Interview a Health Professional
The Heart of a Social Worker
Name: Demetrice Woods
Position: Support Services Specialist
Where they work: Virginia Supportive housing Gosnold Apartment
Education: Bachelor of Science, Qualified Mental Health Professional-Adult
Q: What inspired you to get into social work?
A: My original major was nursing but I was trying to find a health profession where all my credits would transfer so human services was it. When working with human services my internship and volunteer work was with the domestic violence agency and I still wanted to stay with the domestic violence victims. Therefore, I started working for a shelter and with shelters comes a lot of mental health patients as well as substance abuse patients. So when I went to the shelter I went to the flip side of things which was the supportive housing sector where most of the homeless individuals are housed so I am still working with those with substance abuse and diagnosed mental health disorders on the supportive services side and stable housing. So I just kind of have been in that field from the beginning.
Q:What are some basic roles/responsibilities of being a social worker?
A: My basic role as a social worker is the only way to get into our program is if you’re homeless. So every individual in our program was homeless at one time. So once they come into the supportive services and what we do is there are one to two case managers in every building and we have seven buildings in the Hampton Roads area. In my particular building we have two case managers which are myself and my coworker. So what we do is make sure that they maintain their stability, if they’re behind on their rent we talk to them about plans on how to pay their rent, we also have property management inside the building because we’re in a secured facility so we do a lot of communication with property management even though we’re two different departments but we are still under the same virginia housing umbrella because we provide the clients with everything they need in that one building. We also connect them with different resources so say if they need food we reach out to outside resources for them and also try to help them find clothing. Some people in our building need assistance with ADL which is the Activities of Daily Living and we connect them to personal care aids or if they need physical therapy it really depends on what their needs are at that time. Now we do have some individuals that don’t have substance abuse or mental health diagnoses so if they don’t need any assistance they just fell upon hard times and need us to be a stepping stone for them to get back to where they were. We also have a move on program which is the VHS organization where any person that the case managers feel like could move back into community housing where they don’t have to have a case manager we refer them to Norfolk Redevelopment or Chesapeake Redevelopment to get them a voucher if we feel that they can maintain on their own.
Q:What is your favorite, most rewarding part about being a social worker?
A: For me before coming to Virginia housing I was working at the only homeless shelter in Virginia Beach and to see individuals transfer into permanent housing was a reward within itself. So seeing someone come in for intake to get off the streets and have a home again is the reward for me.
Q:What is the most surprising aspect of social work?
A: I really don’t think there are any surprises. Basically what you see is what you get. Everyday is a different day. Because we deal with different people, different attitudes, different conditions and addictions, everything is going to be different on any given day. So they’re are really no surprises because you can’t be surprised.
Q:What is the most challenging aspect of being a social worker?
A: The challenging aspect about it is when you have a person who decompts so bad that there’s really no help for them and they end up falling back into homelessness. So we have a couple of situations like that now where the person doesn’t feel like they need mediation anymore and off the medication for two years now and they’re decompting so bad that they’re not even communicating with the services in the building. Once they stop communicating with us we try to reach out to their providers like doctors, mental health skill builders, or any type of mental health builder to see if they can help to keep the person housed but if the person doesn’t want to be housed there is nothing else we can really do.
Q:What is some advice you can give to someone entering the health field?
A: You can’t go into this field thinking that “Oh I’m just doing this to get a paycheck.” Because it takes a special kind of person to deal with individuals who are going through crisis, mental health issues, or substance abuse. It takes a special person to really deal with someone in that aspect because everyone can’t do it. Everyone doesn’t have the patience, the know how, or the determination because it does take a lot of determination believe me when I tell you. So it does take a special person because like I said if you go in thinking you’re going to make a lot of money doing this, because I know for my position especially we don’t make a lot of money so you have to want to do this and be in the mindset that you want to help these individuals and you have to be compassionate you have to show empathy because you know without it you’re not going to make it and you’ll burn out easily as well.