Lesser of two evils

 I was having a conversation with my friend the other day. She is also a Social Worker, but she works in Child Protection. We were chatting about the topic of my blog post last week. I mentioned that I felt there was more information out there for Social Work relating to Children as opposed to adults.

She raised an interesting point and mentioned something that she has heard a few times since starting her role a few weeks ago. She said that a lot of the people she works with will make comments about retiring to adults Social Work. Now I understand where the comment comes from because Child Protection specifically is notorious for being really difficult. I hear people talk about the pressure that they are under and when my friend explained that they have to see every child on their case load every week I understood it a bit more. That sounds like a juggling act to me especially if you are working in a team or area that has less staff and higher caseloads. I haven’t worked in children’s, so I haven’t experienced this first-hand.

I find it interesting though that the assumption made by people in Children’s is that adults is easy. As I said I have only worked in adults so do not have first-hand experience of just how difficult it is in children’s, but I do have experience of how difficult it can be in adults. We still have the same worry and stress in terms of safety for the people we support. We have occasions where we can’t sleep because we are worried that someone is going to come to harm. I myself have definitely had conversations with colleagues either individually or in peer review where I have cried because one particular case is tough, and I just don’t know what I can do.

I do not deny in any way, shape or form that child protection is extremely difficult, its part of the reason I wouldn’t personally want to work in it, but I do think that adults can be just as tough. I think people presume that because the people we work with are adults that it is easier because they can do something for themselves, or they have other people that can support them. This isn’t always the case and that is where it becomes tough to understand. If you have never worked with an older person who can’t remember what day of the week it is or how to wash themselves or had conversations with grown adults who are crying on the phone because they can’t support their aging relative anymore you don’t understand how difficult it can be.  

For me personally Dementia cases are some of the hardest because for the family members of that person they have seen someone they care about fade away in front of them and struggle to provide care for them when the person themselves doesn’t recognise them anymore. They will tell me about what the person used to be like and how certain aspects of their current existent would have destroyed them emotionally.

It is definitely tough. I don’t doubt that Child protection is tough too. I just think that if “retiring to adults” is the plan then you are probably choosing the lesser of two evils.