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This research, using narrative method, is based on the mental hospital social work practiced through the journal of the worker, story writing and analyzing. I, a young social worker and student, have worked with about fifteen middle-aged mental illness men in the halfway house located in a community for more than one year. This research discuss some issues in such social work practice field, such as gender difference, power struggle and social class inclusion between worker and clients, triangularity between worker, clients and the hospital, the difficult position and the profession self. The worker’s practice and life experiences, inside status, many adjustments, changes and actions will be described and discussed also. The worker, I myself, tried to find out “how to do”, “who I am”, “where I am”, “what social work profession is” during my first social work job in the hospital and community. Finally, I want to find out the meaning of myself, being a social worker. Do I “survive”? What happens to me? Do I still want to be a social worker in such a field? In the way of inquiry and finding the answers, I find out that I’m searching for myself at the same time. Review some life experiences; understand how I have been influenced by these experiences. Finally, try to integrate all these life and job experiences into “my life”, then, find out a new interpretation of my helping profession. In Taiwan, many social workers often change and leave their jobs soon. This research tries to present and clarify a young mental hospital social worker’s track of the helping practice and profession, hoping to provide a new point of view, an explicit adumbration of the practice job and worker’s life, a practice-based research method.
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