Let me preface by saying, I have my SUV all set up with a bed and a kitchen and all the amenities I need to camp out in the woods. I like it that way I’m enjoying myself I see no reason to change.

A couple of times I have mentioned that when seeing a doctor and the next thing I know, here comes the social worker with a stack of papers. I tell them that I’m doing fine. That I like how I’m living. I didn’t ask for any unsolicited help. And they don’t seem to listen at all. At some point they just leave me with a bunch of paperwork in a huff. I don’t understand why they get so upset just because I don’t want their help.

  • protist@mander.xyz
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    1 month ago

    Any social worker who violates your agency and consent is in breach of their legal obligations and should be reported to their state board. Any social worker who takes things a patient says personally, and responds from emotion based on that, is also a terrible social worker. I’ve been a social worker a long ass time and the people I know and work with do neither of these things.

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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      1 month ago

      Any social worker who violates your agency and consent is in breach of their legal obligations and should be reported to their state board.

      In theory it’s all flowers. In practice, no, not really, regardless of country. And since you claim to be a social worker, odds are that you know it.

      I’ll go further than that. Even the social workers who are not naturally inclined towards insistence ad nauseam are trained to be this way. You could claim that it is for good reasons (as some people avoid help out of fear, pride, etc.); but you can’t truthfully claim that it is not a violation of both things, because insistence is a violation of agency and consent, like it or not.

      Typically, when confronted with that, plenty social workers start babbling about their “it’s our policy…”, as if evading responsibility + hinting that they do it regardless of situation.

      And, if OP’s description of the events is accurate, in their case it gets worse: it isn’t just individual workers doing it, but the whole system. If multiple people ask you to do something, even if none of the individuals are being pushy, the system is still being pushy.

      Any social worker who takes things a patient says personally, and responds from emotion based on that

      Emphasis mine. That “responds” misrepresents what I said.

      • protist@mander.xyz
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        1 month ago

        regardless of country

        social workers…are trained to be this way

        No, they’re not, and laws and licensing standards actually vary widely by country. I’m talking about the US, where we have a national accrediting body for social work graduate schools. Nowhere in there is anything about “insistence,” quite opposite in fact.

        OP’s experience that happened twice at the same doctor is in no way indicative of a pattern across the whole profession lol

        Lastly, looking at your other comment, I have absolutely no idea what “voluntary reinforcement classes in a shantytown” are or how a social worker would be involved in them, or what they did that relates to this topic

        • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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          1 month ago

          No, they’re not

          Yes, they are. And odds are that you know it, and why (again: because if they don’t do it they fail to support people who need and want it).

          laws and licensing standards actually vary widely by country

          The principles and motivations behind those laws and licensing standards are still the same, regardless of government, so you’re bound to see a convergence on the effect of those things.

          And this is so blatantly obvious that your “ackshyually” is pointless.

          I’m talking about the US, where we have a national accrediting body for social work graduate schools.

          OP is likely from USA (due to reference of living in cars), so all your babble, implying that said “nashunal accreriring bory in muh caunrry” makes any practical difference, is just babble.

          (Surprisingly consistent with both what I’ve attested myself, and what I’ve seen people across multiple countries complaining about.)

          Nowhere in there is anything about “insistence,” quite opposite in fact.

          Do you understand the difference between what’s written in a paper versus reality?

          OP’s experience that happened twice

          Don’t assume “twice”. “Couple times” can mean anything between “twice” and “multiple times” depending on the utterance and context.


          At this point you already misrepresented what another person said, then tried to pull off an “ackshyually”, then changed the goalposts from practical reality to some bureaucratic organisation. As such I’m not wasting my time further with you or your comment.

          I wasn’t born yesterday.

        • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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          1 month ago

          I am sorry that you feel this way.

          How I “feel” doesn’t matter here. What matters is if my claims are accurate or inaccurate on a large scale.

          What I say is based on personal experience with voluntary reinforcement classes in a shanty town*, for almost three years, interacting with social workers and the people they work on/with, all the bloody time. And then having enough insight to check for sampling biases (i.e. to check if my views were consistent with the views of other teachers, and people outside my own country. They were).

          *the sort of shanty town that teaches you that, upon hearing gunfire, you should drop on the floor.