Pre Placement Concerns

Getting ready for placement I am now realising the safety that exists within academia and the exposure and responsibility that comes with working with the public.

I currently work with the public, I work with people who are living with mental health problems as well as learning difficulties and so it is not that I am anxious about working with the public more that I am now working with them under the title of student social worker which is very different to that of day care worker or support worker.  The difference, I feel lies in the expectations held by those service users you work with and by the colleagues you work with. When working as a support worker as I currently do there is a sense of, I find it hard to describe but of being separate from the social workers and the doctors, almost of being neutral and not taking sides when it comes to things like refusal of medication, conflict over level of support needed, acceptable behaviour etc. The managers, the supervisors they are the people who meet with the social workers and CPNs and consultants and have more of a hand in decisions than we do, we, after all are just there to support. This of course is not entirely true but allows us to speak to the service users on a “level playing field” and increases the likelihood that they will co-operate with what “they” want when we are able to talk them round.

This changes the minute you introduce yourself as having anything to do with Social Work, Social Services, community mental health team etc. this is because these organisations retain power and control and for those who have already got a limited amount of power or control an immediate reaction is resistance. In my experience Service Users see social worker as doing to them and not doing with them, as making them instead of asking me and for some people as coercing them. Obviously my experience is highly limited but from what I have seen if your role allows you to put your hands up and say “I can’t do anything about that I will phone your social worker/GP/Consultant” then your relationship with the Service User is one of co-operation and openness.

So what is a student social worker then? All of the perks and none of the responsibility? Or the exact opposite all of the work and responsibility and none of the knowledge and perks?

I am aware that in my placement, as a multidisciplinary team, for a certain time of the day I will be doing the same work as the day care staff, I know the big difference is the paper work I will be doing and decisions I will be making. However I am concerned about the expectations and assumptions of both service users and colleagues.

Also physical disability is a very new area for me, in my ILP form I stated I wanted to expand my learning on this area but that does not decrease my nervousness about it. For instance, communication, all of the people I work with have average to good verbal communication and their difficulty lies in understanding and explanation. In my placement there are some people who’s verbal communication is poor and difficult for someone who has never worked with them before to understand. However their brain function is good, therefore they know what they are saying. This is the thing, to continually ask someone what they are saying, to ask someone else, infront of them what they are saying, is, to me, rude! I had a problem like this in Samaritans and people on the phone would become frustrated and there is no other way to learn than to spend time with the person but it still creates huge communication barriers and this is one of my major concerns at the moment.

Meat Market Kids

I recently watched a documentary called “Adopt me I’m a teenager” which was based in America. This documentary introduced me to the concept of adoption parties, where a local community hall is used, pictures of all adoptable children attending are put on the wall and prospective parents go to talk to the children to see if the feel they are a match to any of them. Watching it was a bit difficult the children looked their best and were really selling themselves. This was much more evident in the older children who explained that they knew what kind of things to say and not say. I was then shocked to see that they have an element of what appeared to be local news called “Wednesdays child” were a child up for adoption would have a 10min interview in an appealing environment, say a floral shop being taught how to do an arrangement (because that is such an everyday occurence for a young person in care!) during which they talk about and again sell themselves. It all came across so contrived and lacking in any individual personality of the child. I likened it to how they appeal for rescue animals to be adopted in the UK.

Now I realise I am leaving out the fact that there is a massive problem with older children not being adopted and I realise the outlook for children leaving care, I’ve worked with those children who begin the leaving care process as early as 16, its scary they are completely unprepared and their vulnerability can easily lead to unhealthy lifestyles.
However I tried to imagine selling myself to a possible parent, learning what parts of my personality were not attractive and hiding them, painting on a smile and pulling out my best clothes going through this process time and time again only to be rejected. What message does that send to children who already suffer many self-esteem issues? Also the documentary pointed out these children have learnt an act that only falls away maybe 3months into a probationary placement with a family. So your placed, you feel comfortable enough and trusting enough to start showing who you really are, but the new parents are shocked at the difference and the whole thing falls apart.

I’m aware I’m really oversimplifying. However the whole process does not sit well with me. For me more and more focus and resources should be sunk into the older children in care sector to teach them daily living skills and help them with their self-esteem issues, to be realistic in the fact that adoption is unlikely at 14 etc. So that when the day comes that they are placed in their half way house, or council flat that budgeting, organising their electric bill and all those thing that people with the luxury of a family learn growing up do not seem like such a foreign task and that the support continues until the person feels they do not need it.

For me family does not always equal stability, stability to me is something you learn and you feel in yourself and can not be achieved by attending up to 30 adoption parties and having various placements failing.

Then again I am a naive student.

Placement

I recently spent a morning in the day centre I will be spending my 3 months placement in. It is a day centre and very busy. Admittedly I was slightly disappointed that my soon to be on site supervisor had not got any time to sit me down and explain what my role as a student social worker, in a day centre where there is no social work, position will be, I wish she had organised my visit for a day when she was not as busy.
The I realised, this is what is going to be like, she is my on site supervisor, so she is in charge or putting me on the rota and assigning me cases but she is not there to hold my hand or wrap me in cotton. Placement is somewhere that you learn not to rely on everyone, you figure it out, and if you don’t you ask you do not wait to be shown.

However I am still no clearer on what paperwork is done in the centre…i shall have to wait and see.

What do we do when the musts……cant

Until I begin my new start as a Social Work student I am working as a project worker in a mental health residential unit and for the first time I feel like I am doing the right job, I really love it and although my feelings about it caused me confusion about continuing with my degree I had visions of returning to the organisation under a differnt social work orientated role because I feel that strongly about it and its mission.

However this evening a dispatches documentary was aired on channel four that really put the cat amoungst the pigeons for me. The frustration and resentment from each social worker and support worker came through. It was horrifying for someone in my position who wants to make a career out of empowering and enabling those who are isolated for various reasons within our society. It was a documentary no university would want prospective students to see…and that is one of the problems.

Where are the documentaries and interviews with Social Workers who enjoy and love thier job…or do these rare creatures really not exist? I mean the documentary pointed out very clearly that one of the biggest problems within the sector was the lack of staff, did they think this documentary as one sided and honest as it was, was going to act as an incentive to those considering the job against all pleas from relatives and friends to pick a different role?

I realise this documentary had to be shown and I am glad it did not paint the social worker in a scathing light but more as over worked under staffed burnt out and frustrated work force. However where are the positives? For those who have stayed within the child and family care sector, why have they stayed. Where are the stories of those service users who have had positive and possibly life saving experiences within the Social Care sector?

This problem within the Social Care sector can continue to be mourned, can continue to cause shock for the public, shame for the goverment and pain for those on the front line but none of that is going to change the problem until there is more of an incentive to get people into the sector….more of an incentive than the money they throw at you, positive personal accounts can count for a lot more.

Its Official

Subject to sending in my qualifications and other formalities I will officially be an Undergraduate Student in Queens University studying Social Work, hoping to become a social worker. Despite the fact it feels like the right thing to do it is hard not to be shaken by the constant negative attitude people have towards social workers. I work with a voluntary group that works with young people in care and very few of them have anything nice to say about social workers they have met, my sister who is a public health nurse again has few things encouraging things to say about them. I have to wonder who out there champions social workers? Is it really any wonder its so hard to keep social workers without them slipping through the revolving door when all they hear is how lazy and rubbish they are.

I am so glad I came to the decision to return to study and specifically to social work after such a long time out of the education system. That time was essential to reach this decision in a informed way, and it wasnt easy. I have a passion for this, well I dont know if it is possible to have a passion for something that you have never experienced but I do know this the problems our social services are going through will not be helped but componded by less social workers available due to the negative opinion of them within society which is mostly fueled by the media.

Yes I am excited and could get going right now! But then again I’m only human and we shall see what tomorrows newspapers say!