CLEVELAND — Nicole Stacey is a clinical social worker in several Cleveland-area school districts.
“Even within one district, there might be five different buildings, which means five different administrators and five different counselors,” she said. “So, being organized and staying on top of communications pretty much runs the show.”
Spectrum News 1 caught up with her while she was working with students at Troy Intermediate in the Avon Lake City Schools District.
“Providing services to those who need it most, which is kids,” she said.
The way she handles certain aspects of her profession has shifted during the nearly 30 years she’s spent on the job.
“Being 52 instead of 22 — at 22, I wanted to take everyone home,” she said. “I wanted to take everybody home. I wanted to, you know, fix everything, very over the top, and then I just realized for my own mental health and one of the big things they talk about when you’re in grad school and as you get your supports is self-care.”
It’s hard to not take home the daily trauma she sees.
“Compassion fatigue is a real, real thing,” she said.
Stacey’s biggest fear throughout the pandemic is that some students who need extra support may slip through the cracks.
Virtual therapy emerged as an essential tool to bridge the gap, and she knows schools have a great need for those resources.
“So, I try to balance the ‘no, you’re not going to save the world,’ but you can make school a safer place to be,” Stacey said. “And more fun.”
She said social work is difficult and often misunderstood.
“That we only work in terrible situations where we have to take children away from their families, and that’s usually the opposite of what we’re doing,” she said. “We’re usually trying to keep families together. Working on strategies, giving them resources, hooking them up, giving them therapy.”
Stacey loves what she does and said the work is rewarding.
“My favorite part is at the end of it all, on my tombstone, it will say ‘she made a difference,'” she said.
