So many of these specific problems are tied into much bigger societal problems. For example the social workers I know are worried about their own personal finances and the cost of a social work degree combined with the low pay of social work jobs is really tough. But the issue of burnout is also very real. We need better child care and elder Care and vacation time and to be able to access services like therapy for ourselves.
You are 100% correct. The systems of care are broken, both through neglect and an inability to see how important care is. I don't know that there are any perfect answers--but loan forgiveness (or something like it) plus decent pay would be a good start. But before that can happen, we need to work on convincing folks that other people who may not be like them have value.
The Arizona Supreme Court just approved using this state's settlement funds to balance the state's budget. Some ridiculously small portion of that might help some aspect of opioid addiction, but, to me, it is just an exercise in self-justification.
FWIW - I'm not sure that is the worst idea. We've already had the opioid epidemic impact our budgets and had to find money over the past decade to shore up our public health systems. But, yeah. It's a tricky calculus.
Reading this makes me even more glad not to be on our county board of supervisors, aka the 14 Stooges and one sensible person.
It gives me a headache just reading this. I give you tons of credit for trying to work on these very difficult problems
So many of these specific problems are tied into much bigger societal problems. For example the social workers I know are worried about their own personal finances and the cost of a social work degree combined with the low pay of social work jobs is really tough. But the issue of burnout is also very real. We need better child care and elder Care and vacation time and to be able to access services like therapy for ourselves.
You are 100% correct. The systems of care are broken, both through neglect and an inability to see how important care is. I don't know that there are any perfect answers--but loan forgiveness (or something like it) plus decent pay would be a good start. But before that can happen, we need to work on convincing folks that other people who may not be like them have value.
The Arizona Supreme Court just approved using this state's settlement funds to balance the state's budget. Some ridiculously small portion of that might help some aspect of opioid addiction, but, to me, it is just an exercise in self-justification.
FWIW - I'm not sure that is the worst idea. We've already had the opioid epidemic impact our budgets and had to find money over the past decade to shore up our public health systems. But, yeah. It's a tricky calculus.