Working as in-home service providers, blind professionals are at a
decided disadvantage. Even in densely populated areas, public
transportation can be time consuming. In Seattle, for example, many
of the transit routes bypassed the low income sections, running routes
that forced residents to walk several long blocks to wait for buses.
To make life more difficult for blind people, cross-town bus service
was poor, and there were long waits for connections.
Out here in the Wilderness, especially in counties such as Clallam and
Jefferson, the small population is spread across vast areas with very
poor public transportation.
Port Angeles is the largest town, with a population of 19,000. Sequim
and Port Townsend each have about 8,000 residents. In fact, Port
Townsend is the only incorporated city in Jefferson County. The
county has a total population, according to 2013 estimate, only 30,000
residents.
Clallam county, for the same time period, had 70,000 residents. So
these two vast counties have a total of only 100,000 people. Our
third county, Kitsap, also a very large county, has a population of
254,000. Large towns such as Bremerton, Silverdale, Port Orchard,
Poulsbo and the entire incorporated island of Bainbridge, have far
better interconnecting public transportation. But nonetheless, older
people tend to stay in their homes because they can't afford to
relocate. Thus, they are tucked away in off transit areas.
Cathy and I work as a team. To my way of thinking it is the more
effective way of working with older, newly blind folks. As a team,
one blind and one sighted, we can provide a more efficient service, in
fewer visits. But the down side for other blind/sighted teams is that
our contract is actually based on one providers time.
When we deduct all expenses, Cathy and I are working for about the
same annual income as we earned in 1981, working for the Department of
Services for the Blind. That is, the same salary minus any medical or
retirement or annual paid leave. Even the total net for last year,
about $36,000, would discourage a single rehab teacher from taking on
such a large territory and long hours with no benefits.
The fact that Cathy and I each have both social security and
government pensions, make it possible to continue serving such an
impossible area.
Again, I want to stress that the 36,000 plus is our net. The contract
amount is for $55,000. Naturally, we are responsible for ALL expenses
such as gas, liability insurance, business tax, cost of aids and
appliances, office equipment, vehicle maintenance, and I'm sure I'm
missing some.
Still, the income we derive from our contract is what we agreed would
enable us to live here in the glorious wilderness. Our life is
arranged to meet our needs. We were fortunate to be able to put it
all together.
But my concern is that services to older blind and low vision people
is driven by cost, not by need. As long as we live in a Corporate
Capitalist Oligarchy, we will watch our citizens suffer.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/28/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Bob,
I'll respond to your second point first. You're absolutely correct and this
has always been the case. It was true 54 years ago when I graduated from
social work school and it continued to be true throughout my working life.
Even so, social work was one of the professions to which blind people were
directed by rehab counselors. Social work was divided into practise areas
and some of them were a bit more welcoming to visually impaired and blind
social workers than others. For example, it was somewhat easier to become a
medical social worker than a psychiatric social worker. Also, here in the
New York metro area, Catholic Charities was more likely to hire blind
social
workers than other sighted agencies. Of course, most of us were encouraged
to work for agencies for the blind. Years after I had my graduate degree, I
wanted to enter a psychotherapy training program as many social workers in
New York did. I was consistently refused with the excuse that you cited,
that I wouldn't be able to see the facial expressions and body language of
patients. Interestingly, there was a period in the late 90's when social
workers were doing counseling by phone and email and not seeing people's
body language apparently was no longer an issue.
As for your point about travel: The Industrial Home For The Blind, now
Helen
Keller Services, covered Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk counties.
Blind rehab teachers and social workers were expected to visit the clients
who lived in Brooklyn and Queens because public transportation is available
in those counties, although actually, it is not available in outer Queens.
But sighted people had to work in the other counties where public
transportation is inadequate. The Lighthouse used to provide drivers for
blind rehab cteachers which I thought was much more efficient, but which I
H
B people scoffed at. But many social work jobs, at least when I was
working,
involved seeing people in offices. There was counseling that was done in
family service agencies and psychiatric clinics, and social work in
hospitals, psychiatric settings, nursing homes, and V A facilities. None of
those involved traveling. Now-a-days? I have no idea what anyone is doing.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Hachey
Sent: Friday, August 28, 2015 2:45 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: interesting article by blind photographer
Hi Miriam,
A couple of observations about the social work profession, at least here in
Massachusetts.
1. More and more often these days, social work jobs come with a driver's
license requirement. AS we rightly close down more institutions and those
who used to live in them now live in community and supported settings, it
is
more necessary for social workers to travel to visit clients. IT is less
common today for social workers to have clients come to them or work in an
institutional setting. That, taken together with tighter budgets that allow
for the hiring of fewer and fewer accessibility drivers is a major
hindrance
to the employment of blind social workers today.
2. This one may be a bit presumptuous, but my life experience informs me
that those in social work management are a lot like the medical profession.
They have particularly low opinions regarding the capabilities of blind
persons. Their attitude seems to be something like:
"how can a blind person be a good social worker if he or she cannot observe
the body language of the client." That and other similar nonsense have
limited opportunities for acquaintances of mine some of whom have MSW
degrees. Lots of hypocrisy here. Sorry to be so hard on your former
profession, but, as always, I calls 'em as I sees 'em.
Bob Hachey
