of ambient background sounds
that reverberate through the units and
corridors on an endless cycle. I have also
been able to experience the humid, odorous scents reminiscent of male perspiration combined with burnt rubber that are
detected somewhere between the senses
of smell and taste. My time in these
places was fleeting; I can only imagine
what an environment like this does to a
person over months and years.

Textbooks, theories, depictions, this
article included, do not come close to establishing an appropriate understanding.
From this environment, I have worked
directly with people who have committed all types of crimes, including murder,
sexual assault, and property and drugrelated crimes ranging from weekend
to life sentences. Through this work, I
have come to understand the complex,
multidimensional psychosocial qualities
that characterize these people, as well
as the challenges that face them in their
struggle to return to society.

I have worked now with many different personalities as co-workers in the
field of mental health. I have worked
with some amazingly passionate and talented people who make a real difference
in the lives of others—some because they
are very intelligent and knowledgeable,
some because they have experience and
natural ability, and a select few exceptional cases that have both. As a young
professional in this field, I have taken
every opportunity to learn from coworkers who have seen and experienced
more than myself. Be it through informal
conversations, formal supervision, or
just by observing how they conduct their
work, I am endlessly learning new things
from the people I work with.

So, I began to take courses related
to mental health and addiction treatment
whenever and wherever possible, eventually enrolling in the Master of Social
Work program. As I took these courses,
read books, and attended seminars, I was
always able to connect what was being
learned with real life clients and experiences. I was also able to bring more to
the in-class discussions, and as a result,
was able to take more away. These were
no longer forgettable theories and facts
that would sit fleetingly in my short-term
memory bank. They were tools and
resources I could actually use, and they
related to people I actually knew! The
theories were now being tied to people
and experiences I had stored in my longterm memory, to be drawn upon when
back in similar situations. Through this
process, I began to develop more meaningful and permanent insights into the
world of mental health and addictions.

What informs 95% of the work I do
today are the things I have picked up
from clients, co-workers, and my own
trial and error along the way...things like
the little sayings and phrases, relevant
knowledge and connections to resources,
and very specific intervention techniques
that are agency specific. Most clients
I work with don’t care about generalist practice, psychodynamic theory, or
stages of human emotional development.
They want to stop going on 2-week long
crack binges, stay out of prison, stop
ruining relationships, and some are just
desperate to survive.

Similarly, what informs the things I
learn today are the experiences I have
gained from the work that I do. In a
field as broad as social work, I find that
I focus my concentration on elements of
the material that are most relevant to the

work I am doing currently or the work
that I want to be doing in the future.
There were days during my undergraduate education when reading was difficult.
It was actually physically painful to do
the work, and retaining information
was a cumbersome process. These days
I am insatiably eager to learn so I may
become more knowledgeable and competent. As a result, the consolidation of
knowledge to memory and consequent
incorporation into practice has become
much more natural and fluid.

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