Rogue Social Worker

This episode was from quite a while ago and it’s super interesting to see how our views about dealing with racism have changed. I will be updating you all with my recent transformation, which you may or may not be happy about...   Mental health and poverty :: chicken and egg   Deinstitutionalization   Caring for the most vulnerable while respecting their rights   Assumptions that people choose to be homeless   Most people think either homeless people choose to be homeless or they’re all mentally ill. No one knows that it’s mostly poverty   Accepting responsibility and then dealing with the guilt in a healthy way   Gay rights   Developmental disabilities vs. less sympathetic populations   What does our culture expect from people who are in recovery from MH/SUD issues   Want to talk about social work or just say hello? Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com

Just trying to remind myself really!   Want to talk about social work or just say hello? Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com

While my perspective has changed a bit regarding systemic issues since this episode was recorded, it is an incredibly powerful story. In this episode I tell the story of how I got fired from my last agency job.   Ethics in the macro   I got fired   Leadership accountability   This is ordinary   When the consumer can participate they have much more leverage in capitalism than in our sorry excuse for a “safety net” monopoly   In our current system no one gets to hear from the consumer   I never wanted to be a therapist   It’s nearly impossible to truly change the system from within   Even when nonprofits just address the symptoms, they can’t even get that right   For some reason in the nonprofit world you can screw up over and over and over and nobody will hold you accountable   The one thing that matters is having resources   It’s hard to be sustainable on donations alone   To read the full version of how I got fired, click here. If you would rather listen than read, I’ll be reading the piece on a future episode.   Want to talk about social work or just say hello? Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com

Apologies for the severe fluctuation in volume! We were walking and Olivia talks a bit quieter than I do, so I tried to increase the volume when she was speaking, therefore the overall volume may not be consistent throughout the episode.   DSS = Department of Social Services   DSS, the training you need to work for welfare, union jobs. Where’s the clients’ union? Burn the whole place down. Sanctioning people for not paying “shelter payments.”   “Debtor's prison for homeless people! At least they’ll have some place to stay.”   “I’m sure every time their numbers surge they can jerk off some rich white guy who donates to them.”   The beginning of CAPs - so we can be the arbiters of goods to the deserving poor.   “Sorry to rain on your parade but I think we should be giving people money directly instead of us deciding who deserves and doesn’t deserve basic resources like food and childcare and heating assistance.”   Introducing human service workers to UBI.   25-30% of case management is DSS compliance.   Agency incentives vs. client incentives.   How to run a homeless shelter.   The complexities and nuances of harm reduction (especially in a group or public setting), letting people make bad decisions, respecting self determination.   Cowardly bureaucrats in New York refusing to give out Narcan.   Natural consequences vs artificial consequences.   Want to talk about social work or just say hello? Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com

Again, some of my views on systemic oppression have changed, but the rest is self evident--something is very broken here   Incentives for the clients to lose everything   Once you’re in the program, they screw you over   How is it conscionable to be a bandaid in a system that is clearly failing?   UBI survey - running total is over 50 in favor of UBI over welfare. Check it out here:   Fuck the safety net   Most people don’t understand that this system is actively damaging people   We’re spending millions of dollars on jobs that are purely to decide if someone deserves basic needs   Deserving vs. undeserving poor   Want to talk about social work or just say hello? Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com

Again, some of my views on systemic oppression have changed, but the rest is self evident--something is very broken here   Incentives for the clients to lose everything   Once you’re in the program, they screw you over   How is it conscionable to be a bandaid in a system that is clearly failing?   UBI survey - running total is over 50 in favor of UBI over welfare. Check it out here:   Fuck the safety net   Most people don’t understand that this system is actively damaging people   We’re spending millions of dollars on jobs that are purely to decide if someone deserves basic needs   Deserving vs. undeserving poor   Want to talk about social work or just say hello? Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com

Some of my views on systemic oppression have changed, but the rest is self evident--something is very broken here   Incentives for the clients to lose everything   Once you’re in the program, they screw you over   How is it conscionable to be a band aid in a system that is clearly failing?   UBI survey - running total is over 50 in favor of UBI over welfare. Check it out here:   Fuck the safety net   Most people don’t understand that this system is actively damaging people   We’re spending millions of dollars on jobs that are purely to decide if someone deserves basic needs   Deserving vs. undeserving poor   Want to talk about social work or just say hello? Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com

Just another rant about UBI and social work   Want to talk about social work or just say hello? Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com

Recorded this back when I was involved with Yang’s presidential campaign, so UBI is framed as Yang proposed it - the “Freedom Dividend”   UBI vs fixing the safety net, applied to homelessness.   Triage in homeless services. Demographics within the homeless population.   Systemic causes and correlations to homelessness spikes?   The system is not set up to serve the 80% of people who just need money.   Why does somebody who’s really not disabled get intensive case management and the guy talking to himself gets nothing?   Start with the least restrictive services, i.e. money   Want to talk about social work or just say hello? Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com

I’m on YouTube!   What it’s like to work at a CAP, another failed social service system   Hooked on UBI   Why UBI is better than programs   Fantasizing about burning the system down   Do we make more of a difference inside or outside the system?   Want to talk about social work or just say hello? Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com

This is from a couple years ago but is still very relevant to all of these alleged supportive housing programs out there. This is what they actually look like on the inside. In the episode we discuss: Failing our clients Housing First implementation Prospect of recovery for HF clients Burnout, working overtime without pay High caseloads No support from management A futile system “I had to neglect my people because you gave me so many of them and at sixty hours a week, if that doesn’t cut it, nothing’s going to cut it...we were victims of this too, and our clients were.” “What do we do when the cameras are there and what do we do when they’re not.” “He looks like he’s on the verge of crying because his fucking dog just died but there’s no other option. The client can’t even help us because he’s too drunk because I don’t have time to take him to fucking detox. That was one of the moments when I was like ‘what am I doing here?’” “You can work for months with motivational interviewing to get someone ready to go to detox and then they go and they discharge him because his insurance runs out and he dies.” Have a social work story you want to tell? Write me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com New music by Kate.

My appearance on A Broken World podcast!

Welcome to a new-ish series: I brought this over from the Rogue Social Worker TV YouTube channel! If you're on YouTube, please head over and subscribe, so we can reach more viewers. I wanted to do more content on what social work is actually like in the real world. There is so much fluff and warm and fuzzy bullshit that we need to cut through in order to get at the heart of what we're doing here. This isn't some high brow theorizing. This is real talk about a profession we desperately want to love. We can love it again, we just need to tell the truth first! If you're a social worker who can't seem to find a home, welcome. We will find some hope together in this mess

Welcome to a new-ish series: I brought this over from the Rogue Social Worker TV YouTube channel! If you're on YouTube, please head over and subscribe, so we can reach more viewers. I wanted to do more content on what social work is actually like in the real world. There is so much fluff and warm and fuzzy bullshit that we need to cut through in order to get at the heart of what we're doing here. This isn't some high brow theorizing. This is real talk about a profession we desperately want to love. We can love it again, we just need to tell the truth first! If you're a social worker who can't seem to find a home, welcome. We will find some hope together in this mess

Blaming the Victim, Bureaucracy, What’s Wrong with Homeless Shelters (they shouldn’t exist) "All of the cumbersome, tedious, confusing steps we take. We make people jump through all these hoops to prove their deservedness or their worthiness of these resources that they should really just have from the start, without question." "The right thing is often the practical thing. When you play out the tape on homeless shelters, on nursing homes, basically on any situation where we’ve shoved people into institutions, cohabitation, it’s always more expensive to treat people like zoo animals. It is always more expensive than just giving them what they need, just like everybody else." "It doesn’t dawn on people, like our staff, how absurd it is to expect people to cohabitate. Whenever issues arise in the shelter, I always feel like it’s my job to remind people that, yeah, this is an unnatural environment--a bunch of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences are being put into a public space together where they can’t escape each other. There’s a reason The Real World is a show for entertainment. You put a bunch of people in a house together and see what happens. Because there’s no better fodder for drama than putting a bunch of people together and having them share their most intimate private behaviors. And I have to remind people, when they are not feeling safe around someone or when they’re not comfortable when they’re in the same room, that this is all a public space. It’s not your space that you can say ‘I don’t want him in here.’ I guess call your Senator. Tell her to close the shelter and use that $1,700 per month per person to house people." Got a story about the social work/human services profession? Have you been a client or received any sort of social services? Shoot me an email! roguesocialworker@gmail.com

Finally publishing some of these old episodes where I document my time at the Community Action Program. Here we gooooo!!! "So once again, even though I’m back in the field, it is still the same dog and pony show, and I just wanted to give that update. I feel bad saying the same things over and over, but it’s the truth. We keep spending money on things that don’t work and I’m sick of it. I’m so incredibly sick of it. We don’t give people the things they need to survive and then we blame them for it. That’s all I’ve seen in my adult life and in my youth as well." Got a story about the social work/human services profession? Have you been a client or received any sort of social services? Shoot me an email! roguesocialworker@gmail.com

My wife and I talk client self-advocacy. It’s hard to advocate for yourself when your basic needs aren’t met. Also, in case you didn’t get enough raw pain and vulnerability in the last two episodes, we unpack the con man situation from her perspective. I’m still looking for stories from both clients and providers in the human service world! Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com to share your experience. Music credit to Sage Francis “The Place She Feared Most”

Well this is embarrassing. Again! Please be advised - I debated posting this at all due to the terrible sound quality. However, it is so important to reveal the painful, vulnerable truth, that I couldn’t not post it. So forgive the sound. It is very, very bad--even for a DIY podcast. I’m still looking for stories from both clients and service providers in the human service world! Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com to share your experience.   Music credit to Sage Francis “The Place She Feared Most”

This is how con men do their thing. Pay close attention to these next two episodes. It’s a study in human psychology and ambition. I debated posting this at all due to the terrible sound quality. However, it is so important to reveal the painful, vulnerable truth, that I couldn’t not post it. So forgive the sound. It is very, very bad--even for a DIY podcast. I’m still looking for stories from both clients and providers in the human service world! Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com to share your experience.   Music credit to Sage Francis “The Place She Feared Most”

When we’re kids and something is unfair, we’re reminded that “life’s not fair.” But this begs the question: “Then why bother being fair to anyone, if someone can just take it all away?”   I’m still looking for stories from both clients and providers in the human service world! Email me at roguesocialworker@gmail.com to share your experience.   Music credit to Sage Francis “The Place She Feared Most”