Profile: Meet Our New Psychiatric Social Worker Ms. Wesley
By Leo H.
Learn about our Psychiatric Social Worker (PSW) Ms. Wesley.
My first question is: What led you to become a Psychiatric social worker here at CATS?
“So the short version of the story is that I noticed throughout my life, especially as a teenager there weren’t that many safe people for me to talk to. A lot of things happened to my family, not necessarily to me but things that I saw that made me interested in helping people it is initially what I wanted to do. When I went to college, I had an option to be a marriage family counselor or a masters in social work. And the social work gave more options in what I wanted to do to help people.”
My second question is what time is your office hours, do you do appointments or can kids just drop by?
“So it varies because since I am the only psychiatric social worker here, I have to be ready for emergency situations which happens a lot here, unfortunately, that students feeling suicidal or threat assessments for the school. But other than that, I schedule with a lot of students who want to see me. I would also like to say if I am not available, people can talk to counselors and staff.”
My third question is can you tell me some problems high school students face and how can they overcame them?
“So a lot of problems kids face is stress and anxiety it can come from school or problems at home. The first step to facing these issues is to acknowledge you’re experiencing it because we go through these things and we just kind of accept it and think we will be okay. Obviously, you have friends, but there is only so much friends can do so finding yourself a trusted adult to talk to and also practicing deep breaths to deal with anxiety, stress, anger, sadness etc.”
My fourth question is what would you tell a student who wants to talk to someone but they don’t trust talking to someone?
“When you talk to someone like me everything we talk about is between us, unless you are harming yourself in any way. Since I am a mandated reporter, as well as all the other staff such as teachers and counselors, we do have to report these things. However we won’t just tell your friends or anyone else about what you’re going through because everyone has a right to their privacy.
My last question is out of how many students that you speak to how many have talked to you about being bullied?
“Bullying comes in so many different forms so I will say about 20% of students been bullied and, thankfully, it isn’t ongoing, however it affects their high school years. For girls, bullying is in the form of gossip and talking badly about the other, while for guys it is more sizing up the other person, and these problems cause depression and self-esteem, which leads to suicidal thoughts and makes their school life way more stressful than it is supposed to be.”
