Employment

Most of you know that I am currently working at a group home for girls. I have no previous experience in the social work field so every experience and every day is new to me.

The background of my job is that we are a treatment home for adolescent girls. The girls I currently deal with range in age from 13-17. They are in a group home because of two reasons, one being that their treatment plan would work best in that setting, and the other being that there is no where else for them to be.

All of these girls have something they are dealing with that is more than the average teen. The least of that being attachment disorder and abandonment issues. More severe issues can range from being suicidal to self mutilation to severe ADHD.

My job requires that I interact with these girls on a daily basis in a milieu that is as normal as possible. We eat dinner together, they do chores, and we give them an allowance. It is hard to get over the fact that these are not normal girls, they have issues. They look normal and they most of the time, act normal...until a crisis occurs. From stories I have been told some crazy things have happened.

The only things I have dealt with thus far have been cutting, screaming, yelling, slamming doors, and drawing ones own blood. I am sure as I gain experience the stories will follow.