Midwest Center Observation

Visiting Midwest Center for Children and Families, was a wonderful learning experience. I felt Midwest was similar to a jail for adolescents. The children were not free to do as they pleased and they had to follow many rules. Everything was structured and organized. The staff members I saw they were cold and not very nurturing. Remembering that, these observations were only based off of one day.
The day started with us sitting down with the teenagers while they ate their dinner. I sat with a group of girls and we talked about Halloween, and the food they served in the dining area. Once the girls were done eating, each girl in the dining room stood up and introduced herself. They stated their name, what they were being treated for, and said something interesting about themselves. Something that I found …show more content…
I read the girl’s chart who I talked with outside of her room. I felt like I spent the most time with her. As I read her chart, I started getting mad. She only had one thing that I could see her needing treatment for. Everything else was normal teenager syndrome. Everything she did, that her providers thought was horrible, I did as a teenager. I do not know one teenage girl who has not stayed up late chatting with peers on the computer, or snuck to use the phone in the middle of the night. Every girl has done this or thought about doing it. The girl’s providers said they are thinking about handing her over to the state, and this made me more furious. Not only did the girls real parents give up on her, now her other providers are giving up too. This experience makes you want to adopt all of the kids and it made me thankful for the parents that I have. I wish we had more than one opportunity to go to Midwest. I feel one day is not enough. Even though I really enjoyed this clinical experience, I do not think I would want to do this type of work as a career. I would wind up adopting every single