Social Worker Sharing

 I know I missed last month and that is because I had a loss in my family and did not have the brain power to write a blog at the time, when my head was already overwhelmed. Something had to fall by the wayside and the blog was it last month. I have been supporting my mum through a lot of the aftermath, the processes that need to be followed and the aspects of it that are extremely tricky depending on what documentation exists out there. I know that we advocate for advanced decision making, RESPECT forms and Not for resuscitation but something that I found had made this whole process more difficult is the lack of an up to date will. It causes unnecessary difficulties for those left behind who are trying to sort out funerals, property and other aspects of planning when additional meetings are required to sort out things that would have been much easier had they been done beforehand. I see a lot of people on our list who are on Goldline which is our local support for people dee...

I attended a very interesting full day of training this week and although there was a lot of information included that I could write about I am going to specifically focus on an activity we did that was linked to the wheel of power. For those people that have not heard of the wheel of power, which I will be honest I hadn't until this course it is a wheel that looks at different aspects of identity such as gender, wealth, race etc and demonstrates that those who in the centre of the wheel hold power based on that particular characteristic or aspect of their identity and that those on the outer edges are marginalised. I got into an interesting conversation about this with someone who is outside of the Social Work world afterwards who based on the categories on this wheel has the power in 8 out of 12 categories. They commented on the fact that they do not feel they have privilege or power based on these. I explained how that is because they have not had the experiences that othe...

How would you like to be told to make a decision without all the relevant information? How would you like it if someone made a decision for you and didn't even ask you what you thought? How would you like it if someone disregarded what you wanted because it was easier for them? I would be angry, frustrated, sad, upset and many other emotions but there are so many conversations that happen in Social Work specifically with older people where we are told that they need something because family would find it easier not necessarily because it is what is best for the person. I have had cases where people don't really want me there because they hold Power of Attorney and have already made a decision. I have explained more times than I can count that Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare only kicks in or becomes active when someone loses capacity to make the specific decision. It does not allow you to make decisions for someone who has the capacity to make it for themselves. I...

  I had a conversation with a colleague the other day about how our experiences can impact our practice. We were talking specifically about safeguarding cases and if you are someone who has ever experienced an abusive situation how you would manage this. We talked about other scenarios and I gave the example that when I first started on my final placement in a hospital team it was around the time of the anniversary of losing my grandma so I remember talking to my practice educator in the first couple of weeks of placement about how I thought I would struggle with taking cases where someone had the same medical experience as she did because it would potentially be triggering for me at that time. It felt good to not only be able to have those conversations with someone who was so supportive but reflecting back on it the fact that I was able to recognise that for myself was so important to my development. Obviously we can't always avoid something we would struggle with but it i...

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...

It is coming to the time of year where a lot of people have time off. Me included. Some practitioners can find this difficult because they are concerned about what may happen with their cases whilst they are off. With the team that we work in you never know what is going to happen. This discussion brings us back round to how you find a work life balance or how you switch off from what is a difficult job. We can hold people's lives and futures in our hands so taking a break from that can feel difficult especially when there are situations where carers are struggling with carer strain and certain groups or social inclusion are their lifelines but they close down for Christmas. Especially the ones which are run by volunteers. I have noticed the same when it comes to playgroups and groups for young children. They all stop over the Christmas period which is understandable but it can also cause a lot of anxiety and make situations more difficult for people. Christmas and New Year...

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...