Personal Narrative: My Interview With Latoya Knight

I was blessed to have the opportunity to interview LaToya Knight, she is a hard-working human service professional with two jobs. She works in a hospital setting as a social worker at JFK Hospital North in the Psychiatric and Behavior Health Department and is a school guidance counselor at Renaissance Charter School. With the privilege of inquiring two different human service professions permitted more in-depth insight which helped shaped career perspective and gained great amount of knowledge and wisdom through her work experience. In conjunction both jobs assist and compliment each other and has distinguish specific responsibilities and services offered.

Majority of the interview was based from questions that surfaced as she would answer previous questions,

therefore, the flow of a causal yet formal interview was balanced and intriguing. Kicked off with comparing and contrasting, the first questioned proposed was roles or duties similar like the center of a Venn Diagram. Sharing the similarities, she emphasized in the human service professional field you will encounter different hats without the realization, however as for her between her two jobs the shared characteristics was being a teacher, therapist, mediator, broker and listed others. Additionally, the jobs are overtly in opposite settings, but the responsibilities are as well similar.
Looking at the school guidance counselor, her client population is elementary aged children which can be challenging. Elementary aged children are not always going to be willing to share underlying issues, correspondingly, school guidance counselor characteristics such as observant and critical thinking are favored and necessary. She elaborated these qualities by using real life examples she experienced herself; she saw a girl walking alone after the dismissal bell rang and observed scratches on her face and legs, she then questioned regarding the scratches, however the response she received did not make any sense or comply with the storyline she tried to pull on LaToya, which later turned out to be false and she was getting beat at home. Imagine if things went the other way and she wasn’t as observant or did not report what she just encountered with another colleague to solidify concerns? Piggybacking off such an example correlates with the service she would like to improve which are home visits, with permission granted visiting the home of a student can help configure the gap between home and school. Many may not recognize the importance of how home life takes an affect of school performance which is where school guidance counselors are integrated and needed. In-home visit occurs, at the same time, counselors can only take visits with another colleague – it is a requirement for safety precautions. Coordination of an in-home partner is bit difficult due to the reality of coworkers having other responsibilities to handle such as work or personal relative. Moreover, as previously mentioned in-home visits allows counselors to visit the home and evaluate the living arrangements and offer suggestive tips to improve the environment, report if the environment itself is dangerous or seek explanations behind the student’s performance and from there configure a resolution. Another question proposed was “does school guidance counseling just for grades or go beyond grades” based on my experience I only visited the guidance counselor for grades and courses relative discussion, the question was proposed with the purpose of discovering does the guidance counselor actual counsel, if so, how and are therapeutic sessions permitted? LaToya answer was filled certainty and surprised me; guidance counselors are there to guide, counsel, and assess the underlying issues regardless emotional, mental, or physical. In fact, LaToya and her colleague hold after school counseling group sessions for those who are depressed, mourning, suicidal, abused victim; keep noted this is a charter school therefore students attending such therapeutic groups are usually beyond fifth grade.
Viewing the second hat LaToya wears off the bat the major distinguishing aspect between guidance counselor and social worker at JFK is that being a social worker there is more clinical and patient-care. Additionally, JFK North is a short-term facility therefore the setting is busy which is one aspect LaToya would like to improve. The workload can be overwhelming, and she opened with honesty mentioning how she would prefer to spend more time seeing the patient instead of the ongoing responsibility of managing the paper work. Lessen the workload would more time to allocate for patients. This would permit a more gentle and holistic patient-care instead of quickened processes. As a short-term facility according to her description it’s an ongoing process because the primary goal is to stabilize and discharge the patient. Once the patient is stabilized she is inquiring or gathering information such as insurance, medication history, long-term facility preference all with the purpose of creating the next step after JFK which acts as the discharge plan – treatment, steps and instructions after leaving the facility to reach complete recovery. Let’s not forget, the discharge plan does not taken place until stabilization, so if it takes longer than usual the patient continues in care, but once the stage of stabilization occurs social workers have 48 to 72 hours to create a discharge plan, in addition, LaToya emphasizes on the importance of being a part of the community which assists with discharging…knowing long-term facilities, pharmacists and mental health facilities, etc. On the other hand, positive aspect she mentioned is the collaborative care approach which is the fact that all the clinicians work together as a team, she described how every morning there is a meeting held regarding the status and progress of the patient being discussed among case managers, psychiatrist, pharmacist, nurse, social worker and whoever else is involved in the patient care is inclusive to the meeting. Furthermore, the client population is greatly diverse – the youth services program is an inpatient psychiatric unit that treats children and youths between the ages of 3 and 17. The adult services program offers two isolated units, acute and adult; the acute unit is particularly outlined for adult patients who require additional care and consideration in arrange to guarantee their security. The age range for the adult unit is between 18 and 65. The senior services program offers treatment for adults 65 and older in a secure and secure, warm and friendly setting.
Closing the interview with more personal questions one deal breaker I proposed was which job she favors, and the answer was school guidance counselor.

She expressed the honor and privilege it is to pour into the lives of young ones especially those lost and trouble. LaToya emphasized how sometimes you are not playing the guidance counselor but their mommies, which really highlighted the compassion and genuine caring concern for her students. Which provided me with the reminder that your career pathway should not rely on socioeconomic factors but more of a view of where our heart and intentions lie. Additionally, we discussed her schooling experience while pursuing her master’s degree, she had self-doubt with questioning her abilities just myself, however, what eradicated the negativity is experience gained through interning as well as faith. We closed with words of empowerment and motivation instilled in me to further continued education for master’s degree and licensure just as herself. Overall, this interview was associated with benefits such as clarity, wisdom and purposeful reminders. This entire interview revealed the profound impact being a human service profession has on society and

ourselves.