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Running head: Field Experience Assessment 1 Field Experience Assessment Lacey Desper Skills and Techniques in the Human Services I Ottawa University 3/7/2015

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Page 1: Final Paper, Field Experience Assesment

Running head: Field Experience Assessment 1

Field Experience Assessment

Lacey Desper

Skills and Techniques in the Human Services I

Ottawa University

3/7/2015

Page 2: Final Paper, Field Experience Assesment

Field Experience Assessment 2

Abstract

The point of this paper is to take a step outside the classroom and experience the work of

the Human Services field first hand. The purpose of this is to take an indebt look into the type of

work I would like to do after graduation. Looking at the responsibilities of these positions and

where I see myself working in the future.

Page 3: Final Paper, Field Experience Assesment

Field Experience Assessment 3

Field Experience Assessment

When set to the task to go work for a Human Services agency I found myself pointed in

the direction of KVC. I have an interest in the organization since I lived in their facilities when I

was young. I was not adopted through them I was adopted though TLC this was before the

organization was KVC and was known as Kaw Valley Center; TLC is now known as Kids TLC.

I was set up by my professor to go spend a day with a member of the staff at KVC Prairie Ridge

Hospital which is an outreach of KVC. I spent time at the facility with a few different people. I

did side by sides with an Intake Coordinator, Counselor and a Therapist Intern. I briefly spoke

with one of the nurses but it resulted in nothing noteworthy.

Organization History and Services

KVC is a nonprofit corporation that has its headquarters in Kansas City. It has been

providing services to children and adolescents in Kansas City for forty-five years. They serve an

estimated fifty thousand children each year. They list their mission as “The organization is

committed to its mission of enriching and enhancing the lives of children and families by

providing medical and behavioral healthcare, social services, and education.” They offer a range

of services from foster care, adoption, state contracts for family preservation and outpatient

services.

Prairie Ridge Hospital offers several of these services. They offer outpatient and inpatient

therapy services, foster care for children who have extensive behavioral health needs. The

services that they offer specifically are psychiatric inpatient and residential treatment services for

children and adolescents. They use several different approaches and techniques when giving

services to the children who take up residence in the center.

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They offer several different treatment options that range from treatment overview,

trauma-focused care, inpatient psychiatric treatment and psychiatric residential treatment. They

offer a variety of services to accompany the treatment options they provide including, KVC

academy TRI-CARE program, state hospital alternative program, experiential learning,

admission, referrals, consultation and training.

As a whole the organization of provides a vast majority adoption and social services in

the Greater Kansas City area. It has a private contract with the Department for Children and

Families to do most of the casework for family preservation in Kansas City. It has received more

than a few distinguished rewards; including accreditation by the Joint Commission in 1991.

Perhaps the most distinguished reward they have received is “The Annie E. Casey Foundation

identified KVC as one of four organizations from across the nation representing innovative, best-

practice organizations.” The Annie E. Casey Foundation lends itself to the following mission,

“Our work focuses on strengthening families, building stronger communities and ensuring access

to opportunity, because children need all three to succeed. We advance research and solutions to

overcome the barriers to success, help communities demonstrate what works and influence

decision makers to invest in strategies based on solid evidence.”

Visit to Prairie Ridge Hospital

Let me first state that the hospital was located in the middle of nowhere in an area of

Kansas City I extremely infrequently visit. At one point on my drive there I had to stop my car to

double check the address I put into my GPS to verify I was going to the write place. Later after

turning onto a one lane road and my GPS indicating I was half a mile away, I stopped again to

call and verify the address. The facility was surrounded by miles of grass and was fully encased

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Field Experience Assessment 5

with a prison like gates. I was immediately whisked back to my childhood; I remember the vast

emptiness of the outdoors when I was playing at Kaw Valley Center as a child.

I parked and entered the facility; I was directed to a table to put in my personal

information to check in and then asked to sit down; after informing the front desk secretary who

I was there to visit. I wondered into a little room with a couple of books and a vending machine

and noted the extreme lack of toys in a waiting area for a facility for children. I noted a coffee

pot that was the cheap kind of coffee; it looked to be the same kind they served at my work. It is

awful coffee. I felt immediately bad for all the employees in the facility. No coffee shops nearby

and stuck with that disgusting stuff.

I arrived on a Sunday and appeared to be the only visitor to the facility. I am still unclear

if this is normal due to the facilities remote placement or if it was just a slow day. I am distracted

from my wandering by Ashley not to long after I arrive and she promptly asks me to follow her

and starts talking. As we pass a few things she explains that the rooms beside us are for visitation

with the residents in the facility. They are baron with nothing besides a table some chairs and a

phone.

We head up a stairwell and into a tiny hallway and she then says this is where I work. We

enter a tiny cold room that is smaller than some peoples walk in closets. It has four desks and

four computers. There is another woman inside the room at a computer typing away I am

informed her name is Kara and she is an Intern working on her Practicum. I sit down trying to

look at Ashely while we exchange pleasantries but I am astounded by this room. Amazed how

they managed to fit four desks, a mini fridge, a microwave, three desk chairs, two sitting chairs,

four filing cabinets and a few toys into such a small space.

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After pleasantries are exchanged Ashley informs me that there were four intakes over the

night and that we need to do processing for all of them. I say alright as she pulls out a few

decently sized stacks of paper. I am told that two of the admits form the night are readmits which

should take about an hour to an hour and half to process and two are new which should take from

two to two and half hours to process. She starts to work on the paperwork explaining what she is

doing as she goes along and allowing me to ask questions as we move along.

The first case is a kid by that is a ward of the state and is a frequent flyer in the facility.

She is apparently has an attachment to a member of the facility and if catches view of this person

will do everything in her power to get that staff member to come to her. She has apparently been

put in the hospital while in the facility before from bashing her head into the wall over and over

in order to force the staff to bring this person to her. The staff member that the client is attached

to was immediately dispatched to another facility during her stay. This child is eleven years old

The second admit that evening was another frequent flyer that was immediately admitted

after going to trail that morning. She apparently had a history of being sexually molested and had

to testify in court against her offender; with the offender in court. This child is fourteen years

old.

The third admit is a girl that is of the age of seventeen years old. She dropped out high

school and obtained her GED. She attends Kansas City Kansas Community College she wants to

be either an artists or an art therapist. She is apparently charged with suicidal thoughts. Her

mother is the person who committed her to the hospital under these pretenses. The girl has a job

and does not live in the home with her parents but lives with a family friend. I was curious about

the legal rights of a parent to commit a child that is by all definitions an adult living on their

own. I was quickly instructed by the staff that they do not even look into such matters. This

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confused me, I am under the opinion this kid should be subject to her own choices and not a

parent she has not lived with for two years.

In fact I looked up the Kansas State Emancipation laws and the girl meets every criteria

available except having it been declared official by the court system. The US Marriage Laws

website the following is the criteria to be emancipated, “You must be at least fourteen years old.

You must willingly live separate and apart from your parents with the consent or acquiescence of

your parents. You must be managing your own financial affairs. Your income must be from a

legal source. Emancipation must be in your best interests. You should be in school. (The law on

emancipation does not require that you be in school, but the compulsory education laws do. The

judge usually wants to see that you are either in school or have already graduated or gotten a

GED). Considering, the girl had been admitted to other facilities in the past and has been

molested, I think they just took the admit no questions asked. Though, it appears the mother on

no occasion has attempted to set up the girl with outside therapy or help and does not continue

with any follow up care. Also, the girl had been removed from her mother’s care for about three

years by the state at one point in time.

I actually got to sit in with Ashley as she spoke with the girl on why she thought she was

in the facility and gathering some other information. The girl said her mother was just attempting

to subvert control over her and was in a fight with the family friend she was staying with. It had

been a year since she had spoken with her mother. That she was going to get fired from her new

job for missing work and her mother knew this information. I wonder a better route for this girl

would be to get her legally emancipated and set her up with counseling and resources to help her

in her life. She only has nine weeks until she is eighteen and it is obvious she could use the extra

help.

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Field Experience Assessment 8

The fourth girl we did not get to while I was at the facility. After, we went over the initial

files and history. Ashely sat down to call the contacts for the responsible people for the admits;

nether of the social workers answer their phone. The mother of the girl with the attachment order

does not answer; we do get an answer from the woman with the seventeen year old child. The

mother goes on about how she is obsessed with some boy and she is stocking him. While, there

are no charges filed and no police reports to back up her claim. The therapist appears to take very

word the mother says to heart and believes her. I think it is a clinical responsibility to question if

the people responsible for the children are telling the truth or not. Plenty of adults lie especially

those with children with issues. The children have learn these behaviors as often as they are cries

for help.

We then head out of the office to take a tour of the facility. We leave one locked hall to

enter another locked hall. I enter a room with a lot of padded chairs one tv and a bunch of small

rooms on the side with a nurses station in the center of the room. This I am informed is the room

for children from the age of two through nine. I immediately notice that there is not a single toy,

coloring book, reading book in the entire room. I am confused I would be heartbroken if my

child was in this environment. It was completely as far as I am concerned an unappropriated

environment for children. I inquire about the lack of entertainment for children who are two

young to be involved in any kind of therapy. I am told that some of the kids harm themselves and

attempt suicide so there are no items. I am baffled by this notion my daughter of five does not

even understand the concept of death or suicide. I cannot rap my mind around the thought of a

five year old attempting to commit suicide. There has to be some kind of alternative I do not care

if you fill the room with nothing but nerf toys. There has to be some type of toys for children that

are safe under any circumstance.

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I am then directed to the ward for autistic kids, this area is worse than the area for

toddlers. Two, kids are residents in this ward right now and both have twenty four hour gaurds

someone is always with them. I then get shown so called “safe rooms” that have no doors that

kids can go into to cool off.

We then move into the pre-adolescent ward boys and girls are housed here together. I am

told the average length of stay is three to five days. Most, of the therapy is group orientated and

they use both Trauma Systems Therapy approach and the Positive Behavior Intervention System.

There is a schedule one the wall that rotates constantly. The residents get no privacy, no peace

for self-reflection, no personal time. In a one day period there day s blocked out as follows:

breakfast, community meeting, chores, ER drills, Behavior Education, exercise, art, lunch,

community meeting, gym, psychosocial skill building, chores, closed meetings, personal therapy,

dinner, hygiene and bed.

I am then directed to the Emotion Regulation System which is there to teach the children

how to express and use their emotions. This is in every unit, I am told how important it is and

how the kids are forced to use it. All I can think of while she explains the system is you would

have to bind me and take everything from me to get me to do these steps when I was a kid. I

can’t imagine how any child especially adolescent would take it seriously.

We move through the teen girls unit it looks similar to the adolescent unit. It is here that

we speak with the seventeen year old girl. I sit there while Ashely speaks to her and she starts to

cry in a little room for about twenty minutes. It was uncomfortable; I did not say a single word

during the interview. After, the interview I do not say anything about it I know I have problems

with social ques and I honestly do not know what I am and can’t ask about. We move into the

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boy’s teen ward there are very few residents in this ward at this time. I am old that they come in

waves.

We then wonder down to the first floor we go through the gym and the art room. We

walk outside to look at the playground which is minimal and gated in with the highest fence I

have ever seen. We then wonder back inside and I am shown a hallway with classrooms for the

permanent residences that live the group homes up the hill. Then we walk down another hall that

is the classrooms for the younger pictures. It looks how you expect grade school walls to look.

We then walk into an arboretum and I am told that the kids up in the ward are not allowed to go

near the birds for safety purposes. Lastly, we walk into the cafeteria I am told that the kids at the

group homes have to come down to the facility to eat all meals three times a day seven days a

week.

We then walk back up to the offices and Ashely answers a few phone calls and then

exclaims she is behind in her work and she must get to it. I sit there in the room watching her fill

out forms and type on a computer for about two hours before; I ask are we going to be doing

anything else. She exclaims she will be doing paperwork for the next three hours and is behind I

am welcome to stay and watch but I am fine to leave. They are understaffed and she cannot send

me with any of the other staff.

Interview

I had intended to do the interview by speaking with her but she seemed pressed for time

and seemed apparently done with me. I handed her the interview and then handed the Intern the

interview as well. I had spoken with the intern early about her practicum and the work she has to

do for it. She explained that she was behind on her practicum actually, she has to keep a full time

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job and they expect you do to thirty hours a week at the agency you work for and it just have not

been possible for her.

I asked some pretty basic questions and I honestly did not get the answers I was looking

for. I asked them what qualifications you need to perform their job. I was expecting to know

what certifications and schooling was required. Instead I got cookie cutter answers like patience

and knowledge of mental illness. When I asked what the hardest part of their job was I got

answers that were political interview answers like going home and not having enough time. I was

especially unhappy with the how do you think this job is related to human services answer. I just

got a response back that said it’s a helping job. I asked how the work environment was different

in this position then in jobs they had in the past. I was simply told I get along with my

colleagues. They both answered that they have a lot of direct contact with the patients in the

facility but of my six hours there we spent a total of twenty minutes with them. I wonder how

much of the actual job I was shown.

Reactions and Review

To be honest the entire time I was there I felt extremely rushed and unwanted. They were

unwilling to provide any additional information then what they had told me. They did not seem

willing to participate in any discussions or hypothetical evaluation questions. I kept a good

portion of my thoughts to myself and mostly just watched and took notes.

The entire facility felt like a prison to me. Every door to anywhere with a lock. The

rooms with locks on the outside and no handle on the inside. Very few windows and more people

working in the facility then actual patients. I mentioned this to Ashley and she said that actually

the same people who built more than half the jails in Kansas City built the hospital. It honestly

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made a lot of sense. I wondered how someone could come to any kind of recovery or

stabilization being jailed and treated like they were criminal.

I submit this observation to be applied to the girl who just testified against her offender.

What type of reinforcement I it to be told you’re doing a good thing? Standing up for yourself?

Putting the person who wronged you to justice? To be immediately moved into a facility that is

an equal to jail. In my opinion I am her being in the facility is doing more permeant negative

damage than any positive stabilization. It teaches an unconscious lesson that you will get

punished if you stand up for yourself. That is just basic psychology it is mind-blowing to me to

see how that is over looked.

Essentially, going to this job reinforced a belief that I have long had that I was attempting

to break. While, the state has a good heart and is attempting to do good things. It inevitably does

more harm than good for their clients. Children, need just as much love and care and play in

order to actually be children as they do therapy and treatment. I honestly do not remember the

trauma that leads me into the states care. I will tell you what I do remember in great detail. My

stay at the state facility group home. It was a nightmare; there were long periods of time that I

had actual nightmares about it in my early childhood and pre-teen years. It was so well known I

had nightmares that my parents would threaten to put me back in the states care if I did not do

what they told me.

There needs to be a balance between in recovery and therapy in the process of

stabilization that also includes returning the child back to the status quo environment for their

age. I did not see a single bit of that in the facility. I understand that this facility is a short term

care for immediate stabilization but, I doubt there methods when an extreme amount of their

residents are frequent flyers. I understand that they are limited to the amount of work their

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Field Experience Assessment 13

parents or guardians do when they leave. There has to be a line that leads to a better environment

then what I saw when visiting.

I would like to go view a long term care facility before I make a decision to go work for

KVC. I think that knowing the difference in environment might help the views that I have about

what I saw at Prairie Ridge. I am sure that most people who would visit and see what I saw

would come to the same conclusions that I have. While, I still wish to work at KVC I do know

that a trauma environment like I visited is not the area in which I should aspire to work at. I

would cause more harm for myself and possibly the children by taking my views with me to this

position.

I enjoyed my visit to KVC even if it was rushed. I was able to assimilate a whole new set

of facts into my information systems that will do a lot of help when moving forward to finding a

position after graduation.

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References

Annie E. Casey Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved March 7, 2015, from http://www.aecf.org/about/

Corey, M.S., Corey, G. (2011). Becoming a helper. (6th d.) Brooks Cole/Cengage Learning

KVC Health Systems (2014, January 1). Retrieved March 7, 2015, from

http://www.kvc.org/about-us/about-kvc-health-systems/

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Appendix I- Interviews

Current Position: Counselor/Weekend Intake CoordinatorFirst Name- Ashley

1. What brought you to work in your current position?A love of mental health

2. Did you set out to work in this area or was it what you set out to do?Set out to work in my current field of work

3. What qualifications do you think are needed to do this job?Patience, working knowledge of mental illness, willingness to work at 6 am and communication skills.

4. What aspects of your job do you find challenging?Stress of witnessing what these clients go through at home and in their placements

5. Do you get any kind of satisfaction or gratitude in your position?Yes.

6. What is the hardest part of your position?Going Home!

7. What is the best part of your position?Being able to make a positive impact on clients

8. Is this a job you think you could do the rest of your life?Yes!

9. How do you think your job relates to Human Services?We’re helping such an array of issues with clients

10. What special skills and techniques do you think this position has given you?A situation is hardly ever as it seems, you have to think outside the box.

11. How is the workplace culture in this position different than others you have had?Always something to 6-am changing dynamics of clients

12. How much direct contact do you have with the patients in the facility?75% of my position

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Field Experience Assessment 16

Current Position: Therapist InternFirst Name- Kara

1. What brought you to work in your current position?My university assigned me to this position as part of my program of study

2. Did you set out to work in this area or was it what you set out to do?I wanted to work in an area providing mental health services to children so this was a good fit.

3. What qualifications do you think are needed to do this job?Patience, knowledge of mental health, empathy and desire to help

4. What aspects of your job do you find challenging?Hearing about the trauma clients have gone through and trying to help them process it

5. Do you get any kind of satisfaction or gratitude in your position?Working with and helping children in this position is extremely rewarding

6. What is the hardest part of your position?Only being able to work with clients for a short period of time

7. What is the best part of your position?The rewarding feeling

8. Is this a job you think you could do the rest of your life?Working with children in the area of mental health is.

9. How do you think your job relates to Human Services?It is a helping job

10. What special skills and techniques do you think this position has given you?Developing patience and listening skills

11. How is the workplace culture in this position different than others you have had?Everyone gets along and works well together. Lime minded people

12. How much direct contact do you have with the patients in the facility?More than half the time.