Sunday, February 22, 2009

The social worker

Mary Ann Howell, my assigned social worker, is a walking disaster. A little backstory: this balding, rotund woman was supposed to be a key support for me when I was in the VITA unit, but she has fucked up at every turn. She likes to blame those fuck-ups on me. The most important task I gave her was to send a short letter to the deans of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School and to the Director of Graduate Studies in my department. 

After--literally--several weeks, she finally accomplished this task poorly and after a lot of foot-dragging. This week I received a packet of letters, back-dated by several days and mailed in a hand-addressed envelop. She sent these letters to the associate deans of those schools, rather than to whom I told her. She didn't identify me as a graduate student in the English Department, so they have this random name of someone somehow connected to the university, probably.

What's worst is that one of the letters was incorrectly addressed to "Mildred" Bergquist, rather than Francille Bergquist. The grammar is terrible. She has effectively lessened my credibility rather than added to the solution. This is enough to make me seek out her boss and make a formal complaint.

2 comments:

Cris said...

That bites. I know a few social workers and I've met a couple who are competent, hard-working individuals; but the vast majority just seem to be part of the problem rather than the solution, whiling away the years 'til their retirement in a position at which they're not actually competent. Assigned social workers are even worse - a couple rungs down from court-appointed attorneys.

Anyway, you have my sympathies. What you need is an advocate, not a social worker.

Kimberly said...

Thanks, Cris. You've confirmed what I suspected I thought that someone who worked for Vanderbilt would be more capable. I guess I have to be my own advocate.