Before I retired, eight years ago, I was as a social worker for the Adult Protection division of our county Social Services Department. I took care of the needs of clients in the 18 to 59 year age range. Most of my clients had mental problems or abused drugs and/or alcohol. I was what the county called a "Representative Payee" for most of my clients. That meant I received their Social Security monies into a county-held account and was responsible for paying their bills and giving them a personal allowance with what money was left usually very little. I had a caseload of between forty and fifty clients.

My job was often dangerous, as client's tended to be unstable and unpredictable. A colleague of mine was killed by a client who "flipped out" one day and hit her over the head with a metal lamp. We went into unsafe neighborhoods and did assessments on people who had a history of being violent. At a training session one day a policeman made the comment that they go into homes with guns and mace and caseworkers are armed with only a briefcase and a smile.

This job was a stressful and demanding one, to be sure. But it was also a richly rewarding one if you cultivated a good relationship with your clients. Social work, as with most other jobs, produces both good and bad workers. Folks enter this field for a variety of reasons. In our county, a person can become a caseworker if they have a bachelor's degree and it doesn't need to be in social work. You also have to score high enough on the Civil Services exam.

Since not everyone entered this field to help others, not all of them cared enough to develop good relationships with their clients. Some were very business-like and some were downright rude. I found things went much more smoothly when you treated your clients with empathy and respect. This method worked well on even the most difficult clients.

Since it was usually the Social Security Department that asked the county to apply to be Rep/Payee for a client, it usually meant the person being referred had a history of not paying his or her bills or was living in a life-endangering way. It was our job to set up bill payments from their account and, hopefully, give them a check each week for personal spending. This wasn't easy as most of our clients received under $700 a month in either SSD or SSI benefits. Most lived in old, drafty houses which ate up their checks in high fuel bills, especially in the cold northern winters.

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