A Profession Dedicated to Serving Page 1

A Profession Dedicated to Serving Page | 1

A Profession Dedicated to Serving

Angela McMurdie

Lynn Kilpatrick

English 1010

Fall 2012/Fall 2013

MaryAnneLinford is an adoption counselor for the LDS Family Adoption Services. She has worked as a social worker in the adoption field for over 20 years and has been employed by the LDS Family Services Adoption agency for 6 of those years. Mrs. Linfordreceived a bachelor’s degree as a licensed service social worker from Brigham Young University. Since then, she has taken classes at the University of Utah specializing in grief counseling, decision making counseling andsupport groups. Currently, Mrs. Linford is working towards a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy at Argosy University, and along with working at LDS Family Services,she councils troubled teens at a state program called Journey. I chose to interview Mrs. Linford due to her expertise and because of the incredible impact she has had on so many birth mothers and families.

When interviewing Mrs. Linford about the writing aspect of her career, it became apparent that a career in social work entails a lot of writing. Mrs. Linford informed me that about half ofthe time she spends in her job is writing, from home study write-upsto case notes on counseling with birth mothers and families. “Home studies are probably the longest amount of writing and take up most of my time,” she says. Homes studies usually consist of a social worker assessing the place the perspective adoptive parents live and when placement of a child occurs, these write-ups include how well the child is bonding to the parents. “I spend about 10 hours of writing for each home study and they range from about 12 to 14 pages per study,”said Mrs. Linford in regards to this part of her job.

While talking to Mrs. Linford about the type of writing she does in her career, she noted one significant piece of information that I took seriously. “I do work with birth mothers more often, though, so I do want you to understand there are people in this field who do more writing,” she warned. For example, Mrs. Linford’s co-worker Katrina writes more homes studies. “Katrina did most of the home studies and did it for so long that she could eventually write a home study in about eight hours,” she says. Mrs. Linford explained to me that she feels very lucky and very blessed that the majority of her job is working with birth mothersrather than writing.

When Mrs. Linford works with birth mothers, she takes an initial assessment of the birth mother and the situation. She asks for background information on both the birth mother and, if available, the birth father. From the information that is collected and given to her, Mrs. Linford then creates a profile for the birth mother on the LDS Family Services website. Mrs. Linford explained to me that between gathering information and creating the profiles it can be a long process, but from that point her job is writing case notes each time she sees the birth mom. Those case notes are about one page summarizing the key points of the appointment. “I wish I could write what I want in those case notes, like the funny moments and how amazing the birth moms are. I wish I could write moments that I want to remember and to reminisce on when I go back and read them, but I can’t. We are given set rules and guidelines by LDS Family Services and the state. With those rules we must appear and be professional,” Mrs. Linford revealed about the process.

She continued to explain to me that when an adoption is finalized, both lawyers and judges must read through every single encounter, appointment, home study, and family history of the adoptive family complied by the social worker. Mrs. Linford also explained to me about a yearly audit-like process LDS Family Services does to make sure everything is squared away legally. Each year, both the social workers and their supervisors read through every single document regarding both birth families and adoptive families. This process is done to ensure that, if for any reason records of a patient are subpoenaed, that all information is correct and at of a professional grade.

As a part of any career these days, continuing education has become a necessity.I asked Mrs. Linford about how she stays current with the latest news within the social work field. She explained to me that LDS Family Services provides her with information on upcoming seminars and journals that have been published through the National Association of Social Work. Mrs. Linford informed me that through the NASW there is a program set up for social workers to review an article and then take a quiz. He or she has the option of doing several of these quizzes along with, attending seminars and writing a synopsis of the seminar he or she attended.

“There are several sources to receive continuing education credits from. I have a friend who works in the psychology field whom I get together with at least once a month to discuss any new therapies being used or discovered. I don’t get credit for talking about them but I’m able to do my own research afterwards on what we discussed,” Mrs. Linford told me. I asked Mrs. Linford if she has ever published an article with a social work journal or magazine and she laughed. “No. The only writing I have ever ‘published,’ if you even want to call it that is for my professors or for my boss to read; nothing too significant,” Mrs. Linfordexpressed.

Mrs. Linford informed me that when she isn’t reading school books or writing papers for her classes, she chooses to read books that are about new therapies or about the recent changes with adoptions. “As an adoption caseworker it is especially important to stay current with the most recent news within the adoption field,” Mrs. Linford explained. She told me that websites like theadoptionguide.com and the National Council for Adoption are two resources she uses often. “Within the last five years adoption has changed dramatically, from closed adoptions, to open adoptions, to really open adoptions, and it is important to have some sort of idea when new birth mothers come in, of what they may want,” Mrs. Linford told me.

After talking with Mrs. Linford, my perception of social workers has changed dramatically. Writing is acrucial part of social work, along with excellent verbalcommunication skills, writing is a fundamental key to the field. Working personally with two different social workers, I had envisioned that case notes were the extent of their writing. I was also unaware that everything that was said in those appointments could not be a part of the summarization and appointment notes. From my interview with Mrs. Linford, I also learned that social work is a field that most people become burnt out working and it is absolutely critical that one must set aside time for themselves.

From my own experiences and through interviewing Mrs. Linford I have come to the conclusion that social workers work diligently to creating a better future for those they work with, and play a vital role in building our communities.I now know that, like nursing, the field of social work provides flexibility in several areas of interest.Adoption is not the only field that social workers can specialize in and if one plans to become a social worker he or she should be prepared to spend a lot of time writing in that profession. Interviewing Mrs. Lindford solidified my knowledge that social work is a pure, service-oriented profession and I cannot wait to begin the adventure.