Navigating life’s physical and emotional pivots-together

One of my first jobs was working as an attendant with In Home Support Services (IHSS), helping people with quadriplegia with their activities of daily living. I also worked as a case manager for medically frail consumers with intellectual disabilities that live in group homes. I worked as an IHSS provider for friends who were terminally ill with HIV/AIDs, often cooking whatever dishes they wanted to keep them well nourished.

I have extensive knowledge of ESRD, dialysis, and kidney transplant, having worked directly and indirectly with that population for most of my career.  As an inpatient medical social worker, I have witnessed how overwhelming some of these health diagnoses are for the patients and families that must suddenly deal with them. In the hospital setting, social workers and case managers often refer patients and families for individual and group support in the community post discharge.

I am uniquely qualified to be of service walking with you, with my clients having the advantage of not having to explain the ins and outs of the psychosocial impacts of their particular disease, or health challenges as we discuss issues of loss, change, grief, along with other feelings that come from being forced into being a regular part of the healthcare system.

As a long term, current perinatal social worker at a SF Bay Area hospital that has a neonatal intensive care unit, I regularly provide crisis interventions and emotional/practical support for women, men, and families in distress. I have knowledge of other community supports that can be helpful, as well as current interventions effective for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. My experience with others can help me normalize what many women may be feeling as they deal with birth issues and baby care.

With people are faced with large changes in life, health, and life plans, profound feelings of grief and loss often follow. Getting support when it becomes overwhelming can be instrumental in coming through the changes in a healthier way, more able to cope with the unrelenting and cyclical nature of grief still existing in the background. There are so many different ways grief and loss express themselves within people – depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and part of what I do is help figure out what is primarily important to the client, and what we can work on that has tangible or more immediate results, despite the ongoing feelings of loss.  When the grief and loss are the loss of a loved one, I am there for whatever ripples this creates in the client’s life and their family, following where the grief tidal wave takes us, but together, to make it better, bit by bit.

I have spent the last 13 years supporting healthcare providers and patients with both ESRD Networks 17 and 18. I processed patient grievances, did quality review, and performance improvement plans to improve wellbeing and care when indicated. Chronic disease coupled with difficult treatments can exhaust many, and supportive therapy can make people in these situations have more good days within their changed life circumstances. Burnout, stress, and trauma from life and the situations around us occur along with these other stresses and can become intertwined for people. My ability to be with the patients involved and help them get to what they feel would improve their medical situation often help us deal with the co-occurring traumas and stresses they experience. For healthcare professionals, burnout and vicarious traumatization can occur before we realize what is happening, sometimes leading to health consequences for them as well. I am an educator with many speaking engagements in which I help others manage interpersonal situations and burnout so that their patients and they do not get to the point that these issues interfere with their daily functioning and families.

Mood disorders are very common and often can co-occur with chronic illness, terminal illness, substance use disorders, intellectual disabilities and impairments. Individual situations drive my approaches with these- these manifest differently among cultures and according to the person’s situation.