My name is Nichole Cooper and I’m married and have a 2-month old daughter. I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Certificate in Case Management in 2011 and the full-time accelerated Master’s program in 2017 with a focus on Medical Social Work. During my undergraduate program, I worked in homeless shelters and for a program called School On Wheels, running tutoring sights for children in homeless shelters. During my senior year of undergrad, I was part of the Department of Child Services scholarship program and worked for them after graduation until November 2014 when I went to work for Child Advocates as a Guardian ad Litem.

During my Master’s program, I completed practicums at Prevent Child Abuse Indiana and then at the Veterans Hospital of Indiana working with the homeless population. After graduation, I worked as a Social Worker at Eskenazi Health Hospital for a year. Currently, I work at Hendricks Regional Health in Danville as a Medical Social Worker. In total, I have been in the field of social work since I started college in 2007. I have my LSW and am completing supervision hours for my LCSW.

My job as a medical social worker consists of working with patients and their families to assist in obtaining medications, ensure basic needs are met so they can heal and care for their health, complete psychological evaluations, find treatment for mental health and substance abuse, setting up short-term rehab or in-home health care or hospice services and finding resources for patients and families as requested.

I decided to become a Social Worker after reading the book “A Child Called IT” and the rest of the series by Dave Pelzer. I was inspired to use my empathy and compassion to improve the lives of others; to put kindness out into the world and my community to help future generations. In the process, I have gained friends, colleagues, skills, and experiences. I would not change any of it for the world!

I have also encountered many challenges including lack of community resources and lack of funding for programming, stigmas around addiction, mental health, homelessness, sexuality, and not the least of which is equality for minority populations. Being able to speak up and speak out is a primary motivator and a great skill that I am continually improving upon. I have struggled over the years to feel I have the power to use my voice to speak against the majority of the popular opinion.

My biggest accomplishment professionally has been completing my LSW and continuing working towards my LCSW. My biggest accomplishment personally as a Social Worker has been learning to separate work from home and being able to recognize when my own mental health needs attention or when I have been affected by a patient or family personally and when it is impacting my work. Learning how to address these things took a lot of practice over the years and self-reflection.

Given my years of experience, my advice is “do not become complacent in your work”. If you find yourself sitting down in the wake of adversity, it’s time to take a look at yourself and the work you are doing. All aspects of Social Work are hard, often without reward or recognition, and require us to be at our best for our patients and families who are often at their worst. That being said, taking care of your own mental health, physical well-being, and allowing yourself some grace is imperative to doing good work. Don’t be afraid to be real and admit when you make a mistake because you will. Finally, patients and families cannot trust you if they do not believe in you or see you practicing what we teach, so don’t say or do things you would not also do or believe yourself.

I have a few favorite quotes I keep in mind while working and would like to share:

“In a world when you can be anything, be kind.”

“Life is like a camera. Just focus on what’s important, capture the good times, develop from the negatives, and if things don’t work out, just take another shot.”

“Unless someone like you cares a whole lot, it’s not going to get better, it’s not.” – The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss