Trauma

I still can't stop thinking about the kids at the residential crisis center I interviewed at. Most are aged 4 - 12, a few 3 year olds and a few 13 years olds with developmental disabilities; they are primarily foster care kids or former foster care kids (now adopted) who had been so severely physically or sexually abused that they are in need of a crisis placement out of a home to stabilize their behavior.

I haven't worked around kids in a long time. I had forgotten how young 12 is. When I read cases of horrific abuse and the young ages of the kids, I hadn't been able to make that translation to reality. I keep seeing the babies and cannot imagine the abuse that has been done. These kids are just babies is all I can think. They are so young, so small.

Residential setting

Today I applied for a job at a residential crisis assessment, stabilization and treatment center for kids with serious emotional disturbances (ie., predominantly foster care and former foster care kids). The director, in my interview emphasized that the rewards are sometimes hard to see because the acuity level is so high and the kids are very disturbed from the physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect that they have undergone. She said that they have some children who are at the center whose parents were also treated here when they were children. Talk about a cycle that hasn't been broken.