2011
Summer 2011
It is insufferably hot indoors. It's hard to say whether we would feel better indoors or outdoors. The apartments at this program are "cooled" by evaporative cooling, and the evaporative coolers just will not do the job in this weather. There is some concern for the clients because they are on medications that can affect the body's ability to cool itself. One client has decided to sit outdoors in an effort to cool down. It is the middle of the day, in the middle of summer, and relief from the heat is a distant dream.
In a sane world, this situation would not be allowed. But technically, it meets a state requirement for the apartments to have cooling in the summer. If a state inspector would come and actually check the air temperature, maybe the program would have a problem, but this is not on the minds of the staff this afternoon. The staff members, who are dripping sweat along with the clients, and drinking water, are trying to persuade some of the clients to drink water as well. This goes into the basic "teach living skills," in this case the sort that are needed to get through the summer.
The program is located in an apartment complex that somehow seems remote from the rest of the city. It is served by a bus route that has only occasional service. Within walking distance, there is a convenience store, and not much else. The complex itself has nice landscaping, even a duck pond, but outside of it there is basically dirt, or small bits of desert that have not been destroyed by developers. No, the desert instead has been strewn with trash, broken glass, probably some syringes here and there, littering the ground among the creosote, cactus, and dried grass. Over in one direction is a new housing development that seems almost out of place with the nearby trailer parks. The grocery stores, pharmacies, and general city things are a couple of miles and seemingly light years away.
You are in the staff office trying to type up a service note, the all-important service note for a unit of interaction with a client. If it passes audit, it's almost like printing money to the tune of $23.00 for the company. The company realized that the heat was really oppressive, and had a window AC installed for this office, which helps make it a small amount more tolerable this afternoon. The power system for this apartment complex is strange and antiquated, and the power fluctuates and is in danger of going out. And just as you saved the note and sent it to the laser printer, the power does in fact go out. The lights go out, the computer flicks off, the AC goes off, the laser printer abruptly stops. The entire staff apartment (the "office" in general, according to the license) suddenly has no power, which is an event that happens several times a day. To restore it, you need to walk around several apartments to the circuit breaker to turn the power back on for the staff office. You lock the door to the back office, leave the apartment, and after a couple of minutes accomplish your task. You return to the staff apartment and verify the power is back on.
A client has come to the office and you need to turn your attention to this person. This is the reason you are here, at least the reason you are supposed to be here, but you are also mindful that if the notes are not printed out and ready for audit, the real function of this place as a profit center for the company will not be met.
Not for the first time do you think that it would help the company enormously if they would at least put in some uninterruptible power supplies for the computers, phones, and printers. This thought runs side by side with the discussion you are having with the client, and with the persistent feeling of sweat in your hair, on your face, pretty much every part of your body. Due to money pressures, you have to find a way to make this discussion billable--that is, steer it in a direction that you can write it into a note that can can make the company money. Can you make it skills training, or the higher-paid counseling unit, or will it be unable to be stretched beyond some kind of personal care unit? Sometimes the interactions seem so fake because of this pressure. You have to make it into something that can be billed. Everything is so fee-for-service because of how the state and Medicaid have set things up.
You are supposed to be off at 3:00 PM today, but the call comes in again from one of the employees who was supposed to be in for the 3-11 shift. She cannot show up, for some reason, again. She's really good at describing situations that are plausible, difficult, and cannot be verified. What seemed to be another hour and half of this, has become indefinite. The sweet relief of your car's air conditioning is that much farther away, into infinity and beyond, if the supervisor cannot come up with a solution.
If it wasn't for your need to keep a job, and the guilt you would feel for abandoning your clients, you would quit. So today you won't.
It is insufferably hot indoors. It's hard to say whether we would feel better indoors or outdoors. The apartments at this program are "cooled" by evaporative cooling, and the evaporative coolers just will not do the job in this weather. There is some concern for the clients because they are on medications that can affect the body's ability to cool itself. One client has decided to sit outdoors in an effort to cool down. It is the middle of the day, in the middle of summer, and relief from the heat is a distant dream.
In a sane world, this situation would not be allowed. But technically, it meets a state requirement for the apartments to have cooling in the summer. If a state inspector would come and actually check the air temperature, maybe the program would have a problem, but this is not on the minds of the staff this afternoon. The staff members, who are dripping sweat along with the clients, and drinking water, are trying to persuade some of the clients to drink water as well. This goes into the basic "teach living skills," in this case the sort that are needed to get through the summer.
The program is located in an apartment complex that somehow seems remote from the rest of the city. It is served by a bus route that has only occasional service. Within walking distance, there is a convenience store, and not much else. The complex itself has nice landscaping, even a duck pond, but outside of it there is basically dirt, or small bits of desert that have not been destroyed by developers. No, the desert instead has been strewn with trash, broken glass, probably some syringes here and there, littering the ground among the creosote, cactus, and dried grass. Over in one direction is a new housing development that seems almost out of place with the nearby trailer parks. The grocery stores, pharmacies, and general city things are a couple of miles and seemingly light years away.
You are in the staff office trying to type up a service note, the all-important service note for a unit of interaction with a client. If it passes audit, it's almost like printing money to the tune of $23.00 for the company. The company realized that the heat was really oppressive, and had a window AC installed for this office, which helps make it a small amount more tolerable this afternoon. The power system for this apartment complex is strange and antiquated, and the power fluctuates and is in danger of going out. And just as you saved the note and sent it to the laser printer, the power does in fact go out. The lights go out, the computer flicks off, the AC goes off, the laser printer abruptly stops. The entire staff apartment (the "office" in general, according to the license) suddenly has no power, which is an event that happens several times a day. To restore it, you need to walk around several apartments to the circuit breaker to turn the power back on for the staff office. You lock the door to the back office, leave the apartment, and after a couple of minutes accomplish your task. You return to the staff apartment and verify the power is back on.
A client has come to the office and you need to turn your attention to this person. This is the reason you are here, at least the reason you are supposed to be here, but you are also mindful that if the notes are not printed out and ready for audit, the real function of this place as a profit center for the company will not be met.
Not for the first time do you think that it would help the company enormously if they would at least put in some uninterruptible power supplies for the computers, phones, and printers. This thought runs side by side with the discussion you are having with the client, and with the persistent feeling of sweat in your hair, on your face, pretty much every part of your body. Due to money pressures, you have to find a way to make this discussion billable--that is, steer it in a direction that you can write it into a note that can can make the company money. Can you make it skills training, or the higher-paid counseling unit, or will it be unable to be stretched beyond some kind of personal care unit? Sometimes the interactions seem so fake because of this pressure. You have to make it into something that can be billed. Everything is so fee-for-service because of how the state and Medicaid have set things up.
You are supposed to be off at 3:00 PM today, but the call comes in again from one of the employees who was supposed to be in for the 3-11 shift. She cannot show up, for some reason, again. She's really good at describing situations that are plausible, difficult, and cannot be verified. What seemed to be another hour and half of this, has become indefinite. The sweet relief of your car's air conditioning is that much farther away, into infinity and beyond, if the supervisor cannot come up with a solution.
If it wasn't for your need to keep a job, and the guilt you would feel for abandoning your clients, you would quit. So today you won't.
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