New Team for Morrow Project

[scholar rat]

I am thinking about creating a new team made up of social workers. What do you think. I would like to hear some feedback.

[natehale1971]

i like that... it goes well with the idea i was contemplating for creating a team that would assist with helping local law enforcement. i just don't have a good idea for the team designation... at first the social workers would have been under the Psy Ops team, but social work is totally different in dealing with the individual instead of the group. Having a team of social workers, psychologists and grief counselors would be a major boon for a post apoc reconstruction effort.

[Matt W]

Would the Social Worker Team be primarily helping survivors or Project personnel? In any event, I think the idea is a good one.

The Project should have anticipated major problems among its personnel: PTSD, depression, survivor guilt, substance abuse, perhaps even suicide. There won't be enough Project personnel at the best of times - and many are likely to become incapacitated by psychological/mental problems. Therefore it would be essential to have teams of social workers.

OTOH If this team is helping survivors then the team might be called something like "Psychosocial Technicians". For and I dea of what I mean by "psychosocial" check out MSF aka Medecin Sans Frontieres aka Doctors Without Borders. This NGO uses social workers who run extensive psychosocial programmes
http://tinyurl.com/lpkc3m

[scholar rat]

I was thinking of starting them out as first contact people. they are trained in crisis situation,mediation, minor in psychology, have some sense of business and economics, there is a list of things social workers have to know. As for the designation for the team i was thinking NE-SOC-7 for example.their vehicle would be a converted greyhound bus with armor plating.

[scholar rat]

they would help both the survivors and project members.

[Traveller]

Sounds like a fine addition to the Support Division team roster.

Myself, I've been using QP (Psy Ops) Teams in conjunction with DL (Admin/Liaison), QE (Engineering), QD (Decontamination), and VA (Field Medical) teams, supported by one or more Type II or Type III (MARS Security) Teams and a Group Command Team, in designated 'Civil Assistance' Groups'.

After reading the comments so far, I think I'd keep the Psy Ops team for non-medical , and expand the medical team to include 3-4 person Social Work detachment (with BSW and MSW degrees)

I'd also considering attaching one BSW/MSW qualified person to each medical team, in addition to the specialized Civil Assistance Groups.

Don't know if if I'd put them under the Science Division or leave them as a Support Division profile...and feedback on this?

Cheers!
Traveller

[mikeo80]

Originally Posted by scholar rat

I was thinking of starting them out as first contact people. they are trained in crisis situation,mediation, minor in psychology, have some sense of business and economics, there is a list of things social workers have to know. As for the designation for the team i was thinking NE-SOC-7 for example.their vehicle would be a converted greyhound bus with armor plating.

I played a first contact role for a recon team. We modified the contact pack to include a few more items for the "wandering soul".

My character was a Poli-Sci major with two additional areas of training.

1) "Blending": The art and science of not really being noticed. People realize you are there, but you seem very reserved.... (In reality, LISTENING skills emphasized!!!)
2) "Backwoods": If you are going to portray a character who has spent time "on the road", then you better have the skills for it. such as:
a) Start and maintain a fire
b) Hunt, gather and process food from the area
c) Build and maintain shelters that keep you dry and comfortable in almost any weather.

[sic1701]

After 150 years of the loosening of civilized society, I think modern-day social workers would probably be eaten for lunch unless they were heavily- armed and stuck together.

Social workers (as we know them now) attempting to help a community recover from such a disaster as the Morrow world is would need to be backed up by considerable resources, have the freedom to dispense physical resources as they see fit to those in need, have the time to hear the people out and administer counseling and help solve problems (which would mean that they would need to have all of THEIR needs dealt with...food and water, secure housing, transportation, office space or space to do their job, and physical security).

I can see a military unit specializing in Civil Affairs coming in in advance of the social workers to help soften up the community, take care of troublemakers and rabble-rousers, arrange the security of the social workers to follow as well as their required infrastructure and maybe THEN the social workers can do their jobs effectively, but without some type of military prescence to prevent the riff-raff from taking advantage of the situation, they'd be hosed.