1993_03 Insight March 1993

              Page 4
March 31,1993
Social workers burn out
Babies can tell if
you are attractive
By Shari Vee Kazarian The infants are shown a variety of
Cr  ffu/   t  faces, and the students conducting
btajj writer ^ ^^ ^^ now long ^ in.
Infants respond more favorably to fants look at the faces and which
attractive faces than less attractive ones they prefer,
faccs.accordingtoastudyconductcd "We absolutely know from stud-
by Dr. Jean Ritter, CSUF psychol- ies, babies know the difference be-
ogy professor. tween the attractive and less attrac-
Ritter and her staff, which consists live faces." said Ritter.
ofundcr-graduate and graduate stu- Ritter said that the infants look
dents, have been collecting data on longer and more curiously at the
infants'facial attractive
preferences
for the past
study suggests
that preferences for attractive faces
arc innate.
Other studies have suggested that
preferences
for attractive
faces are acquired early in
life through
exposure and
aresaidtobea
learned response.
"The ultimate goal of
the study is to get to the origin of    Ritter.
physical attractiveness stereotypes." Ritter said it was thought earlier
said Ritter. that children were taught what is
Ritter said the stereotype of "what    attractive, but that the study is find-
is beautiful what is good," suggests    ing babies can detect when some-
that those that are attractive are some-    one is attractive,
how better than the less attractive.        During the beginningof the study.
Ritter said that it is thought that it was a concern that babies with
people without realizing it. think of ugly parents may be attracted to
moreattractivepeopleasmorecom- uglier faces. That relationship has
petcm and more intelligent, and less nol been found to be tme, said Riner.
attractive faces are associated more It has not mattered if the babies'
negatively. parents have ugly or attractive faces;
The study is using approximately the babies are still attracted to the
100 six-monih-old infants from the    attractive ones, the study has shown.
Frcsno/Clovis area to participate i
the visual preferences procedure.
Ritter's staff has been able to recruit infants from reading birth an-
Thc staff then finds
Ritter said the babies seem to enjoy looking at the pictures. They sit
on a parent's lap and look at a pair of
pictures at a time, a total of 12
different faces. The entire procc-
thc addresses of the parents, and dure lakes 20 io 30 minutes,
sends them a formal letter explain- Four other researchers have found
ing the study and asking foi their in their studies similar results, Ritter
participation. said. Their work has shown that
Dr. William Halls, a Fresno obste- infants know attractive faces right
trician, has assisted the study by awayandthatiheirpreferenceisnoi
sending ihe letters of information to a learned response,
his patients. The parents of the ba- Riticr said she hopes the study will
bics he has delivered have been re- help identify what has created the
sponsive to the study, and several stereotype of "what is beautiful is
have been willing to participate, ac- good." These studies will be useful
cording to Ritter. in trying to make a change in the
Ritter said the response from the way people think, and inother words
parents has been positive, and three counteract how people treat others
to four infants a week have been depending on how attractive they
able to participate. are , she said.
♦Fatigue, hopelessness
taxes social work
professionals.
By Deborah Miller
Staff Writer
Forcx-juvenile social worker Monica
Ethridge, dwindling resources and endless governmental regulations severely
hindered her attempts to improve the
lives of the adolescents she counseled _
After several years of waging a losing
battle with bureaucratic red tape and
internal problems, she gave up the fight
and quit the job.
"1 left the system so bitter because it
was failing the kids so miserably." said
Ethridge, who had worked in both group
homes and in juvenile hall. There were
uneducated, inexperienced people in
the group homes counseling the kids
and ihcy weren't helping them.
"Their attitude toward the children
was 'Just do your lime and get out of
there so we can bring in ihe next one',"
Ethridge said. "I switched group homes
thinking I had obviously just made a
bad first choice, but then the second
one was worse than the first."
Ethridge attributed it to the fact that
the counselors were getting paid minimum wage.
"When the pay is that low, you're not
going to get an experienced counselor
with a Ph.D. or a master's, especially io
work those odd hours and the night
shifts, so they took students to fill in,"
Ethridge said. "I was fresh out of college and had some volunteer background, but not enough to handle 13
delinquent adolescents with no formal
training behind me."
Ethridge said she was also affected by
the increasing racial tension within the
institution among the inmates.
"With the minority numbers increasing
and the influx of the Asian population,
there were new gang factions cropping
up that hadn't been there before,"
Ethridge said.
According to John B. Franz, Ph.D..
director of ihe CSUF Employee Assistance Program, it's not uncommon, or
necessarily unhealthy, for social workers to abandon their posts if it means
escaping constant pressures.
"Sometimes the best thing a counselor can do is to change environments
and exchange old responsibilities for
new ones," Franz said.
Franz said stress and burnout affects
all types of social workers and can be
caused by many different factors. But
Franz said the newer, more hopeful
counselors are usually the hardest hit.
"Burnout rates arc higher for young
social workers early in their careers,"
Franz said. "Once you've been in the
profession a while, you get more realistic about what to expect and develop
other ways of coping with stress."
Franz said the higher burnout rales
among newcomers is because they are
frequently placed in understaffed offices with unreasonable case loads and
little support.
Franz said new, young social workers
also have a well-intentioned enthusiasm for the job that can sometimes do
more harm to themselves than good for
their patients.
"Social workers are generally pretty
idealistic when they first start out,"
Franz said. They want to save all the
marriages and all the children and make
everybody happy.
"And as time goes on, they realize
they just can't accomplish that."
Franz, who once worked as a clinical
social worker, said he wasn't immune
toThe pressure either.
"At one point, I was emotionally exhausted and if someone wouldcall from
work, I'd go out of my way to avoid
ing problems, drinking and depression.
Franz said social workers can help
avoid stress simply by talking with
colleagues, improving time management, taking vacations and, if necessary, changing jobs. Franz said although social workers don't always
have control over the number of cases
they have, they can control what cases
they have and prioritize their work.
"You have to set realistic expectations of yourself." Franz said.
But 'realisticexpcciations' has taken
on a new meaning to many social
workers. An increasing population and
the current state budget crunch have
forced many counselors io provide
"The government has told us to
bake a cake, but then takes away
the flour. We simply need more
workers."
—Nancy Col ley, social worker
them," Franz said.
Franz said it's important that the counselors themselves seek help sometimes.
"A lot of people in helping professions aren't good at seeking help themselves," Franz said.
Franz said some people who go into
helping professions can be co-depen-
dent types andcompulsivc rescuers with
a need to 'fix' people.
"If they have an unhealthy need to
solve the problems ofthe world, they're
going to be wasted because they can't
do it," Franz said. "It's like an obese
doctor telling his patient to lose weight."
Time will tell for Michele Meiring,
23, a CSUF senior in undergraduate
social work studies and Vice-President
of the CSUF Social Work Student Organization. She said her goal as a counselor is to affect change in society.
"Before the program, I saw injustices
that made me very unhappy and comfortable—all ofthe isms - racism, sexism, ageism and homophobia," Meiring
said.
Franz said many social work students
don't realize they'll end up having to
deal with their own emotional baggage
when faced with people problems on a
daily basis.
"Some people don't understand their
own motivations for going into this
field," Franz said. "Sometimes we have
to counsel people out (of the field)."
Franz said some symptoms of social
worker stress and burnout are a reduced
sense of personal accomplishment, fatigue and inefficiency. He said counselors have come to him for help complaining of an inability to concentrate,
dreaming aboul cases, irritability, eat-
more services with fewer resources
than ever before.
Nancy Colley, an emergency response social worker in the sexual
assault unit of Child Protective Services, said the system can be more of
an obstacle than a help.
The government has told us to bake
a cake, but then takes away the flour,"
Colley said. "Wc simply need more
workers."
Colley said a common situation is
that children who are allegedly abused
aren't removed from their homes.
Colley said without hard evidence,
there is nothing they can do.
"Our hands are tied," Colley said.
"We can't go on a hunch.
"And a lot of times, wc do have a
hunch that something may happen in
this family, but then the child won't
disclose and there are no marks or
evidence." Colley said. "Without
proof, the courts will kick it right out."
Colley said they are need more time
to document and write reports for presentation in court because the majority of the day is spent in the field.
"Many limes, we've been so busy
responding that we haven't had lime
to gel our paper work done," Colley
said. "And you know it may be okay
for now, but it could blow at any time
and you want to get all that paper work
done in case it does," Colley said.
Colley said sometimes it may lake as
much as a month to complete all the
necessary paper work on a single case.
" If we had more workers to respond,
it wouldn't be quite so bad," Colley
said.
Colley said ihe most common refer
ral is a dirty house, but if there are no
health hazards, the children can't be
removed from the home.
There have been occasions when
we'd go out and there were exposed
wires, animal feces al 1 over the house—
which is real common, chickens coming in and out of the house, the kitchen
is a disaster area, there are roaches all
over and the floor is so ground-in with
dirt, you can't even sec it," Colley said.
Colley said even though she hasn't
experienced any really volatile or dangerous situations yet, she is always
looking over her shoulder.
"Sometimes when I leave a home and
everything is okay, I don't know what
I've left." Colley said. "It could have
been a drug den for all I know."
There are a lot of places wc go without escort and we don't know what
we're going into," she said. "It'could be
a very dangerous situation."
Colley said she and her co-workers
typically rely on gut instinct to avoid
potentially dangerous situations, but
abuse is the nature of their work.
"A lot of these women get themselves
into abusive situations and that's all
they've ever known," Colley said.
'They go from one abusive situation io
another.
"We get a lot of verbal abuse, loo,
especially in the custody battles, from
both parents and sometimes the kids,
loo," Colley said. "There have been
assaults made on some workers, too,
but no workers here have been seriously hurt."
Colley said the media has historically
put county social workers in a bad light,
but said the counselors are just as concerned as the rest of the community
about the welfare of the children.
"We're so short-staffed that it's very
difficult for any of us to do the type of
job wc would like to do," Colley said.
"Ii feels like now we're just putting a
band-aid here and a band-aid there,"
Colley said.
There are a lot of places we can't
refer people to anymore because there
is no funding," Colley said. "Wc refer
a lot of people to menial health, but
there's a waiting list ihere a mile long."
Colley said the staffing shortage and
pressing case loads have forced many
counselors have to work long hours,
which impacts on their own family
lives.
"I'm fortunate that I'm single," Colley
said. "A lot of the workers have to go
home to families and kids and deal with
their own domestic problems."
Colley said she and some of her colleagues exercise to relieve stress, but
they also look for humor in the situa-
"So many of these situations are
funny,"Colley said."If people heard us
at the office and the things we laugh
about, they would ihink wc were very
crude and uncaring, but thai's not true."
"We have to laugh," Colley said. "It's
amazing what people can get themselves into, some of the predicaments,
without even trying."
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