Thursday, December 08, 2005

Like a sudden breeze

The phone rang with the call I thought wouldn't come. I mean, after 5pm, who among us expects a call about a job. But there it was, 6:02pm and the blessed thing rang with the caller id that made me hold my breath. Only here was the catch, there is this weirdness going on with our phone line. Apparently out of the blue our line is completely crossed with someone in the neighborhood. I'm trying to hear John say the words "we'd like to offer you the position" while a woman's voice is talking to someone else. The woman asks me if I live in Berkeley, which I do; then follows up with asking if I'm near Stannage and Cedar -yep. Damn this is frustrating. She hangs up and I quickly get the HR number from John who tells me to call Monday.

OMG I got the job! A real job in my soon to be new career. Now realize I am terrified, this is huge!
My new employer is La Cheim in Contra Costa County. What will I be doing you ask, as well you should.

Here are some specs, as if were about my new job:

Upon receipt of a referral, the treatment team, the  parent or caregiver, client, clinician, social worker, attorney, and  TBS specialist  (That's me!) collaborate to develop goals, hours and days of service, and discuss relevant treatment information. TBS hours and length of service are based on the level of need to achieve the necessary amount of progress.

TBS addresses specific targeted behaviors that are jeopardizing a client's placement or assists clients in the transition to a lower lever of care. It also identifies triggers to clients' behaviors and effective interventions, and passes on successful techniques to caregivers for continuity of care.

The TBS specialist utilizes behavioral analysis, cognitive behavioral techniques, skill building interventions and rewards and consequences to strengthen the client's functioning. Using these techniques the specialist develops a behavioral plan which targets a specific behavior with the goal of reducing or eliminating the identified behavior and replacing it with a more adaptive behavior.

Wow! I will be assigned a minor, do an assessment, write a treatment plan, and implement it.
Me! Can you believe it? Sheesh. Obviously I will be getting LOTS of guidance in all of this. But, OMG.

Oh yeah - it's a real job in that I get paid! Yeah! I get experience! And and and, I might be able to use some of my hours required for my practicum for my degree. Finally, something is going right.

Except for the damn phone. The worst part of this phone business is, my neighbor gets more phone calls than I do! Why does she have more friends? {pout} The Girlfriend says, "have you noticed that our friends mostly communciate via email?" I have no idea what she is talking about {smirk}.

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