Your Life History
The social worker may ask to have a chronology of your life history so that he/she can understand the sequence of your life as a whole.
This chronology of your life history may be prepared either by yourself independently or with the help of the practitioner. The chronology will include early childhood, through school, young adulthood and up to your present age.
It should include a full employment history. Gaps and inconsistencies will be 'explored' at a later point in the homestudy.
Penny, spent 3 months in the States as a volunteer when she was 22. She volunteered this information as she was working with children and thought that it would positively contribute to the homestudy and show her experience of being with children. This revealing of information back fired on her terribly. She was asked to provide a testimonial not only from the volunteer organisation, but the supervisor on the trip and was also asked to supply documentary evidence from the Federal police to say that she had not committed a crime. This trip was 16 years earlier and it took her over 9 months to get this information and endless hassles and unbearable stress.
