Shop Talk

So I've been thinking about some things related to my place of business lately, and specifically in regard to the clients we serve. At first glance you might say that the clients we serve are the severe and permenantly mentally ill adults that live in the locked residential facility where I spend the vast majority of my days. But I would suggest that this is not the case.

First, what is a client? A client in someone who pays you to render a service. They ask you to do something for them, and they provide remuneration for that something. But the residents I work with have done niether of these things. That is, they have not asked me to provide them this service and they are not the ones paying for it. So who is doing that? The government is. Multomah county has mandated that these people be here (via court commitment) and they are paying for their services. It is, therefore, the county who determines what we do, how we do it, and how often it gets done. So who is the client?

There is a second client we serve as well, and this is the employer. Another definition of a client is that a client is the one who gets their needs met first. In my situation it is not the resident's needs but rather the needs of my employer who are met first. For example, the employer demands that we go about treatment under a certain model, regardless of whether or not that model is what best fits the given "client." Therefore, it is the employer whose needs are being met, and before them it is the county.

So what is the resident if not a client? He or she is the identified patient. And as anyone familiar with counseling and mental health knows, the identied patient is never the sole source of the problem or the sole bearer of solutions; they are a part of a system.

It is no different with the residents where I work; they are a part of a system that includes my employer and the county, and all their needs need to be addressed if the identified patient is to be helped. It is, moreover, at the intersection where all their needs meet that we need to focus, and leave the myth that these people are actually our clients behind.