My friend and her co-workers worked round the clock. Many times she would just get to bed, and was called out on an emergency to remove a child or children from a home, having to find a safe place for them overnight until they could get placed in a foster home. That would take her hours sometimes- what people don't realize is that sometimes these kids are in such a dangerous enviroment with parents threatening to find them and take them back themselves (while string out on drugs and alcohol), that social workers often times have to take the child or children further away to a save home- my friend had to drive two hours there, get them established for the night, make a report, drive back home just in time to get ready for the next work day!
She often ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in her car going from one case to another- many times she missed meals because of emergencies.
She missed holiday meals with her family, as well as many of her co-workers. Unlike doctors who cover certain holidays- it doesn't work like this when you are a social worker.
She sat with children at the hospital who were beaten and scared to death, and held their hands, hold them in her arms, and tried to soothe their fear while they had tests done to see if they had broken bones, when they were scared to get blood taken.
Let's not forget the court dates she went to- getting up in front of the judge, telling him or her her evaluation of the dangerous home environment, often times with proof of the child being beaten, sexually molested or abused, etc, only to be told to either return the child or oversee their supervised visits, to which needed to be evaluated. Only to watch that child go back into that dangerous home within days or weeks or months, only to be called out again to that same home to do the same all over again.
I admired her and wanted to be just like her, so I told her that I was going to study Social Work, to make a difference like she did in children's lives. She told me, no way, find another career to where your love and help with be satisfying, as this job is the most heart wrenching, at times, dangerous (she herself had to be treated after being attacked by a parent when she was taking the children out of the home), painful and most defeating job you'll ever have. She told me I was too sensitive for it, and she was right.
