My Experiences Working in Human Services After Obtaining a 2-year Degree

In 1994, I chose to attend Wayne County Community College (WCCC) in Detroit, Michigan. Initially, I was going to major in accounting, but after dealing with some personal problems in my life, necessitating the utilization of assistance from several human services agencies, I changed my major to mental health. I graduated from WCCC in June of 1996, and my degree prepared me to work with people in need of assistance, with an emphasis on those suffering from mental illnesses. Since earning my degree in mental health, I have had the pleasure of working at several different jobs which enabled me to use my skills.

The first job that I worked after receiving my degree was at a nursing home in Detroit. It actually started out as an unpaid internship required for school, but according to the social worker I assisted, I did so well that I was offered a regular position as a social work assistant. I accepted the job despite the low pay because I felt it would help me build my experience, but I planned to find a better paying job in my field as soon as I possibly could. My duties required me to perform many regular social worker duties. It was my responsibility to make sure that each nursing home resident's social needs were being met. If a resident needed clothes, I had to contact that resident's family and let them know. If the resident didn't have family members, I had to contact their guardian. In the rare case that there was no family or a guardian, I had to arrange for someone to go shopping and purchase what the resident needed. The same thing applied if a resident needed a consultation with a doctor, desired to get out in the community more, and much more. It was a very rewarding job, but the pay wasn't much more than minimum wage and I had gone to school to earn a better wage than that.

My next job was at Wyandotte Hospital, where I worked as a mental health assistant on a geriatric psychiatric unit. I was paid substantially more than what I had been paid at the nursing home and the work was just as rewarding. The only difference at Wyandotte Hospital was the fact that I had to perform actual patient care as well as teach groups, physically restrain combative patients and much more. It was an exciting job, and there was always something to keep me busy. I loved caring for the patients, taking their vital signs and blood glucose levels, and teaching helpful classes to them was actually fun. I also like charting on the patient's progress, and it was rewarding to see acutely mentally ill patients be admitted and leave a few weeks later feeling nearly 100% better.

The next job I worked offered even more pay and better benefits. I worked as a forensic security aide at the Center For Forensic Psychiatry in Michigan. This place was no typical psychiatric unit. Patients, most of them criminally insane, were there for committing heinous crimes, like murder of their parents, spouse or children, serial murders, and much more. There were a few patients who weren't really criminally insane and were simply trying to avoid going to prison. It was my job to chart thoroughly in order to help keep these individuals from "beating the system". I resigned from my position at the Center For Forensic Psychiatry when my husband and I relocated to North Carolina.

I am currently not working in my field. It's not by choice, however, and things are different here in North Carolina, where I currently live. In order to work as a mental health assistant in North Carolina, unlike Michigan, a person doesn't necessarily have to have a degree, but they do need to be a certified nursing assistant. I can't wait to finish my nursing assistant training so I can continue helping people in need in a new job that I know will be as fulfilling as the jobs in the past have been.