First Week of work

So I've completed my week of training and my first week of real shifts at my new job - though I suppose I can now stop referring to it as my "new" job. The overall feeling: I love it. I've found my calling.

There are 9 different units, called cottages, and each have about 18 girls, except for one that is being developed and implemented this week - it is conduct cottage - all of the clients have conduct disorder. They are going to be on high structure 24/7. I'm REALLY glad I'm not in that cottage. No thank you!

The typical week day for me looks like this:

First, we go to fill in, which is where the staff for the evening meets with one of the therapists for the cottage for an hour to get filled in on what's going on with the clients that day. That lasts an hour. Then we go and pick the clients up from school, at which time we have to search each and every one of them (bra's, pants waist, socks and shoes), and then run the metal detector over each of them to make sure they are not hiding any contraband. We then walk on line skills (silence, arms length away from each other, facing forward in a single file line) back to cottage, where the clients change out of their school uniforms, and have afternoon needs, which they have to bring to us. (This usually includes wanting to go to some programming that night, or needing to call their PO or social worker). Bathroom breaks also happen now. Only one client is allowed in the bathroom at a time (even with multiple stalls) unless a staff is in there the monitor. Most cottages have free time in their rooms until dinner, when we line up again and walk to the caffeteria. In the caffeteria, the clients go through lines and then sit at specific tables for their cottage. There are 2 cottages in the cafeteria at a time, but they are not permitted to speak to one another. There are some clients who are on meal programs - They go to the TLC (the learning center) unit, where they have to eat in a cubby in isolation. They've shown that they can not handle themselves in the cafeteria. There are other clients who have to sit separately from the rest of the cottage in the cafeteria and eat in silence. 30 minutes of dinner, line back up, then outside time - unless there is a crisis going on in the quad - which happens kinda often.

When we get back to cottage, the clients are not allowed in the bathroom for 1 hour after eating to prevent any purging. We do structure and diciplines - where the clients sit at tables and write their diciplines (they have to write 1 page essays about what they did wrong and why it's wrong and what the correct behavior should be) and if they don't have any diciplines that day it's study hall.

Then we usually do some sort of group - that has a purpose (like bullying, healthy relationships, racial or cultural diversity etc.). Then it's hygiene and bed time. In bed by 9:30, lights out at 10.

Throughout all the time they're in cottage, staff has to do random room checks between 4-14 minutes. This continues until 12:30 AM, and then the checks go down to every 30 minutes. But I get off at midnight...

So that's my day. I love it. Girls give me attitude right and left since I'm new, and I think I've been called "bitch" more in the last 2 weeks than I was in my entire run of EMS. But I know the only reason these girls are doing this is to push me away - to test me to see if I'm really going to stick around with them. I am. At least one girl in each cottage breaks down every shift (it's usually more), and it's really rewarding being able to talk to them, and really listen to them, and acknowledge that their pain is real (even if the words that they are telling me are all horse shit), the pain is real.

I really hope that I can give to these girls the idea that there are kind people out there who care... just by being one myself.