Observations

1.)  10/19/15 The only Somalian student in our SWO 501 Course is no longer enrolled

2.) 10/20/15 Three African American males stayed at the Milestone Shelter.

Observations

10/8/2015 - Preble Street Resource Center (upstairs and soup kitchen) have a very culturally diverse client population.

10/13/2015 - On the Husky Service Day organizing committee, 100% of the people who attended the volunteer meeting were female.

Sexism & Treatment Accessibility

          

It wasn’t until perhaps a week ago that I started to analyze the population, at my internship in regards to sex that I became a little unsettled. At Milestone, the nursing staff is 100% female. There are three women who work as office staff (one secretary, and two additional financial roles). I am the only female on the counseling team (of four-five individuals), there is one participating female on the home team, and one female shelter staff. There are a maximum of six female beds in detox and ten male beds. The majority of phone screen intakes, and clients, are men. Is this an issue of goodness of fit? (Male clients identify more with male counselors).  Or, is this inherently sexist seeing as the availability is limited for female clients, and the working positions females have typically “caregiving” versus counseling?

For months now, I have shared in the discontent over the lack of long-term treatment programs available for women in Maine. However, I had never looked critically at Milestone in terms of sex equity among clients. It seems like, despite frequent open discussions about female treatment at my internship, these stereotypes are in some ways being perpetuated.

This really speaks to a larger issue, here, that it is MUCH more difficult to receive any sort of treatment (let alone treatment with female counselors) in the state of Maine. This has been wildly frustrating as an intern attempting to support clients, provide referrals, and successfully aid women in entering treatment programs of their interest. Frequently, women come through the program without insurance (either they have been unemployed for so long they are not receiving insurance, or do not have children so they are ineligible for Maine Care). Compared to residential treatment programs available for men, for women, there is a HUGE shortage. Time and time again, women are prevented from entering long term treatment due to a lack of beds, or inability to pay the insanely high rates (>$1000 per day at some agencies) without insurance.

According to Martin & Aston (2014) who completed a study in which they analyzed scientific literature published on women’s substance abuse treatment, they found that typically, “women in the drug field [are seen as] a “special population” with “unique treatment needs.” … [they argue that] this view not only reinforces a limited understanding of the harms associated with women’s substance abuse, but might also paradoxically enable programs and services for women to remain as “add-ons” and/or narrow the range of “gender sensitive” approaches adopted” (p. 335). If we know that women require no “special treatment” then why aren’t there more opportunities available?

I’m stuck wondering, how much of this is intentional, how much of this mal-intentioned, and most often – what does macro social work look like that could change some of this? How does one petition for increased treatment programs, or, alternatively, state funded treatment for males and females?

This is sexism leaping right out at me, and until recently, I hadn’t even identified it. I am really interested in staying in this field and finding a balance between micro and macro level work, focused specifically on females.

Reference:

Martin, F.S., & Aston, S. (2014). A “special population” with “unique treatment needs”: Dominant 

           representations of “women’s substance abuse” and their effects. Contemporary Drug            

           Problems, 41, 335-359.

Observations

1.) I observed one Asian American individual at Rosemont (Yarmouth) during one month of employment. (9/26/2015)

2.) The white, heterosexual couple across the street have two black children. (10/4/2015)

New Portland Scene & Racial/Cultural Implications/Frustrations

After living in the Portland area for six weeks and gradually adjusting to my new life, I am finally sinking my teeth in, and feeling like I am home. At the same time, given my increased comfort, I am beginning to look at my life here with a bit of a critical racial lens – and I can’t say that I am astonished by my observations, but to put things lightly, I am uncomfortable, a little frustrated, and unsure of my next move!

Right now, my life consists of doing ‘a little’ of a lot of things in order to support myself, and fulfill all graduate school responsibilities. My schedule on any given week is a combination of the following obligations (among other, informal things):

1.) Classes at USM

2.) Internship at Milestone Detox (Counseling)

3.) Produce/Deli Specialist at Rosemont (Yarmouth)

This is all fine and good! I am extremely busy, fulfilled, and happy. Gradually, however, (now that the “overwhelming newness” factor is beginning to subside) I have become acutely aware of something extremely alarming: In every aspect of my new life here (with few acceptations) I interact with exclusively white people.

My new peer group is predominantly white. At Milestone, while completing the Learning Contract with my supervisor, when asked to describe target behaviors for addressing diversity in the workplace, my response was 90% hypothetical, given that the population that comes through that particular detox facility is 90% white. During my time there, I have encountered a maximum of five non-white individuals. At Rosemont (which for the record I now see as a grocery store tailored exclusively to upper class folks… I work there, and sadly cannot afford to shop there …along with the entirety of the all white staff) I have observed one non-white individual in an entire month of employment (weekends only).

My life in Portland pales in comparison to the cultural richness I was a part of in Boston. My close friends and colleagues were of varied cultural decent, my students were from all over the globe allowing me the opportunity to communicate with them in Spanish/their native languages when appropriate. Out of necessity, I navigated situations involving the cultural unknown constantly – part of this was in my control, and part of it is the nature and demographic of those living in the Allston, MA area.

The messages of others like Carrie Ching, student author of the essay, “Personal Voices: Facing Up to Race” (2014) ring out loud and clear to me. According to Ching, “It’s time to face the fact that the small, unconscious choices we make in our private lives – like who we feel safe sitting next to on the bus, who we choose to be our colleagues at work, and yes, even who we choose as our intimate friends and lovers – become the blueprints for the shape and color of our society as a whole.” I could not agree with her more, and look at the unconscious choices I have made, and the life I have created here. I feel compelled to change this in some way, but how can I do that in such a way that is authentic for me? I am definitely longing for a more diverse balance in my life here, but what would that look like? In this new experience, am I operating solely on the basis of comfort? If I was doing something else, would I feel genuine? Right now, I don’t have answers to these questions – but I am internally wrestling.

Reference:

Rothenberg, P.S (2014). Race, class, and gender in the United States: An

integrated study. New York: St. Martin’s Press.