Life 2.0rev1: Life after school

I’ve been remiss in updating my blog for a while now, so here is a brief update for my myriad of faithful followers (current total: 1.4). 

In December of 2009 I finished the Master’s in Social Work program at Walla Walla University, marking the end of a 6 year odyssey into higher education, and the beginning of life in (cue ominous music: dun dun duh) the real world.  Interestingly, this is remarkably similar to life in college, only a lot less predictable.

After completing some time well spent as an intern at the Washington State DSHS Region 2 Division of Children and Family Services, I accepted a position with Lifeways, Inc. in Umatilla County, Oregon as a Mental Health Specialist II in the Crisis Response Unit.  As a Crisis Response worker, my job consisted primarily of suicide risk and mental status assessments in crisis situations, as well as treatment planning and implementing a variety of creative least-restrictive interventions aimed at avoiding higher levels of intervention such as psychiatric hospitalization.   Rarely was there a dull day at the office.

In April I applied for a Psychiatric Social Worker position with Oregon State DHS at the Pendleton campus of the Oregon State Hospital, referred to as the Blue Mountain Recovery Center.  As a Psychiatric Social Worker my primary focus is on discharge and transition planing for individuals who are currently hospitalized for severe mental illness.  It’s not as clinical as I had imagined when I intially applied for the position, but I have been amazed to learn that compared to community mental health hospital social work is a total kick.  It’s taken some adjusting to get used to the complete and total lack of adrenaline, and at the end of week 3 I am finally no longer fighting sleep all afternoon long.

Completing school was a major milestone for me and while I have certainly spent some time basking in the warm light of completion, I can’t help but wonder what comes next.  While I really enjoy my current work, my long term goal has always been to create a diversionary Wilderness Therapy program for teens/young-adults as an alternative to the (broken)  juvenile/adult justice system.  It has been my conscious effort to ensure that everything I have done thus far has brought me closer to this goal, but I still have a long ways to go.  For now I will focus on getting the necessary hours and supervision to gain licensure as a Social Worker.  Once I am an LCSW the sky is the limit.