Advocate

We wear a lot of different hats as a Social Worker. The one I have been seeing a lot recently is advocate. Now that we are an older people's team we seem to be getting a lot more referrals coming from people who either have no family or due to the family dynamics they are not the best people to support them. It is trickier to support people who come through with a Dementia diagnosis or similar when there is no family involved because usually we would speak to the family to gain the required information about how they are managing or what has changed recently.

This is not an option in situations where they don't have anyone because when they live alone or do not have people who are close to them it does not give the opportunity to gain that salient information. We can see records and notes on the systems but it does not give us insight into how they are managing day to day, we do not know how their finances are managed or if there bills are being paid. We end up doing a lot more investigating than we otherwise would.

The other scenario is when there is family but people do not speak to each other within that family. This means we act as a go between or receive contradicting information so we have to work hard to establish what the actual situation is. It can also mean that we try and provide support to someone but our efforts get blocked because it stops them getting what they want.

We have to advocate for the person we are supporting in all situations and that is a common thread in Social Work. Sometimes there may be family involved but they have a differing perspective on what should happen so we end up having to step in to make sure the person gets what they want instead of being forced into a decision because family think it is the correct thing. Don't get me wrong sometimes people end up making a choice because they don't really feel like they have a choice. Us supporting them through those discussions allows that to be an informed choice and to explore why other options are not suitable before making a decision, sometimes a reluctant one.

The assumption when I say I am a Social Worker with Older People is that I put people in care homes. It runs alongside the assumption that Children's Social Workers remove children. I have done a lot of explaining as to why that is not the case. I have explained the process that happens when someone makes a move into a care home on more occasions than I can count. I have detailed how the house may have to be sold, that family pay the third party top up or that if they go into care then say they don't want to be there then another process is followed. All of this is the type of information you only know if you need to either through being in this role or because of personal experience. A lot of people ask questions about what would happen in certain scenarios and want a full explanation. The difficulty that comes from this is that until it happens we don't really have the answer.

People want to prepare for the future and that is absolutely understandable but a lot of the work we do is the here and now. Obviously we know if carers are not supported then carer strain would get to unmanageable levels and potentially mean the person ends up in care but we can only base what is provided on what they currently need. We cannot put equipment in place before it is needed or provide an increase to hours as they may get worse. It is more of a process that happens alongside the family and the situation.

I am not saying people don't end up needing an increase in hours or more care and support but as we do not have a crystal ball we cannot know what that is or when that will happen. Sometimes I wish we did as it would make our lives so much easier.