Social Worker Sharing

This blog is going to be a combination of two topics that I feel link which are Ageism and the new proposed bill linked to assisted dying. I went on a session recently about ageism and it got me thinking even more about we way we think about people in our society. As I have explained previously I work in an Older People's team so it is something that I am mindful of on a regular basis but there are a lot of comments that get made in day to day life to people of all ages. I am sure we have all heard comments like “act your age, not your shoe size” or “should you be doing that at your age”. I think if someone was making similar comments about any of the other protected characteristics under the Equality Act then it would not be acceptable but people seem to think that saying it about age is okay because it is so engrained into society that people see it as banter instead. That is where thinking about it in relation to other characteristics such as sexuality makes people feel un...

  I always find it interesting when I am speaking to colleagues who are either students or new to Social Work. There are so many aspects of Social Work that you don't realise are a thing until you attend certain training courses or get a particular case. I was having a discussion regarding the various type of Mental Capacity Assessments that are carried out and although this is something we complete on a semi regular basis in our team we generally complete them for either place of residence or finances but there are a lot of situations where they are also done. One example of this is whether someone has the capacity to consent to marriage which is something that we do not see often, whereas for Social Workers in other teams this may be something they come across a lot more often. There are so many different teams in a council that will all deal with completely different situations even though we cover the same geographical area because our client group is different. As I hav...

  Social Work is a job where no 2 days are the same. However you definitely see a theme in terms of the types of cases we get. Sometimes you can predict what will happen when you have barely begun because although people are individuals and have their own wishes, views and feelings certain aspects appear over and over again. The geographic area that we cover means that a lot of the people we support are older people because of the locations we have. Other local teams get a lot more cases involving drugs and alcohol or additional needs. I see a lot of people on my caseload with either a Dementia diagnosis or suspected Dementia. When I had the opportunity to attend some training on Dementia this week I took it. It was split into 3 sessions, the first two were more what I am used to in terms of training. Here is the information, what are your views, how would you manage this situation etc. Whereas the third session was delivered by Palliative Care nurses and talked about End of ...

  Social work is a balancing act. Not in a literal sense but definitely in a metaphorical plate spinning way. We balance our case load, our diary, training, self-improvement, meetings, and the needs of people. When we are working with someone we are also working with the family, carer, or care provider. This can make situations trickier because what the family think a person need does not always match up with what the person wants. It can be incredibly frustrating and that can be directed at us a lot of the time. Usually this is nothing personal they are just frustrated with a difficult process that they don’t necessarily always understand, and you are the face that they put on that. You are the person representing that agency therefore it becomes your fault. Even when it’s not. I have had many conversations about whether someone has capacity. This is usually one person saying they do and someone else saying they don’t. I always explain that it is not a blanket statement,...

  I had prepared a topic I was going to talk about this week and then something that happened this week changed my mind. The team I work in the cases I work on are generally on my case loads for a few months and then closed. There will always be outliers to that which are there a little longer but that has been my experience so far. I have one person I have been working with for approximately 5 months and I went to visit them this week. This is the fourth time I have seen them due to hospitalisations and periods of time where we were seeing how everything was working before reviewing the situation. The difficultly is that in that time this person is not the same anymore. When I first got involved, we were organising a move from their own home with a care package to an extra care scheme because they needed just a bit more than could be managed at home. They are now in a nursing home being nursed in bed and requiring 24-hour support. I work in a team where we support a lot ...

One thing that people keep telling me is so difficult about my Social Work journey is that I did most of it in a pandemic. I have discussed my views on this in a previous blog post that was on Social Work students page and I have now added onto here. The main worry for people is that I have yet to really spend any time in an office. I was fortunate when I started my final placement that the team, I was in meant that I had a couple of days a week in the office and had my supervision face to face. I agree that I was fortunate but since changing team I have not been in the office at all. I don’t see this as a major issue because I have still been able to build really good relationships with the people I work with. I know that in an office you get the buzz, and you learn through being around people and that is something I am yet to experience but also, I think speaking on the phone provides something different. It has added benefits because I find when someone can’t see you, they are ...