Week 5:
Project Transitions

June 30, 2013

At Cornell, I am lucky enough to know my professors.  They know how I act in class, and through discussion and interaction, they have a context in which to put my paperwork when I turn in exams.  They understand that I am more than a number on a roster, more than a score on a multiple choice exam.

A housing plan is essentially a list of goals.   Each of the clients that access PT’s housing services work with their case manager to create one when they are first admitted to the program.  The process starts with what we call an Annual Needs Assessment.  It’s a giant checklist of practically every single aspect of housing, mental health, and/or medical needs that the client could possibly need assistance with. The list contains everything from owing money on energy bills to struggling with family relationships.  The case manager goes through each one and, if it’s applicable to the client, copies it down onto one of the blank lines on a housing plan form. Then the client and the case manager get together once a month to review the plan, as I explained in Week 3’s post.

Check off the checklist, one at a time. Copy. Review.  Repeat.  It sounds easy enough, right? Not exactly.  Paperwork and checklists, I’m discovering, are merely a loose guide, an attempt to encapsulate directions to navigate all of the colorful, interesting, beautiful dynamics of personal interaction in a piece of paper and some ink. Yes, to assess someone’s need,  you must check the correct boxes.  But, just as a multiple choice tests cannot accurately assess one’s understanding of a subject,  checking off items on the needs assessment doesn’t relay a client’s full story.  That’s why case managers exist.  It is our job to talk to the clients and use the little checkboxes as a baseline to understand their whole situation.  Only then can we effectively use their context to connect them with community resources that they need.

This week, I completed my first housing plan. My supervisor told me it was done so well she wants a copy to use in future trainings when she teaches her case managers to create housing plans. (Please excuse my boast; when she told me that I was so happy I thought I might explode so I had to share). Not only that, but I completed an intake all on my own (see Week 3 for an explanation).  The intake reminded me even more of how much there is to a person beyond what is on paper.

The purpose of the intake is to gather as much information as possible about a client so that my supervisor can understand his/her story and decide if he/she has the most need of anyone on the waiting list when a spot opens up in our services. The intake is about an hour long, and in that time, there are 33 pages of paperwork to get through. 60 minutes and 33 pages is not nearly enough space to capture a lifetime, and yet we must do the best we can.  It is a gargatuan task, and everyone collects the information in a different way.  The bare minimum is to gather the facts: what is your name?  Date of birth? Do you have a mental health diagnosis?  A criminal background? It could be as simple as asking these questions, one at a time.  I observed three different case managers complete four different intakes before I completed my own, and not one of them simply asked questions. They each had an entirely different style.  Whether it was small talk or jokes or explaining the intake process,  each one had their own way to make the client feel comfortable enough to share their complete stories.  From there they could glean the information they needed for the paperwork and, what’s more important, for understanding the client’s full need when the time comes. The same goes for the housing plan: a case manager cannot simply ask “have you done [insert item on checklist here]”.  It would take hours and there would be no relationship or trust built between case manager and client. Instead we must talk and relate. We must understand what they need and how we can help, whether that’s driving them to a doctor’s appointment , making a phone call on their behalf, or just sitting with them for a minute as they take a deep breath (all of which I did this week). Just as my professors know that I am more than a number on my exams, PT knows the clients are more than 33 pages or x’s on a checklist.

Between the intake, the housing plan, and the client interaction, I have crossed the threshold into the world of case management.  I would like to unofficially add “Junior Case Manager” to my internship title, because I am now officially a case manager.

That’s why I love my job.  I am not running to get coffee or banging my head on a copy machine all day.  Sometimes I am re-programming part of PT’s website, wrapping up our silent auction pick up, or organizing hundreds of intake packets for our wait list (also all of which I did this week) in my office, but this is not an office job. This is a  community job where I work with people enrolled in a compassionate, holistic service that I am lucky enough to take part in.  At my desk, driving to an appointment, or listening carefully to a story, I know what I am doing is having an impact on people’s lives. And I am grateful to be a part of such a wonderful organization.

It is difficult for me to sum up my week’s activities in these blogs. I have weekly hour-long meetings with my supervisor to discuss the week/process how I’ve grown, and even in that hour I cannot fit in everything I’ve done and learned.  So forgive me if any of this seems incomplete; it is.  I would be overly ecstatic to talk to anyone who wants to hear more about my job.  In fact, I almost bought a button  that said  “I <3 My Job” in a cute little shop in South Austin…instead I sent a picture of it to my supervisor.  She laughed.

I love my job. I tell people all the time that I love my job. I love Austin. I included some pictures of my weekend adventure floating the river and to a legal graffiti spot called the Austin Art Wall (it’s like the rock or the kiosks on campus, except its the slab from a demolished building and a million times bigger).

I cannot believe I am more than halfway done with my fellowship.  I keep extremely busy, so time has flown by. I’m living and learning and laughing and growing, and will continue to do so for the next month. Thanks for reading!