first the worst

hi. this is my worst blog post ever. i have never written one and i think there will be a natural progression, so the first has to be the worst. a few friends of mine have told me that i should write down what happens at my work. here's how it works.

cliff's notes!

- i work at a not-for-profit residential treatment center. it is a temporary home/lock down facility for kids the ages of 5-17. these kids generally have problems. these problems could be: neurological disorders, suicidal/homicidal intent, neglect, abuse, and there's more. the average stay for our inhabitants is two weeks. some way less, some way more. i have worked there for six months now and have many stories, but i think i will actually start contributing next month.

- sometimes at my work, protective holds are necessary. this happens when a client is unsafe to themselves or others. we are very careful and try our hardest to avoid implementing holds. sometimes to the point where staff is in danger, but a hold still isn't done. they are not fun. i just wanted you to know that. i sometimes think that we should be less lenient, we go to great lengths to not implement holds. we do not use devices or chemicals for holds. we are trained to be able to physically hold someone in the least invasive way, for the least amount of time possible to avoid any pain to the clients. as a last resort, we have safe rooms wherein a client is moved to in a hold. in some situations, the client is locked in this safe room as long as it takes them to be safe, but we are legally allowed a certain amount of time for each client and try to limit that as well. a safe room is an empty room with a drain.

- what has wings but can't fly? my building! there are four wings. ne, nw, se, sw. each one of these units has a safe room right outside of the entrance to the specified unit. a fully carpeted hallway connects all four of them. we have two offices. one that connects the north wings and one that connects the souths. they have thick plastic windows and can slide open when the kids want to make phone calls. we also have a small staff lounge, a kitchen, a playground, and a little gym. every door to everything is magnetically locked and automatically locks when closed. a red light on the key panel means locked, green means unlocked.

- we have staff and nurses available 24/7 for the kids. the general rule is one staff to three kids. each unit has six rooms, two bathrooms, and a living area with a tv. each room holds one person, so we can have a maximum of 24 kids.

- we are very restrictive on what things kids can have. we make airport security look like arby's security. nothing sharp is allowed on the unit. do you know how many things could be deadly? i doubt it. the real answer is a lot. here's one i bet you can't guess. a library book. paperback. with the staples removed. here's another one. an eraser. you have to think outside the box and assume that some kids would do anything possible to hurt themselves or others.

- our main goal is to assess and stabilize our clients. we distribute medication and have psychiatrists and therapists to reduce the kids' medications. they try to find a balance that helps and minimizes the amount of chemicals each individual needs in their system.

- due to hipaa, i cannot and will not use real names. i told my co-workers to pick names for themselves. i have also decided that each month i will have a theme, and pick names according to said themes for the kids. maybe i'll take suggestions if you are lucky.

- lastly, all of my co-workers so far are amazing people. this is a very demanding job, and we are a cohesive bunch with hard earned experience in the field. i consider them to be an extended family and group of friends. this job forces a kind of closeness out of you.

so i have probably left a lot out, but that is a short summary that may help you understand how things are done and how our decisions are made. this post is pretty serious. i didn't mean to be. it's hard to be funny when you are trying to convey professionalism. i will try to make my future posts funnier, but some will probably be sad. well, i'll talk to you later!
love,
bryan