Brittany Gordon Coca

I definitely attribute all my success to my dad. My dad was a single dad, and he raised my brother and I. I really attribute all of my success to him, and you know, seeing him come from a third world country and watching him make sacrifices and sacrifice himself to make sure that my brother and I could, you know, quote-unquote, achieve the American dream and have the education that he didn't have. Watching him work multiple jobs to make sure that we had everything, and then some - if we were poor, we didn't know it. My dad made sure that we had everything. That's something that nobody at any point could ever take from you, is your education, and he always encouraged my brother and I to pursue education because of that.

The best career advice I've ever received came from one of my mentors who was the vice president of the hospital where I worked. I was working at the hospital for a really long time, and I thought I loved doing operations and being in charge of housekeeping, concierge, and all of that. She said to me, 'Brittany, do you love this?' And I really thought to myself, do I feel fulfilled when I go home? So the best advice I could give to anyone professionally is make sure you love what you do, because if you love what you do, you will always be good at your job, and you will always feel good.

I would say to a young woman entering social work, or any facet of social work, don't stop growing professionally. Don't stop. Go for that LMSW, go for your LCSW, go for your doctorate. Don't stop educationally and professionally, because the sky is the limit. That goes back to my upbringing as well. Being that my dad didn't have a formal education, he always encouraged my brother and I to pursue education, because that's something that nobody at any point could ever take from you, is your education.

For me, working in assisted living, one of the biggest challenges I find with the senior population is that there isn't mental health resources for individuals who had a past psych history. We also have a memory care unit, so a challenge I find is that I have residents that are diagnosed with dementia, whether it's Lewy body or frontal lobe, whatever the case is, but say they have a previous diagnosis of bipolar. I have trouble finding them resources to stabilize them psychiatrically, just because they have dementia. These places won't accept them.

Something that is very valuable to me, both professionally and personally, is treat others how you want to be treated, or how you would expect for your loved ones to be treated. When we have new families moving into my assisted living facility, I try to let them know this is one extended family, and I would never treat anyone how I would not want my family to be treated. So that's really important to me, professionally and personally, just to make sure that I make an impact and make people feel good.