Career Choices.

You just graduated from University and are ready to work in your field. Which type of clientele do you want to work with?

Choice 1 : Kids/Teenagers.

Choice 2 : Adults.

Kids/Teenagers.

Wow! Kids and Teenagers, so interesting! Now that you've chosen your clientele, you get to choose what problematic interests you most for working with kids and teenagers. What do you choose?

Choice 1 : Drug Addiction.

Choice 2 : Attachment Problems.

Choice 3 : Mental Health.

Adults.

Good choice! Adults are difficult clienteles. Why don't you choose a specific problematic among these choices to orient you better.

Choice 1 : Drug Addiction.

Choice 2 : Domestic Violence.

Choice 3 : Parole.

Drug Addiction.

Drug addiction, interesting choice. You know it is hard to watch people go through detox treatments, but I guess you'll see. It's your first day, and you arrive at a community organization where you got the job. Your role is to observe the clientele's behaviors. You see someone arrive at the center, and they look really intoxicated. They are speaking loudly, have an aggressive tone of voice and their pupils are dilated. Technically, they don't have the right to take drugs... what do you do? It's only your first day.

Choice 1 : Intervene Yourself.

Choice 2 : Do nothing.

Choice 3 : Tell your Superior.

Domestic Violence.

Rough field! I admire your courage. It's super hard to work with victims of domestic violence, they've been broken mentally and need support from us. Being there for them and listening to them is the key. We can't shove our solutions in their throat, it's a slow process. We need to understand how they think. One day, you meet up with a new client. The both of you are in your office, and the subject of her husband come up. She tells you that he loves her very much, and he only hits her because he wants her to be a better wife. She tells you that he always apologizes after so, you ask her how he apologizes. She shares that he buys her flowers and takes her out to a nice restaurant. Taken aback by her view of her relationship, what subject do you want to go further with?

Choice 1 : Husband beating her

Choice 2 : Better Wife.

Choice 3 : Her feelings toward the apology

Attachment Problems.

Nice! Attachment problems are not only found in young children, but also in teenagers that didn't get the proper care. It is hard to work in this field because you need to gain their trust, and it can be broken so easily. Often times, these children went through hardships, such as abuse, mistreatment and/or went through the process of leaving their family to be under the care of the government. After a few weeks of work, you have a connection with one of the teenagers, and she trusts you. When you two meet up to talk about her family, she confides in you. One day, you meet up, and she shares the secret that she has a boyfriend that really loves her. You ask her how old he is, and she tells you he's 26. You realize that it is a crime because she is 15. You keep your cool and ask her what she does when she's with him. She hesitates, but shares that she brings him money because he can't provide for himself. You quickly understand that she's talking about prostitution... Your job is to declare it, but you might lose her trust... What should you do?

Choice 1 : Tell someone.

Choice 2 : Do nothing.

Mental Health.

Mental health is hard to work with, because there are so many mental illnesses, and you have to learn so much about all of them to really know what you're working with. Mental illnesses affect the mental process of the brain, the thoughts and the action. It's important to keep an open mind. No judgment. On your first week, you work the night shift, and are accompanied by your coworker to deal with 8 teenagers, suffering from various mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, bulimia, severe depression, etc. It is 9 PM, and the girls are getting ready to go to sleep. Most of them are in their rooms already, but there is the last one, getting ready in the bathroom. You walk towards her to tell her that she has 2 minutes left before having to go in her room, but hear her talking to herself. You ask her if everything's alright, but see her eyes full of fear. She tells you that the voices are telling her to hurt herself. What should you do?

Choice 1 : Tell someone

Choice 2 : Do nothing.

Parole.

Parole is really an out of the box choice! It is such an interesting field that leads you to have a less profound one-on-one contact, but you work on other kinds of tasks, like making sure your client gets home before his curfew and managing his comings and goings, making sure he does what he needs to do and doesn't do any illegal activities or prohibited ones. Your client needs to be at the halfway house at 8 PM after work, and sober. Suddenly, you get a call from the house, informing you that your client has not arrived yet and is past his curfew. It is 8:10 PM. You call your client, but there's no answer. Technically, he's in violation of his probation. Your client is an ex drug dealer that went inside for intent of selling and the possession of a firearm. What should you do?

Choice 1 : Tell Someone.

Choice 2 : Do nothing.

Do nothing.

Bold choice, and the wrong one. Doing nothing is almost never the right option. You are here to help those people, not passively watch them be a danger for themselves and possibly others. Your boss finds out that you did nothing, and you are fired.

Choice 1 : Career Choices.

Why.

You ask your client: Why do you stay with someone who beats you? Your client reacts badly to your question. She closes up and is hesitant to answer. She tells you that she loves him. When she met him, he wasn't like that. You don't understand, she says. You let your curiosity take the lead instead of trying to understand it from her point of view, which led her to feel like you can't understand her. Your client wants to change and work with someone else. Your boss wants to meet with you after the day.

Choice 1 : Meet with the boss.

Better Wife.

You ask her: Do you think being hit makes you a better wife? Bold question! She answers that her husband is only doing this for her, not really answering the question. She repeats that he loves her and that he puts up with her despite all of her mistakes, that she is not easy. She is lucky that he stayed with her. It is hard to hear he degrade herself, but you decide to keep going in this direction. What is your next move?

Choice 1 : Try to open her eyes.

Choice 2 : Talk about her mistakes.

Apology.

You ask her: How do you feel when you receive flowers? She answers that she feels special, she is happy he remembers what her favorite flowers are. When he offers her flowers, she sees in him the man he was when they started dating each other. She feels like a teenager again, in love. The meeting ends, and she thanks you sincerely for the time you spent with her. She adds that it made her feel good to talk about her love stories with her husband at the beginning, when it was good. She says that she sees the difference between before and today. You did well!

Choice 1 : Career Choices.

Tell Someone.

You tell someone, so he is officially in violation of his probation. The police is sent after him to find him. It was the right decision. A bit later, you meet up with your client, he tells you that he's mad, and you could've covered for him. You know you wouldn't go against the law for someone, so you have no regrets.

Choice 1 : Career Choices.

Intervene Yourself.

You approach the client and pull him to the side. You ask him if he has taken any drugs while he was out. He starts lashing out and cursing you out, saying that he never saw you before and that you think you're so much better than him, accusing him of taking drugs. He's not coherent in what he's saying, proving once again that he's intoxicated. You try to calm him down, but there is nothing to do. He gets closer to you. What do you do?

Choice 1 : You must call an agent.

Choice 2 : Scream back at him.

Tell your Superior.

You tell your superior, shy to intervene yourself since it's your first day. She thanks you for your honesty and praises your great sense of observation. She tells you to keep the great work and your superior goes to intervene with the client herself.

Choice 1 : Career Choices.

Tell someone.

After meeting with the teenager, you tell someone. You lose her trust and feels like you betrayed her, but you did your job, and made sure she would be safe from now on. She might not see what you did for her now, but someday she will realize that it was for her safety. You did your job, it was the right thing to do!

Choice 1 : Career Choices.

Scream back at him.

You decide to scream back at him to make yourself heard, but all it does is escalating the situation. Your boss comes out of her office and sees you on your first day, screaming at a resident. She intervenes, and later in the day, tells you that she wants to meet with you after the day.

Choice 1 : Meet with the boss.

You must call an agent.

You press your panic button and an agent comes towards you. He intervenes with the resident and tells you to step back. You go see your superior and tell her what happened. She thanks you for your honesty, gives you advice for the next time and encourage you to keep being so observant. You tried your best, but need a little bit more experience before doing an intervention with residents you don't know!

Choice 1 : Career Choices.

Try to open her eyes.

You keep trying to open her eyes, telling her that someone who really loves you wouldn't hit you, even though he apologizes, it is a way to manipulate you. You tell her that she should leave him. The client asks to switch person, she doesn't want to keep working with you. She goes to your superior to complain about you. Your boss later tells you she wants to meet with you after work.

Choice 1 : Meet with the boss.

Talk about her mistakes.

She tells you all about what she's going through and what her husband qualifies as mistakes. The session ends, and she thanks you for listening and not judging. She wants to keep working with you, and you'll meet her next week. Your boss meets with you at the end of your day and tells you that you work really well!

Choice 1 : Career Choices.

Meet with the boss.

Your boss meets with you, and she tells you it isn't the first time you make bad interventions with your clients, and she told you last time that she wouldn't tolerate such behaviors for much longer. You got a lot of complaints on you. Your boss ends the meeting by telling you that you don't need to come back tomorrow, and that she thinks you don't belong in this field. Your career was short-lived.

Choice 1 : Career Choices.