Importance of Communication

We talk a lot in Social Work about the importance of communication and generally we are talking about the communication between us and the people we work with. Those who are also involved in the care of the people we support such as families.

The thing that I find most frustrating is that this doesn't always happen when it should the most. I had a visit booked this week and when I arrived I was told that they were waiting for an ambulance to take the person I was going to see to hospital to be checked out.

I am glad that they were doing what needed to be done for the person but found myself frustrated that nobody thought to give me a call, let me know they weren't themselves or tell me the reason why because I had travelled a long way to get to this visit only to pretty much turn around and travel back. This is time that I could have used to provide support for someone else that ended up wasted due to the simple lack of a phone call.

I know people are busy but I felt that it would have been the best thing for the care home I was going to also because they wouldn't have had to try speaking with me whilst sorting out everything else that was going on. We could have saved everyone time that could have been used for other purposes.

This is why I always make sure that I communicate with everyone involved in a situation and keep people updated on what is happening. There is nothing worth than having an expectation of what is going to happen on any given day and then it all changes but nobody bothered to let you know.

The amount of times I have spoken to family members of people I am supporting and they have said you know they went into hospital don't you? Or they had a fall the other day? This is because they expect that somebody would have let me know as I am a professional involved with this person but this information is never shared. I usually find out most of these type of things from family members and if there are no family members involved then friends. It is so frustrating to be having discussions with people when you have not been provided with all the appropriate and necessary information.

We are expected to be mind readers and this is not the case. I wish I was because it would make life a lot easier but I am unfortunately not magic and can only progress with the information available to me, this means that the more that is shared with me the better the experience will be for all involved. This is the reason why I try share as much as I can when appropriate so that the person I am supporting is not repeating the same information because nobody has bothered to speak to each other. I don't enjoy it when that happens in my life so why would I want to make someone else experience that when its not necessary.