Accepted for my MA!!

[equus]

I have an unconditional offer to do my MA in Human Relations - I already posted this in F&F but wanted to do so slightly differently here.

My personal experiences last year, the changes in my job, and my own awakening to the things in life you can't poke with a stick, measure or systematically record left me with some new 'bits' of information.

Firstly, to be heard and have validity where learning can influence change requires demonstrating the effort given to study, experience and the balls to be willing to be rejected. In wanting to change so much of what I saw on offer to those struggling with addiction and mental health there was one very understandable hurdle; I cannot demonstrate what I've learned.

In my work setting I've been told I'm working above my post - there's no complaint in the work I do but I've finally understood why (even so) working above my post is not the way forward. I haven't been through application and interview for the level I'm working at, I haven't laid out on paper why I can do the job and allowed it to be evaluated formally and compared to the skills of others. Without that process I ask for an unacceptable level of trust in the work I undertake, while the results have been good, with each new task I ask again for trust and my superiors must put their necks on the line to get the work seen.

I've worked in Service User Rights (children's although that is not the primary issue - human worth is) for the past 5 years. I have also begged for services and felt the fear of complaining in case what little MAY be offered in the future is withdrawn. I have also verbally complained leading to the withdrawal of services. I know what it feels like to forget everything that was said in the last half hour, to leave a GP's office thinking I've asked all the questions then to realise I hadn't asked any of the most needed and basic questions. I know what it feels like to NEED the state and be left without being heard - AND I know what it feels like to be supported by those who listen.

In a strange way it doesn't matter to me whether it's one service or another, children's or adult's - what matters to me is when people NEED rather than want a service. Inside that what matters is their humanity and the humanity of professionals that interact with them. We don't live in a world of endless resource but it costs very little to treat our fellow human beings with dignity, to listen and at least try to be of help.

When I look at history I firmly believe the world has become a better place, there is no period of time which stands up to close inspection without revealing horrors. It's only a breath since we watched executions for fun, the age of consent was 13 and unmarried mothers could be locked up for life.

Organisations are changing too, perhaps slowly, but change is there - in the UK the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified - leaving only the USA and Somalia (within the UN) not to base them in law.I read legislation (on service provision) regularly and it progressively moves toward human rights and becoming person centred. I'm involved in local government stratergies and know there's a tide turning.

So I'm off to study and apply in the area I think most important to the interface between those who provide help and those who need it - Human Relations.

I'll have full access to a university library at a medical university (my MA is from the school of education though). I've never been so ready to learn, and I don't think any time prior to this would have given me the opportunities.

I don't have blind faith - changes will stall, slip, be unfinanced and stumble but I think they will happen and I want so much to take part.

[Five]

Good going Eq.

The state was there when I needed them (got crippled by OCD for a bout a year) and they were fantastic. That was in the heart of south london as well.

[Autumn]

Thanks for sharing the great news Equus. You shine!

Your zest and eagerness for learning is always exhilirating and infectious.


xo

[equus]

I'm so excited it's nuts!!! No-one I know was there to tell at work today but they might be later. I've got this big stupid grin on my face!!

[indigo]

That's great news, you deserve to be grinning.

indie

[Blake]

Awesome! COngrats!

[paulmh]

Many congratulations Equus, I just love to hear about the gifts people get when they put the drink down!

All the best

Paul

[michski]

Another Miracle of Sobriety!
Congratulations!!

[equus]

Well I did put the drink down - but because I wanted to live as I say, I couldn't say to D life will be as full without it and still drink. He has had plenty of his own rewards though and him being sober means I have his full on support (which I'm loving and I think he's loving giving!!).

[equus]

Just goes to show - we're not all that different!!

[Don S]

If ever I met a person who deserves this, it is you. They are lucky to have you! Go get 'em, and I know we'll reap the benefits here as well.

[equus]

Originally Posted by Don S

If ever I met a person who deserves this, it is you. They are lucky to have you! Go get 'em, and I know we'll reap the benefits here as well.

I feel strange reading that because you more than anyone knows the number of changes I've failed to make and plans that have had no outcomes. This is the long way round, the work I've got to put in to get the voice because I still want that voice. These last two years have been such a remarkable learning experience for me - knowing what it felt like to deal with issues those I've worked to try and help deal with. I took on the job of working on D's behalf through the NHS complaints process and didn't even get as far as a 'formal' complaint, because I got scared, because the little we had to lose was too much and because it seemed as though there was no chance of gain. I learned it is possible to ask for a reference to stats and be told that was out of order, to try and appeal to the person, get nowhere and then recieve a letter saying no further services would be offered by that voluntary organisation and that they were autonymous with no recourse outside their own management.

I believe the feelings that came from those events weren't about the details of one situation. I think they were about fear, confusion, frustration and then acceptance that their was no-one who would help or listen. Since that time I've understood very differently what people say about 'services' and it blows my mind how similar child is to child, across miles, time and differing situations AND how similar that is to what adults say in radically different situations. The common denominators I can identify is being overwhelmed, not having the resources available to make life safe, and not being heard.

On a good day I tell myself I've looked closely at it and this long way round is the self disciplined approach that opens the doors I can't open yet (see OP). On a bad day I ask myself if this is just another plan that will end up with no outcome. I hope I can be the person I want to be this time.

[doorknob]

Congrat's Equus! I hope to finish my psychology BA one day. I fell just short of graduating twice due to OCD and substance abuse.

Hey, I think you were mistook for an alkie.

[equus]

As I maintain that people are more alike than different I quite like the little mis-understandings....

Keep going with your study DK - I did psych as an undergrad but kept wandering off to my own lines of study - mostly brain function, neural nets, connectionism, behaviourism and stereotypic behaviour! If you'd have told me then that one day I'd chose to study human relations I'd have laughed my socks off - now I'm looking forward to a divergance from my more natural inclinations, I'm fascinated in how something so unobservable will be studied.

[Don S]

You have learned how to learn. If the goals shift, that is fine so long as you are comfortable with the changes. 'Another plan that will end with no outcome'? That seems unlikely to me. The best cure for pessimistic thinking is not optimistic thinking but realistic thinking.
You now know that anybody can find information, that people are sometimes impediments but not insurmountable ones, and that if you learn the jargon you can sometimes understand what they're hiding behind.
Once I realized that my parents' doctors and my kids' teachers didn't know everything, I became their advocate and protector, and informed myself to a degree that those professionals undoubtedly found annoying. That's what you've been doing, and I think that sometimes you may just not see the changes you have made: in your own thinking, in your relationship, and now in the lives of those around you.
Take care,

[equus]

Big thanks for the vote of confidence!!

You now know that anybody can find information,

This is the part that I haven't learned. I work with teenagers that sometimes boarder on illiteracy, I work amongst adults who can challenged and daunted by journal language - their belief they cannot does stop them.

Looking back I'm so aware how many advantages I had - many by pure good fortune rather than design. I remember first seeking information, I read and read the same story and it was only my prior knowledge of diagnostics that rang bells loud enough for me to know I hadn't found what I was looking for yet. My ever having studied diagnostics was a fluke and a half but I'd been interested and remembered.

On here perhaps I have learned jargon but HELL I knew plenty that applies to UK services, I worked as a service provider!! I even hit the health care trusts with the National Standards Framework (meticulously referenced!) but they didn't even flinch! My GP did something which helped me so much in telling me she'd been through the same with her sister and even as a doctor couldn't get the help till she dragged her to ER.

Organisations change from within and for all people can become more knowledgable that only helps in getting help if they are heard. There's considerable legal pressure on organisations to listen, they are begining to have to prove by outcome that they do and they're asking how to do it. I'm currently writing strategies to answer that question with children looked after but it's on a wing and a prayer whether I have the clout to get them in place.

I want to study the process of interactions between people and organisations, the relationships that exist within it - good and bad. I want to learn more about groups and to maintain solid working relationships through tough negotiation. I want the qualifications to get me where I can influence change enough to get voices heard but most importantly to humanise 'service users'.

If that happens I think other things will change and then MAYBE anybody will be able to find information. I don't mind if it takes a few centuries (although faster would be good) I just want to be able to take part in it.