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Showing posts from February, 2022

Pandemic Impact

  Something that has been discussed a lot the last 2 years or so is the impact that the pandemic has had on Social Work practice. A lot of the conversations around this both with colleagues and in the research or articles that have been written about it focus on how it has impacted the Social Worker. Both in their day-to-day practice but also the impact it has had on their work life balance, mental health, and stress levels. It has definitely had this impact because the way that people are used to working have been taken away at very short notice and everyone has had to adapt to new ways of working. I do think that a lot of the focus have been on the professionals and how they are managing but when doing some minor research prior to writing this post I could not find anything from the people who access services about how they have found receiving Social Work support in the pandemic. I know that in general the pandemic has increased levels of loneliness, domestic violence, an...

Identity

  There are many things to take into consideration when working with people and it can be easy sometimes to forget small details. As I have mentioned previously intersectionality is an important concept to keep in mind. Intersectionality discusses where the different parts of a person’s identity meet. The difference between one person’s experience and another even though they have something in common they don’t have everything in common, so they experience situations differently. When first being allocated a new case, I always have a read about the person and find out any background information that we have. I do this for two reasons, one to make sure I have a starting point and do not make people repeat the same information to me as they have already given. Also, because it makes me aware of any issues with communication such as a language barrier or sensory impairments. This can also include cognitive impairments such as if someone has a dementia diagnosis, they may struggle ...

Learning is everywhere

  I have talked in a previous post about the way people learn but I was thinking about where that learning comes from. There are obvious sources such as places of education or training courses but actually there are so many places you can gain new knowledge from, especially in Social Work. I have attended a lot of training courses and I mean a lot, but I find that a lot of my learning comes from day-to-day experiences that I take for granted. It comes from a conversation with a colleague or another professional. It can come from reading an article or hearing a podcast. It could also come from a conversation with a stranger. There are certain things in life that I have not experienced because I come from a place of privilege. That does not mean that I cannot attend things or have open conversations that expand my horizons and allow me to learn more about those types of situations. As I am sure you can tell from my picture, I am White British, and this means that I have not dea...

Assumptions

  Everyone says that they are not judgemental and that they do not make assumptions. That’s just not true. Don’t get me wrong most of us do this in our heads and never use the judgment for any reason but we still do it. There are so many assumptions that are made either through stereotyping or just expectations. We perceive certain people to be a specific way or enjoy something specific and are shocked when that is not the case. One example that I come across often in my role is people telling me that the person has Dementia, so they lack capacity. I have explained in a previous post why this statement is problematic in terms of the Mental Capacity Act, so I won’t explain it again. However, that is the same as saying that everyone who has epilepsy or diabetes is the same and that is ridiculous. Just as much as if someone said it about Dementia. First and foremost, there are over 400 types of Dementia that are caused by different things and have different side effects so making s...