things that make me want to quit

this week concluded our annual audit, in which child welfare cases are randomly pulled and caseworkers are scrutinized within an inch of their jobs. wasn't i so lucky that my "random" case happened to be a family with multi-generational substance abuse and domestic violence problems, over ten past cases with us, and a host of other environmental factors like poverty, lack of education, and the current economy crisis? despite my mad social-work skills, i just couldn't seem to "fix" the fact that this kid's mom died of a drug overdose, he's addicted to pot, he's flunking out of 11th grade, he can't keep a job, he's been charged for possession and trespassing this year, and he recently got into a "wrestling match" with his dad.

so, readers, i'll have you guess which portion of the audit failed -- "child status" or "system status"? if you guessed "child status," you are WRONG. apparently these reviewers felt that this kid is functioning just great! who cares that he has 5 F's -- it's an improvement over the 6 F's he had last quarter. and we're not so worried about his positive drug tests -- it's just pot! this is the "system's" fault, or in other words, it's MY fault as his caseworker. i should have updated my assessment more often. i should have invited his drug-addicted grandparents to a team meeting, because after all, they are his support system. i should have kicked the therapist's ass who gave him the wrong diagnosis, which prevented him from being in the appropriate treatment program. i doesn't matter that the parents told the reviewers that they love me and want my help with their kid until he's 18, because i just didn't do quite enough paperwork to fix him!

what a great message this is passing on to us caseworkers -- we don't care how your kid is doing, as long as you're typing more logs and have more meetings!!