Week 6 Journal Entry

This week at my internship site, I continued my duties to contact the different ministries
in the area with whom I had no luck with in the previous week. My focus was to contact each
ministry on the list to make sure that the information that DSS had on file was up-to-date for
future references. I finally was able to update all the information except for a few ministries in
the area that had no reachable phone numbers on the internet or in DSSs files.
I attended a Multidisciplinary Team (Multi-D) meeting with my supervisor this week as
well. In the meeting, there were presenters from different local agencies in the area. Presenters
consisted of Somerset DSS, Maintaining Active Citizens (MAC, Inc.), Three Lower
Communities (TLC), Eastern Shore Psychological Services (ESPS), and Somerset County Health
Department. The agenda for the meeting was to receive a presentation from Anchorage
Healthcare Center about updates and goals to come soon, Updates and discussions of old/new
cases, new businesses reported, any currents trends, new resources, and any information about
agency updates.
In the meeting, Anchorage nursing home discussed how they were the only Communa
Care facility on the Eastern shore and how their overall goal was to focus on staffing, customer
service training, and remodeling the building. They explained that eventually the goal would be
to fill up the facility, and then redo it. They explained how they would be making their 3rd floor a
behavioral unit, getting a senior breakfast club, doing on-site visits to patients in home; to put
them at ease before entering the nursing facility, introducing a Cardiac 360 program, Veterans
program, and Amputee program. The presenters stated that overall they wanted to increase the
quality of care and Quality of Life.

There were three cases discussed in the meeting. One case involved a 32 year old female
who was a substance abuser, facing eviction within the next 30 days, in jeopardy of losing CFC
services, suffering from mental health issues, and was recommended to receive impatient
treatment for a wound that she has. The next case, involved a 61 year old married diabetic
Caucasian female who had recently signed herself out of an area nursing home to return home to
her residence in Princess Anne, MD. Her issue was that her discharge was not safe and because
the doctors didnt sign off on her being released, there would be limits placed on the services she
would be able to receive. The last case, involved a 61 year old divorced African American man.
He recently had a stroke in June 2016 and went to an area nursing home briefly for rehab, but is
now living with his girlfriend/caregiver. He is in a wheelchair, but can transfer. The girlfriend is
having a hard time taking care of him due to his mobility issues. They were requesting assistance
with linkage to resources for Depends, bed pads, a shower chair/bench, a handheld shower,
personal care, etc.
There werent any new businesses to report at the meeting so; the presenters expressed
concerns about the current trend of Heroin overdoses in Somerset County and surrounding areas.
They expressed the fact that a local pain management office was recently closed which could
possibly be a cause in the spike of the increased heroin use. A new resource brought up in the
meeting was Brightstar Home Health Agency (a private pay facility) which services require a
minimum of 2 hours. There were numerous amounts of agency updates presented in the meeting.
I would say that my strengths in my performance this week were that I took a numerous
number of notes when I attended the meeting with my supervisor. It was interesting listening to
the agency updates and how these updates would benefit the customers that DSS serves. I feel
like I could learn more about the overall purpose of the meetings and why it is important for DSS

to attend them. I was slightly confused with all the information but Im sure I will understand
more of the process with time spent at my site.