From media to social work

Questions on residential homes within mental health settings

2012-02-03T12:21:00.001-08:00

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 staff member wasn’t convinced and it lead us to a broader debate about mental health.

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

The staff member said they felt that while it was beneficial to a few people to be there, for many the person wondered whether it did more harm than good.

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 be barely progressing. But this person apparently 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

2012-01-20T10:52:00.000-08:00

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.

I mentioned it briefly to my university when in on Wed and they told me to keep them updated as i shouldn't have too slow a start and need lots of service user interaction. THis is particularly the case as we have 4 reports to write of 3500-4000 words, based on service user work as well as 3 reflective reports based on some work we do, observed by our supervisor. This puts on the pressure a bit if no clients are around!

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.

I'm going to hang on in there for a few weeks. It's difficult to know how long to wait to make the decision but i'm so interested in mental health and have no idea what other placement i could end up in. And i do think i could learn a huge amount from this one if only there were 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

2012-01-13T14:47:00.000-08:00

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 I would be less keen on (namely a lot of the more practical aspects that can take up large parts of the day, cleaning the house, taking regular trips to the bank, cutting keys etc). I’m more than happy to help out, I was just concerned that I was going to end up doing very little social work esque roles.

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 E 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 E from how these people might react to her, or whether she might embarrass herself – 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 him 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.

5 weeks into my career change

2011-10-28T17:13:00.001-07:00

I’ve just come to the end of my study week – my 5th week, in which we have no lectures, just time to study and prepare for essays. I can’t actually believe I have only been in uni 5 weeks. I feel I have learnt such a ridiculous amount in such a short time.
It’s funny – social policy, although interesting, was probably the module I thought would be hardest to relate directly to social work – when compared to some of the others such as critical theories. In fact, I’ve found the module so helpful, both for getting a better understanding of the news and just a context for the world we live in.

Last night I watched John Humphry’s programme on The Future State of Welfare. I wanted to throw something at the screen for the incredibly biased opinions given about welfare recipients, but the one aspect I did enjoy, was feeling so much more familiar and so much more empowered to disagree with what was being said, since having learnt about many of the key aspects. Before my module I admit I hadn’t even heard of Beveridge and the terms ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving poor’ meant little to me. Now I am beginning to have a much greater appreciation of policy decisions and as my essay title was about whether women are treated as secondary citizens within the welfare system, could particularly relate to the way lone mothers were portrayed on the show. I have just submitted my complaint to the BBC. Check out this blog for more info and help complaining, http://otonwheels.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/complaint-to-the-bbc-re-humphries-tfsowwjh/

The course really is such an educational experience and I really am enjoying it. I can’t pretend that I’m not finding it pretty stressful – getting back into essay writing and preparing for two 4000 words essays is tough going but the breadth is incredible. My second essay which I have not yet started writing, asks me to look at three critical theories, and assess how useful they are to social work practice. Initial reading has proved really interesting and although I realise that in practice, it would never be quite as mechanical as to stop and think about theories, I believe the more I can understand about them, perhaps the easier they’ll be to use naturally.

I’ve also started having experience interviewing other members of the group – so far I’ve only been an interviewee, but next week I play the social worker – learning how to listen, to encourage, to show empathy – but not to advise – before we then go on to interview service users. I will also soon be doing three days of shadowing a social worker, as well as spending 6x1 hour sessions observing and reporting on a child under the age of 5 as part of the life span development module. This begins next month.

Am also looking forward to our law module which begins next week, even if it’s a four hour lecture each week as the last tutor resigned at the end of the last term and so while replacing them, they changed our 2hr lectures to start later in the term and become 4hrs. Lucky us!

Anyway, in all, it’s great – it’s a rare opportunity to learn so much, so fast.

Admittedly the thought of starting placement in January, having seen the amount of work that needs to be completed next term, with no holiday until August is a tad daunting. But as I immerse myself more in the course, I certainly feel excited about what’s to come. Possibly more excited now I’ve written one essay!

A month into the MA

2011-10-17T15:22:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't really been posting recently but i've now done about a month of the MA course.

I've learnt so much in such a short space of time. My course is very full on, we're in uni four days a week - in total about 16 hours a week, with everyone living in the library between lectures. I've just handed in my practice social policy essay and just been given the first of my two 4000 word assignments in for after Xmas, and also working on my reflective diary. Having heard about other courses, it seems that they're not all consistent and this one may be a higher workload than some - shame i didn't know that before, haha!

One of the things i am enjoying about the course is the reflective element - not just the explicit stuff i.e write a reflective diary but a lot of the other modules, particularly the psychology aspects of our critical theories model often lead me to think of ways i have behaved, or certain ways i have communicated and how i might have done it better. We've also had debates about our culture and ethnicity and how it affects the way we are today, where our values come from and a range of broad questions that you tend to take for granted but I've found very interesting to probe into a bit.

The breadth of the course is mad, covering social policy, psychology, life span development, research methods (possibly my least favourite),the more practical side of social work, and in two weeks time, my 4 hour law lectures begin! But I'm loving learning so much and for me, pretty much every single class is totally new information. The majority of the class have studied psychology or sociology which means they seem to know a lot - so i do feel i'm working hard to play catch up but it also means i find everything new and interesting.

One of the things i really enjoy is that we get set two totally random articles to read for one of our modules each week and then discuss in class. This week the theme is human rights, so one article is about human rights and whether the social work code of ethics in different countries overlap enough with the human rights act, and the other was specifically about the gypsy traveller communities and the application of human rights. Last week it was about systems of management within the workplace and another on ecological theory and how you can apply lessons from the environment to groups around us...very broad!

I also enjoy how topical it is, and the fact it's helped me interpret the news a bit better - i.e today's class was on globalisation - something that pervades most news stories.

Next month i'll also be doing 3 days shadowing a social worker, and start my child observation - 6 x one hour sessions observing a child under 5, which should be really interesting.

It's certainly exhausting, but as i know i'm lame at working in evenings, i'm making sure i still go out and have fun then - i find it great way to switch off from the essays in hand/ my form of self - care (!) and i'm at my most productive in the days anyway, even if it means weekend working!

Anyway...basic summary of a boring post is that it's all going well so far! Just slightly scared about essay writing!

Trial placement day

2011-09-30T10:41:00.001-07:00

Today I had my trial placement day, in preparation for my start in January. I'm not going to discuss my opinions on the placement or details today because I quite want to wait until I start, however one thing that was v interesting was the 4 hour meeting conducted every Friday afternoon.

Alongside admin issues, staff have a group one hour therapy session facilitated by an outside moderator, and group supervision and training where each week someone discusses a designated article or clinical case. I really enjoyed this session and some really big questions came out of it:

- at what point is one the therapist vs a member of the community? If you have a finite 1 hour therapy session with a client which is stuctured, should you behave in a consistently controlled manner the ret of the time or react more "normally" to client's behaviour?
- if you don't give enough feedback to their behaviour, does the residential setting reflect the real world enough and aid rehabilitation?
- age. If you've just turned 18 you're technically an adult, but if you've been used to being treated as a child for so long, it doesn't change in a day and yet the way the services work do. How can that transition be smoothed?
- was also quite intersting to see how different clients bring out such different emotions in staff. While one enjoys working with one client, another can find it near impossible. Its a lot about your own personal issues, being particularly in tune with a client or them bringing up something in your past.
- lots of questions about boundaries, the process of detaching, and the role of the professional vs the human.

The less enjoyable part of the day was hearing a story about recent self harm with a needle, repeated to many staff members. I have the worst needle phobia of anyone i know. Not fainting was an achievement.

That's all folks.

Am rather ready for the weekend!

Week One

2011-09-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

This week has been the first of the MA programme and I’ve found it incredibly interesting and at times overwhelming, particularly being one of the few students without a psychology or sociology degree, a question asked by the lecturers of every module. Despite this, as I had done a fair amount of reading before university, I was glad to feel a little acquainted with some of the topics presented and discussed.
I have found a few topics and elements from this week’s lectures particularly engaging. The first is learning and discussing issues that are so topical, issues that crop up on the news each day – not something I’m familiar with from my Classics degree (!)

Our first Social Policy lecture was about the welfare state and our practice essay looks at whether it is tenable during a recession. On the news this morning David Miliband was discussing the same issue at the annual Labour party conference. We discussed it from three angles; the economic, political and structural/institutional and all of these seemed to come together when listening to his broad policies on welfare reform during this financial period. Similarly, we held a debate about the recent riots in our Critical Introductions module which helped me to reflect and refresh myself as to the many viewpoints I’d read about at the time. It did, however, remind me that the political opinions of most people in our class are fairly similar and not reflective of the debates I have had on this topic with some of my more right wing friends. I believe this is something quite important to keep in mind through this module and more broadly the MA programme.

The other element I particularly enjoyed was part of our Foundations for Social Work practice module where we learnt about different methods of communication and the different parts of ourselves we use when communicating; the critical adult or the free child for example. It gave me a good framework from which to reflect on much of my past communication, and helped me, unfortunately perhaps, to see my recent response to a friend’s revelation as coming far too much from the viewpoint of a “critical adult”.

It’s been a great first week and an opportunity not only to learn in lectures but from other students who have a wealth of knowledge between them. I have really enjoyed being in a setting where everyone is so vocal and willing to contribute to the many issues up for discussion.

Induction week of MA

2011-09-23T09:28:00.001-07:00

This week was my induction week for my Social Work MA.

After a few logistical nightmares i am finally registered!!

It's been quite a fun, if perhaps slightly pointless few days but a great opportunity to meet the others on the course. There's about 30 of us and everyone seems really lovely. There's also a huge mix of backgrounds and although as expected, i'm one of the few without much relevant experience, there are at least a few others - one who worked in the DOH and one as a physio - there's also someone who is using the course to help her family law career, and an ex met policeman who spent 30 odd years in the force! Some pretty great experience across the mix.

We had one lecture with the Youth and Community degree programme about the importance of integrated working, looking at a case study in groups. And today and yesterday we spent some time looking at our research methods module - discussing the importance of research within social work, and experience we had in this field, and today designing a practice research project looking into people's perceptions of social work. It was a fairly laid back day designing a questioniarre and going out on campus to fill it in before presenting back results later.

I've been really impressed with how friendly the tutors have been. The course tutor put on a lunch for us all to bond with the tutors mingling with us all, discussing the course etc and it was also interesting hearing people's experiences with other universities.

Inevitably there is already a fair amount of placement comparison. There are others who are probably going to residential homes, and then one "student unit" off to the local authority - they were called out infront of everyone as the people being put forward for the statutory placement - but there's lots of politics - i.e those wanting to end up in C+F, don't want a children's placement this year so are trying to move to adults etc! WE've also heard from a LA who presented to us about their bursary scheme we can apply to in March - you get a position with them for your second placement and then a job for 2 years after...obviously will be hugely competitive!

Oh and we've been given our first assignment already - a reflective diary, that involves us writing every week of the term, and also some extra reflection on key areas of social work such as values, communication etc - it;s a pass or fail assignment apparently.

Anyway...lectures begin on Monday and i have a 9-5pm trial day at my potential placement on Friday. Having spent time with my coursemates and already started to become submersed in the SW world, i'm really looking forward to next week.

Last week of shadowing in Fostering and Adoption

2011-09-15T16:07:00.000-07:00

I’ve just come back from my trip across the country to shadow a supervising social worker in fostering and adoption. Before I get into the details, this week I also spent a day in a duty and assessment team. I’d shadowed there before and have posted about it in detail (it seems to be my most read post!) but this day was a bit different as I sat on the duty desk just seeing the different referrals that get made and which ones go through to social workers. It was really interesting as they get all the police reports through as a matter of course, many of which aren’t relevant to social services but if someone under 18 has been involved, they have to know about it. And then a huge variety of cases come in – from kids who went missing and have since come back but seem to be depressed (possible referral to children and adolescent mental health services) to possible domestic violence cases – some of which don’t need SS intervention because court proceedings are already in place for contact and the police are involved. It was just interesting seeing the behind the scenes work and the invaluable work of the social work assistants who input all these referalls onto the systems so if any case comes up more than once, it’s carefully noted – these are some of the people losing their jobs in the cuts.

Anyway, back to fostering and adoption!

A supervising social worker (SSW), supervises foster carers – supervising visits to check all is going well, helping to prepare reports for reviews, assess and recruit carers, help with life story books – and this social worker did a huge amount of other tasks too – working in adoption, (recruiting and assessing families to adopt), getting involved in life appreciation days, where all the professionals involved in a child’s life, get together with the family that is about to adopt them to tell them more about the child, and she does post adoption work – helping those who have been adopted, who want to know more and perhaps reunite with birth families. Among other things. That’s a pretty vague description of her job, having only spent 2 days with her.

The first day we had a meeting at the primary school of a child who is in foster care. We met with the foster carer, a teacher from the school, as well as a representative from another school where the child’s sibling goes, the child’s social worker and a few others. The meeting was to check how the children were doing in school, both educationally and from a social point of view – and as one had just started secondary school, it was a good opportunity to discuss in more detail the kind of support it was felt she needed and some of the things the foster carer might want to discuss with her – for example – did she like the idea of starting a clean slate and no-one knowing about her past, or did she want to feel a or several specific teachers knew about it and therefore she could turn to them when she wanted? Also, how to prepare the child for questions that would come up about her past. In biology, you tend to cover genetics and eye colour – in English they were going to be asked to write about their life so far etc.. things I’d always taken for granted.

There was also some additional things to consider about contact. These siblings had a younger sibling who was about to be adopted and whose family don’t want them to have any further contact. This issue has always been one I find difficult. I wrote a post much earlier about cutting off sibling contact – I find it a hard one to get my head around if the siblings don’t cause any risk to the child – and I could only imagine how hard it was to tell these kids that they could no longer see their younger sibling – or at least for many many years until they get to 18. It also brings up the role of social media – once they’re all on Facebook, who says how long it will take for them to reunite of their own accord, without support systems in place?

We then had lunch with the social worker I was shadowing’s old manager – where I heard more about many of the issues local authorities are facing at the moment – staff off sick, less managers about, overworked people – and much of the work getting privatized to more dynamic organisations.

After visting the foster carer from the school meeting again to get documents ready for updating CRB checks, and discussing risk assessments around the home, we went on to visit another foster carer. A kinda super nanny figure who has adopted many children and is now fostering many more. In many ways it was incredibly inspiring seeing how many lives she had changed. She was dealing with a whole spectrum of issues from disabled babies born from drug addicted parents, to teenagers dropping out of jobs, sleeping with their partners too young and everything in between. There were lots of interesting things for me:
- no one could sleep over at the house without being CRB’d – ie the kids’ friends
- she talked about going shopping with some of the kids in care and when random people came over saying “aahh cute, whats their names?” she has to change the names because of the situation

She was also having interesting challenges regarding contact. It seems that some of the children in the past had changed their behaviour drastically the moment contact with their birth parents stopped – they calmed down, they immediately stopped bed-wetting etc. I found this really interesting.

One thing that did concern me a bit, and something that came up in my mind the next day too, was that taking on all these children, could and it seemed sometimes did, have quite an impact on the birth children, or even older adopted children. Can you always give enough time to your own/older kids, when you have so many younger kids/kids who are quite demanding to focus on too?

The next day we visited a family looking to adopt their first child – we had a general chat with them and then did some exercises about children’s behaviour . Some of it was quite interesting, ie a discussion about hitting your child. The exercise was clearly trying to make sure the couple thought it was wrong to hit a child – but, I just wondered whether it was quite as black and white as this. I’m not saying I think it’s right – but equally I doubt everyone thinks that a light hit is the same as child abuse. I know it’s a topic that comes and goes in different generations and that we have to be particularly careful about people who are about to adopt and their attitude but I still thought it was quite a tricky issue.

We also had an interesting chat about contact and options such as keeping contact with birth parents but without sharing photos. Also, what happens if the birth parents go on to have other children after you’ve adopted this one – would you allow them contact with their siblings? Contact is clearly an incredibly challenging and interesting part of adoption and I found it particularly so as I’m pro adoption for myself at some point so was often wondering what I would do in a given situation.

This couple were going to pre-approval training where they met others in the same position – I imagine this can form a pretty great support network, and certainly many of the foster carers we visited, seemed to know others they’d met at various training groups.

Finally we visited one more foster carer who had a number of her own children as well as those on placement. She seemed to be doing a remarkable job and I very much enjoyed sitting with a baby on my lap! One of their children is soon to be adopted so there was much discussion about that process and how to make the transfer smooth, in terms of letting them come into the house and start to look after the child as much as possible. The carer seemed to be incredibly thoughtful making suggestions such as texting the adoptive parents photos of the child when they wake up saying “morning mummy and daddy” – and she’d created a gift, a printed book of photos for them, as well as the life story book they’d worked on.

We discussed a template for an ideal life story book – something the social worker could create for all her carers if they wanted to use it. A life story book is a book that gives the child a sense of history and identity as they grow older, as well as some continuity for the next carers – it includes photos of them growing up, people important in their life – and anything from what subjects they liked in school, food or toys they like, to medical history.

What also struck me over this trip was how much time and money you needed to have to make fostering or adoption work. Fostering itself pays but as it doesn’t pay much, it certainly prevents people with less money from doing it. Although I know this is a contentious issue in itself – you’d never want people to foster for the money so it’s a hard balance to get right. But also having the time – if you work, and you’re adopting, how do you take time off for regular social worker visits – many of the people we met were stay at home mums or housewives which made meeting social workers more flexible – or people who worked shifts.

The broadest point though was that in every case, the change in the children being fostered was said to be remarkable - such an incredibly rewarding thing both to do and to observe.

Another great experience, and thank you to the fantastic social worker who not only allowed me to shadow, but to stay in their home for a few nights!

So that brings my shadowing to an end. I’ve done a mental health day centre, a social worker in community mental health and in fostering and adoption and some time with a charity who work with kids in care. It’s been a fantastic five weeks.

Next week is my induction week at uni and lectures begin the week after…I’m excited and nervous too – just the idea of being a student again after this time makes me slightly anxious…but I’ve been waiting for it long enough!

Shadowing in a Community Mental Health Team

2011-09-08T13:24:00.001-07:00

So this week I’ve been fortunate to have 3 days shadowing in a community mental health team – very different from anything that’s come before.

The first thing that I noticed and loved was the multi-disciplinary setting – we were sitting amongst occupational therapists, psychologists, nurses and social workers, which just feels like a really broad learning experience.

My first day involved going on two visits. I found the first one quite difficult – we were visiting someone with very developed dementia, and their child has given up their life to be a full time carer. This obviously happens a lot but I just felt so bad for them – they’re really cut off from the outside world, cannot engage with their parent at all, barely leave the house..and finally through creative use of their personal budget, have been able to get a laptop and hookup to Facebook – that’s the extent of contact. It upset me to think about – and I think one of the differences working with older people vs children is the ability to distance yourself. With YP – you can say, I didn’t have this childhood, poor them – with older people – it could be you, or your parents one day – and that’s quite a big thought to face each day.

The second visit was also an eye opener and comes back to the issue of taking things at face value, one I’ve discussed before. We met someone else with dementia who discussed her active daily life, amongst other things – and I went away feeling quite positive. It turns out that none of these elements are real. I guess they were a few decades ago, but not now…

It was really interesting to note little observations and checks the Social Worker does to monitor how the service user is doing – have they bought milk recently? Is it in date? They said they’re paying their bills – but can they show me they know where their bills are? Can we do a brief financial assessment – check how much they think their weekly food shop is for example; Check the carers logbook – have the carers been coming when they say they will etc.

I was fortunate to be shadowing a social worker with endless patience for my many questions. And with a huge variety of books for me to read – from psychiatric handbooks, to guidance on the mental health act and mental capacity act.
I learnt more about the differences between neurotic and psychotic conditions, about the MMSE – mini mental state examination - often done with people with dementia as a quick assessment.

On my second day I went to the multi-disciplinary meeting all morning, where each case is discussed. I really enjoyed this and thought it was so useful how each profession could chip in with advice about different cases. And for me, it was just interesting seeing different debates and protocols:

- one case was perceived to be a safeguarding issue, so a strategy meeting would be arranged asap, potentially involving the police
- in another instance it was unclear what more this team could do for the s/u so a case conference was going to be called involving everyone concerned with the s/u – family, people at the day centre they attend etc – and the s/u themselves would be invited
- they discussed the need for one s/u to go to residential care and how under s7 of the MHA, a patient can go into guardianship (with agreement of the closest relative, different to next of kin), the guardian may be a social services authority or any other person if the authority agrees to it. I have been reading about this further – the guardian must visit them at least every 3 months and the duration of guardianship is usually 6 months with the possibility of further renewals.
- The guardian can send someone to residential care, or make a decision on their care regime, without s/u’s consent – but cannot prescribe treatment to them. (A community treatment order is used to ensure a patient is taking treatment while still being in the community rather than needing to be detained in hospital.)
- The use of an IMCA (independent mental capacity advocate) – they’ll be involved where serious medical treatments are proposed and no one else can be consulted about the patient’s best interests or where there is a proposal for the patient to be accommodated in a care home or hospital – they will represent and support the individual, ascertain his/her wishes and consider courses of action.
and lots of small but to me interesting debates i.e:

- different children wanting their parent to live near them in a residential care home – who decides etc? Although comes down to capacity of individual themselves
- those who are diagnosed with dementia cannot attend just any residential home – they have to be dual registered to specifically work with those with dementia
- hard to engage with one s/u but they spend all their day in church – should SW-er visit them there? Or actually is it good they have their safe space uninvaded by social workers….if it’s easy to monitor their wellbeing by calling the church
- the importance of updating risk assessments and discussing doubling up on certain visits!

I also learnt more about setting up mental health assessments – to section someone. And read a best interests assessment form to assess whether the deprivation of liberty in a particular case was the best decision made in that instance – i.e was it done to prevent harm to the person themselves or to others, and proportionate to the risk posed. (I’m not explaining this well as its actually pretty detailed – see Stuart Sorensen’s blog for lots of detail about deprivation of liberty safeguards/DoLS)

I attended a training session about the importance of reducing prescriptions of anti psychotic medicine to those with dementia – it seems its often prescribed for behavioural elements such as irritability and insomnia, rather than psychotic elements – and there are many side effects that are not always considered in the detail they should be, such as strokes – this is a national target.

My final day I spent doing lots more reading. Particularly lots of reports for mental health act assessments, observations of what goes on in a mental health ward, and interviews with people after they had been sectioned – particularly interesting. I enjoyed reading the reflective reports (part of the AMHP portfolio) discussing whether the social worker felt that the assessment had been carried out in an anti-discriminatory way and the importance of trying to match gender and race where possible between service user and those carrying out the assessment.

Anyway I’ve waffled on a lot in this post about the detail. I’ve learnt lots in a few days and its particularly interesting given that first mutterings this week about my first placement suggest it may be in a voluntary mental health setting – but will know more soon.

Work experience with children in care

2011-08-30T12:25:00.001-07:00

After a week’s work experience at a mental health day centre, I’ve this week moved onto work experience with children in the care system – mainly observing and contributing to some meetings with YP, about the current changes to Ofsted inspections within children’s services. And today also observing part of a children in care council meeting. I was supposed to be attending a session tomorrow run by the YP for myself and another soon to be SW student, telling us what a SW-er should know, from the YP’s POV. Unfortunately I’ve had to pull out after a friend of mine lost her father earlier in the week, so I’ll be attending the funeral but I know it will also be a great session.

I’m always amazed by quite much can be learnt even from one day’s work experience. The typical workie reference is from when we were 16, where work experience meant filing and getting people coffee but this couldn’t be more different.
For a start I’ve just learnt so much from talking to the professionals, not only about their roles but other roles within SW and opportunities that I didn’t even know about , as well as understanding in more depth some of the merits and pitfalls of different SW departments. And then of course there’s meeting the YP – which I’ve loved.

I’ve heard from them some of the things that make a good or bad foster placement – some of the details being things you wouldn’t necessarily think about (don’t gossip on the phone to your friends about the latest kid in your care…) heard about their hopes for the future, today I heard more about the role of an IRO (independent reviewing officer) as the YP told a LA IRO what their team could be doing better.
Oh and meeting an IRO who after decades in social work still seemed incredibly passionate and inspiring – that in itself is incredibly helpful as the course gets closer.

I don’t think it’s possible to come out of some of these sessions with YP and not feel inspired by their resilience. That may seem patronising but it’s certainly not intended to. The concept of living at 16 independently , or having been moved around from placement to placement with no stability and then dealing with SW-ers disappearing without saying goodbye, or IRO’s asking them who they’re having sex with in a huge review meeting infront of a million strangers…and then turning up at these meetings chirpy – is frankly amazing.

And boy does it make me excited to start.

It also reminds me constantly quite how smart and astute they are. It’s so easy to talk to a YP like a child, forgetting quite how much they know. But they have opinions on everything and informed ones at that – whether it be their views on politics (“ Cameron, his role is to make rich people richer” - there were others, I just quite liked that one!) and views about the riots, to understanding in detail the laws around living in care, what they’re entitled to, and how they should be treated – rightly so. So many of them have just grown up so much faster than I’ve ever had to – they’re used to having to chase this company and that person to get the free computer they’re entitled to – or people coming and going from their life – in ways that fortunately many of us don’t need to worry about, at least until later on.

The YP help to make this change in my life feel real. They bring up a lot of the concerns that I’ve had and have – “SW-ers are all about the paperwork”, “they’re so stressed all the time”, “ you’re going to be a SW-er, start praying now” – “Sw-ers can’t change anything, that’s why we don’t like them, they just tell you what their managers tell them”…. But they also tell you firsthand what the difference between a good and bad social worker is, and I feel lucky to be having these conversations – both with people in the mental health day centre last week and with the YP this week…
Now I just need to be one of the SW-ers they rave about!

First week in Mental Health

2011-08-19T15:23:00.001-07:00

So I have completed my 3 days at the mental health day centre.

I’m not sure what I thought – had so many mixed feelings. I loved the experience in many ways – it was a real eye opener for me, insightful, thought – provoking..

I wasn’t sure what I thought about the concept of the day centre. I kept thinking, is this helping? Is this any way to rehabilitate? This doesn’t fit in the ideal of social inclusion. But then, does it entirely matter? Is the idea of a safe haven, somewhere to be accepted and to meet others you get along with, a bad thing? This is my first experience in a mental health setting of any kind, so I have very little reference.

The structure is mainly that it’s a place to socialise and talk to other guests and volunteers while sessions are run, mainly by guests upstairs i.e art, poetry etc and then there are some speakers who come in – i.e we had an “ask the GP” session and a guests meeting where they could give feedback about the centre, chaired by another guest. And they got a 3 course meal for £2 which they all cited as one of their favourite aspects of the centre.

In addition there was quite a badly run session, where the commissioners from the LA came to try to find out what the guests liked about their service so they could use that feedback to write a proposal for the tender process…because of the cuts. However, this day centre will actually be affected very little by the cuts as it’s mainly funded by donors not the state. This wasn’t explained well enough to the guests so it just created huge fear and uncertainty as to whether the centre was going to be shut down.

I met great people. Both guests and volunteers. The guests were so generous – after 3 days I came away with a list of books recommended by one guest about sociology that would be good for my MA, a poem to thank me for my time there, a list of classical music that would make a great mix tape and a short story. I had great conversations about philosophy and sociology – one guest asked me what I did my dissertation on, and when I mentioned Platos’ Republic, it turned out he had it in his bag….another Oxbridge educated guest brought in the poetry he’d been writing to share. For most people reading this, none of this would be particularly surprising, but not really knowing what to expect, it was all quite a learning experience.

On the most part, people seemed happy. But there were definitely some people who stuck in my mind in terms of their sadness and vulnerability. People you couldn’t engage with beyond a few sentences – and I was always left wondering can these people get better? And how?

I learnt a huge amount from some incredible volunteers. One had been an OT for 15 years and told me about the different types of mental illness – neurotic and psychotic and some of the differences. Another actually changed career from business to social services age 47 and now decades later is still volunteering in this day centre which she herself founded. She’d been a guest at the House of Lords and lobbied outside parliament – very inspiring.

Anyway, I took a huge amount out of it from just 3 days.. a great first week out of advertising.

Possibly my biggest and perhaps most amusing faux pas…we were having a bit of a sing along to Sound of Music and one of the guests said “let me turn off the music and you can do a solo..” and I said “ Are you mad?!”…

An intro to mental health

2011-08-15T06:06:00.003-07:00

Today was my first day since leaving my job, and I have four days lined up this week with a mental health charity, local to me. They have some shops in the community, as well as their office from which they do a great deal of community and outreach work both including hospital visits, in-home support and education sessions – they do one called mental first aid, in schools . They also have a day centre which is where I was to be spending some time.

When I arrived I met the OT who talked to me more about the work that the charity does and a bit about the history of mental health. She qualified 25 years ago and told me how different it was then. Most patients were sent to asylums, and it was much more about protecting them and caring for them rather than empowering. They’d all be in a bit of a “daze” and have a few arts and crafts classes etc. She told me how day centres have also now become old fashioned, they used to have many more – because of the concept of social inclusion. They’re now trying to shift many of the practices in the day centre away from arts and crafts and 50 people on a coach to southend and aim to make it much more collaborative – getting the clients involved in creating their own sessions and she talked of how they all took themselves to Brighton by train last week.

This split or change in how mental health issues have been dealt with was particularly interesting when we talked about the work they did with carers. They have an older age group of carers for whom their children have spent so many decades in more of an institutionalised setting that the only help they now want is a place to vent. And a younger set of carers for whom their children are being treated with more modern techniques and who are watching them start to get better or be able to cope more effectively. Apparently because these sets of carers have had such different experiences, they run very different sessions for them.

The session that was supposed to take place today was specifically employment advice. The lady leading the session is a recruitment consultant by trade and now works for the charity, from this angle, discussing with clients how they can get back into jobs, or if they’re not ready, into voluntary work – giving them help with CVs and interview tips and sometimes going into the workplace to discuss issues with employers. We had an interesting conversation about equality and how employers handle the issue of mental health. I know I’ve read on the Community Care website lots of people who say they wouldn’t tell their bosses about depression for fear of discrimination. Apparently she tends to advise people who are going into the private sector not to declare if it they don’t need to, but in the social care world, she explained that if they met the job spec, and have a mental health issue, many are guaranteed an interview – a form of positive discrimination – or perhaps just additional experience with the fields they’re looking at.

We had a chat about the benefits trap too and how she’d found in many cases financially there was no advantage to these people working and they often lacked the motivation if it would only give them £20 more than benefits did.

Unfortunately, no one turned up to the session today, they usually get a few – one had called to say they couldn’t make it and the other 1 or 2 didn’t show. So I was sent home but am back tomorrow for next few days for when the rest of the programmes open up at the day centre. Apparently they get around 25 people so I’m looking forward to that.

Another shift in the shelter...and getting closer to student-dom

2011-08-04T04:41:00.000-07:00

I did my third shift in the homeless shelter yesterday. And I really enjoyed it.
At the start I felt a little useless as due to the warm weather, pretty much everyone was asleep but I soon moved outside to chat to the smokers – I always find it really interesting just learning about people’s lives and stories and how they came to be where they are. I guess its one of the privileges you get when you’re just volunteering, with no real timelines or pressure to get anything else done, just to be able to sit and chat with people.

I spoke to three such different people last night – one that really struck a chord was only 20 and was so easy to get along with – it just makes you think about what really makes you similar or different to people. I found it much easier to chat to him than I do with some of my own colleagues – I guess who is to say what barriers or labels make you similar to someone. He was an incredibly passionate guy – and was really excited to get himself back on his feet and hopefully back in drama, the one subject he’s always loved. We also had quite an interesting chat about religion. He was asking me if I believe in god and he was saying how important religion is to him. I asked him if he sometimes wondered how there could be a god when he’s had to go through so much shit. He just talked about how others have it so much worse and that there must be a reason, maybe he did something wrong. The amount of hope and positivity I find in this shelter, among people who frankly have every right to just have a moment of wallowing and despair, is incredibly inspiring. As he was from Cameroon he also spoke French and so I got a mini French lesson – it’s been 10 years since I’ve done any so that was interesting but he had a lot of patience!

I find it quite difficult to tell fact from fiction – and it’s sometime halfway through someone’s story that I realise they’ve contradicted something they said earlier and that perhaps I need to be a little less naïve/trusting. I’m sure often it’s not intentional lies at all – they’ve had plenty of time to come up with their own versions of stories and many also have mental health issues so I’m not trying to make it black and white – I just think it’s a learning for me.

Another slightly odd situation was after I’d been chatting to one guy for quite a while, one of the other volunteers came up to me and said she’d been told not to sit with this guy alone as he was a potential sex offender. I thought perhaps I should have been told that when I arrived! But fortunately the setting is very safe and you never feel too alone - plus I have an alarm round me so I wasn’t too worried!

I also spent time chatting to the other volunteers, who because it was quieter, had more time than normal. It was nice to meet one volunteer who is currently a journalist but about to make the same move as me into social work – but in a year’s time. It was great to just chat about the journey of moving back home and giving up our salary and share some of our fears and excitement –the things we’d miss about our job (for me the creativity) and the things we wouldn’t (the soul-lessness and general sense of making up crap most of the time!). And chatted to another guy who is working as a support worker there. One of our conversations was about how the shelter was being run. They don’t have any beds or bedding there because they don’t want to encourage people to stay longer than necessary – it’s very much a hub to assess and reconnect people. But we weren’t sure how comfortable we were with this and thought their should be more of a balance – I had to tell an older guy that he’d have to sleep on the bare wooden floor because he didn’t get to the soft chairs in time…(in the end they did give him a duvet to lie on but they tend not to.) I understand some of their rationale but there’s an element of humanity to this matter – and although they’re not supposed to stay long, the truth is there are cases where they are there closer to a week or even two, and if that’s the case, it’s feels like providing them with some basic bedding would be the compassionate thing to do.

But anyway.

I have a week left of work now, I leave next Friday, so it’s all getting closer and more exciting. I’m waiting to hear news of my first placement at uni – and I’m spending my first week after I leave work, volunteering in a mental health day setting. I’m also going to hopefully be working on a mini project for the WhoCares trust – speaking to children in care about some government consultations, and I’m off to Nottingham to shadow @fluffosaur which I’m very excited about, among other things. Plus lots of pre reading to keep me busy…along with my upcoming birthday…and my charity event (I run a charity and we have a big annual 10k run/walk coming up in Hyde Park in 2 weeks time) so it’s busy and exciting times!

Second homeless shift

2011-07-19T03:55:00.001-07:00

So, last night I had my second shift at the homeless shelter. It was great to just feel a little more confident, knowing the kind of things I’d be doing.

When I arrived, I saw the guy I’d been chatting with last time, who had been promised a hostel for 3 months but it had fallen through. He talked to me all about gangs in his neighbourhood, and was showing me YouTube videos of all the different rapping gangs and the people he knew. It was quite interesting understanding all about his neighbourhood and the rivalries. Music is obviously a really big form of expression and he ended up playing me a pretty sad Plan B song, with many lyrics around death and telling me it’s how he’s felt every day since he was 13. It was a pretty emotional experience and also made me reflect on my role within that situation – I saw it as there to be a good listener mainly, I’m not really there to offer therapy and advice but hopefully just to make him heard and if possible, offer the odd word of encouragement – reinforcing some of his positive traits.

A few other interesting experiences or thoughts – one was around the community within the shelter. Most of these people had only spent a day or two with each other, before they get assessed and moved on but there is a huge amount of compassion. Last night one of the guys there had clear mental health needs, he was talking to himself loudly, particularly when he was trying to sleep. Although for some there was frustration, there was also just an amazing amount of care – one of the guys stood over him, offering him tea, coffee, a cigarette, checking he was ok, helping to make up a bed for him out of soft chairs so he didn’t end up on the floor. I found it a really humbling experience.

Another thing was about power – it really came to me quite how little power the guests had in this situation. The guy I was speaking to at the start didn’t want to be moved to a B&B just for one night but he was told he had no choice as there wasn’t enough room here. When you get to this situation, it seems a lot is out of your control and it must be incredibly difficult, no to mention unstable, just going along with what you’re told, not knowing what will happen from one day to the next – forming relationships with people who you may not see again after the next two days, constantly on the move. I’d struggle hugely with that – and it reminds me of similar situations of children being moved around foster homes so regularly.

I think those were the main thoughts from last night – as well as just the general friendly atmosphere within the place. I really enjoyed my shift again.

I ended the evening trying to persuade my mum to foster and deciding I want to adopt siblings.

All in an evening’s work!

Endings and beginnings

2011-07-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

One of my friends asked me this week if I’d blogged about my resignation from adland. I hadn’t, mainly because I thought it was pretty self indulgent to do so and not of particular interest.

However I’ve decided to write a short post on it, mainly because I see my blog as a bit of a personal diary, about endings and beginnings and new experiences and for me, resigning from adland was quite a big deal.

In the words of my favourite film (Sound of Music) - "when the lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window". THe Lord aside, i feel like my window is opening!

It didn’t quite come about as intended, I wasn’t due to resign for another 3 weeks but working with my boss had become slightly unmanageable and having been miserable in the agency for quite a long time, it felt right to cut it short and get out. I’m now really excited to be working out my notice and moving onto something that I feel passionately about.

I got some interesting responses at work, mainly asking how I’d decided to make such a drastic change and one funny email “Social work! A real job! You make me feel bad, I hate you!”. Fair enough.

So as I write, things are changing all around me. I’ve sent in my placement request form, I have my 2nd shift in the homeless placement on Monday, I have 4 weeks left in adland, am hoping to secure a couple more weeks of voluntary experience after that and am gearing up to my first day at uni, Sept 20th by trying to make important decisions such as what size files to buy and whether being back at uni calls for a pencil case!

It’s quite odd being at this point in a profession changing so fast – reading about recommendations ie from the Munro report and the Dilnot report that may or may not affect me in a few years or even about BASW and College of Social Work in their will they, won’t they collaboration. One of the most difficult things is reading so many posts on Community Care from people who are leaving or trying to leave the industry, some after only a year after feeling burnt out or frustrated by having to give news to service users that they didn’t feel were the right decisions. It feels like a scary time to be joining but I hope that there will be some more positive change over the next few years and that perhaps in the future it will be something I can contribute to.

I’m hoping to look into London SWAN as something I heard about at the student social work conference – campaigning feels like an important aspect of the advocacy role of social workers, but I won’t comment further until I go to a meeting.

First shift in a homeless project

2011-07-08T04:52:00.001-07:00

I blogged a little while ago about how hard it is to find voluntary work around a full time job. Well, last night I had my first experience of a voluntary shift with the homeless pilot No Second Night Out. It’s plan, though not as literal as the title suggests, is one of early intervention, working with homeless people who are new to sleeping rough. The plan is for the outreach team to bring these people in, to give them an assessment and then to generally try to reconnect them with their home area, if its safe to do so – in the interim they can remain at the hub for 3 days, although there are no beds, or may be put up in a B&B/hostel if the plan takes longer.

The main thing is how glad I was to get the experience to volunteer in a setting like this. It is a million miles from anything I’ve done and I apologise in advance for the insights in the rest of the blog, that were for me so new but to anyone who may read this, quite possibly ridiculously basic and obvious!

I was slightly anxious before I did my shift as to how I’d engage with the guests, but that was immediately overcome as they were an incredibly friendly and also very funny bunch of people. Most, as new to being homeless, were not dependent on alcohol or drugs and seemed in the most part to be in relatively good spirits. From the start they were interested in getting to know me and one in particular was joking around for the most of the session, trying to find out where I lived but in a harmless way. It was interesting though, this question of boundaries. It was obvious I wasn’t going to tell him where I lived and was happy to joke with him – “ok so tell me a shop near you” – errm “sainsburys”…but it did remind me of many of the things I’d learnt in my child mentoring training about ensuring you keep your boundaries in place. I had a great chat with one about the book he’s hoping to write about living as a homeless man – I discussed with him many of the books ive recently read on the subject (Stuart, Wasted etc) which he wrote down, and then in a slightly surreal way, we got on to the ad campaign I’ve worked on which has just launched and apparently they’d all seen – we got onto discussing why we chose Van Damme to star in the coors light ad over another celeb and then one was asking me about some of the strategies in the ads that were coming on while we watched tv.

I guess I was kind of relieved that it was so easy to have such light conversation, if anything perhaps serving to relax and slightly distract them from this interim phase they were currently in. While some were clearly quieter and more anxious, they did seem to be laughing and enjoying the general chat.

Later on in the evening one of them asked if anyone was doing a sandwich run. I’d been told that certain cafes sometimes call if they had extra food but I knew none had so far. I called up a couple and was glad to find two were happy to donate. I was then asked to go with some of the guests to pick up the food from the station – a 20 minute walk away. If I’m honest, I guess this was the first time I felt slightly uncertain. It ended up being just two of us, and although I was actually getting on very well with the guest, I wasn’t entirely sure how safe I felt as it was getting dark. We had a really interesting conversation and he told me more about his life and completely inspired me with his positive attitude but there were times as he talked about prison that I was a little nervous. I find this a difficult issue – as a SW-er you’re naturally going to be working with service users who’ve faced a number of issues, time in prison being one of them and in many ways my nervousness felt immature and naïve but another part was aware it was also at night and in a setting I wasn’t familiar with. I suppose it just led me to think about when it’s ok to say no or ask for another volunteer to go with, vs just getting used to something new. In this situation there were no more volunteers to come anyway, so if I didn’t go, there would be no food for the shelter, but I also appreciate that in theory that’s not my responsibility.

Anyway an interesting dilemma for me.

Beyond that, I got so much out of it.

Recently at the student social work conference, one of the emotional development points was about thinking of three things that make you happy before you go to sleep. Last night so much was in my mind, and although cheesy, I just felt ridiculously lucky to have my own comfortable bed –thinking of these people having to sleep on chairs and on the floor in sleeping bags, sharing with others they don’t know – it must feel at times pretty humiliating or difficult to keep your dignity.

Anyway, I look forward to my next shift in a fortnight.

Sibling contact post adoption

2011-07-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

I read quite a heartbreaking blog earlier today http://goo.gl/d3nRU about retaining sibling contact post adoption.

It struck a chord with me as one of those actions that as a SW-er you really wouldn’t want to do – telling a child they couldn’t see their sibling again for a long time because he/she has been adopted, particularly if you strongly disagree with this decision.

I don’t really understand the rationale behind this.

Everything I have read on the topic places primary importance in forming attachments and it seems the primary objective with LAC is always to try to return them to their birth family where possible.

If this isn’t possible, where there is a loving relationship with a sibling, or at least not an abusive relationship, I would have thought following similar logic that even if one child is adopted, retaining a relationship with their birth sibling would be really important. It must be even more difficult to make sense of your identity if you are cut off from all members of your birth family.

“There is evidence that the presence of siblings minimizes the trauma of parental separations or losses. A twelve-month-old child spends nearly as much time interacting with older siblings as with the mother. Siblings may become transitional objects for one another during a placement. This is particularly important with very young children….Separating siblings can make it more difficult to children to deal with separation and loss, begin a healing process, make attachments, and develop a healthy self-image….Attachments are particularly strong between the caregiver child and the younger siblings. Separation of them may lead to lifelong grief.” - Vera Fahlberg, A Child’s Journey Through Placement.

I’m trying to understand the benefits of this lack of contact.

I appreciate from the adoptive family’s viewpoint that forming a new cohesive unit is important but I’m interested to understand when it is in the child’s best interest for that sibling contact to be entirely cut off.

According to S.P. Banks and M.D. Kahn, authors of The Sibling Bond, the bond between brothers and sisters is unique. “It is the longest lasting relationship most people have. It is often longer than the parent-child relationship. Most often it outlives the husband-wife relationship. While contact may lessen throughout the years, a person’s lifetime quest for personal identity is vitally interwoven with his or her siblings.”

I read that these are two of the potential reasons but to me they don’t seem particularly child-centred:

For some adoptive parents, fear is the reason they end contact between their child and his or her siblings. “We’ve had our son now for over a year. He rarely mentions his sister anymore. I guess I don’t see any importance in opening up old wounds. I am afraid of having to deal with his past,” one adoptive dad commented.

Other parents disrupt contact because they feel the child is now a member of their family. A fact that is true, but some parents desire to erase all memory of the child’s life before the adoption and begin with a blank slate. Joan, a new adoptive mom, put it this way: ” I want this child to have the opportunity to go on with his life, without the constant reminder of his past. Keeping him away from his two sisters will do that, won’t it?”

And I read this, which I guess is where my head is at – but I’d be interested to hear about when there are other factors (not things like abusive relationships between the siblings) which I’m not even considering:

• The best interest of the children must be the priority. For children who now have contact with their siblings, family must be open to some type of continued contact. If face-to-face contact is not possible because of distance or other uncontrollable factors, pictures should be exchanged and addresses shared so that the fear of losing the sibling to death or disappearance is minimized.
• Honor the child’s wishes about how and when he want to keep in touch with brothers and sisters. Contact between siblings who have been separated for a length of time must be handled with sensitivity and appropriate timing.
• Recognize that although the child has been adopted into a new family, memories of brothers and sisters cannot be erased, ignored, or denied. Although grafted into a new family tree, a portion of the roots may still cling to another.

I imagine it’s quite difficult for the siblings, particularly the one who remains in care (assuming they do) to see their sibling with a loving adoptive family if they have been less happy in their current situation – but could this be a secondary family for them, almost like distant relatives? Or am I expecting too much from the adoptive family here?

Apologies if this is a not a particularly well thought through post, I think I’m just thinking out loud!

Back on track

2011-07-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

I was about to write a new post (above) about sibling contact but i thought perhaps i should first mention that my post below was on an "off", nervy day.
Having spoken to a tutor on my course, some incredibly helpful SW-ers on twitter and some friends and family, i feel encouraged that i'm still making the right decision and to continue to do my best throughout the MA/placements and any other opportunities i get and sell myself accordingly!

Apologies for the slightly whining post!

Nerves about the career change

2011-06-30T06:02:00.001-07:00

I recently applied to one LA graduate scheme for Social Work and recently found out I wasn’t shortlisted for interview. It’s frustrating and particularly as you get no feedback but obviously I can appreciate that there were probably many stronger candidates.

However, it has raised one big concern in my mind that has been there for a while. I know I have very little experience in this field. I have never worked with any service users. I have been a youth leader and a Hebrew teacher for kids age 10-12 for many years, but not particularly vulnerable children. I’ve done 10 hours of child mentoring training but haven’t yet been matched with a mentee and I’m about to start (next week) a voluntary role in a homeless charity.

Of course, as I’ve written about previously, I feel I have other transferable skills from my 5 years in advertising – whether it be time-management and organisation or writing and delivering presentations, working in a multi-agency environment or more strategic knowledge around behaviour change. And academically I’ve always done fairly well and achieved a First Class degree during my BA.

However, and this was reinforced after meeting some coursemates at my induction for the MA yesterday, I’m concerned that potential job opportunities may overlook me, even after my MA as I have so little experience when compared to others with years in social care, above and beyond their MA qualification.

Am I going to be wasting my time dropping everything for a 2 year qualification…I’ve suddenly become a bit nervous..

BASW Student Conf

2011-06-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

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”.

People’s reactions to my career change:

2011-06-26T02:47:00.000-07:00

Saying you want to become a Social Worker seems at times be quite a scary thing to do, and I often say it with an expression that says “I know what you’re thinking”.

I’ve seen quite an array of reactions to my career change.

My best friend got it immediately and just said, I didn’t ever see you in the media for long.
My family have been incredibly supportive – they had all the normal worries, the same ones I did and do still have – what happens if you don’t like it, can’t get a job, aren’t any good at it etc and the financial concerns that come with being a student again with a mortgage to pay. But their support has been invaluable during the times when I doubted myself.

I told one of my old friends who was just amazed and questioned every element – do you really know what you’re getting yourself into? I hear radio phone ins all the time where you see SW-ers only doing paper work? How are you going to support a family with that kind of money etc.

And then my favourite one, where I told some friends at a dinner party and after understanding that one of my main motivations was about making a difference, my friend’s husband said “you could become a management consultant..they also make a difference.” I think he’s a Tory. I bit my tongue as I didn’t want to ruin the dinner party.

But it’s also the reaction from strangers – when I was out walking the dog with my mum, we bumped into a neighbour and the conversation turned to what I was doing with my life – she was like, really?! Errm wow..-

Oh and then there was the woman who was giving me a manicure who said “gosh I don’t really know how you can do that, I worked in a school once with families like “that”, it was awful and then I moved to work at Jaguar with people with money, it was so much nicer.”

Right.

It’s interesting to see people’s reactions, and to be honest, some of them did make me doubt my choice in the early stages. But it also is a small window into the public’s perception of Social Work.

When I did some work on teacher recruitment at one of the previous ad agencies I worked on, we looked at behaviour change in some detail, and one of the notions we focused on was called “anchoring”. It’s basically about understanding someone’s reference point – so asking one person to become a teacher, who had a horrendous time at school and thought all the teachers were terrible, is quite different to asking someone else who had a great time at school and who has many friends enjoying a career as a teacher.

“In the context of behavioral change work, anchoring refers to ‘a stimulus which triggers a specific physiological or emotional state or behavior’. It gives us the ability to access desired feelings at lightning speed which we can utilise to help us achieve the outcomes we desire.
Sometimes we create anchors involuntarily. For example, if you think of your favourite teacher’s name from school, or the smell of a certain food or perhaps a photo on holiday or a song you heard, you may find that you get a whole host of emotions instantly. These can empower or disempower, motivate or demotivate.”

Understanding someone’s anchor, helps you to emphathise with their viewpoint, and if you are looking to change their behaviour, its helps you to make your approach that much more targeted.

If your perception of Social Workers comes from reading the Mail, or even worse, a bad personal experience – then your frame of reference is going to be significantly different from some of my friends – for example one who works for Barnados.

Placement request form

2011-06-23T04:00:00.001-07:00

I recently was sent my placement request form from university. They’re asking me to fill in a cover letter style template as to why I want to work in SW etc and then very briefly answer a few questions about what skills and knowledge I want to acquire and whether I’ll be choosing Adults or C+F in my final year.

It was quite an odd form to fill out. I’ve always assumed I’ll choose C+F but am aware people change their mind during the course, and without even one seminar under my belt, it’s an odd question to answer. But more odd is asking me what skills and knowledge I want to acquire – well I don’t know anything really yet, so I’m happy to learn anything and everything!

In addition, I think a lot of students broadly have an idea of what placements they’d like before they start uni but it clearly says on the form, do not indicate what setting you’d like to work in or what service users you’d like to work with. Just the skills and knowledge. The sad truth is, that although I’m sure there are a huge range of placement settings that will offer fantastic experience and transferable skills, most of us would like a placement in a LA, because we’re constantly told that that will help our job opportunities. So the form becomes a kind of tightrope walk to hint at where you might like to go, without overtly mentioning it.

I’m not entirely sure this is the best process but I do know, it makes it all feel so much closer and I really am excited to start working in a social services setting and very aware from others I’ve spoken to, how much can be learnt in the placements you least expect to be rewarding. Plus, its up to you to make your placement experience what it can be.

I have my induction day next week as well as the BASW student social work conference. More writing to come.

Volunteering difficulties

2011-06-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

Just a brief note on volunteering.

I always had it in my mind that it would be ridiculously easy to add some voluntary experience to my CV. This is actually far from true.

Most voluntary positions, rightly, need a period of training in order to begin the post. They may also need application forms, interviews, CRB checks etc.

I started sometime last year deciding I wanted to do some voluntary work, this was before I had decided to do the SW MA.

I went along to the Samaritans information session and discussed Childline with a few people but decided that it wasn’t quite for me. I then found out about child mentoring and after completing an application form, was invited to interview. However, the only interview times they could offer were in the middle of the afternoon – and would need 3 hours out of the office including travel time. So I’d need to take a half day holiday just for the interview.

I eventually found another child mentoring organisation who kindly met me at 8.30am to interview me before work and get the CRB process in swing.

I then needed to attend four two and a half hour training sessions on weeknights at 6pm, requiring me to leave work bang on time, something that rarely happens. The very first session I was unable to attend so I missed that group of training and waited two months for the next lot, which fortunately I was able to attend. Since that time I have not yet been matched to a mentee, something we were told to expect to happen as of course it depends on what the mentee needs, even down to whether they would prefer a boy, or someone with specific hobbies etc.

So I thought about another opportunity and found a role in a new homelessness pilot project run by a group called No Second Night Out. I filled in the application form and went along to the interview and was told the next day I had got the role, which was great news. But then I needed to start the CRB process, which involved another trip to meet them, leaving work on time to get forms signed off, and then the reference process, which in this case, took my referees some time to complete. In fact, they finished today (my interview was about 3-4 weeks ago).

So I’m now waiting to get a time for my first shift.

I’m really looking forward to it, but it does show that its taken me about 9 months to start some actual voluntary work – assuming I start soon!

I do run my own charity, but nothing to do with social equality (it raises money and awareness for Crohn’s Disease) and have been a youth leader and Hebrew teacher for years too – so I do have some experience but not as relevant as I’d like.

Rant over!

Shadowing in a duty and assessment team

2011-06-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

For 3 days I'm shadowing someone in a duty and assessment team.

When I walked into the building it felt so different from the vibe of an ad agency. The crest on the doors somehow make things feel a lot more serious but once I met the team and saw everyone chatting and joking I felt relieved to see that the sense of gravitas wasn’t wholly intimidating.

I was lucky to have an hour to chat all about the work that this team does and what cases are on at the moment. I went to the shift meeting and heard about the cases coming in today; from domestic violence to a young boy at school who'd told his friend he'd been having anal sex with an older man. Cases were allocated and I was given some interesting leaflets to read about CP processes and family assessments.

I spent some time chatting to other SW-ers about their time at Uni, how they found their job and some of my fears. It was great to speak to people who seemed to love their job and reassured me that despite all I've heard, many people do enjoy it!

Listening to phone calls really helped, the tone and manner by which SW-ers were talking - and the patience when repeating to people who couldn't speak English well. Also, I could see how frustrating it could be when so much time seemed to be spent leaving voicemails, endlessly chasing people who didn’t necessarily want to be found. One of the mums under investigation had run with her kids to Kenya and messages were being left to find out about their wellbeing.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to shadow the court hearing for an EPO or school visit to speak to the boy since they already had a large team including an interpreter out to meet but I’ll find out what went on tomorrow.

I then sat in a meeting with a woman talking about her child who she claimed was being bullied at her school for being Muslim. Afterwards I learn that Ofsted have already investigated and found no merit to this claim. She was then talking about the gangs her child is being caught up in and how the child has been beaten and is being more aggressive towards her mum. I saw the Sw-er in her role as expert in support services, recommending advocacy groups to help with some educational advice to help the child be removed from her new rough school and youth services that could provide a mentoring programme to help the child with the aggressive behaviour she picked up since moving to that school.

This is a fantastic insight even in a few hours into some of the challenges the Social Workers are up against. Even just an insight into human behaviour. I hadn’t even considered that some of the people who came in, when making serious allegations about their children being abused at school, might me making it up. I’m not saying this was the case – it’s still being investigated but it sounds like it may amount to that. There’s clearly reasons behind it – and I’m making any profound point here, just that it can be easy to be too trusting I suppose, in the same way it can be easy to be too judgemental. A balance I’m sure I’ll learn, or at least get better at!

Few reflections:
- advertising is almost always involved with white, middle class people aged 25-40. Both in agencies and clients
- You get so used to the luxury of getting cabs everywhere, seeing SW-ers stepping out to make the 15 minute walk to the tube station in the pouring rain is weirdly alien to the ad agency I work in!
- This job feels incredibly intense by comparison to a lot of the work I do, every little task so important.
- But one similarity, I spent a lot of time reading the guide to family assessments and many of the techniques and tasks involve elements I'm quite familiar with from leading focus groups.

Let's see what day 2 brings

Day 2;

I followed up to find out what happened on the two visits yesterday. The boy was apparently making it up - so risk levels are down, just initial assessment needed. Although I considered how you would know whether he was actually making it up, or just said he was due to the situation he’d found himself in. I suppose by entering him onto the “system” after initial assessment will at least make the process faster if his file turns up again in the department.

I have been given some interesting reading on assessment tools and theories associated with interventions. And the really nice SW-er next to me has printed a core assessment he did for me to read. It’s great to see how the theory becomes practice.

He's also invited me to a meeting with a woman who arrived in the UK from Romania 2 weeks ago with her child, who she told the borders agency, she wants to leave in this country. She apparently has mental health issues and has been having increasingly long conversations with the SW-er, refusing to tell him where she is but claiming to have a lot of the UK’s secret services knowledge at her disposal.

I then sat in on a walk-in with a young girl who was the victim of DV. She is living on her own with a young child and was looking to move house. Really this was a case for a range of other services to deal with, mainly housing – for which she is on the list, but the SW-er spent a long time sitting with her, making her an appointment with Victim Support, speaking to the police about putting a panic alarm in her flat, even calling housing to try to hurry along her case. I found it really encouraging that although a lot of these calls could have been made by the girl herself, and there wasn’t a huge amount we could do in this case, it felt like just making a few calls on her behalf was a help, and there were some clear next steps for her to follow. I was also amazed, after hearing quite how confident and proactive this girl was as a single mother facing so many issues, that she was only one year younger than me.

I also spent time looking at genograms - a kind of family tree with an additional layer of detail, i.e showing the strength of relationships between family members/friends, or medical history and ecomaps, which shows the influence of different things on a person's life for example social support systems, or community groups.

Day 3:

The Romanian woman didn’t ever turn up to make her meetings and there was little else we could do for her. The SW-er tried to encourage her to disclose where she was or at least come to us, but she seemed to refuse.

I sat in on another walk-in with a single mother close to break down, dealing with her oldest child with special needs. It was sad, the school he was at was over an hour from her home and she was finding it impossible to take him to and from school each day while dealing with other kids too. The transport that had been put on for him had just refused to take him anymore because he was acting up and she was refusing to take him herself as she said it was all too much and that it was making her suicidal.

I realise this sounds naïve, but having never worked in a setting like this, it was hard to hear these intentions dropped into conversation so easily, and not knowing exactly what we could do to help. I know the case was being referred to a CIN team who would form a team around the child to discuss how different services could be put in place to help the family but I discussed it further with the SW-er after, who explained that there weren’t that many SEN schools and so often the child did have to travel a long way to reach his school. She had suggested different options to the mother, such as trying to find a rota with other parents, to no avail. So, I’m left hoping the CIN team could find a better solution.

Finally I sat in one more walk-in with a girl who said she didn’t want to go back home and had been living with a friend’s family who were moving house and could no longer keep her there. The SW-er discussed her options with her and gave her some further reading to help make her decision.

Before I left I was able to read a few child protection case conference plans to understand how the assessments were used in practice.

It’s been a really fantastic experience, and I learnt a lot more than I really expected to in just three days. Many people have asked me whether it’s made me feel that this is definitely the right job for me. Truthfully I don’t think it did that, nor put me off either – there were times I could see myself fitting right in and imagining my own role within this world, and other times where it felt incredibly overwhelming and made me feel quite daunted at the thought. But that’s three days, pre training.

As my MA start date draws closer, I’m definitely feeling more and more excited.

A place at uni

2011-05-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

Since i last wrote I have secured a place at a university to start my MA in September, which is great news. I'm now living back home and have a few months until i leave my job.

I'm still a mix of excited and anxious but doing everything I can to continue reading up on the subject and I'm finding that the SW-ers and SW students on Twitter are a great resource too.

I completed my ten hours mentoring training, although am still waiting to be matched to a mentee, am beginning work as an volunteer at the assessment hub of a homelessness pilot project and am going to shadow a SW-er, in two weeks time for 3 days, which is sadly the most amount of holiday time i could take from work, but i'm really excited about it.

I recently read Becky Hope's book about the life of a CP SW-er which filled me with a mixture of excitement and apprehension. I think one of the things in my mind is how sheltered my life has been and how little experience and exposure i have with many of the people i will work with as a SW-er. I worry that i won't be confident enough or personable enough to form the r/ships i'll need to - or worry about feeling scared, visiting people in council estates late at night. It sounds awful to say these things, but I'm rubbish as it is at walking home from the station on my own at night. But these are things i'll need to conquer and I need to find the right place/setting for myself as a SW-er, something that uses my strengths while also not shying away from elements that challenge me.

Changing career in such an extreme way

2011-01-25T07:46:00.000-08:00

Hello,

I guess a little background on this blog:

I got a degree in Classics 4.5 years ago and went on to work in advertising strategy. I've been in this field for just over four years and am looking to start my Social Work MA in September 2011. I have a place at two universities and am waiting to hear from a third before making my final decisions.

It's a pretty big decision for me as i think I'm risking a huge amount in making this change.

I bought a flat a year ago which i'll now be moving out of to move back home in order to save some money. Fortunately the government pay for the course but as i'll be going from a reasonable salary to earning nothing at all for 2 years, and then my first salary is likely to be a bit over half what i earn now, i figure its time to save. I also feel i'm risking a lot because i don't really know if i'll like it or be any good at it. Which is quite terrifying.

I do know I have always had a concern and passion for broader social issues. I worked at Crisis homeless shelter over Xmas and am soon to start training to be a child mentor for Islington council (assuming i can make the 4 training sessions required, by leaving work bang on time - when i tried to make them last year, i ended up working late, so hoping this time i'll be luckier.) I've also been a youth leader for quite a few years, spending evenings during my weekend with kids age 10-12 but i'm aware that none of this give me much experience in the social field. Particularly when compared to the people i met at interview days who have already spent years working with service users. It's hard because i can't take back my past years, nor would i want to, i have loved working in this profession for the few years i have, but its worrying thinking my lack of experience might affect my job opportunities post the MA.

I'd like to think that i've learnt some genuinely relevant skills however. For one, i have had to manage people, use my time efficiently, handle paper work and deal with a range of clients. As a planner (also known as "voice of the consumer") my job requires me to try to emphathise with a range of people, particularly when conducting focus groups, learning to listen and interpret not only what people say but what they don't say. A lot of this direct work, with adults and children, using a range of research methodologies and techniques, will i hope, prove to be very helpful for my direct work with service users.

And i've done lots of reading to try to understand whatever i can from a theoretical point of view,both keeping on top of communitycare website and reading books on things from anti discriminatory practice to looked after children - my particular area of interest.

Although it may be buried, deep within my worries, i genuinely am very excited about this change. Hearing more details about the MA and speaking to people on the course really made me feel that this is the right thing for me.

Anyway, after a long ramble, this is my first post to see where i get to i guess! And if anyone is interesting in tracking my progress or giving me any advice along the way!