My first week working as a psychologist in the CPS

In the previous publication I shared with you a little of my experience with the social service and the goal that we set for the next week regarding the 200 meals for the children who live in the streets as we have already been doing @psicmarynes and me. But, I also tell you about my new job, the previous Monday I started working as a psychologist in the CPS, so the purpose of this post is to share with you what my experiences and perceptions regarding the system were.

In principle I joined the institution on Monday 26 of deck, just that day I could not do any function since they had to carry out an induction to the position as is due, however when I opened the door the office does not really have the conditions to attend children, It is a neglected place, which seemed in advance a bathroom for infants and have condemned the pipes, has little electricity and also is scarce decoration to precisely fulfill its function, like a child that is being abused, that is in psychological attention because its parents are fighting their custody or simply in a shelter will feel comfortable in a place like that, in fact I do not feel comfortable. That Monday I only did that because my bosses had to do, just see the office as it was, introduce myself to my coworkers, talk with the director, the lawyer, and the doctor because they also provide the children with such attention.

On Tuesday, when I finally entered the office I realized that the computer is incomplete, only has the screen and the keyboard, it is missing the CPU where all the files of the children and their clinical histories are stored, that day they told me that the staff maintenance would be responsible for putting the computer to work, ie put everything in place in the afternoon, to my surprise, in the afternoon was not the computer in place. That day, as you can affirm, I did absolutely nothing.

On Wednesday finally the maintenance staff took out some files where physical cases of urgent patients are found, children who have not been adopted because they do not have a psychological evaluation, children who still live with parents who attack them because there is no psychological evaluation. , infants who do not have the support of any of their parents, mothers who are invalidated by chronic diseases and can not take care of the children, these were approximately 50 records that I could see while carrying the boxes, the rest is supposed to is in the computer that day did not have. That day had not yet activated the appointments to start the attention to children so I devoted myself to read all the records that I took out of the boxes.

On Thursday guess, I did not have the computer in place, the maintenance staff took me to the office materials to perform evaluations to infants on a psychological level, and to my surprise with what I was given, I could scarcely evaluate three mental functions, the rest I imagine that I must take it to do it, they only gave me games of lace, numbers and letters, as a psychologist I need a lot of material to be able to carry out my work in an ideal way. In view of the fact that even the computer was not in place, I told my bosses the possibility that I could take notes with my hands on the information I acquired when consulting the children and they told me that I could not because there was not enough paperwork, So that day, I did absolutely nothing either.

On Friday, as you can imagine, I did not care for children either and I made a list of the tools I need to carry in order to evaluate the children correctly, they have not yet put me to work on the computer. Just that day a workshop took place on the rights that mothers have over their children and domestic violence, effectively lend support to the event, after its completion the human resources department made the formal contract and told me about how much my salary would be , there talking about some legal issues happened the morning and then I had to leave.

I really am very upset to know that there are children who need help urgently and these people are not interested in activating the psychological service quickly, I do not know how hard it is to put the computer to work, I lost five valuable days to work with children.

One of the questions I ask myself is: where does the budget that the nation gives to this institution go, do not have the necessary tools, the infrastructure is horrendous, the salary is considerably small for the amount of work and training that has the professional, even so, if I want to do my work correctly I must buy the tools because otherwise I do not know what I'm doing. In this service, at least the files that I could see are only of infants, I could not see any history of the parents or individuals who want to adopt, all of them must be sent to the department to make a corresponding evaluation and determine if they are really suitable to be charge of a child.

This is only my first week and the truth is that I still do not know how to handle it, the only thing I could notice is that when an infant arrives, the treatment they give her is friendly, the truth is that I do not complain about that, at least During this short time I have always seen that everyone is ready to help him, even if that help is not effective. I will continue to share with you my experience working in the social service, in my country it is called the Ministry of protection of children and adolescents.

Oh, something important and I forgot, I must also go constantly to the shelters because there they do not have a psychologist to deal with children and adolescents, but, I would love to know when I really started. When everyone commented on their stories I often wondered why no one gives psychological attention to these children, before and after being under the shadow of CPS, and the answer I found working with them, psychologists within the system there are few because they offer This is a really small remuneration, so small that it seems like a mockery, that is how sadly we can tell that they do not care about the welfare of the little ones-

Many of you know that I tell you in your posts about the importance of attending to the infants before, telling them about what the CPS is when it knocks on our door, giving them the precise information so that when they start the process they do not feel that they are abandoned by their Parents, during precisely because they trigger many emotions such as anxiety, depression, lack of appetite and more, then because all of us who have gone through that know that the consequences last a lifetime and are not erased.

The truth is that to be honest, when I shared with you that I would work with the CPS, by exercising my professional I would be happy because I would do it with pleasure and with a huge desire to help, but when I face reality, the truth is that it generates a lot of sadness to know that nobody cares about the children who suffer so much, that it does not matter that they keep waiting, that the wait is eternal, while the manager gets money the rest is omitted.