Job Shadowing

Job shadowing was interesting, fascinating, challenging, and educating. I shadowed Realistic, an outpatient drug rehabilitation center, halfway house, and children’s home. I loved being able to already have a connection with the supervisors of this program before starting the shadowing due to the wilderness experience. It made the whole experience feel more comfortable and connecting. They showed us all the ins and outs of their programs and we learned about their future goals and current struggles. The top five things I took from this experience were:

1. The connection between the supervisor was hard to read at times. Unfortunately, my fellow classmate and I didn’t have the easiest time connecting with the supervisor who came in to the wilderness with us. He had a hard time adjusting and I think was surprised by the uniqueness of the experience. However, this was also a reminder that sometimes connections with our coworkers takes a lot of work and time. Sometimes we may even work with someone who can be difficult but that doesn’t mean we can just immediately quit our job and move on. We have to keep trying, keep struggling, and keep working at these relationships in order to build something meaningful.
2. You don’t need some fancy, ritzy looking rehab center in order to facilitate long lasting and affective change. Their outpatient rehab center wasn’t the nicest looking but the quality of care they gave to their clients was clear. One of the days we went to the beach with some of the clients and heard several of their recovery stories. They all seemed so happy to have found Realistic and it was amazing to see their connections with others. In America, I have seen and experienced many beautiful rehab centers that are total scams. They take a lot of money and give hardly anything to their patients.
3. Hearing from the social workers and what their daily schedule is like was very powerful. On the very first day we had an amazing and very real conversation with both of the social workers. They expressed frustrations with the system and how exhausting their work really can be daily. It was a reminder to me that social work can be very rewarding but also extremely hard and one can easily burn themselves out due to the nature of the system. I appreciated how much time each of the social workers and other workers took out of their days to show us their programs. They were excited to teach us and show us what they’re working on with their clients. You can tell they all really care about what they do for a living.
4. “South African time.” This was by far the most challenging aspect for me. Everything just felt so slow moving and I became frustrated at times. I felt like there was so much more we could’ve learned and/or seen if everyone had been more mindful of time. However, it was interesting to hear from South Africans their view of Americans and that we overwork ourselves. Many people felt like Americans work too hard and this heavy amount of work is why we have so many mental and physical issues. This perspective reminded me that maybe it’s okay to slow down a bit from time to time.
5. I realized on a whole new level how unjust the social work system really is and I am going in to it as my career! It was scary to hear about the similar struggles many social workers deal with in South Africa. It was exhausting and terrifying to hear how burnt out they can become in their jobs. It made me worried about my life choices but at the same time, I was amazed at how resilient and incredible social workers really are. Social workers just keep going and keep trying and keep helping people literally survive this life. As my professor stated near the end of the trip, “One starfish at a time.”