Life Is Full of Grey Areas....

That's what my Principal Social Worker told me today... Initally I felt uncomfortable. I didn't want to help that particularly nasty patient. He turns me off, he puts me in a bad bad mood. He SPOILS my day...

Social Workers have to be constantly aware of our transference issues. We tend to judge and feel our emotions rising. We then feel anger towards our patients. True that it is not right to be judging people, I don't have the authority to do that anyway, but humans are born biased. We judge, and that's a choice that lead our lives. We judge and differentiate good from evil, pros and cons... And that is also why we have close friends, good friends, so-so friends and judgements and biasness are also qualities that gave rise to the so-called "teacher's pets". So I have my own classification of 'good' and 'bad' patients. 'Good' patients are those who are appreciative of you, are nice and modest. 'Bad' patients are demanding, screams and shouts and make big fuss out of nothing. They are the BLACK-LISTED.

However, as I am writing this entry, I started to see the big picture I was suppose to see. True that they are black-listed. But they are desperate and screaming for someone to hear them and to enlist the right help. They are the ones who are falling through the gaps of society and community resources. True that my patient spent more than $20K over period of a year frivolously. True that he should be punished and should not deserve welfare. But we should not keep dwelling on his past. The fact presently is that we have a man who does not have a single cent, owe government agencies lots of money, and has a medical condition that Drs can't do anything about. Yes, he has $20K, but that's already gone isn't it? What more do we want before help is given? For him to cough out the money? IMPOSSIBLE! If he can do that, he won't have to come banging and banging demanding to see a social worker.

So, life is full of grey areas... There can never be a total black or white... So my friends, always take things easy, so that life will not be so hard...