The Clash of the Social Work Philosophies: Micro Direct Services Under Oppressive Systems or Macro Policy & Equity Work that Criticize How Direct Services Happen
Change is slow. Even within ourselves. I used to be ambivalent. Then I just got cynical. I still got educated. But then, something happened. I had an Aha moment this past week. And while it was a shitstorm, and I made some mistakes in how I handled it. Man. Sometimes in life we just have breakthroughs.
The last 96 hours. Some shit’s been heavy on my conscience. Heavy on my soul. Heaviest on my damn bank account.
I went to graduate school and trained to be a mental health practitioner. About 2/3 of the way through, something happened.
Something about direct services when it comes to marginalized people is still totally unreachable to me. And I say that as someone who literally went to school to become a helper. And then, somewhere down the road, I just realized. A bunch of stuff, really.
There are levels to this shit.
When I was a kid, I had a lot of changeover with social workers. Because I am a product of the child welfare system, I was also one of those who got assigned to caseworkers.