Social Worker Charged with Stalking Client
Authorities charged clinical social worker Rachelle Santiago of Kansas with stalking a soldier she was counseling for post-traumatic stress and marital problems. Click here to read the full article in the Washington Post.
Near the end of the article the reporter writes that Santiago had a psychotic break because she was on high doses of a steroid to treat a breathing and bronchial disorder.
Q: Social work is a very stressful job. What can social workers do to get adequate self-care when they experience mental problems?
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There are very few jobs that are not stressful. However, one key as a social worker is not taking your job home with you. I believe that it’s also important to have “Me” time and do the things that you enjoy. If you don’t take care of yourself then who will?
The same thing they recommend to clients! Seek help. This story is just unbelievable. How sad for the soldier experiencing PTSD, goes for help, and his troubles are magnified.
Seek mental health services and support from friends, family and support groups, if needed.
Seek professional help just the way we encourage our clients.
We have to be able to recognize problems in ourselves otherwise we are not the therapist we think we are.
I did an interview with Mark Meier about social worker self-care and depression last year. He spoke very eloquently about the need for social workers to be honest about the stresses and strains of our profession. http://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/2009/04/social-workers-and-depression-interview.html Transcript and MP3 download available for free.
I agree Diane, self-care is key. Keep work and one’s personal life seperate. Eat right, exercise, spend time with family/friends, and do things that are fun, relaxing, and enjoyable. Apply what we advise clients who suffer from depression… to do in our own lives. I also think it is important to have regular interaction with other professional Social Workers to debrief with as well as to laugh with. Do not lose heart in the field and remember what you love about Socal Work and why you are in the field. God is my biggest strenghth and He is my motivation that keeps me going… “strength perspective”
I was horrified to read what had transpired for a soldier suffering from PTSD. This is a truly sad scenario and it does damage to social worker’s credibility across the board. It sounds like this young woman had a personality disorder along with other issues (perhaps bipolar?) I don’t want to armchair diagnose but there has to be a significant problem here for her to conduct herself as she did. I wish our profession did a better job of spotting potential problems during the masters level of education or at least while working toward one’s clinical certification. Other behavioral professions including the ministry routinely require individuals to work through their own issues while in training and several require an assessment for possible issues. Yes, we can suffer burnout and depression and even PTSD from exposure to our clients issues and from inadequate self-care but this situation was beyond that. This just reinforces our need to better identify potential problems before they cause harm.
I can’t believe what I’m reading here! It sounds like people actually EXPECTED this social worker to understand or be aware of what she was doing! Based on going by what has been reported, there is a better-than-average chance she was experiencing steroid-induced psychosis. How is someone experiencing a full-blown psychotic episode *not of their own doing* supposed to accept responsibility for their actions?
http://psy.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/6/461
If anything, SOMEONE should ask the medical doctor who prescribed the steroids for her breathing issues why THEY weren’t monitoring her more closely, ESPECIALLY if she was taking other prescription meds that could have interacted with the steroids.
Her immediate supervisor should have been involved in the situation from the very beginning, long before law enforcement authorities got involved. Even contract employees have supervisors. By going straight to law enforcement instead of going through the chain of command at the first sign of something going wrong (starting with her direct supervisor) with this therapist’s behavior, the concluding consequences have contributed to criminalizing and stigmatizing mental illness, something social workers are supposed to work hard to avoid. This social worker might have had a completely clean criminal record before this incident; now due to something that *might not have been her fault,* her reputation as a professional therapist is in jeopardy because the right people were not involved or paying attention, and did not respond in a way that would have been beneficial for ALL involved (including the therapist).
The lawsuit could have totally been avoided had astute supervisors been paying attention to personality changes in the therapist, and a competent physician monitored her steroid reaction closely.
As a social work student I am stunned and disappointed to see my social work superiors jump to blaming the therapist without looking at all possibilities of the situation. Shame on you for taking in all the salacious details (just like the media wants) and putting ALL the responsibility for ethical behavior on the therapist, while glossing over the *most important part* of the story (buried at the bottom) that could possibly be the entire explanation for WHY this unfortunate incident happened in the first place, and what could have caused her to not adhere to the ethical standards of the NASW. People experiencing psychotic episodes cannot competently care for or take responsibility for themselves, and need others to HELP THEM stabilize so they CAN be empowered to care for themselves. I thought social workers were supposed to look at ALL influences in a person’s environment!
A. Student
You will make a fairly good social worker as you are an advocate for the mentally ill. Good for you. But, you are making some common jumps in logic and misperception. I noticed that you did not actually place your name as being responsible for your comment.
All we really know is that a client came forwards to ‘the powers that be’ and told about some very direct actions of the Social Worker and provided direct evidence of the actions. The supervisors took action. And the social worker who was accused then responded in a manner which brought legal action. And, now, the legal world is using what it can grab onto, to fight for the individual who is accused of illegal action.
As for supervision in the work place. There is a level of professionalism and individual ability to practice that does not require consistent and indepth supervision. That level allows some isolation. It, with the confidentiality of our clients as a requirement, does cause some interesting twists with supervision if someone does not want to get an opinion or guidance or change their behavior. One of the ways we can care for ourselves is to not allow ourselves this isolation.
I believe there are more than 2 sides to this story and to jump to conclusions is easy, but will not help the situation. Are we helping or harming to fight for one side of the issue? We have the need to advocate for our profession and keep it above reproach. We have the need to advocate for our clients, many who have mental illness. And we have in idividual who has acted in a manner which harmed herself, her family, her place of business, and the profession. Without the reasons or the emotional components being discussed – there are 3 different sides right there.
So, back to the question of how to take care of ourselves.
The basic method of taking care of ourselves is to be aware of what it is that is happening and to allow others to point out that we need help – then to get that help. As a professional we need to work towards being insightful about your own issues. As a person we have a responsibiility to seek medical help and to follow the advice fully, and if it does not feel ‘right’ then to get a second opionion. As professionals we all would benefit from peer supervision when the work place is not set up to supervise closely. As individuals we need to care for ourselves, physically and emotionally, as we wish all your clients would care for themselves. As a professional we need to question everything we do and uphold the standards the professional ethics.
This is a sad state of affairs. It is inappropriate to jump to any conclusion on this, but judging inappropriate behavior does not mean we have to armchair diagnose or come to a finality of conclusions on this. The fact of the matter is, in acute psychiatry, if a patient is in crisis, or is having a psychotic break, there is expected behaviors that are inappropriate, but they are expected to be that. This set of behaviors does not match up with an acute psychotic break, which is what mis-use of steroids can cause. This is a long series of events that took place.
The sad thing is, as an OEF/OIF Veteran myself, and a new social worker, this does not bode well for the military population. It just further strengthens the distrust between soldier and mental health officials. Military members are already (wary) enough to report their struggles to mental health officials. I agree with the above comment, in that we need to screen better within our profession, this does NOT sound like a psychotic break that is consistent with steroid mis-use.
was wondering if a casewrker can stalk your family for no reason at all