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8. Who are the Worthy?
- University of Michigan Press
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8. Who Are the Worthy? Story 8.1. Midwestern Vocational Rehabilitation “Parking Lot Therapy” I had a male client who came in for service. He had a physical problem. He was an upholsterer—this was his profession. He had a back injury, and he was having a lot of trouble because he had to lift furniture and a lot of pulling with his hands and arms. I think he probably got a worker’s comp settlement out of it, but he wanted to go back into that type of work. He wanted to know what could be done for him so he could go back. I sent him to “work hardening,” where they teach you how to lift properly and do exercises to strengthen your muscles. He went through it successfully and he was able to go back to work in his profession. To this point, “Parking Lot Therapy” describes a routine case handled routinely. A client with a work injury and the goal of returning to work is given appropriate treatment. He returns “to work in his profession,” the ef‹ciently achieved and desired end of a case. This is a textbook vocational rehabilitation case, a success for the client, the voc rehab counselor, and society. This is what the policy envisioned. But the story does not end here. This description of a routine case becomes the prelude, the calm before the storm, to a much more complicated case. It is as if the storyteller is saying, “This is how it is supposed to work. Now let me tell you how it really works.” This shift in story content and emphasis transforms this bland story of a routine case into a multidimensional story illustrating the complexity of street-level decision making. The story becomes a tale of a street-level worker going well beyond what is 97 required, even beyond the responsibility of a voc rehab counselor. The client is in many ways a marginal individual, but as the story unfolds, this street-level worker ‹nds this man to be worthy of extraordinary service. Story 8.1, Continued But in the middle of all this, he was . . . always getting himself into trouble. He had a live-in who had children. This man had never been married. He was in his early thirties. She was an older woman. She had two or three kids. He was a very interesting person. Looked real tough. Dressed in black—black jeans; big black motorcycle boots; long, long hair, down to his waist, pulls it back in a ponytail; wears dark glasses; wears muscle shirts, looking real mean and tough. But he is a pussycat. He is a rescuer. He is a rescuer, he feels sorry for people. This woman didn’t have a place to live, and she had a story of woe and problems, and he took her into his home with her kids. They got romantically involved. There were constant problems. She got involved with some other guy while she was living with [the client]. He was going through emotional problems and grieving. He came in and was telling me all these things, and he was very agitated and crying. So I said, “I think you could bene‹t from some individual therapy so you can deal with all the problems you are having. I can take you over to the mental health center. I’ll call ahead. I’ll take you over there and get you set up.” He said, “Okay.” At this point, the story takes another detour. The emotionally distressed upholsterer and the overinvolved counselor confront an unresponsive , bureaucratic mental health agency. Story 8.1, Continued I drive him over there. He wants me to go in with him because he has never had to deal with anything like this before. I go in. There’s an intake worker. She’s not the warmest, friendliest person . I talked with her a while. She sends us to the business of‹ce. Cops, Teachers, Counselors 98 [100.24.20.141] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 12:39 GMT) “How are you going to pay for this? It’s ‹fty dollars an hour.” And [the upholsterer] says, “I can’t do this. I can’t pay for this.” “Well, then you are going to have to write something about your ‹nancial situation to see if we can reduce your costs.” We go back to the intake worker and talk to her a while. “Well, I can schedule you for an appointment...