Social Worker Sharing

Imposter syndrome is something that we hear a lot about in Social Work. I have heard people talk about it at all levels of their career. I wrote about it briefly when I finished my ASYE in one of my earlier blogs but I was reminded of it recently when I was chairing a meeting for someone else finishing their ASYE. It reminded me of when I had newly finished my ASYE and felt that way. It is crazy to me to think that was almost 3 years ago and that I have been qualified for 5.5 years. I was still feeling it in that meeting because it is the first of that type I have ever chaired and when someone at the start of their journey said it my initial reaction was to respond that we all feel that way even when we have been qualified for many years. I have heard senior managers talk about feeling that way as well as lecturers. I am sure that people in other careers feel the same too. It can be really hard to see yourself as a professional if you don't feel like it matches you in your p...

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...