BASW Student Conf

Today I attended the BASW Student Conference. As someone who is not yet a student, possibly the only person there, pretty much everything I heard was interesting in one way or another. Here are the things that I found particularly interesting/inspiring:

-Making contacts wherever you go is really important, you never know where you’re going to want jobs etc and to really make the most of your placement, go and spend time with other teams within a LA, or visit other agencies within the local area
-Social Work is not only about roles in Local Authorities- look outside the box and consider private and voluntary sector as well, or roles you wouldn’t necessarily have thought of.
-Putting people at ease is an incredibly important part of your job. As a CP social worker, when you enter into a home, the parent assumes you want to take their child away. If you want to be effective, building a rapport and making them feel a little more at ease is incredibly important.
-Don’t only think of yourself as “newly qualified” – everyone has skills and experience beyond their university studying, use those to move beyond that label when applying for jobs
-Campaigning is another way to feel like you’re making a difference. I was inspired by how much this student got involved with other groups on campus to campaign in a range of issues from human rights to climate change and tax evasion but more specifically the work of SWAN (Social Work Action Network.)
-Try to stay well informed, however busy you are – keep aware of the issues that may soon become legislation and affect you.
-Be creative in your placements where possible – some placements may have never had a SW-er in the team, think about how you can make a difference and what you can learn from it.
-Making a decision comes from a combination of cognitive and emotional elements, you can’t separate the two. It’s particularly important to develop emotional intelligence – part of that comes from being aware of and recognising your own emotions, but also from learning how to manage those emotions.
-When they are not managed well we get “amygdala hi-jack”
o “Amygdala hijack is a term coined by Daniel Goleman in his 1996 book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.[1] Goleman uses the term to describe emotional responses from people which are out of measure with the actual threat because it has triggered a much more significant emotional threat. An amygdala hijack exhibits three signs: strong emotional reaction, sudden onset, and post-episode realization that the reaction was inappropriate”
-The other aspect is social intelligence – understanding other’s emotions – look at others and anticipate how they feel, about building rapport.
-Stress is the gap between what you can do and the demands made on you – this is your own perception, a reaction that you can learn to manage.
-Part of this is about self-care – reflective practice, taking time for yourself – one example was spending a few minutes before you go to sleep thinking of 3 things that make you happy and 1 positive experience. Self affirmation, meditation – all ways to take time for yourself.
-But also you need to know your limits and push beyond them – face fear.
-We heard lots about the role of BASW for advice and representation – also the support they can give you during placements or challenging the weak placements you may receive. And the importance of always gathering evidence and making records in your job.
-We had a great talk/drama re-enactment of how to manage service users who are aggressive. We heard about the importance of rehearsal – spend time thinking about what you want to say in a given situation, what would your exit strategy be? If you are under threat, get out.
-Also, ways to ask challenging questions while building a rapport – if your service user is shouting at you, look for ways back in – if they are annoyed that they’ve taken time off work to meet you, perhaps say you weren’t aware they had to do that and in future you’d like to make a more convenient time to meet them etc. If they’re crying, don’t ignore it – show your humane side, but don’t be distracted from challenging questions. (I imagine this is easier said than done.)
-This also lead on to the important of a supportive peer setting and supervision – if we’re not getting any support, if you’re left to deal with issues of aggression on your own, leave. I found this particularly interesting, given the role of a social worker – for us to neglect our peers is quite sad.
-There was also a presentation on the transition phase from student to practitioner and the reality shock that comes from being accountable for your own caseload. Lots of people had struggled with service users who didn’t like them because they were constantly bearers of bad news, and very few in this research study wanted to remain in LA settings.
-Finally after hearing that everyone knows a famous nurse but few know famous social workers (famous rather than infamous) we heard an inspiring talk about Irena Sendler, a Polish SW-er born in 1910 who helped Jewish mothers in the ghettos to give up their children for adoption by Polish families. She hid and buried all their real identities and after the war dug them up and reunited siblings wherever possible. When she died, she was being looked after in a care home by one of the children she’d rescued. I really like the idea of looking back at amazing SW stories – if ever there was a profession in need of some pride and good role models it may be this one.

(I was perhaps less pleased to hear that SW is the 5th most dangerous job after the army and emergency services, "and we don't have a tank or pepper spray to defend ourselves, just our diary". My mum will be pleased!

All in all – a great day!

Few book recommendations that came out of it:

The Spirit Level – which happened to be in my bag today!
Reaching out by David Johnson about emotional resilience
For training on managing aggressive service users go to asenseofself.org
For the film or Irena – “A courageous heart”.