Some info about Leon Busby
Leon is a Case Manager for youth up to the age of 18 with Mental Health and/or Substance Abuse challenges. His job as a case manager is to provide emotional support to both the youth and their families, help the youth with building skills such as budgeting, coping skills, or self-care. He also can link youth to other resources such as LGBT support groups, free/low cost tutoring programs, etc.
He is also what is called a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), his job as a CASA is to see that the needs of abused children and/or neglected children. By way of working with attorneys to represent the best interests of the child, having regular visitations to childâs placement, providing detailed documentation, and appearing to court to testify or answer questions when necessary. This is purely a volunteer position.
Leon chose the route of social worker by accident, he originally wanted to work as a psychologist in order to help out youthâs like his younger brother who had issues with anger and lashing out. His younger brother had intermittent explosive disorder and major depression starting at the age of 6.
Seeing how this affected his ability to maneuver through school, work and other social situations as well as leading to their separation when Leon was 14 he decided pursue a degree in psychology. It wasnât until the middle of his freshman year when he spent some time on the phone to his brother did he learn more about mental health case managers. Learning how they were able to help his brother Leon felt he could do better providing more hands on help.
When it came time to declare his major he decided to look into Social Work. Since he and his brother spent their teen years in the foster care system in Georgia Leon was hesitant about going into Social Work, though he was lucky to stay in one home for the last 3 years of high school he never had a single case worker long enough to make any difference or in his eyes care about him. It wasnât until his brother talked about the good his case manager was doing for him did he decide to take that leap.
Leon was raised by his biological grandmother in Savannah, Georgia from the ages of 4-14. His younger brother moved in when he was 8. Living with her was rather unpredictable. She had some problems with anger. Sometimes she was loving and caring, but sometimes her moods would shift, a shift he would never see coming, and her yelling would get scary. Not abusive, but scary. He viewed this as healthy and normal. It wasnât causing any damage in his eyes, though teachers and others students did notice that he would panic more if someone yelled in real or mock anger than other peers. This did not warrant any kind of inspection.
Things continued until the age of 12 when money had to get very tight. Rent on their lot went up, her wages on one job went down while the other completely disappeared, and it was getting harder and harder for the bills to get paid. His brother had started lashing out. The stress from this caused his grandmother to get angrier more often, to the point where every little mistake the boys made was worth a verbal lashing and things went from just angry to discipline to what Leon was unable at the time and for a long time after recognize as verbal abuse. She never hit them, but she didnât need to.
At the age of 14 lashed out physically for the first and last time causing her to lose both boys. They went from a group home, to a foster home, before Leon was placed in a foster home in Midway while his brother was bounced around from home to home until going to a group home in Macon.
Their past situation is the reason he decided to become a CASA, his CASA was one of the few people in his case that he felt actually cared and was there for him from the beginning.
He is still in contact with his most recent foster mother.
Leon identifies as gay.
He has a slight almost imperceptible southern accent. Itâs not easy for him to get offended but there is not just one southern accent. There is not just one Georgian accent. Itâs called a Low Country accent thank you very much. Though thatâs the only southern thing that bothers him, if youâve hit friend territory make all the redneck jokes you want. Also, no, Savannah is not hickville. He is not someone who is âproudâ to be from the south, but heâs pretty protective over this one city, itâs his hometown, the rest of the south be damned.
He rather misses Savannah, but he felt rather trapped there and wanted to try somewhere new. Hence New York.
Growing up Leon was a rather quiet kid, but around his senior year of high school he started to open up and flourish. By the time he was a junior in college he wasnât exactly considered someone who partied a lot, but he wasnât exactly quiet either. Always friendly and takes initiative in social situations to make others feel welcome.
He is now rather loud and has always been energetic able to go on about 3-4 hours of sleep at night, and tends to be a little bombastic. Kinda obnoxious, but he doesnât see it that way.
Enjoys doing things for a reaction, as a teen he died his hair, for a reaction, gauged his ears, for a reaction. He loves his foster mother and practically worships the ground she walks on, but she is very conservative and easy to provoke.
He is rather easy to talk to and is a good listener. He doesnât always know how to say the right things, but he tries to do what he thinks will help their situation.
Though he has to be he really doesnât like being called Mr. Busby or Leon by his consumers. It makes him feel uncomfortable as though he has reached adulthood even though he feels he definitely has not.
He loves scifi and fantasy but doesnât have much time outside of his work. Most of his time is spent doing paperwork, making home visits, speaking in court, and dealing with crises. He loves his work but at times it can be very taxing and time consuming, especially in New York.
