What would you have done in this situation? And what do I say tomorrow?!

[Ribbena]

I work for a charity, and I went out today to visit a service user. I had arranged to meet a social worker at the property. We were both late but both arrived at the same time. Also arriving at the same time was a carer who was brand new to the job, and who was waiting for her more experienced colleague to arrive.

The 3 of us let ourselves in (as arranged) and introduced ourselves to the service user. The second carer arrived within minutes. The carers didn’t really know who we were, and the more experienced of the 2 made a remark about how she felt the service user’s care was disorganised, and how she (the service user) didn’t have some necessary items.

Omg! I’ve never seen anything like it! The social worker completely lost it! She started shouting that the carer had no right to say that, that she (the carer) knew nothing, that she (the social worker) had only just taken over the case etc. There was a lot more in the same vein. Both carers looked upset, the service user was in the next room and was hard of hearing but must’ve picked up on something, and I just felt so bad for them.

I asked the social worker if she would come into another room with me so we could talk and the carers could get on with their job. She did come, but was still talking about how unacceptable their behaviour had been and how she was going to have words with them.

I tried to calm her down and to say that I’m sure they hadn’t meant to insult her personally and that they were under a lot of pressure time wise. That led on to her saying they shouldn’t have been late in that case (conveniently ignoring the fact that she and I were late too) but she wasn’t having any of it. Apparently, I was being patronising and didn’t understand and it wasn’t my place to talk to her like that. I wasn’t going to get into an argument with her at that point in the service user’s home and in front of the carers, so I said we would speak tomorrow.

Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything to her at all but the way she flew off the handle wasn’t nice to witness. I’m trying to think how I should approach this conversation tomorrow?

She was very unprofessional in her conduct and I should report her if I were in your position. The client's home is not the place for ranting and raving like that. She needs her senior to remind her of this fact.

Email her manager. Complain in anyway you can (direct to the LA via thier complaints procedure) Seriously unprofessional and rude. No need for it.

Was she a newly qualified social worker?

Report. She should be open to feedback as she's just taken over the case. It's a good time for things like this to be mentioned as she can review what's in place currently and she can request anything that's required.

They all stick together in my experience.

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking I’d speak to her tomorrow first before reporting - but perhaps I should just go ahead and report. I don’t know how long she’s been a social worker for, but I do know she’s fairly new to our area.