Social Worker Sharing

  Something that has been discussed a lot the last 2 years or so is the impact that the pandemic has had on Social Work practice. A lot of the conversations around this both with colleagues and in the research or articles that have been written about it focus on how it has impacted the Social Worker. Both in their day-to-day practice but also the impact it has had on their work life balance, mental health, and stress levels. It has definitely had this impact because the way that people are used to working have been taken away at very short notice and everyone has had to adapt to new ways of working. I do think that a lot of the focus have been on the professionals and how they are managing but when doing some minor research prior to writing this post I could not find anything from the people who access services about how they have found receiving Social Work support in the pandemic. I know that in general the pandemic has increased levels of loneliness, domestic violence, an...

  There are many things to take into consideration when working with people and it can be easy sometimes to forget small details. As I have mentioned previously intersectionality is an important concept to keep in mind. Intersectionality discusses where the different parts of a person’s identity meet. The difference between one person’s experience and another even though they have something in common they don’t have everything in common, so they experience situations differently. When first being allocated a new case, I always have a read about the person and find out any background information that we have. I do this for two reasons, one to make sure I have a starting point and do not make people repeat the same information to me as they have already given. Also, because it makes me aware of any issues with communication such as a language barrier or sensory impairments. This can also include cognitive impairments such as if someone has a dementia diagnosis, they may struggle ...

  I have talked in a previous post about the way people learn but I was thinking about where that learning comes from. There are obvious sources such as places of education or training courses but actually there are so many places you can gain new knowledge from, especially in Social Work. I have attended a lot of training courses and I mean a lot, but I find that a lot of my learning comes from day-to-day experiences that I take for granted. It comes from a conversation with a colleague or another professional. It can come from reading an article or hearing a podcast. It could also come from a conversation with a stranger. There are certain things in life that I have not experienced because I come from a place of privilege. That does not mean that I cannot attend things or have open conversations that expand my horizons and allow me to learn more about those types of situations. As I am sure you can tell from my picture, I am White British, and this means that I have not dea...

  Everyone says that they are not judgemental and that they do not make assumptions. That’s just not true. Don’t get me wrong most of us do this in our heads and never use the judgment for any reason but we still do it. There are so many assumptions that are made either through stereotyping or just expectations. We perceive certain people to be a specific way or enjoy something specific and are shocked when that is not the case. One example that I come across often in my role is people telling me that the person has Dementia, so they lack capacity. I have explained in a previous post why this statement is problematic in terms of the Mental Capacity Act, so I won’t explain it again. However, that is the same as saying that everyone who has epilepsy or diabetes is the same and that is ridiculous. Just as much as if someone said it about Dementia. First and foremost, there are over 400 types of Dementia that are caused by different things and have different side effects so making s...

  In one of the lectures I took part in at university they suggested that we complete the Honey and Mumfords Learning Style questionnaire to establish what type of learner we are ( https://www.ilfm.org.uk/cms/document/ILFM_Learning_Styles_Resource_TK_09Oct17_Ver1.0.pdf ). Initially I thought this sounds like a waste of time but did it anyway. Now I feel completely differently because it really did help me through my degree to know what worked for me and how to get the best out of me. I have found that I learn best when I am able to discuss what has been learnt through with someone because when I try to recall the information, I can link it to the discussion that was had at the time. An example of this would be how I revised for my law exam, instead of just writing and rewriting notes and a practice answer for the seen question I revised with someone else. We would test each other on different laws, legislations and what sat where. We also talked through our answers to the seen ...

  I was in a workshop this week for my Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) and the focus was self-care, resilience, and wellbeing. These are topics that are discussed a lot in Social Work practice, especially resilience. One of the questions that was asked was what in your job do you have control over? My initial gut reaction was not a right lot. Until we discussed it further as a group. I found that actually we have a lot more control than I realised. When I had initially thought about it, I automatically thought about control over what happens, how long something takes or how a process is done. We definitely do not have control over those, but we do have control over the smaller level day to day things. It was mentioned about managing our own diaries, this is something I am so used to doing in different roles I have worked that I didn’t realise until I thought about it afterwards. For the Local Authority I work for that includes start and finish times because we ...

  I know that a lot of people don’t necessarily understand what Social Workers do but what I find most frustrating is when other professionals will tell someone we are working with that something is our responsibility when it’s not. I have had this happen quite recently where a GP told a family that for that specific issue to get sorted, they need to speak to the Social Worker because that is there job or even suggest that they go above me to my manager to get it sorted. Luckily, I was able to explain that it is not my responsibility in this particular instance because it was regarding equipment. I could explain to the family member that I am not medically trained so would not be able to order equipment because I do not understand what they would need. If this situation was the other way around, I would not want to signpost or refer someone somewhere if I was not sure it was the right place for them to be. I know if I was the person on the other side and was given a number to ...