This is my first post and I have a bit of ranting to do--
My aunt is a social worker who stopped working many years ago to raise her family. Now that her children are grown, she has decided to go back to work. She works specifically with young pregnant girls/women. However, the other day, she was fired (not warned, but full-out fired) for being "too compassionate" with a 19 year old girl who was pregnant with her third child. I was appalled when I heard this. I really believe that this sheds light on what is wrong with social work and why young pregnant women tend to feel unvalued--they are treated like numbers and tasks that need to be finished so that their social workers can get out of work by 5. Compassion is what these women need and for a social worker to get fired for showing compassion seems a to be a terrible flaw in the system. It is bad enough that society in general views young pregnant girls/mothers as irresponsible, lesser, and as only statistics--who are they supposed to turn to?
Let me know what you think about this!
Maureen
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That's all they gave her in the way of reasoning? It doesn't even make sense!
This reminds me of a book I read in middle school that was a true (I think) account of a teenage girl who got pregnant and was sent to live in a halfway house for other pregnant girls until she had her baby and gave it up for adoption. When she went into labor, the nurses at the hospital were rude to her and slow about getting her into a room because she was a pregnant teen. Is teen pregnancy an ideal situation? No. But we shouldn't make it worse by treating pregnant teens like crap, when a different attitude might improve things.
Yes, exactly--it is all about attitude! Well said!