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Social Work Interview

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To strengthen my understanding of social work as a career path, I interviewed my internship supervisor, Patricia [Pat] Michalak, who is the program coordinator for the Mansfield Youth Services Bureau. Mansfield Youth Services is a non-profit organization that seeks to provide children, youth and their families with a wide range of prevention, education and therapeutic services including mentoring programs, homework help, substance abuse prevention and psychiatric consultation and treatment. The bureau’s clientele are from at-risk populations including, but not limited to, children who have experienced a recent loss or trauma, youth who are genetically predisposed to mental illness or who have a diagnosed psychiatric condition, those who are …show more content…
If the patient has been placed on psychotropic medication to help manage their Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, depression, anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, etc., Pat is the one to follow up with them to ensure that they are not experiencing any adverse reactions and to determine if the dosages are effective. If they are having difficulties or if they are in need of a refill, she will communicate with Dr. Haney, the psychiatrist contracted by the town to supervise the care of these patients at no cost to the parents or the state. During each of her sessions, Pat tries to determine if her patients would benefit from any additional services, including public assistance (e.g. Women, Infants and Children, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance) and mentoring programs (e.g. Big Friends, Cope). When Pat was promoted from to program coordinator, she collaborated with Dr. Haney to develop a Multi-Therapy Family Group because there was not enough time to meet with each child or family individually. In fact, there was such a backlog, that patients were being seen every three months, which for many of them was too long. Together, the two of them decided that having multiple families coming in at the same time once a month to meet with the psychiatrist would be beneficial to the patients, so they implemented this initiative and it has been …show more content…
When Pat was in high school she admittedly was not the best student and her parents did not provide her with the proper career guidance, so she decided that she was simply going to attend secretarial school. However, her friend convinced her to attend Western New England State University to be among one of the first classes of female students to study there, but within a year they both transferred out because the course load was too hard. Pat then went on to Central Connecticut State University where she discovered that psychology was the career field that she wanted. While a student at Central, she worked as an intern for Community Child Guidance Clinic in Manchester, CT where she participated in a variety of clinical activities, including group supervision and case presentations and discussions. Upon completion of her Bachelor’s Degree, she continued on to earn her Masters of Arts in Clinical Psychology from the University of Hartford. After moving to Mansfield, Connecticut she became an intern at Mansfield Training School where she taught the intellectually disabled to dress, feed, toilet train and take care of themselves. Once her internship was completed, she was hired by the school, got married and then took some time

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