Cindy Lotane is a therapist at daniel. In March, she was named Social Worker of the Year by the Northeast Florida Unit of the National Association of Social Workers.
WHAT DO YOU DO?
“I provide individual, group and family therapy to emotionally disturbed children in therapeutic foster care. The program is for children that are not able to be maintained in regular foster care. Now we’re providing individual and family therapy in the office and on site [at their home or school].”
WHAT’S MOST REWARDING ABOUT IT?
“The fact that I love what I’m doing. Most people go into social work not so much for financial satisfaction as personal satisfaction. The entry pay level is not so good but I have no regrets in terms of my professional development. It doesn’t matter what child I’m dealing with — I love children. I feel as if this is what I’m meant to do.”
UPHILL STRUGGLE
“The most challenging piece is dealing with rigid family systems and working to affect change in people stuck in dysfunction. That, and a lack of funding for these children in need. Recent budget cuts will severely limit resources available to them.”
HOW DO YOU TREAT CHILDREN?
“It involves play therapy with the younger children. I meet with the family and the child then complete a bio-psycho-social profile. We look at their environment, medication, social and psychological aspects. I identify the presenting problem by studying their family dynamics, school history, medical history and developmental history. The child is then scheduled for a psychiatric evaluation with our medical director, Joel Stein. I diagnose the child and the doctor confirms the diagnosis. By that time I’ve developed an individual treatment plan by identifying goals and objectives to reduce disruptive behavior and increase functioning at home, in school and in the community. The plan is reviewed every three months and medication is reviewed every month.”
HOW DO THEY COME TO YOU?
“They have to have a recommendation from the Department of Children and Families to be placed in therapeutic foster care. The case is reviewed by a committee of the state alcohol, drug abuse and mental health program. We’re Medicaid funded.”
WHAT SORT OF CHILDREN DO YOU TREAT?
“Many referrals come from schools but anybody in Duval County can contact us if they are Medicaid-eligible. I see a lot of physically and sexually traumatized children. Some have a learning disability or attention deficit hyperactivity. We come up with a more adaptive way for them to deal with their emotions.”
HOW DO YOU CIRCUMVENT BURNOUT?
“Mostly through mediation and exercise.” Football, step aerobics, kickboxing and bicycling are her exercise choices. Other distractions include cooking, attending a Jacksonville Jaguars game or lounging at the beach. Her favorites include dining at the Outback Steakhouse, watching the movie “On Golden Pond” and tuning into “Frasier.”
A DECADE (AND MORE) OF DANIEL
In 1990, Lotane began at daniel as a therapist in their family-based treatment program. Five years later she went to the in-patient residential program for severely emotionally disturbed children. Three years ago, Lotane transferred to the community mental program to provide targeted case management and outpatient therapy to children in the community. She has worked as a counselor in some capacity since the late 1970s. Previously she was a probation officer in Zanesville, Ohio and volunteered at a rape crisis center manning the phones. “At the end of my internship [working with juvenile delinquents] my supervisor thought I was being snowed by these teens but that I should do really well in family services.”
GROUP EFFORT
“We have an interdisciplinary team that includes a therapist, child psychiatrist, teacher, nurse and often a case manager and residential counselor. That program today is called SIB [Statewide Inpatient Program].
BORN
Cambridge, Ohio.
WHY MOVE?
“I worked several years at the Children’s Services Board in Ohio. I had to remove children from people I grew up with. I came to Jacksonville by way of California. I was engaged to a Marine who was stationed at Blount Island.”
COLLEGE
Art was initially Lotane’s major at Bowling Green University in Ohio. Worried that she might not be able to make ends meet, Lotane took a class in sociology. That course led to a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University and a master’s degree from Ohio State University, both in social work. “I feel in many ways it was a calling. I have always been people-oriented.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT WINNING THE AWARD?
“It’s very touching. I’m very overwhelmed, surprised and honored to be recognized by my peers, colleagues and mentors.”
WHO’S YOUR HERO?
“It would have to be someone like Martin Luther King — someone who has the strength and wisdom to effect major change. What I do on a daily basis is minuscule compared to someone like him.”
— by Monica Chamness