30 Plus Programs

I often understand the confusion around people's knowledge and attitudes toward social services. By its nature of wanting to protect the people who use it and the laws governing the group's interactions, there is a typical lack of knowledge. As social creatures, humans tend to fill in gaps lacking knowledge with random stuff we hear from unreliable sources, rumors, or a slanted trope passed down through generations as truthful knowledge.

Heck, I had my own beliefs and misunderstandings, which I had to work through when I got into the field over two decades ago. It's impossible to go through life without having inadequate knowledge or beliefs among your talking points. I'm always super wary of a person who doesn't occasionally admit they have no idea what they are talking about. I didn't fully understand the problem with my industry until a fateful conversation when I was forced into a situation where I had to comprehend the incomprehensible.

I sat with clients a month after their admission to the program that employed me then and learned from their perspective that they had been in over 30 programs between the ages of 13 and almost 18. It was such an inflated number I did not believe it at first. I checked the file, and this client was telling the truth. I read the file numerous times, mostly out of disbelief that this could be true. I couldn't fathom much change, turmoil, and movement in that short time.

Every program I have worked on averages between 10 and 25 staff. Let's say the average program operates with 15 staff for quick math. Give or take, this person met 450 people in under 5 years, promising they would help them figure things out. How many of us would have started giving up or allowed the feeling of being unwanted to creep in? Before any of us even got to 50 staff, we would have given up. Can you imagine seeing 450 combinations of that many nurses and doctors to determine what was medically wrong? Most of us get upset if our primary doctors say let's get you over to a specialist.

After two-plus decades in the business, some might think having this type of case file is getting rarer, but it's probably increasing. This is mainly because society continues to become more complicated, and in an effort to make things less messy, we fail to search for an understanding of topics. We lean more into group-thinking and makeup knowledge that fits the narrative we believe. But 30 programs are 30 programs, and 450 people are a lot of people. It would make anyone think the effort is not worth it, the people offering help do not mean it, and life will be a long series of bounding from one disappointment to the next.

The answer to our situation is to filter out inadequate knowledge, drop unfounded beliefs, and double, sometimes triple down on compassion. No one deserves to go through life having to hold on to hope that the 451st person they meet will be the one that helps them turn things around. That's asking too much of anyone, and that is something we all know and can agree on.