I don't have a problem with the social worker at the hospital, in fact, I
don't even have a problem with the hospital itself from that experience.  I'm
thinking it was the oncologist who wasn't communicating.

It's hard to know.  I feel as though this social worker could have been a
help to my Mom, and it wasn't her fault.  The whole thing had the feel of her
picking up a new file on her desk and following through with it as best she
could based on the information in the file.  I had a heck of a time getting
the oncologist to say my Mom was < 6 months, so I could get hospice help for
her.  This oncologist though -- Dougie Houser's little sister.  Mom wasn't <
6 months; she was < 6 weeks.  I really had to back the doctor against the
wall to get some kind of time frame in writing.

I have the feeling that this social worker doesn't have a chance to do her
good work a lot of the time, through no fault of her own.  It was all damage
control in my Mom's case.

Who knows?  They have problems that we didn't have in the government, and
they're still doing a heck of a lot better.  If some of the people I
encountered in the government worked in or ran hospitals instead, the bodies
would be lined up out in the streets.

Those would just be the visitors.  Nobody would be able to find the patients.


In a message dated 2/9/2002 2:22:51 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


> I was being sarcastic.  My mum had a social worker on her case when she
> signed up for hospice as did my dad when he was dying of cancer.  In both
> cases, the social worker was great, but sometimes lines of communication
> got
> messed up and things would not get done right, or according to their wishes
> (my parents' wishes, that is).
>
> Sorry to hear of the problems with the social worker who was assigned to
> your mom.  Sounds like she didn't do her job thoroughly.
>
> Don't get me wrong, I've liked all the social workers I've met but I've
> always thought they had a thankless job, trying to work with their clients
> and their agencies and to reconcile the two sides, not to mention working
> with clients' families.  I've had friends who were social workers who've
> told me they loved working with the people but hated their jobs because of
> the restrictions they had to work with, not to mention all the red tape and
> paperwork.  I almost decided to be a social worker myself, but that was
> quickly derailed when I did an internship in college in the local county
> social services department and discovered just how things were, and that
> was
> 25 years ago.  I also realised I couldn't leave the job at  the office when
> I left at night and wouldn't be able to leave my work there.  So I didn't
> go
> into social work but ended up in computers and the Human Resources side of
> things..
>
> Kat
>