Sample Story
The following is one of the stories featuring former students,
faculty and staff from the book, "Changing Lives: Social Work in Action ~ 40
Years of Stories from the Faculty of Social Work" book. To order your copy of the book,
click here.
Just because there's no response...
by Kim Zapf
Someone from the Faculty of Social Work made a difference in
my life because of her extraordinary commitment and spiritual
strength in working with a client when her colleagues, and instructor,
had given up hope.
In the late 1980s, I was teaching a Methods course at the Edmonton
Division. In those days, Methods was a full course that met once
a week for six hours. The morning was generally spent on theory,
with the afternoon devoted to students discussing cases from their
practicum work.
One of the students that term was Judy Simmonds, an Aboriginal
woman from Sucker Creek in northern Alberta. Judy’s placement
was at the Charles Camsell Hospital where one of the patients
assigned to her was a woman in a coma. Judy visited with the woman
regularly on her practicum days at the hospital and she often
updated the class on the progress of this work.
The first time she presented on this case, we were all quite
astounded. We had been discussing interviewing techniques and
the importance of tracking the client and being open to verbal
and non-verbal feedback. Judy’s client was incapable of
providing any such feedback at all. Judy would sit with the woman
and talk, bringing her stories and news from her community back
home. In between days at the hospital, Judy would contact individuals
from her client’s northern community to get the latest information
on local activities. She would then sit for hours with her client
and tell her what was happening, sometimes laughing and crying
about the news.
As Judy presented the activities with her client in class as
part of our weekly “check-in” with students, it became
a bit of a joke. Others would be reporting on the progress their
clients were making, and then we would hear about Judy’s
apparently one-sided activities with her client whom we believed
was obviously incapable of any interaction. Yet, Judy never gave
up even though there was no evidence that the client was even
aware of her presence.
I still remember the moment we learned that her client had awakened
from the coma. Her first words were to ask for her social worker!
Trapped within her coma and unable to respond at all, this client
had been aware of the efforts and content of Judy’s visits.
Although the rest of us had pretty much given up on the situation
as hopeless, Judy had carried on a meaningful and powerful relationship
with this woman on a level beyond what our conventional theory
and skills prepare us for.
I will never forget how her commitment and spiritual strength
allowed her to interact with her client in the complete absence
of any response or feedback that the rest of us might have needed.
Judy Simmonds’ spirited determination has been an inspiration
and a model for me ever since.
Kim Zapf, PhD, came to the Faculty of Social Work
in 1986. He holds the position of professor.
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