Social Worker Sharing

  When working in Social Work we don’t do it for the positive comments because if we did, we would be sorely disappointed. There is a lot of assumptions made about Social Workers and what we do. I have found that when I say that I am a Social Worker people automatically assume that I work with children. The media show that Social Workers remove children, and some people genuinely believe that they are paid for doing so. Like they get some kind of bonus based on it. That is probably the furthest thing from Social Work values that could happen. Social Work values focus on social justice and improved outcomes. Social Workers don’t want to remove children from their families but if it is the best thing for them and the only option at that moment then that is what they are going to do because the child in that instance is the focus and at the centre not the parents. I see similar experiences when working with adults where family members believe that someone should be in care but...

  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 ...

  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...