Xmas with care leavers

I spent Xmas day yesterday volunteering with the Tope project.

The Tope project was set up by a group of volunteers because a young man, Tope, himself a care leaver, took his own life a few years ago around the Xmas period. Xmas time was identified as a particularly lonely and difficult time, and this group of people thought it would be great to set up a project for care experienced young people to come together and enjoy the day. This was their pilot project for 70 young people.

I had a really inspiring and memorable Xmas yesterday. Firstly, the day was superbly organised. Outside my social work MA and for the previous 10 years, I have been running my own charity, and so I know quite how difficult it is to run big events in spare time. But this event was incredible, and it seemed to really bring to light everything Xmas is all about. All the volunteers genuinely just cared and wanted to put on a fantastic day for the care leavers. There was a huge amount of food, fun and activities, from arts and crafts, to giant jenga, xmas films and incredible goodie bags for everyone with donations of gifts. Lorraine Pascale, herself a care leaver, showed up to give away signed books and talk about her own experiences, and an Arsenal rep, gave out gifts and the chance to tour the Emirates.

But what I really loved was chatting to so many young people and watching them chat to each other. I met young people who used to be homeless and recently have spent years in hostels, young people living with siblings in cheap hotels because there is no housing available, and young people still in care, who for whatever reason, decided they would prefer to spend Xmas with other care experienced young people than their foster family. Just before i left, two of the girls on my table started to bond, to chat over their experiences, over the careers they might want to do, or the song they might sing to the room - and it just felt pretty awesome. The whole experience felt inclusive. Some of the inspiring people who helped to lead it, from the Children's Rights Service just brought tonnes of energy, and had everyone laughing but also identifying with the experiences they talked of. It was grassroots, it was what the wonderful Cameron would call the Big Society, in between trying to make these people homeless by cutting their housing benefit. (sorry i digress!).

It chimed with me partly because I love working with young people, and got the same buzz from it that I did after mentoring during the summer, and from my current placement working with children in care, partly because it''s reinforcing the topic of my dissertation. I'm looking into the lack of emotional support care leavers get and how to help them in developing a support network, or understanding why they might not choose to engage with what social workers traditionally offer. I also saw how resilient these young people were, having gone through tough times, but still able to come together, many of whom turned up as teenagers at the event knowing no-one, and laugh and joke together, offering me advice as a trainee social worker (get to know the young person, keep in contact, remember to build a relationship, not just talk about issues, be supportive) and finally, because there is nothing better than being surrounded by volunteers like you, with the same passion, the same interests and with a desire to make a difference.

Thank you to the Tope project for giving me the opportunity to be part of such an inspiring and memorable event.

Every time i have an experience like this, it makes me question the direction I want my career to go  -is it social work, is it youth work, is it some kind of charity youth engagement role, or entrepreneurial social enterprise role - but whatever it is, it has to be something that makes me feel the way I did yesterday.

And another five tools...

And another five:

Going on a journey:

Another way of helping young children to open up about their family and relationship. Draw a picture of a bus or a toy bus and the invite the child to pretend they are going on holiday with their family. Ask, ‘who would you sit next to on the bus?’ and ‘where might you like go on holiday’ – if they draw a tent, ask them who would you feel comfortable sharing your tent with’……

More story-telling:

You can also use techniques such as a day in the life of a child. You can use role play or dolls to take the part of different members of the family. If you are playing the  part of a member of the family, ask the child what you should say in certain scenarios.

The magic carpet ride – this can be useful to assess attachment.

It is adapted by Mary Corrigan 1990.

Introduce a magic story ride – close your eyes, imagine you are sitting on a beautiful rug infront of a fire at home, on the rug is a basket of your favourite food. Describe the food, everytime you take something more food appears. The rug is very soft and it gently lifts up. Hang on as it flies, it is going down the hall to the front door of a house where the door is open. Someone is standing there, who is it?

This is likely to be the person they feel most attached to and safe with.

Body pictures – this can be useful if you suspect physical or sexual abuse

A body is drawn onto a large piece of paper. Using colouring pens, invite the child to draw their face then ask them where in the body they feel happy, bouncy, cold, warm, cross, angry and shocked. Ask if they have had any bumps and bruises and invite them to draw and colour these in. The child can make clothes for their picture from wapping paper. Plasters or cream can be applied to the most painful places so the child feels heard and better.

The window: (this is very similar to 3 houses).

A worker can draw a window and then the child to draw in the top right hand corner a picture of something in their past, in the bottom corner a picture of the present, top left, a picture of their hoped for future and in the bottom left a picture of the fear that will prevent their hopes for the future being revealed.

Direct work with young people

I thought it might be helpful to post examples I find of good exercises to do with young people.

I'll keep adding to these and it would be great if anyone wants to share their own! Please tweet or comment to add.

I need to also think about a more useful way of categorising them, rather than in a long list - but that might be a future project.

First five

1. 3 Islands - helps to understand dynamics of relationships

Draw 3 islands. Ask the young person who would be on the island with them, they would spend lots of time with these people. Who would be on the next island which has a bridge connecting it. They don’t see them all the time but can see them as and when they want. Who would be on the third island, far away, who they would not see.

This is helpful in opening up conversations to understand fears or risks associated with characters, both in the young person's history and present, can help with disclosures. Also helps show desires - who might they wish they were living with now? Who did they wish they could see more, or less?

2. Agony aunt scenarios - projective technique for more uncomfortable conversations/projecting by thinking through 3rd person

I used this when doing a sex education session with a young person. As she was quite embarrassed about the topic, I created some agony aunt scenarios to explore her attitudes to things like peer pressure i.e – “Dear…., At school everyone talks about having sex and I’m the one left out. I’m thinking I should just do it so I can fit in with everyone else, what do you think?”

      3.     Story Stems – this one came from a psychologist report - shows attachments and role expectations 

Story Stems are situations set up with dolls house figures and furniture. The psychologist sets up a story and begins to act out and narrate the scenario. The child is asked to complete the story. The stories are set within the family and contain situations triggering high arousal in the child character such as fear or pain, which would normally lead to the enactment of attachment behaviours such as seeking comfort from a caregiver. The way the child completes the story reflects on their attachment narrative and also tells us what their expectations of the roles of different family members and the relationships between them are like. The interpretation is based both on the content of the narrative the child gives, the coherence and style of the story, and the affect shown by the child when telling it.

    Narratives which are coherent, rich in detail of normal domestic life and contain      nurture and no traumatic intrusions reflect secure attachment experiences. Chaotic narratives, traumatic intrusions, and lack of warmth or detail show deficiencies in attachment e  experiences. Research has shown that story stems change over time, reflecting the improved quality of the child’s internal working model over time in a stable caring placement.

Examples include – coming home late without telling parents first, waking up having a nightmare, smashing the window with a ball.

    4.     Post boxes – also from a psychologist report - shows importance and quality of relationships

In this task the child selects post boxes to represent each member of their family. They are then given a large number of small cards with messages such as “this person frowns at me” and asked to post them to the most appropriate person. I explained the meaning of any unfamiliar words. Cards that the child does not wish to post to a member of the family can be posted to Mr Nobody. The number of cards given to different people usually represents the amount of importance that person has in the child’s life, and the content of the cards chosen reflects the quality of that relationship. To the original set I have added a number of cards indicative of child protection concerns, and issues relevant to parent-child relationships.

5. 3 houses - thanks to @MrDougalDog for reminding me of this one - strengths, risks and desires

This is based on the Signs of Safety risk assessment and helps to understands strengths, risks and desired safety - or things that need to change to get to the young person's desired outcomes. The three houses are 'house of worries' 'house of good things' 'house of dreams'. For each you look at internal and external factors - ie young person's own strengths, and those that comes from outside sources - friends, family, community etc.

On this link you can see an image of the template. You can download the powerpoint for a clearer one: http://www.practicecentre.cyf.govt.nz/policy/practice-tools/resources/three-houses-tool.html

Here is a helpful article with guidance on how to use it: http://www.d.umn.edu/sw/snydersfiles/AdvCW/week7/Three_Houses_Article.pdf

Children in Care team through the eyes of a newbie

I have been on my placement in a local authority Children in Care team (CiC) for ten days now. That’s obviously not a very long time and so this blog post comes from someone with limited experience. But one of the things I have been discussing with my fellow student is our lack of induction. The placement has been great so far, I’m loving it – but I do feel I’m asking a ridiculous amount of questions because we did, in many ways, get thrown into the deep end.

As such, I suppose this post is more for students or people wanting a basic insight into some of the things the team does on a day to day basis. Given that I’ve only been there for ten days, I will definitely leave lots out but I’ll come back to this at a later point.

So the basics:

Our CiC team handles a few child protection cases but mainly works with LAC or CLA (looked after children also known as children looked after…)

I have been allocated 3 ‘cases’ as well as co-working a CP case. 3 young people – all between the age of 10-15. However, our team can work with babies, from the moment of birth, up until 16 when the young people will be transferred to the 16+ team. I know this is different in some Local Authorities – for example some leaving care teams will meet the young person age 16 but not start formally taking over the case until they are 18.

On a basic level, in terms of statutory requirements:

-          I need to visit each young person every 4 weeks minimum (stat requirements are 6 weeks, in our LA it’s 4 weeks.)

-          I need to plan for and prepare for LAC reviews. They tend to happen every 6 months and involve writing a report, giving an update on all the areas of the CAF framework – child’s developmental needs, parenting capacity both of birth parents and foster parents etc. I have just completed my first one for a LAC next week. As part of this, it’s important to get the views of the young people pre the meeting. I was given a specific consultation leaflet to go through with my young person, but we are going to be learning to use a piece of software which is a much more dynamic and engaging way for young people to express their views, tailored to their age group – where they can choose themes and characters and play games while filling in their answers. After the LAC review, I will then be updating their care plan in accordance with key decisions made.

-          I need to attend PEP reviews every 6 months. Personal Education Plan meetings – where you discuss with the school how the young person is getting on, look at any extra support they might need…

-          You also need to make sure their health assessments are done on time and there is an ongoing health action plan

On top of this, there is a lot of day to day stuff. I have found so far that despite being pretty efficient (that’s not trying to blow my own trumpet but I think if I have one strength, being organised and efficient is it) I have a huge to do list that grows by the day. Each visit you do often ends in a pile of tasks – mine has included everything from applying for a passport for my young person to helping to arrange contact between them and their siblings to looking into whether a foster care agency will pay for the young person to go on a school trip.

Then there’s the stuff that you really want to be focusing on, creating more meaningful direct work with young people. From my measly 10 days, I can already see how little time there is to do this, even as a student. I have started to read up on life story work, in the hope of creating a book for one of my young people before she moves to her next long term placement. I am looking into finding an advocate for another young person and need to consider a referral to counselling, if their eligibility meets the threshold, for another.

In between this, there are duty days, where we must not arrange visits, but be on the desk for anything that might come in – such as supervising contact sessions between birth parents and children in care, or helping out with cases where the social worker might be away.

There’s also the limits set by the fact that you can only see young people after 4pm when they come home from school. I have found this can make it quite hard, in the three days a week I’m on placement, to fit all my visits in, but it’s also a really nice way to break up the day, if you’ve been sat working through your more ‘paperwork based’ to do list in the first half of the day, knowing your visit is coming up to look forward to.

There’s lots of other stuff that I know little about as it isn’t something I’ve yet had to do – like viability assessments – working out if someone might be a suitable foster carer before handing it over to the fostering team to do the full on assessment.

I’m loving it so far. It’s very interesting. There are a huge number of learning opportunities. Perhaps frighteningly so. We have a big responsibility – the term ‘corporate parent’ comes up a lot. And everytime I see something on my list move further down, it’s important to remember and sometimes reconsider priorities. It has made me sad that so early on, I’m struggling sometimes to find the time to work on the things I really want to, but I also think that the smaller tasks are taking me that much longer because I have to ask a million trivial questions.

It’s pretty damn exciting though. I’ve spent lots of time researching direct work techniques, starting to make my own toolkit, including my handmade board game! And a variety of worksheets for when they might be appropriate.

There are also many challenges, and I'm sure i'll go into these more once I gain further experience. But one that has struck me is the dynamic between social worker and foster carer. There have been 1 or 2 instances already where the tone a foster carer has used, or their advice to the young person, didn't sit entirely right with me - and I think that will be an interesting dynamic to explore further..

That’s all for now!

End of summer, preparing for final year.

I can’t quite believe my 2 month summer has come to an end. I wasn’t quite sure how I’d fill it but in the end it was ridiculously busy. I spent a bit of time back at the WhoCares Trust charity, I spent 2 weeks and 3 Sundays, on an incredible camp, mentoring 16 year olds. This has been my favourite bit of the summer and I’m sad to be saying goodbye to them this weekend. I’ve been back to adland to freelance. And I’ve completed my training to be a Prince’s Trust mentor next year. I’ve also spent a bit of time thinking about and reading up on my dissertation topic – which as it stands, is about the lack of emotional support/the role of the support network for care leavers…and am coming to the end of organising my big annual charity event which takes place next weekend. So…. This week I went to have a meet and greet at my new placement team, a local authority Children in Care team. Generally, I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity. This was my top choice for a placement team, and the area of foster care is one of the main ones that inspired me to move into social work, within a broader passion for social justice. I’m also pretty nervous. It’s going to be an extremely different environment from the last placement. In my first placement, the first 6 weeks were an induction period where we held no cases, and even when that changed, it grew slowly to 3 clients, all of whom lived in the setting and so were also ‘managed’ by all the staff there. This time, I have already been told 3 ‘cases’ allocated to me, before I’ve even begun. But there sounds like a heap of learning opportunities, and basically I just hope I’m up to the job. I was thinking a bit about the role – and how on the one hand, you’re trying to get your portfolio done for uni, and hit your key roles etc, and on the other hand you’re trying to impress your practice educator and do a good job. And I think its quite easy to forget, as a student, the third area – in this case, to do a great job for the children I’ll be working with, the whole reason we all chose this career. Whilst that may sound like I’m not doing it for the right reasons or ridiculous that I would even forget this – I don’t think that’s the case, I just think it’s easy to become bogged down in the targets you are being set and the task at hand, i.e to pass the MA! And so, to remind me of that constantly, I stuck on the wall a fantastic double page spread from the WhoCares magazine, entitled ‘social workers read this’ written by young people, with quotes as to what makes a good and bad social worker. Tomorrow comes an opportunity to recap on some of the law, ready for my first week next week. Here’s to a challenging but hopefully fantastic final year, and the chance to reinforce and reward my decision to change career! P.s If anyone has any idea how to sort the formatting in Blogger and make the paragraphs that I can see when i write the post, actually appear when i post it, i'd love to know!!

Working with teenagers for the first time...

This week I had my first experience of working with teenagers. I have been convinced for quite some time that this is the age group I’d like to work with when I qualify as a social worker, but I hadn’t actually had any experience to base that on. I’ve done youth work with 10-12 year olds for years but teenagers was a new thing. My experience on my first placement, working in a residential project for adults with mental illness had taught me many skills that I thought would also help with this age group. My role as keyworker had been all about developing one on one relationships, and I had worked with clients with a range of emotions, from aggressive behaviour to apathy and disengagement, all of which I felt would be relevant. This week I worked as a mentor on week 2 of a three week programme. (I still have week 3 to do, but it’s not residential.) It was an incredibly inspiring process and massively reinforced my desire to work with this age group. There’s so much written about young people, many of these stereotypes we discussed this week – of violence and anti-social behaviour, of laziness and apathy. But this group of young people couldn’t have been more different. In fact, one of them, on his 16th birthday, was on a visit that we lead to a care home where they engaged with people with both dementia and schitozphrenia, and turned to us to ask if he really had to leave then or if he could stay longer. He’d been going round giving the older people nicknames (in a good way) to make them feel part of our team. He was singing songs with them and generally having a pretty great time. This is the stuff that should make the press. This programme is all about inspiring future leaders and discussing engagement in the local community. As our group had signed up for drama, we worked with an incredible practitioner, who helped them make sense of their experience through theatre, and express many of the emotions and difficulties they had felt, in such a powerful showcase on the final day, that it brought some of the audience to tears. They left their families with a message of possibilities and hope. And they’re coming back next week to work on a campaign about raising awareness of mental health issues, in older people within their local community, to try to inspire and engage other young people. In addition to all this group work, myself and the other mentor of the team, carried out one on ones with each young person, spending time with them to discuss their goals in life and identify their strengths. This was probably my favourite bit of the week. Because this week was a huge learning for me too. At times I felt a bit despondent, looking at the other youth workers and feeling that I was a bit too shy in comparison, that I didn’t have their outgoing ability to jump into a room and instantly energise 63 kids. But over time, I have come to accept that there’s little point comparing yourself to those around you and to accept who I am and the strengths I do have, and I’d like to think that working in this way, through one on ones plays to my strengths. Getting to know these young people and inspire them to see quite how amazing they are. The theme that constantly came through was their lack of self belief. One of the things I most enjoyed was talking at the end of the week, to the mother of the drama’s leading lady. The girl whose acting skills blew me away but who was filled with insecurity. I really enjoyed telling her mum quite how great she was, and using the one on one time, to try to drum that in, just a little bit more. I also found certain moments a real challenge and learning for me. Having mainly worked with much younger children, I was in a few situations that I was not used to, where I saw young people upset and where it wasn’t for me to help. This was something I struggled with at first. One night I came back to my flat to find 2 of the 4 young people I was ‘looking after’ in tears. I got the sense that it was about something like a fight with a friend and I asked if they wanted to talk but they didn’t. It was incredibly difficult that evening going to sleep, hearing people crying from their rooms but accepting that they are not kids, they are young adults and they are entitled to their own space and their own way of coping, knowing I am there if needed. I think this is all part of learning about life development, and understanding how to tailor your communication appropriately. How to build the relationship of a mentor, not a friend or teacher. How to guide, support and inspire, not patronise or preach. I’m only halfway through my social work journey and I still don’t know where it will take me. But I really do feel privileged to have spent 6 months working with adults with mental illness and this last week and the next to come working with these young people. I don’t know what job out there is going to be right for me, whether it will be a pure social work one or not – but I do know that working with these young people in the last few days, has made me feel more fulfilled than I have in a long time.

End of my first placement - looking back

I am now at the end of my placement, just two weeks to go. Looking back, I think I have learnt huge amounts and been very luck to be placed in a setting where I have been so immersed in my clients' worlds, where I get to see them all during their good and bad days or hours, not just for the one hour social work appointment that I might be limited to in a different setting. I think that has been invaluable as a first year placement, helping me build my confidence in communicating with a range of clients, learning to put boundaries in place, to work with aggressive behaviour and to try to achieve some positive outcomes. I spoke in my group supervision on Friday about my lesson in celebrating the small differences. You can't come into this career without hoping to make a difference but none of us can 'fix' things. Of my 3 clients here, one is currently in prison and one has had to leave the placement temporarily after an aggressive incident. However within the last 6 months I can celebrate the little things I have achieved; the conversations where hopefully I broke through and helped give hope, the services I found and helped my clients engage with or the sense that someone cared which felt new and unusual to them. So many people struggle to define social work and admittedly my job on this placement has not been that of a traditional social worker - more a keyworker, working alongside therapists. But what has struck me, perhaps one of the many difficulties of the job, is that every time you open your mouth to a client/service user, you are doing your job and those words, that you often come up with in the moment are so important. When a client is telling me they feel suicidal, or unloved, or they are being threatening or just despondent or apathetic, we think in the moment of the best thing to say. And often I feel at that time quite a lot of pressure to consider my words carefully abd put the emphasis on listening. This is why I am glad next year we will be learning counselling skills. So I look towards my summer now, with a mixture of chill time, volunteering and dissertation work and am slightly disbelieving that I am now halfway through and will qualify next year. I am excited to start working with social workers in September and to get closer to the client group I believe I want to work with but I'll miss both clients and staff a huge amount. I feel lucky to have had this setting and I believe that the group supervision and fri afternoon business meetings together with regular 'pre' and 'post' groups are an invaluable foundation for reflective thinking, both on a personal and collaborative level. Bring on the final 2 weeks!  

Celebrating small differences

I haven’t written a blog post in quite a while, mainly because university has been pretty mental. My exams are now finished, and I have recently found out I have been accepted onto a local authority graduate scheme which means I will get my second placement with them and if the placement goes well and I like it and they like me, pending an interview, I’ll be offered a job there for the next two years. I’m very excited about it although anxiously awaiting to find out which team I’ll be placed in. My top choices would be LAC or young offenders, as my instinct is that that is the area I’d like to work. And if not those two, then I’d like child protection as I think the experience would be invaluable. So we’ll wait to see! I now have about 30 days left of my placement and a month to complete my portfolio – it’s weird being able to see the end in sight, and I’m trying to sort out my summer. I’m waiting to find out if I’ll work on a residential camp with young people and have a few other places I’m in contact with, as well as dissertation work and a holiday planned! So, diary aside, recently there has been some big stuff happening on placement. My first client, who I have spent a great deal of time working with, will be leaving soon, at short notice, for a range of reasons I won’t go into for confidentiality purposes. As a result of this imminent departure, I felt that I did the first piece of work that I felt really proud of, and one of the reasons I’m writing about it, is because it’s nice to celebrate the good stuff that we do, particularly as it wasn’t really recognised at all by my placement and I think sometimes this stuff should be. Or maybe it just felt like a big deal to me but either way I’m happy. My client was going to have a choice to go to a different placement that they were offered or not take it, which would likely mean she would find herself homeless. As I predicted, when offered the placement she said that she did not want it. She was angry at the organisation and refused to listen to what was on offer nor did she want to consider the consequences. The assessment at the new placement was lined up for the same day, so if she could not be persuaded to go, a few days later she was likely to be homeless, so it was a pretty important day. I couldn’t bear the idea of my client being homeless. Despite certain unacceptable behaviour, I had seen so many great qualities in her (not to mention that no-one deserves to be homeless) and had formed what I think has been a really good relationship through the ups and downs and so I was determined to support her to make the decision that I really felt was best for her. I sat with her over many hours, sometimes just with her, sometimes in a meeting with the housing department which she had organised and sometimes over the phone when she left to talk through her options. At one point while she was angrily shouting about not wanting to have anything to do with the organisation, I stopped her and just said firmly, ‘I’m speaking to you as an adult here, what will you do on Monday, if you don’t take this placement’. And it seemed to work/ She stopped talking and just thought about it and then asked me why I cared so much and I was glad to be able to say that I’d really enjoyed working with her over the last 5 months so it was really important to me that she was ok wherever she went next. She said she would think about it and a few hours later called me to say she’d take it. For me, I guess this was a pretty big deal, it felt like I’d made a bit of a difference. She may well act out in a similar way at the next placement, as she so often has before. But I knew from her CPN that no other options were available, and I’m hoping that after so much rejection in her life, knowing someone cared, might have made a tiny difference. This will be a difficult week as I’ll really miss her and hope it goes well. But I think it’s important that we celebrate the small differences we can make. Particularly because I find that in my placement, differences are so often intangible and up and down, mental health has no quick fix solution – nor do any of the issues our service users come to us with, that the small peaks have to be noted, to help us get through the frustrations that many days bring.

Capacity, lawyers and ramblings

First - I have no idea why this blog has got rid of all my spacing but don't have time to work it out right now, apologies!! During the course of my MA I have done some basic learning on capacity. I know the 5 key principles of the MCA and broadly understand the DoLS. But in terms of application there are still areas I'm unclear on and how well trained different professionals may be in this field. Recently I witnessed a client who needed to go to court and give a guilty or not guilty plea. The weeks before the hearing their mental health had deteriorated quite a bit and it was thought this was largely due to the anxiety about the upcoming hearing. In the days before, my client was asked to call the lawyer to tell them the plea so they could prepare the case. The client refused to do so and then when they did call, it was only to sack the lawyer and ask for a different one to represent them. On the day, the client was incredibly anxious, did not really engage with the lawyer and so it was suggested that they say that the client lacks capacity to make a plea and therefore can be assessed by a psychiatrist. When I was informed of this I thought it was the right decision and wondered why none of the staff had thought in the day or two before that this might end up being the case. Someone expressed the view that the lawyer had only said this because they didn't know how to deal with the client, having only met him years before and therefore wanted to avoid it going to trial if a non guilty plea was given. This lead me to think firstly did he have the capacity to make the decision to change lawyers at the time and therefore end up with one who may have been less experienced at 'dealing' with the client and also it felt sad that it was looked at in that way rather than think we are protecting the client's mental health. I still find it hard to know whether they did have capacity in these two decisions regarding the lawyer and the plea. They can retain the information and communicate the response but can they understand it? I struggle to know. I suppose that's the purpose of the assessment. We had assumed the client had capacity and I had done everything to support the client in making the decision, explaining the outcomes of both pleas and I was aware that the client could make an unwise decision but was it one they understood? Also, are there any lawyers with specific training in working with clients with mental health difficulties? Or much training in this matter? Apologies if this is a really obvious question .

My post on Guardian Social Care Network

The Guardian kindly asked me to write a post about my career change!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/social-care-network/social-life-blog/2012/apr/05/swap-advertising-social-work?CMP=twt_gu

Midway point of placement and the Guardian Open Weekend

I'm now approaching the midway point of my placement. And i'm enjoying it more than ever. I'm particularly enjoying the work I do with one of my clients who was recently released from prison. After i set up our first keywork session to create some realistic goals we can work on together, i now regularly receive notes under the office door or thrust in my hand with more goals to work on! Whether or not they are achieved, it feels like a good mindset to be in and i feel like i've developed a really positive relationship with him.

And i found out yesterday that I'll be getting a third client next week, which is exciting as students normally only get 1 or 2. This might sound very small compared to the caseloads you get in stat settings but it's very different being a keyworker in a residential setting as the face to face support is much greater.

One of the things i'm loving is the randomness, the charmingness (i know it's not a real word!) of working with people everyday. The unpredictability of it. While some days may be stressful or emotional and full of incidents or clients shouting, many days are spent laughing with the clients. Or sharing lovely days out, like our recent picnic and ice cream in the park which the clients have been talking about ever since.

My uni work has been driving me pretty mad as the uni have totally mucked up all our portfolio requirements. They have realised now, at the midway point, that most of the students on the course were working to the criteria set out by our course leader, that was in fact wrong. So all the students and their supervisors have become somewhat panicked, realising the evidence that has been 'ok-ed' at the midway point, may in fact not be OK. Joy!

Next week I start to have some days off for exam revision. I admit i'm pretty tired now, trying to sustain uni work, placement work etc so I'll be glad when exams are over and I can have a weekend away for a proper break.

Last weekend, I had a fantastic time at the Guardian Open Weekend. I went to four back to back sessions.


One was a panel debate about the nature of communities, including Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder of Kids Company, and somewhat a hero of mine! She spoke about the fact that the issue of revenge has still not been addressed, young people don't feel they have been heard, for example young people feel they are being used to sell the Olympics and then won't benefit from it. She also discussed how we need somewhere for young, unemployed people to go and do something even if there is no labour. They shouldn't be stuck in their own living space, they need to be encouraged to create a community. She explained that people assume that behind every child is a competent carer but that is not true for 1.5m children in UK who become marginalised with their needs unmet. These sometimes, vulnerable individuals may not have the baseline competences to seeks out social cohesion. You need economic resources and social confidence to seek this out.

Sue Marsh was one of the panellists in a talk about the shape of the welfare state, discussing issues such as the fact that the child in poverty is more likely to have a parent in work than unemployed, alcoholic etc. Parents are not able to make a living wage. She also said that we have the lowest level of benefits in the developed world with 94% of those on JSA getting jobs in the first 6 weeks.

The talk on what the new age of protests was achieving was also interesting - discussing whether they are successful given that often they do not serve to veto law, ie tuition fees, NHS bill etc or is it an acheivement anyway, to get those who are voiceless onto the front page? or to raise the consciousness of a generation. It was also mentioned that while once you could not imagine the end of capitalism, now radical systemic change is more on the agenda.

It was amazing to have so many under 18s in the room asking questions and expressing their desire to be able to vote. It was such a fantastic, buzzing atmosphere and I loved the opportunity to listen to such a range of speakers and be surrounded by people who give a bit of a sh*t about the world we live in. I really wish there were more events like this, even if not on this scale, but with opportunities to hear experts speak and debate on their subject.

Sharing feelings

Before and after every group we run, we have a pre and post group.

The pre group at the start of the day, i particularly enjoy. We go round the room and everyone just discusses how they feel. It could be anything from - "tired, i didn't sleep well" to "anxious about the day because i found yesterday particularly hard..." etc

I think there's something incredibly refreshing about this group. For one thing, it helps just to relieve you of any negative feelings you might have about the day ahead. For another, it allows you to feel some empathy towards your colleagues and judge the way you behave with them accordingly - i.e if you know they're having a bad time in their personal life, or even that they didn't sleep well last night, you might be a bit more patient with them or give them a little extra support. If you know they're feeling demoralising, you can try to inspire them etc.

Anyway....just a little thing i like and think could be transferred in some way across different settings.

Control issues

Historically the issue of control has always been a big one for social workers and some of the dichotomies involved in partnership working vs control.

One thing that I have found a struggle is my own lack of control in this role. In my past career I felt pretty much in control of everything I did, I had my to do list and I got on with it, in I would say quite an efficient way.

But working with people is different, (it's not rocket science I know!) People won't attend that meeting just because it's on your to do list or answer the phone because you want them to or get up in the morning because you believe it's best. And sometimes however hard you think you're working or however much effort you believe you're putting in, you won't see the progress you were hoping for. In fact they may go backwards sometimes. Basically you can't control what's going to happen, you can only do what you think is best with each intervention and each decision but the control and the responsibility lies with them not you.

People are unpredictable. And that what makes working with them so bloody interesting

Ups and downs of therapeutic setting...

My placement is very big on reflective practice (which I realise would be less the case if I was in a social work setting but I’m actually in a therapeutic setting.) There’s lots of positives about this, obviously.

But at times it can be quite difficult. For example, I came to supervision today with a few concerns that I wanted to raise about my placement at the moment. I’ve felt a bit demotivated recently. Partly this is because I have one client who is barely ever in the project and has currently left (can’t disclose more details) and we’re not yet sure will return. My placement should now be picking up pace and I should be getting my second client soon, but I have only had one actual keywork session with my first client and what I feel is fairly little client interaction of late. Although I see clients around the project to have little chats with, I haven’t had a much of a supporting role to any.

My supervisor turned it all back on me and asked me to think about the issues it brings up for me – am I too driven by getting things done, and isn’t the fact my client isn’t around, giving me things to think about and write about too. I meed to think more about my own issues and how I’m dealing with my feelings.

I’ve thought about this quite a lot. At the time I felt quite angry – I felt that my supervisor was absolving himself of any responsibility towards my placement (not just for the above issue but for others brought up too) – but then I thought, there is definitely some truth in the things he is saying. I can be very goal driven, wanting to be busy, efficient etc and perhaps don’t quite know what to do, when there isn’t anything to do.

On the other hand, as this is my placement, I would like to feel constantly challenged and as if I am developing and I feel that the placement can be incredibly slow, with days going by where I really don’t feel I have done anything at all. Today for example I took part in cleaning group with two clients, spent a few hours doing “room checks” – ie measuring the temperature of the water in each bedroom and checking the room for safety reasons. Did some uni work and then had supervision. When a lot of days are like this, I don’t feel I’m achieving too much.

But it is interesting. Partly because I think its teaches me a lot about me. Definitely one of the biggest things I have been struggling with is learning how to give up control – something so important when you’re working with people, as opposed to standard targets – learning the limit of your role and how to leave responsibility with the client.
On the other side, I do wonder how this would differ in a social work setting. As I’m in a therapeutic setting, there’s no abundance of case loads. We have 7 clients in the project at the moment – everyone keyworks with one or two- or is therapist to one or two, and it’s not about working through a time scale, it’s an ongoing process, of possibly years – so in many ways it feels a lot more relaxed, less pressure to get things done…which is counter to all the managerialism and target driven culture complaints that social workers often receive.

Anyway…that’s my rambling.

Questions on residential homes within mental health settings

While lying in bed, having left placement early today as not feeling well, and feeling sorry for myself, I thought it was time for a short blog post.

I’m not going to write another diary type one, this is a more pondering post…

I had a short chat this week with a senior staff member at my placement about whether we thought social workers should recommend clients to this place.

The setting for my placement is a residential home with groups including therapy group, art and music, gardening etc.

We discussed whether, although it was beneficial to a few people to be there, could it do more harm than good for others?

Whilst I very much like the recovery model, I do question how many of the clients in the house are likely to recover, and obviously recovery is in itself a relative term, but I mean recover to feel confident living in independent accommodation at the least.

While there is obviously a question as to whether this place or places like it can help as much as we’d like towards that goal, there also remains the question as to where these people might be if these places didn’t exist.

Perhaps the answer is the old style institutions. So in that respect, surely these residential communities are a positive step on.

The difficulty with places like this, in typical systems theory – is that everyone in the place has a big effect on others, every incident can be hugely impactful and can serve to slow down or halt other people’s recovery.

Equally, as people choose whether to engage with groups etc, if they choose not to engage with them, or even their therapy, or at worst not to comply with medication, often little progress is seen.

Whilst I understand the trend has been towards community mental health, it’s clear for some that’s not an option – so is there a better alternative than these places? And is it wrong to categorise them as “these places” – do they differ wildly? I assume if there were some renowned for amazing recovery rates it would be known, but maybe I’m wrong. Equally, just because one recovers doesn’t mean one doesn’t relapse shortly after – so it’s difficult to measure success.

Finally but importantly, there’s the question as to what the clients themselves want. There is one client who has been there 5 years, rather than the 1-2 years they predict – and is seen to have been barely progressing of late (although i understand since they joined has progressed a huge amount). But perhaps this person doesn’t want to move on, is comfortable where they are. If the aspiration is not towards independent living then the motivation to engage is low – what’s ideal then??

Anyway, what a disorganised ramble! Apologies!

A quiet week in placement

This week was quite a difficult one.

THe community was so quiet on Monday and Tuesday that i started to be concerned about whether there was enough going on for me to be able to write all the reports needed for my portfolio. All the clients were in bed all day or out for the day, so i spent most of the day waiting around in the office. GRoups were getting cancelled as clients weren't coming and the client who i was told i would start key working with in a few weeks went out all day both days and so i didn't get a chance to even introduce myself. The other two students told me that the community seemed to be in a dip and they had never seen it this quiet. We believe part of it is due to two staff members and one client leaving, but as i have now found out two more staff are to leave shortly, i'm not sure what effect this will have.


Thursday picked up as i attended my first community meeting which 4 clients came to and although the level of engagement was fairly low, it gave me more opportunity to get to know some of them, including the one i would be key working with. I was supposed to shadow someone keyworking with him this week but that wasn't able to happen so i look forward to doing so next week. All clients present their challenges, but the main one here will be making him believe there is a role for us in the community to support and help him, and that perhaps he does need this help. But it's a challenge i really want to engage with.

Although i'm slightly worried and frustrated by the pace, i do think i could learn a huge amount from this placement if there were more clients around in the day. I also really enjoy the reflective environment, where staff meet before and after every group that takes place to discuss how they feel about how it went, issues that occured, behaviours of clients etc I learn a huge amount from this. Equally i enjoy watching the therapists engage with the clients. I feel i can learn quite a bit about style of communication, putting boundaries in place, dealing with more aggressive clients, or those wishing to avoid the topics at hand.

For now, it's fingers crossed that it picks up a bit.

My first week of placement

This week was my first week of placement and a pretty exhausting one, coming straight after a pretty relaxed 3 week Xmas holiday.

I am working in a residential home for adults with mental illness. Most of the clients have had many other placements that have broken down and this one comes after a difficult journey.

I need to set the context for my blog in that I have virtually no experience in mental health and many of the views expressed might come across as incredibly naïve or downright stupid, so apologies for this in advance! I welcome all advice, criticism, suggestions or anything else!

I knew from my trial day that there would be some aspects of the role that i was less sure about and I has concerns as to whether there was enough social work esque roles to do to help me really learn and develop.

After my first week, I have quite a different opinion. Those tasks do still frustrate me and there are some days I don’t particularly enjoy, days where I barely see a client and only do the above tasks but, the amount there is to learn about mental health is truly incredible. Being in an environment like this is so different to going on weekly visits to service users – it really feels like you see people in all different moods/spirits, you observe different interactions between clients and staff and the pace of the place is quite unreal. Although cheesy, I actually feel quite priviledged to meet some of these people and engage in the way we are able to, joining in community lunches, listening to clients open up about the voices they are hearing and the struggles they are coping with.

I particularly enjoyed Thursday when I had my first proper interactions with clients, one particular session involved myself and another student taking a client to the café as part of “leisure group”. Although it was only 1.5hours, it felt incredibly intense and draining but I also really enjoyed the time I spent with the client. I did notice emotions I felt a bit ashamed about too – while X was engaging with members of the public, talking to them on the street or walking into shops, I was anxious and felt relieved when we left. I think there was a part of me that felt I wanted to protect X from how these people might react to them, or whether they might embarrass themselves – and I felt very guilty for these reactions after.

I had a similar experience one night when on the way home from my shift I encountered a client pleading with a member of public for money. It was for us to decide whether to interact as we were officially “off duty” – it brings up interesting questions around our roles and our boundaries.

Similarly, I think the issue of choice and responsibility within mental health is one that is at the forefront of my mind at the moment. You can’t force people to engage with groups, or therapy or take medication, but at what stage are there consequences for certain types of behaviour? Should there be consequences for not taking part in cleaning the house, or playing music too loudly? We have started to have discussions about what this might look like. (I am obviously presenting this in a very simplistic manner, clearly there are reasons why someone is not engaging but equally is there a point when sometimes it can be used as a scapegoat?)

Today a new referral joined and I will be starting keywork with them in 3 weeks which I’m really looking forward to. I have been reading a lot about task-centred practice and person-centred, strengths based approaches – the humanistic approach is one that I really value.

The staff are great and every Friday there is a staff meeting all afternoon including a staff therapy group with an external facilitator. It’s an intense environment but I can totally see the need for it as even in the short time I have been there so many incidents have occurred. It seems like an open and transparent way to vent frustrations is very useful. I think in many ways its quite incredible how some of the staff are able to challenge the manager about decisions they feel uncomfortable with in this kind of setting.

In all I think I’ll learn a great deal from this placement. I already feel like I want to question so many of the practices and think it is an environment that really encourages reflection. I also am looking forward to having the freedom to research things that feel important to me or to the particular clients I’m working with, and opportunities I can take to carry out the most effective keywork, rather than work strictly around a university syllabus.

The first part of this will just be getting an understanding of some of the main diagnoses in the house; bipolar, schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder.