Bryce, what do you do exactly? Usually when I explain to folks what a social worker does, I tell them my job is to help connect the dots Almost a year ago I left UTSA’s Department of Social Work to work with mental and behavioral health here in Kendall County. I’m employed through a grant through Hill Country Family Services that specifically states that I work with our 2 mental health deputies with Kendall County Sheriff’s Office (Mike Cokerham and Michelle Quade), and Boerne PD (Rebecca Foley).
Our mental health deputies and officers are often called out and relied upon in mental health crisis situations. Whenever someone is a danger to themselves or others, all our officers and deputies have to make decisions on how to handle those situations, keeping in mind what is in the best interest of the individual and those around them to keep everyone safe.
I have an image of a mental health spectrum on my desk that goes from green (healthy) to yellow (stressed), orange (struggling) to red (crisis). All of us live within that spectrum, and all of us have been in one of those areas at some point in time. What I have learned working with our mental health team is that people tend to remain in the orange and red because of missed opportunities in the green and yellow. In a perfect world we would never be in the orange (struggling) or red (crisis), but we all know times of struggle and crisis are going to happen in our lives, it is our ability to respond and cope that determines how long we stay in those areas.
