Social Worker Sharing

How would you like to be told to make a decision without all the relevant information? How would you like it if someone made a decision for you and didn't even ask you what you thought? How would you like it if someone disregarded what you wanted because it was easier for them? I would be angry, frustrated, sad, upset and many other emotions but there are so many conversations that happen in Social Work specifically with older people where we are told that they need something because family would find it easier not necessarily because it is what is best for the person. I have had cases where people don't really want me there because they hold Power of Attorney and have already made a decision. I have explained more times than I can count that Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare only kicks in or becomes active when someone loses capacity to make the specific decision. It does not allow you to make decisions for someone who has the capacity to make it for themselves. I...

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 l...