I had lived or worked with many different types of people who were not raised anything like I was, which helped me to see things from different perspectives. I thought I had seen pretty much anything and was mostly shock proof. My last job experience not only showed me some sides of life I had not been exposed to before but, also convinced me beyond a shadow of doubt how important it is that we all learn to keep an open mind and question everything we think we know.

Background Info

After high school graduation I joined the Marine Corp. When I got out of the Corp I worked a series of cashier jobs in hotels and bowling alleys, living pay check to pay check. Then I lucked out being at the right place at the right time, at the beginning of the telecommunication boom. Through my sister I was able to get a temporary job with Sprint, I worked hard and was offered a full time job making more money then I ever thought I would make. I spent the next three decades in telecommunications first working with wireline calls, moving over to wireless, then taking on enhanced 911. I was paid well (although less than my male counterparts), had great medical benefits, a lot of paid time off, paid college, good 401K plan and I got to travel all over the US and to Mexico once. It was a fun and exciting, it was fulfilling, working to bring the new technology into the world. Then the networks were built, innovation and technological development had slowed down and the work became less satisfying and more monotonous. I stayed, because you don’t just walk away from that kind of money and benefits easily. A year after my husband transitioned from this physical world, I decided I needed something more fulfilling even if it meant less money and I volunteered for the next lay off.

Moving Forward

I spent the next two years focusing on my spiritual growth, doing a lot of soul searching about what was mine to do or not do. I also started remembering how hard it was to live on very low pay and to not have very good benefits. If I had not been receiving Social Security Survivors benefits I would have had a hard time paying my bills. I spent this time working as a prayer associate where I continued to feel I was being “called” to work with children. I was working with them at my church but kept feeling I should be doing more somehow.

One day I decided to look for any job working with children for which I was qualified. It felt like divine order when I found a job less then 3 miles from my home and I had the minimum requirements. I was so excited! I applied for the job but half expected to be turned down. I knew it was what I was being called to do and what I wanted but I had no confidence I could get it. Then, I got through all the prerequisites and was offered the job officially I knew I was following the right path and making the right decision. I was full of ideas about using my spiritual knowledge to help traumatized children. I had been studying to become a spiritual educator, learning energy healing techniques and had already started learning about trauma-informed care. I was so pumped to be going to work for an organization that used trauma-informed care. I knew I was going to be able to use my spiritual and healing energy training to help these kids.

Training

My new title was “Youth Behavioral Health Specialist” and training was scheduled to last for two weeks. We started training in a classroom at the main office. The morning of the first day was filled getting userids/passwords, logging into email, filling out HR paperwork and signing up for benefits. We finished the day learning about HIPPA, going over first aid, reviewing sexual harassment policy, learning about bloodborne pathogens, mandated reporting and reviewing the employee handbook. WHEW!

Day 2 we had an overview of the Sanctuary Model & Trauma Theory. The Sanctuary framework includes the S.E.L.F. model to help you stay focused on healing,

a toolkit and the 7 commitments.

Day 3 we learned a lot about how the brain functions, how trauma and not getting your basic needs met as an infant and young child slows the development of your brain functions. I really liked the Sanctuary Model and learning about brain function, it was a lot!!

Days 4 and 5 we started doing Safe Crises management training that included prevention strategies, de-escalating communications and emergency safety physical interventions (AKA restraints). The “restraints” taught have been reviewed by five different medical resources (MDs) for safety, one we were not allowed to use on children 12 and under. This training was kind of scary because we were focused on bad behavior and how to handle it. The trainers tried to prepare us by telling us stories of some of the things that had been done to them by clients or that they witnessed. One of the main prevention techniques we were told over and over were to follow the rules and follow the schedule. So if you are unable to prevent escalation, we were told to start with verbal and non-verbal communication to try calm the client down. If nothing else is working, the client continues to escalate and becomes violent to the point they are deemed to be a threat to themselves or someone else there is restraint. Restraints are something I sure didn’t want to be doing. I basically determined that if I had to I could do it but I would try anything and everything else first. I had a dream of helping kids and I wasn’t about to let some bad behavior and the possibility of restraints stop me. Besides I was going to be on night shift and the clients would be sleeping most of the time. Tired and a bit overwhelmed at the end of the first week of training I had the weekend to rest.

The second week of training started with Medication certification training. This training was to cover:

• Child Development
• Child Care Responsibilities and Legal Issues
• Terminology and Abbreviations
• Health Problems and Diseases of Childhood
• Observation skills and Assessment Tools
• Medication Classifications, Actions and Effect
• Medication Storage and Control
• Medication Preparation Administration and Recording
• Psychotropic Medication

We went through this training really fast, I was disappointed, one instructor was confused and the other one was in a hurry. So training that was scheduled for two full days ended up being about 6 hours across 2 days, they let us go home early, really early. I decided not to be concerned about not getting better trained on this because once again I thought – I work nights I won’t be passing medications on a regular basis.

OBSERVATION

The final days of training were spent getting a tour of the campus and being introduced to the dorms. We were each sent to a dorm to observe for an afternoon and discussed our observations the next morning. When I first got to the dorm the clients were very curious about me. One of them started trying really hard to intimidate me. When I laughed at him he backed off a bit. Then the second shift came in and WHAT IS GOING?

The training stressed the importance of paying attention at all time to the kids, following the schedule, and developing a relationship with the clients. That afternoon, I watched in disbelief of what I was seeing as one staff broke pretty much every rule, he brought in his own video game system, moved a chair up in front of the TV, plugged in his system and started playing. He payed absolutely no attention to the clients, even though many of them were crowding around him to watch him play the game and to try and get him to let them play too. He and the clients all but ignored the staff that tried to run the group check-in, then, when we took them to dinner, he disappeared. That was the first hint I had that what went on in the dorms maybe wasn’t what we were trained to do. The next morning I was still upset and told the training manager about it. She apologized for sending me to that environment and said that particular staff had given notice and would be leaving soon, so they had given up trying to get him to do his job correctly. HUH??? My experience up to that point had been that when an employee who wasn’t doing their job gave notice it was the perfect time to say “You don’t have to stay, you can go now”.

That afternoon and the next day, I did observations on two different dorms. The interactions with the clients and the overall settings fit more along the lines of what I was expecting, after training, which offset that first experience.

I was feeling optimistic, excited, a little scared and ready to move forward when training was over.       I got this!