Social Worker Sharing

Risk is a big topic in Social Work. This is more at the front of my mind this week because I attended a training course where we were discussing it. I think the initial thought process to consider is what a risk is or what does that mean to different people. Is this another term that means more to professionals than the people we support. The thing that I find really interesting is that we are so concerned about the risks that the people we support take on a daily basis when they may not even see it as a risk. As not just practitioners but people we take many risks every single day that we do not even think about. Even on a basic level we do tasks such as crossing a road without even considering that it is a risk. I think about it a bit more because I have a young child so I am usually explaining to her why we have to be careful and why it could be unsafe. It may be a consideration that is taken into account when supporting people with learning disabilities or someone who has diff...

Following on from my last blog I wanted to continue the conversation about language but explore another aspect of it. It can be easy to speak in jargon and have to correct yourself to explain what you are talking about. I have noticed this more recently because I am a workplace supervisor for a student and I find myself talking about something then realise that the acronyms and terminology are such second nature that I do not realise that I am not explaining things correctly and end up starting again. It reminded me of when I first started my placement and I did not know what most of these terms meant. I created a document of acronyms so that I could refer to it when I did not understand what had been documented in notes or told to me in an email. I had got to the point where I thought I knew most of the terms but then recently I have had emails containing terms that I still don't know. I think sometimes when people work in different fields such as medical based they can forge...

I was recently reading a couple of blogs from Rewriting Social Care and found that it got me thinking about the use of language and whether this has improved over time. One word that is used often when referring to people who require support is the world vulnerable. What does that even mean? There are a lot of different ways of thinking about this word. Does it mean at risk, does it mean open emotionally, does it mean uneducated or lacking in skills. I don't know about you but I have definitely felt vulnerable in my life but I do not require Social Care support. The two things are not mutually exclusive but they seem to be intrinsically linked. I have felt vulnerable physically when having my daughter because you are in effect in a room full of strangers, not wearing very much, in pain and for me experiencing something I had never done before. Not only was I open emotionally, I was at risk physically and I did not really know what I was doing. I have felt emotionally vulnerab...

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...

One thing that I think you discover fairly quickly once you qualify is that a lot of the time you are thinking about what comes next. Don't get me wrong some people become level 2 and are happy there but a lot of the time managers want to know what training course or self improvement you are doing next to further expand your skills. I am quite happy doing more and am looking forward to upcoming courses to achieve this. I have discussed in depth with my manager and included in my appraisal what I would like to do long term. I am lucky to have a very good manager who at this stage I have worked with for about 3.5 years who knows me well and is very supportive. She cares a lot about the mental health of her staff and will encourage use of paid time off to give us a break when we feel that we need it. She encourages us to be mindful of what we are doing and how we are using our time. This makes me feel very supported and that I am more than a number who is there to make sure th...

  As I am sure you are aware it is pride month and I was having an interesting conversation the other day about how we bring up topics such as sexual orientation, pronouns, gender identity and sexuality with the people we support. As I have mentioned in previous blogs the cases I work on in my team are predominantly older people and I think some people feel uncomfortable asking the people we support these types of questions. As part of our work we update the system with equality monitoring information and one of the questions asked is about sexual orientation. I have seen people complete this part of the questionnaire without actually checking that the information they are inputting is correct. I believe that what happens on a lot of occasions are people get a history from the person who talks about their marriage and an assumption is made about their sexual orientation. Just because someone ends up married to someone of the opposite sex this does not necessarily mean that the...

Paperwork and record taking is definitely up there as one of the worst parts of the job. I think this comes from the fact that a lot of us get into this type of work to support people, help and be there for them. Record taking and paperwork don't make us feel like that is what we are doing. It can feel a lot of the time like it is a task to complete so we can get back to the “real” work. Don't get me wrong some days I definitely feel this way too but more recently I have thought more about it both following training courses but also just generally in my day to day work. The notes that we take serve a purpose. They let people know what is currently happening on the case. They record who has taken responsibility for particular tasks. It notes down the outcome of a meeting or assessment. It also covers our backs if something happens down the line. Good note taking makes sure that we can evidence exactly what was said or done in case it is needed. One thing that was said to ...