Interview #2 and a visit “shadowed”

Hello!

Yesterday I had my second interview at Tri-Cap.

(Side note:    

I love this shirt, I made if from a 2.00 clearance dress.)

It went well. I gave them my binder of 136 hours of training in early childhood development, and family sensitivity, and working with children with diagnosis. I think they were impressed. I answered the ‘normal’ interview questions.

*What are your strengths?

*What are your weaknesses?

*What supervision do you work the best under? (ummmmmm NO supervision…Just Kidding!)

They will be making the decision in the next two weeks. Since everyone is asking me how many other applicants there are, I asked… and they didn’t seem to know.

Interview was at 10:00. At 2:30 I went on a home visit with one of the caseworkers.

It was like putting on your favorite pair of flip-flops the first day of spring. Comfortable and oddly refreshing

I was not surprised by the state of the house (I was warned there were fleas before entering), the attitude of the family (unconcerned, apathetic), or their economic situation (the electric company came and shut off their electricity while we were there).

I was surprised by;

*the informality of the visit

*the seemingly unprofessionalism of the caseworker

*that the developmental information the caseworker quoted was “off the internet”

I was left a bit disappointed. This little boy needs occupational and speech therapy, being two he needs the therapy now, waiting is not a good idea.

One the ride home I asked her if he always played so rough and liked being thrown around, she said yes, then I said maybe he should be evaluated for occupational therapy (sensory integration disorder) to which she replied that she has told his mom his developmental milestones and mom does not seem to be concerned with his development and she can’t make the mom do something that she doesn’t want too. I agree with that, you cannot make a family do something they don’t want or feel is necessary. HOWEVER, the caseworker said that she ‘informed’ mom of his delays during our visit and I gotta say I did not hear her offer services or alert the family of delays.

I bite my tongue. I didn’t want to come off as a ‘know it all’ so I said nothing. I just know that First Steps (the Indiana version of the Illinois state agency where I used to work) will probably get a lot of referrals for evaluations from me.

EARLY intervention is key and I would always rather a child be evaluated than left until school age.

Anyway, I am loving the informality of the job, the freedom to serve the families without 50 hoops to jump through.

Here’s praying I get it!