Usually when I post about work, I get all angry and upset because most of the clients that we have are suffering from lots of issues such as homelessness, abuse, disabilities and just at a point in their lives where they need major help. Today however, I went to work and in addition to doing the usual "new" and "ongoing" clients, I also did some progress reports on clients that no longer require our services.

And it brought a smile to my face :) Part of the progress reports require me to examine whether certain before/after goals have been met, and in almost all the ones I did today, I was really happy because most of them had met some/most of their goals. In particular, I was really excited about the teenager client who had succeeded in finding a permanent place to live, had undergone counselling, and had resumed his studies as well as finding employment. I guess because he was around my age, it made it seem all the more real.

Of course, some clients exit the programs without having met any goals, and these are the ones that usually return after a short while. In some of my ongoing client files, I've seen some with reports from way back - whilst some have one report in their file (indicating short term help), some have about 6 reports (ie. over many many years) and still don't make progress. These are the ones that break my heart, but I wont go into the sadness of it..

I'm just going to focus on the clients that did meet goals , and I'm so happy for them :) *grin*