We are not fixers

I am ready to be back in my own team now which tells me that the role I have chosen is definitely the one for me. I went on a duty visit this week with a colleague and it reminded me why I love what I do. I am hoping I will be back in my team soon enough that I can take it on. The family member present at the visit when we explained we were on duty that day not allocated to it asked whether someone else in our team who was allocated it would be as good as us. They would as I work in a good team but it is always nice to know that someone feels you are doing things well.

I feel like I am back in my stride now which is crazy to say when I have been back from maternity leave 7 months and I am only just feeling this way but that is how it feels. Everything has been different since I came back between going part time, having to continue with my studies before I finished my ASYE and then later on being on secondment from my own team to the other project I have been working on. I have thoroughly enjoyed what I have been doing but am ready to get back to longer term work now. I am ready to start afresh with new cases and remind myself of why I got into this in the first place and the only thing that I need to keep in mind in not overloading myself because I do only work part time.

I need to prioritise and remember that I am only human. I cannot do everything all of the time so why do I feel like I need to sometimes. Why do we all? We have students and new staff in our team at the moments and I remember feeling overwhelmed and like I didn't know what I was doing. I felt the same when I came back from maternity leave but having those conversations remind me of how far I have come. I generally know the answers to the questions being asked or at least where to find the information. I know what documents need to be completed and can easily explain why. I get asked for help quite often and whenever people shadow me on visits they always only have good things to say which tells me I must be doing something right. Although they could just be saying that!

Sometimes there are things outside of our control that impact our ability to complete tasks when they are needed and we have to accept that is just how it is. Although certain parts of our job have time frames we need to be mindful of sometimes tasks need to be delegated out to external agencies or other teams which may cause it to take longer. The people we support in our area are generally older people so sometimes a hospital admission or an infection delay us completing what we need to. This is not down to us and there is nothing we can do about it. It is so easy to think about something not getting done and worried that you are going to be pulled up on it but if you have done everything you can do then how can you be expected to do anymore?

As social workers it is easy to feel like we should be able to fix everything. I think because this is how people perceive the job, we are fixers that turn up when everything is going wrong and step in. The assumption is we make decisions for people or for example put them in care regardless of what they want which is not the case at all. We come in to support and work alongside people who cannot manage for one reason or another. We can hear a lot of additional noise from family members who think someone should be in care or that we should do something. I have had cases where the family felt they needed care and after putting in additional things at home they end up still at home many years later. We also end up with regular conversations about what a person should be doing but when they have capacity it is up to them to decide. We also hear well I have Power of Attorney as if that means the person has no say in anything. The health and welfare Power of Attorney does not kick in until someone has been deemed to lack capacity for a decision relating to their health and welfare it isn't just a piece of paper that lets you take over. We have to cover ourselves when completing these assessments and support people but also if we put that person at the centre of what we do that isn't difficult to do.