ProfBayerWiki: My Internship Experience

My Internship Experience

I began searching for a placement in April of '06 when I decided I was going to register for a fall internship. It proved to be very difficult to find somewhere that would accept an undergraduate intern. FINALLY after much waiting, I heard back from Cheri Carroll-Alvarez at Gateway-Longview in the middle of August. I had a meeting with her on Wednesday August 30. She is the supervisor of the foster care department.
Cheri explained that because of my flexibility I would be able to work with all of her staff and all of the cases. A part of the therapeutic pre-school is being moved into their building as well so I will also be able to be part of that. The children in the program range from infant to 21 years old. The title of Cheri and her staff is case planner. Each member has approximately 5 or more families to handle with each family typically having more than one child. When a child comes into care, there are a number of goals that are set with the main goal being to get the child back in the home of the biological family. They have approximately 15 months to fulfill this goal with the partnership of the parent. If the parent shows no diligent effort within those 15 months, a TPR (Termination of Parental Rights) is filed. The TPR is permanent but parents can try to appeal. Parents can voluntarily give up their rights and that is also permanent. There are many more programs that Gateway offers. Some are Preventive Services to help children transition back into home or into the adoptive home. There is Wrap Around, Intake, Rise and Shine, and so many more that I haven't learned about yet. The following is the log that I am keeping during my internship at Gateway-Longview.
*I have changed the names of clients but staff has given me permission to use their real names.

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Today was my first day at Gateway and I was very excited. Today was my first and last Wednesday because of scheduling conflicts, but I was very eager to start. I arrived at the office at 9 a.m. and Cheri met me in the waiting area shortly after. We were in her office discussing the day when Sarah Castner, an adoption specialist, came in and said she scheduled me to go to family court with her. On our way to family court she told me what was going on with this case. This one involves SJ* who is the mother of two children, MJ* 6 years old and TJ* 4 years old. At the time of placement, SJ had her boyfriend Richard living with herself and her two children. Police were called to the home when Richard held at the time 2 year old TJ out of a second floor window. When police arrived they found evidence of abuse and neglect and at that point the children were taken into care. Upon Sarah's first visit of the home she also found evidence of abuse and neglect including holes in the walls which Star told her they were from herself and Richard. Sarah and SJ discussed what will be happening with the children and they discussed the goal of reuniting SJ and her children. During the time in which the children were in care, SJ needed to complete parenting classes, domestic abuses classes and drug rehab. She also needed to find a better home and maintain a job. These were the goals. Realistically, SJ let her Section 8 housing run out, she has no job and she was kicked out of all the classes. She was scheduled for supervised visitations which since June she has only visited her children twice. She believes that she has done nothing wrong and that because they are her children she should have them back but she feels she needs to do nothing to help her case. As of the court case today, Cheektowaga Police and Erie County Sheriffs are on standby because there are 3 warrants for her arrest. SJ never showed up for her review hearing and a TPR is at the beginning stages. MJ and TJ have gotten used to not seeing their mother. MJ has asked Sarah what it would take to get him adopted and that is his personal goal. TJ is still quite young but she understands that she has a mother that doesn't want to see her. MJ has been diagnosed with ADHD and SJ will not sign for him to take Aderrall so that has been handed over to the county. Since the year he has been in care he is no longer physically aggressive with Sarah or his foster mom but TJ is another case. TJ is extremely violent and she will hit and yell and do what she must in order to get her point across. She is enrolled in Children's Hospital Therapeutic Preschool and seems to be doing better but still has a long way to go. Both children are in a pre-adoptive home.
During our time with Referee Castiglione, she stated that there is to be effort put forth for SJ if and only when she puts effort forward herself. SJ blames the county for not helping her get Section 8 and a job and even healthcare. But the county social worker stated she does not show up for visits with her children and she can not even show up for court. There is also no forwarding address for her or a telephone number. The next court date is set for October and I am eager to see what happens with SJ. As for the children they are doing well and are happy with where they are. We left court at 11:50 a.m. and I went back to the office where Cheri gave me the NYS Foster Parent Manual to read. The book discussed rights and training for foster parents and numerous activities and situations that may arise. I left at 3 p.m.
I left Gateway excited and intrigued and looking forward to return.

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Today I am scheduled to go to family court with Michelle Federowicz, another adoption specialist and case planner. Once again we left for court around 9:10 for an appearance of 9:30. We are going to a permanency hearing in order to keep RS* in care in order to file a TPR. Her biological father has been in drug court for about a year, as long as RS has been in care. She has been in care for over 12 months and it is time for a TPR to be filed but because drug court takes time, the judge has allowed extra time for bio dad to get his act together which leaves RS in limbo for much longer. The TPR is held off until the judge believes there is satisfactory time and chances for bio dad. RS's mother is incarcerated and there was no body order filed to get her to court.
Directly after this hearing there was another one for CW* that also believes that her children should just be returned to her even though she has done nothing in turn to get them back. CW had 8 children when the police were called to her home. The infant was found dead due to smoke inhalation because she was sleeping next to a wood burning heater and NW* was found unconscious. 4 of the 7 children have already been freed of CW and are in pre-adoptive homes. She is at court today for a permanency hearing and also to be served with a TPR but she would like to be referred for classes again, because she dropped out of the others, and blames not visiting NW because of her work schedule but she has no job. Once again another court date has been set to review the TPR. We left court at 10:45.
When I got back to the office I continued reading the Foster Manual and looked over a few files of open cases. I went home at 5 p.m.

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I arrived at Gateway today at 9 a.m. and I was scheduled to be with Sarah during a visit with SJ but once again she did not show up so I went to the staff meeting with Cheri. There is one all staff meeting each month and there is usually one guest speaker that is invited to talk about something new that is going on in the community. Today Marie Sly a peace officer from the county came to talk about the new protocol for PINS children. I didn't really like the way that she talked about the program because her opinion of everything was negative. She kept saying that nothing in the county is an emergency and that it should be police that deal with PINS and those children should stay in the home not in detention facilities. Many of the Gateway staff disagreed because much of this is a matter of life and death. After she left the rest of the staff discussed what is going on with their cases and in their departments. After the meeting I continued to review cases and then I helped some staff move their offices around. I left Gateway at 3 p.m.

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I arrived at Gateway today at 9 am. I was very excited to go to Gateway today because it was my first home visit. Greg Koonce, an adoption/foster care specialist had explained to me what was going on in the home before we left and I was very apprehensive but looking forward to go. Greg explained that there are 5 brothers that are in the process of being moved back into the home which is terrific because they are reaching the legal goal. The boys are D*, 12, Jay*, 9, twins T* and J*, 7, and B*, 4. About 18 months ago, it was Jay that called Child Protection Services because mom and dad left them alone for long periods of time which meant that they had to take care of themselves as far as food and bathing and little B were concerned. Police took the children into care due to neglect but mom and dad fought hard to keep them. Greg described dad as "trying hard with the boys and he administers discipline" and mom as "resistant and trying to rescue them". Greg said that these boys are challenging, but I was ready to dive in. First we had to pick up D, T and J from school and take them to their home.
Prior to leaving for the visit, Greg received a call that J needed to be picked up from school early because he was acting out in class by scratching the teacher, running up and down the hall ways and not listening. Once in the principal's office he proceeded to tear down posters on her wall and would not listen to her. A step leading up to placing the children back in the home is weekend overnight visits, and due to J's behaviors, he has had those visits taken away from him for the last few weeks. Mom and dad don't agree, but Greg says that in order to keep the disciplinary structure, he can not be rewarded when he does bad things such as acting out in school and in the foster home. When we pick J up from school, the principal says that he can come back to class when she has a conference meeting with the parents and Greg about J's actions, so hopefully that will be taken care of Monday. J and T seem to be excited to go home, but J is not following any directions given by Greg or myself. It is only when we pick up D that J begins to calm down.
D is a very polite and nice kid. He introduced himself to me right away, and he got J to listen. It is obvious that D is the leader of all of the children. He seems to be a father figure to his brothers and he is always watching them and caring for them. Greg tells me that the school that D is placed in is one for talented children and he was placed because of his grades which D seems to be very proud of. We took the three boys home and I was nervous about how the family would accept me. The visit is scheduled from 2:30 - 4:30 and the goal is to teach mom and dad how to transition the boys from school to snacks to homework to t.v. time to bed etc. Greg says that they are doing very well, which was apparent when I was there. Jay is in a different agency because Gateway could not meet his needs and I met his caseworker at the home as well. When the boys were taken into care, J went to Brylin because of his specific situation. Since he is the one that called CPS, he blames himself for everything that happened and he has resentment toward mom, dad and himself. He is guilty and angry which is very apparent during the visit.
Mom and dad are excited to have the boys home and are not phased with us being there which is great so we can see them in their natural environment. Mom starts making dinner for the boys and dad spends individual time with each of them talking about the week and school. Mom bought each of the boys kites and a ping pong set that they connect to their dining room table. Mom and dad work very well together and stress sharing between all the boys. B has a very difficult time with this concept and he gets very upset, mom did a great job by removing him from the room and situation until he calmed down, but she fed right into his manipulation of getting her attention and that is what Greg wants to get away from. D is very much in control of the boys, they seem to look up to him and trust him which is a figure that they need. D handles this very well and knows that the others feel like this, mom and dad often say, "follow D watch D". It is very easy to see how insecure Jay is in the home. He keeps to himself, he rarely makes eye contact with mom or dad, but he gets angry very fast when something doesn't go his way. T and J are very rambunctious. They both have speech delays and it is difficult to understand them, but they certainly get their point across. They played video games together until everyone went outside to play with their kites.
All in all the visit went well and Greg was pleased. When it was time to leave, T and J left with out a problem. The visit ended around 4:45. I was happy to be able to help Greg out. I look forward to going back again next week and seeing the progress that the family and boys have made during the weekend visit and school week.

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Today is the day that I was scheduled for training. It was held at campus which is the residential care located at 6350 Main Street. Training was scheduled for 9 am. There were 5 interns including my self in this class. We discussed a brief history of Gateway-Longview, maltreatment and abuse mandated reporting, confidentiality and HIPPA, harassment, and PQI (Performance Quality Improvement). Training ended at 12 pm.

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This morning was a foster care staff meeting at 9:30 am. This offers an opportunity for the staff to come together and discuss changes, questions, comments, etc. Today the main topic was internal and external paperwork that needs to be filled out by staff and its necessity to the agency. There is a handful of paperwork that needs to be completed for the state and county level but much of what Gateway requires was devised for accurate, up to date info that can be combined into one intake form. Gateway stresses the importance of keeping contact in the field with children, families, and the community but the staff says how difficult it is when all the paperwork needs to be completed by deadlines. Together supervisors will begin to combine the paperwork.

During this meeting, caseworkers also talk about one another’s cases and they give each other suggestions and advice. This meeting lasted until 12 pm. I spent the rest of the day working on the resource database and reviewing cases. I left Gateway at 3 pm.

At 1:30 Greg and I left to pick up T, J, D, and B from school for their visit. It has come to Greg’s attention that both J and T are beginning to act out in school and the foster home, although it is normal for J to act out it is not for T. Greg has decided to have a family meeting at the end of the visit. The visit started as usual, talking, snacks, and playing. The boys do get a little out of hand and it is difficult for mom and dad to control them. Greg steps in often to intervene. When we met with mom and dad at 4 pm we were meeting to discuss the problems that J and T are having in school and the foster home. I brought up the point that there is not much stability in the boys’ lives at this point and it is difficult for them, but they need to understand authority and learn to listen to them. Their recent answer to authority has been, “My mom/dad says I don’t have to listen to you,” which is inappropriate given their situation. We talked with mom and dad together with each boy individually and came up with various ideas about how to help the boys understand. Both J and T agreed to try harder and I worked during the week on behavior charts for them. I promised them if they could each get 20 “good” stickers they could earn a present. During this visit Greg informed that there is a possibility that J will be switching agencies because he needs a therapeutic home and Gateway does not have any available for him. The visit ended at 5 pm.

When I arrived at Gateway, Cheri told me that I would take on the role of transporting Z from school to Gateway so that she could be here for her visit with her mom and twin brothers that is scheduled at 2:30. Z is 9 years old and in the fourth grade. Michelle Federowicz and I met at the school so that she could introduce Z and I and make sure that we were both comfortable. I have to be at the school by 2 pm so that Z can be at Gateway by 2:30 for the visit. She was willing to come with me right away and we had a great conversation during our 20 minute ride back to Gateway. Michelle informed me that Z is in care because her bio mother used extreme corporal punishment but they are in the process of being able to transition the children back into the home. I got to see a half hour of the visit and bio mom is very pleasant and nurturing toward Z. Bio mom brought McDonalds for lunch. They get along great and their relationship has progressed immensely during the two years that Z has been in care. I left Gateway at 3 pm.

Today during the visit, as usual RS has to be coaxed into the room. Once she is in the room she becomes comfortable with R. He is not particularly interactive with Rachel today. He lies on the couch that is in the visitation room and also on the floor. Numerous times during the visit do I hear Rachel call out, “Daddy, wake up!” When I enter the room to make sure he is awake, he looks up at me and pretends he is playing with RS. I also notice that during the visit he doesn’t really talk to RS. He will repeat what she says as it seems to make fun of her, but he does not initiate a conversation with her. He seemed eager to end the visitation a few minutes early but it gave Michelle a few minutes to discuss the visit with him. RS was picked up at 11:30 by her foster mom.
Today I have an appointment to see T at WCHOB Therapeutic Preschool. During this appointment I am to watch T’s interactions with her teacher and her fellow students. When I arrived there, I was informed that T has not been in school for the past few days due to an ear infection. Her teacher said that not much has changed since the meeting on Monday; she has just been a little moody due to being sick. I have to reschedule the appointment.
The home visit with D, Jay, J, T, and B is this afternoon at 2:30. Yesterday was B’s birthday so Greg and I went into the toy room at Gateway and picked out a present for him. Also Greg has informed me that J will be moved to a different agency tomorrow because it has become extremely important for him to have the therapeutic home. When I arrive at the house, I find everyone singing ‘Happy Birthday” to B. Mom made a fantastic cake and there were gifts for him. He was very excited. The boys are fairly calm today. I give J and T their behavior charts and I show them how to fill it out. They are very excited when I explain to them that they can receive a present next week if they have a good week. The boys watch a movie, color with mom, and go outside with dad. The visit ended after 4:30, I left Gateway at 5 pm.

I had to leave the meeting at 11:00 because there is a visit with Z and her bio mom. I picked Z up at her foster mom’s house and everything looks good. She talked about her weekend sleepover with foster mom’s family considering the long weekend. She states she has no problems at home and she is looking forward to this visit. We arrived at Gateway around 11:30. Z’s mom and her brothers were already in the kitchen waiting for her. Mom brought cookie dough and Play Dough. The boys are decorating the cookies that are already done when we arrive.
Today I am going with Sarah Castner to finally meet MJ and TJ at foster mom’s house. I am very excited because I have heard so much about them. When we arrive at the house MJ and TJ are excited to see us. Present at the home are foster mom, Granny, MJ and TJ. MJ just got a hair cut that he is so anxious to show; he had longer hair and he had been made fun of because of it and he is very proud of his haircut. They both are happy to tell us about their recent dentist appointment. I’ve met foster mom before but today is the first time I’ve had a chance to talk to her. Foster mom and Granny praise MJ and TJ and it is obvious that they have a great relationship together. MJ and TJ respect them and they respect them. Foster mom and Granny have taught them much about life and love. There are three things that foster mom said that impressed me:

“In order to change them, you have to change their environment.”
“They are where they ought to be but they aren’t where they used to be.”
“You can have fun without doing bad things.”
During the visit foster mom discussed any concerns that she had and was happy to say there is not too much going on. We left the visit at 2:30. I left Gateway at 3 pm.

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I arrived at Gateway at 9 am. The visit for RS and bio dad is today. Again he is supposed to make up hours and again he states that he can’t due to the bus schedule. During the visit he is more interactive with RS. He plays with her and talks with her. I noticed that at first RS did not want to go in the room with dad but she warmed up to him once no one else would go in. The visit lasted until 11:30.

Greg and I had the home visit for D, Jay, T, J , and B at 1:30. All of the boys were good today except for B. He was wound up and was hard to control. Mom did a great job with removing him but again she catered to him and only to him during the visit. Foster mom picked J up and everyone else was spending the weekend. The visit ended at 3:30. I went back to Gateway to help Lori with her visit from 4 pm – 5 pm. The visits are supervised and someone needs to be in the room. I sat in the room while Lori called around looking for housing for mom because she is homeless and needs housing and a job before she can get her children back. Lori did not find housing as of this visit. I left Gateway at 5 pm.

During this meeting more was brought up about the Child-Family Team. It is a meeting of everyone involved in the child/children’s lives. Family members, neighbors, clergy members, teachers, counselors etc come together to discuss what is going on both good and bad. It is usually family driven but there are some non-negotiables. The meetings consist of:

1. Introductions
2. Ground rules
3. Current situation/Progress
4. Family vision
5. Review of strengths
6. Discussion of needs
7. Prioritization of needs
8. Establish goals and objectives
9. Brainstorm solutions
10. Action plan – use of formal/informal supports
11. Summarize meeting
12. Review crisis plan
13. Set next meeting

I had to leave the meeting at 1:00 pm to pick up Z from school. Again she said there is not much going on at home or at school. She talked about her foster mom’s mother that was released from jail but she states that she is not staying in the same home as Z. Mom brought food and games for the visit. I left Gateway at 3 pm.

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Today I arrived at Gateway at 9 am. Today is the scheduled visit between R and her bio dad at 9:30. Again he is expected to make up hours that were missed and again he can not stay. I make sure to have Michelle document this as he blames Gateway for “picking on him” and not allowing him chances for diligent efforts. Today he is very interactive with R. He plays with her and actually sits on the ground with her to color with her. As usual R has a difficult time at the beginning of the visit but warms up to him when no one else will come in the room with them. Not much has changed during this visit compared to the others.

Today Dana Grenier and I met with JH and his family at approximately 2 pm. My role with JH is to take him to my fire house and explain to him the dangers of fire play. Talking to Dana I found out that JH has started fires in the home and he started a fire in the garbage can in the bathroom at school. JH is 5-years-old. When we arrived at the home we had to wait for JH to get dropped off from pre-school but this gave me a time to talk to bio mom and dad about what has been going on. Mom states that the she believes the reason for his fire play was the presence of his 8-year-old cousin AH in the home. Bio mom has since asked her aunt and JH’s cousin to leave. There has not been a problem since. JH arrived shortly after out arrival. JH, bio dad, and myself went to Winchester Fire Department in West Seneca.
We arrived there shortly after 3 pm and I began by giving them a short tour of the hall that ended us in the Chiefs’ Office. I left them in there together while I arranged a few things, when I returned they were reading some Fire House magazines together. I interviewed JH alone in the meeting room. It started off very slow. I asked some questions about home and school and then I went on to ask if her knew why we had come to the fire hall. JH told me that we came because he knows that fires are bad and he was playing with fire. I asked him how fire setting made him feel, if he had ever burned himself, and if he knew the consequences of his actions. JH told me that fire makes him scared and sad and that is why he does it in his room alone. He went on to tell me that he feels this way because he gets in trouble and he has learned that he can die and kill with fire. He told me that he has never burned himself while playing with fire but his cousin has and he said that it hurts. He knows that fire is put out with water but he does not know how to react if there is a fire in the home or if he catches of fire; he believes that death is what will happen in the end. It is at this point that I had a slideshow of injuries and property damage to show him so he can learn that there are other consequences. An important issue I wanted to address was to why he set a fire in the school bathroom and his answer was, “Because someone told me to do it, that’s why I do it.”
We returned to dad in the Chiefs’ Office and together we sat around the computer and watched to slideshow. I explained to dad and JH that the pictures were graphic but it was something that they both needed to see. Included in the slideshow were pictures of severely damaged homes and photos of people that had burn injuries and scars. There were pictures of children and adults with minute scarring to people that have approximately 85% of their bodies burned. JH was apprehensive to look at all of the photos but I wanted to stress that it is not just death that results from fire. I also showed them a short video from Monroe County Fire and how they approach child fire play. It begins with the arrest of the child and then in home counseling. In the video was also a clip of a home that was fully engulfed with flames and the after pictures of the damage that was caused. When the slideshow was over we talked about what he saw and in he understood it. He said he did and he displayed sad and scared emotions toward the pictures of the injuries.
After the slideshow I took JH and dad into the truck room to him the fire engines and the rescue truck. We have child size bunker gear that he put on and we took a booster line off of Engine 1 and I had him simulate putting out a fire with a charged hose line. He saw and touched almost all of the tools on the trucks. He got to experience how heavy everything is and how tiring it is. He said that he does not want to have to put firefighters through all of that because he was “bad” enough to play with fire. We left the fire hall around 4:30 and I dropped JH and dad off at home at 5 pm.

RAHAMA is an organization founded on Islamic principles dedicated in eliminating domestic violence (DV) through support, collaboration and education. The goals of this organization are to spread awareness by providing education on the rights of Muslim women to social service and law enforcement agencies that deal with DV, collaborate with DV agencies on their organizational needs they feel need to be addressed, respond to the needs of the DV agencies with the support requested, be proactive in stopping violence through educating both Muslim men and women on the rights and responsibilities in marriage through facilitating and networking couples with local Imams and other resources, and to provide emotional and spiritual support and comfort for victims through the resources of the Muslim community. The training was presented in a Powerpoint devised by Salma Abugideiri. The presentation explained who Muslims are and gave a brief explanation of the religion. It is stressed how strong the culture is and how important marriage and family are. It was very interesting and I learned much about the Muslim society today in America.
I left Gateway at 1:30 pm to pick up Z from school to bring her back for her visit. She talked about her Halloween costume and her Halloween party at school that will be tomorrow. She is excited to see her mom and brothers. Mom brought candy and cookies for them today. I left Gateway at 3 pm.

Present at the JFIRE meeting was Michelle Bliss the coordinator, mom, dad, J, A, and myself. We began with an introduction of everyone. Once again J was very shy but A did not understand the seriousness of why we were there. Michelle began with explaining that we were there to discuss fire safety. A very important point that Michelle stressed was that we were there because both of the boys had people that cared about them and loved them and did not want to see them get hurt or hurt other people.
Michelle had mom and dad leave the room to fill out an intake form while she interviewed J and A using a similar form. They talked about family, friends, and school and slowly she began with the fire play. They talked about how they obtained the lighters and who they learned fire play from. J said he learned it from A, and A said he learned it from a neighbor. Michelle went on to talk about consequences or fire setting and this is when both J and A really began to pay attention. She talked about skin grafting and property loss in a way that they could understand and they both seemed to be affected. When mom and dad came back in the room, Michelle directed her attention to the family as a whole and as preventers together. The family already has smoke detectors in the home so as a way of keeping them up to date she gave each boy a chart and on their birthday they are to replace the battery in the detectors that they are assigned to. They were also provided with a map of the home and together they discussed an escape route which will be the front door or a window. After all the discussion, we watched a video titled “Striking Out With Matches”. This video was about a young boy, Jimmy, approximately 10-years-old who plays with matches and his friend that stresses fire safety. After school they play at Jimmy’s house where he proceeds to light matches and throws them into his garbage can. When they go out to play the garbage can catches fire and the house burns down. In an attempt to save his 6-year-old sister, Jimmy dies and his sister has to be resuscitated. In the end Jimmy’s sister comes to talk about fire play and the loss of her brother. She also shows the class the scars from the burns to her hands. The entire family was impacted by the video especially J.
At the end of the video, Michelle reviewed everything that had been discussed and she had everyone sign a contract and she had the boys tell everyone, “I am sorry I played with fire and I promise to never do it again.” We left JFIRE at approximately 8:00 and the family was home at 8:20.

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Today I arrived at Gateway at 9 am. We had a firedrill at 9:30 and a staff meeting at 11 am. Greg told me today that D is being moved back home and again the problem of preventive services not being set up is a problem. Cheri does not want this family to fail again as they have already failed twice. I left Gateway at 3 pm.

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I arrived at Gateway today at 9 am. Michelle and I left right away for court for R and her bio dad. We were supposed to meet with the drig treatment team at 9:30 but they met without us. Michelle told me that they never wait for her and they usually meet somewhere other than where they told her. Court is scheduled for 10:30. R needs to be in court every 2 weeks to be evaluated on his progress. Today the TPR is also being addressed as it was filed 8 months ago. We were in court at 11 am. The judge decided on a 6 month contract with new plans and goals . If the suspended judgment is not addressed and the goals achieved, the TPR will go through. He needs to show dilligent parenting skills, efforts towards finding housing, a job, and substance abuse treatment. He thinks that everyone is picking on him when they criticize him, but the judge tried to make him understand that it is only to help him. She told him that she wants the return to be positive and she knows that it is hard to be under the microscope but in his situation, that's just how it has to be.
At 2 pm Rebecca Sahr, the intake coordinator, came in with a problem - M, a 15 year-old girl that was in respite care called her and told her that she does not want to go home because she is being beaten at home. M said that her aunt and cousin are street fighting her in order to discipline her becasue her pregnant mother can't. She is scared to go home but she can not go into respite care without her mother's permission because she is not a foster child. When Rebecca called her mother, mom screamed at Rebecca and told her absolutely not and hung up the phone. M had to go home and was told to call when she got there. In the mean time, Cheri was making a call to CPS. In the middle of the call, M called and I had to answer the phone and pretend to be Cheri. M said that mom threw things at her and broke things in the home. She also said dad kicked her out and as soon as CPS heard that they had a worker out right away. I told M about Compass House and that she can get the help of the police. But she wants to go to respite which is not an answer at this point. She was told by myself and Cheri to stay with her friend until CPS came out and to call to let us know what happened. I left Gateway at 5 pm.

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I arrived at Gateway at 9 am. I asked Cheri if she had heard from M. M states that she went to her aunt's house and was interviewed there. Cheri is angry that the CPS worker would interview her in the home of her aunt that beats her, so she is trying to find out who the worker is and she has filed a complaint.
Today Cheri and I talked about jobs available in the future and she helped me with a resume. I left Gateway at 3 pm.

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I arrived at Gateway at 9 am. Today I spent the entire day wrapping gifts from the angels. Each year there is a Christmas party for the children that are in foster care. There is such a surplus of gifts that we can go "shopping" for those children. Gateway is expecting approximately 300 children to show up for the Christmas party. Takeo Spikes from the Buffalo BIlls will be there signing autographs. The amount of gifts is amazing and it is so touching to know that people will help out others that they they don't even know. I left Gateway at 5 pm.

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Today I arrived at Gateway at 9 am. There is an all staff meeting at 9:30. Cheri announces to everyone that my last day will be Friday. I am sad to be leaving but I received a job as a Direct Care Worker with Vendor Services for Gateway and I am excited to be starting that. When the meeting was over I continued to wrap gifts. I left Gateway at 3 pm.

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I arrived at Gateway tonight at 6 pm for the Christmas party. Gateway was expecting approximately 375 people and 425 showed up. It was so nice to see all the kids get a gift and Takeo was so nice and patient with everyone. All of the kids were very excited. Dinner was provided by Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell. I left Gateway at 8:30.

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I arrived at Gateway today at 9 am. Today is the last day of my internship. I have the vist with R and her bio dad today. This was the best visit I have ever seen between the two of them. Dad talked to R the entire time and he initiated everything with her. It was his idea to play a game, and read, even talk to her. R is sick and dad hadled it very well. He was very interactive with her and I was happy to see it. When the visit was over we discussed the visit and set up goals for next week. It was a great visit to end with.
I spent the rest of the day saying goodbye and gathering my things. I also turned my cases back over to the regular caseworker. I learned so much during this internship. Everyone was very helpful and kind. I am excited to start the DCW position. I left Gateway at 5 pm.

Annotated Bibliography:

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The large project for our school psychology class is an annotated bibliography of 10 or more articles found in EBSCO Host. The bibliography is on a topic of our choice pertaining to school psychology. When is comes to school psychology, I think parental involvement is extremey important; that is why I chose to do my annotated bib on family involvement in schools.
There are a few steps that we each had to do in order to find articles:
1. Go to our library website: http://library.canisius.edu/
2. Click on EBSCO HOST on the left side bar
3. Click All Databases
4. Check the box for only PsychINFO, (uncheck Academic Search Premier)
5. Click Continue
6. Click Thesaurus
7. In the thesaurus page, type in key words (in Browse for) that I am interested in to find additional, more descriptive words that will help me in my search. I typed in school and family.
My keyword results and a description that is including are the following:
School Counseling - Counseling services provided by counselors or teacher counselors in order to help school, college, or university students cope with adjustment problems.
School Based Intervention - Intervening with an individual or group of individuals in a school setting for the purpose of influencing or reorienting one's behavior or approach to learning.
Family Intervention - Interventions that involve the family as a whole, or individual family members; includes interventions that are provided by family members on behalf of another family member.
Family Relations
Family Therapy

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It has been somewhat difficult to find articles. I have had to expand the dates of my search from 2000-2006 to 1990-2006. Using the keywords from above I have had to ry various combinations of words. I have a few articles so far and am still in the process of finding more (way to leave it for last minute :). Many of the articles are not what I am looking for and have nothing to do with my topic. But through much searching I am able to find a few at a time. I have added family systems to my keyword search because that is the topic in many articles.

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I am very interested in family therapy and the role that the school psychologist or counselor take in the administration of this therapy. The annotated bibliography gave me the chance to explore how school counseling and family therapy influence each other.

One of the most important ideas that I learned from this project is that positive family relationships will positivley affect a child's performance in school. I knew that family involvement is important but I don't think I realized important it really is. Children are directly affected by their family's actions and how they respond to their children. Another thing that came to mind was that in today's society, more and more families are non-traditional. Today's homes have have step-parents and step-siblings and siome children are raised by a grandparent or other family members. In my search an abstract came up that talked about children that were adopted. Discussions about single-parent homes were also emphasized.

In no way am I an artist, but drawing therapy was brought up in many articles that I searched. It was very interesting to learn about how one drawing could answer so many questions not only about a child, but also about a family. Colors, picture and positioning, body posture, actual pictures drawn, these are all important aspects to drawing therapy.

Although is was difficult to find articles, the articles that I found were informative. Reading about the case studies and the psychologists and counselors experiences, it all makes me that much more excited to enter the field. There are so many opportunities for children to received help with just about anything. For the professional that is willing to work hard for the best intention of the child, everyone will be successful in the end.

My interview with a School Counselor:

I met with and interviewed Jennifer Anderson on Friday January 24. She is a school counselor at Cheektowaga Central Middle School.

- What are your graduate and undergraduate degrees?
I have a BA in Psychology from University at Buffalo and a Masters in Science and Education from Canisius College.

- What kind of practicums/interships did you do?
The masters program required three practicums. One in a school, one at an agency, and the third offered an option between either a school of an agency. I was an assistant director and an associate director for Sub Board I at UB. It is a student organization that offers rape counseling. I was able to use this agency for my practicum. I decided to do both of my other practicums at a school. I was accepted at Cheektowaga Central interning in both the middle and the high school.

- Where do you work now?
I got lucky and things just fell into place for me. I was asked to work at Cheeektowaga Central High School, but I moved to the middle school level, and the position was created for me.

- How many children do you work with?
I work with approximately 300-350 students. I work with half of the 8th grade and all of the 6th grade. It's a cycle and we follow the same kids throughout their middle school career.

- Who else is in your office?
We have one school psychologist, two school counselors, and one social worker.

- What does your day consist of?
My contract states that my hours are 8:15-3:30, but there are days that I have to go in early and days I leave late. It depends on what is happening. My job involves scheduling, setting up summer school, sending out records, organizing orientations, career plans, personality assessments, one on one and group counseling, and being involved in the New Student Transition Group.

- What about summer hours?
Because we follow the teachers' contract, we are only required to work 15 days over the summer. Our school year stops June 30, but I usually go in more than 15 days because I have things I have to do.

- Which providers of services in the community do you use for ourtside referrals?
I make referrals everyday. In the community we refer children and families to Catholic Charities, Child & Adolescent Treatment Services, Child & Family Services, ECMC, and private practices. An important note is to remember that mentally disordered and normal kids are different. Also, there are always options and second options are great. Each month we have Pupil Services staff meetings in which outside agencies come in and refresh us in what's new and out there. I refer students for counseling but that is most likely to be done by the social worker.

- What special intervention services do you offer in your building(s) that you think are particularly effective?
I really like Art Therapy. I like giving kids crayons and just letting them draw. I use something called Values Clarification Process in which I help the student(s) break down problems and put things in perspective. I also use SEAL. Stop, relax breathe, Explain, Affirm and Acknowledge, Lock in and Lock out. The teachers are a great tool. They see the kids all day everyday and their trust may be in the teacher. Staff development days are great ways for us to inform the teachers on ways to recognize, handle and address problems.

- Are there any commonalities that you see?
There are many behavior issues and kids with special needs. At this age kids are all about drama. Lots of that he said she said stuff. More recently I've dealt with boyfriend/girlfriend problems and even sex.

- How do you handle these problems?
It's all about trust and confidentiality. If they don't trust me they won't talk to me. It's really important to check in with them. I want them to learn to be more responsible. We set a goal and a plan and when we meet the next time if nothing is changed I initiate the next step. I tell all of the students at teh beginning of the school year, I only break confidentiality if someone is hurting you, you're hurting yourself, or someone will get hurt. It's really important to follow through with them.

- What about parental cooperation?
It really depends on the relationship with the parents. I also need trust and confidentiality from the parents but my students are my first priority. I can't tell parents everything they want to know because I want the kids to tell me things and that I'm here for them. Some parents understand my position and others deny that anything is wrong. Situations that have to do with CPS or welfare checks are handled by the social worker.

- Does your job affect your personal life at all?
I chose this job knowing what I was getting myself into. This job is a responsibility and it takes time and effort. Things do get emotional at times and I do bring that home but I can't let it interfere with my life. If I don't take care of myself I can't take care of anyone else. Administration tells us that it's important to take time off. I realize I'm my own person and not my job.

- Is there any advice you would offer?
Practice what you preach. If you have issues within yourself, do not be afraid to get counseling for yourself. When in undergrad and grad, volunteer and make yourself stand out. You need to take care of yourself. Put yourself in the kids' shoes, and be a model.

CategoryUsers
Spring2006
Psy370Spring2006
The following 3 pages belong to StaceySowinski:

Psy370PositiveArticles

Psy370Spring2006Interviews

Psy498PracticumLog

ProfBayerWiki : StaceySowinski

My Internship Experience

My interview with a School Counselor: