Tell me what you think of social workers!

[ScummyMummy]

Pleeese! For my final piece of college work. Go on- you know you want to...

1. Which of the words on this list you would particularly associate with social workers? Powerless Supportive Interfering Non-judgemental Overworked Powerful Oppressive Prejudiced Helpful

2 a) Are your thoughts about social workers
a) Mostly positive
b) Mostly neutral
c) Mostly negative

2b) Why do you think this is?

3. When families with children need support, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly offer useful support
   b) Sometimes offer useful support
   c) Rarely offer useful support
   d) I don?t know

4. When elderly people need support, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly offer useful support
   b) Sometimes offer useful support
   c) Rarely offer useful support
   d) I don?t know

5. When children are at risk of abuse, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly succeed in protecting children
   b) Sometimes succeed in protecting children
   c) Rarely succeed in protecting children
   d) I don?t know

6. If people with severe mental illnesses become dangerous to others, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly offer useful support to the person and succeed in protecting others
   b) Sometimes offer useful support to the person and succeed in protecting others
   c) Rarely offer useful support to the person and succeed in protecting others
   d) I don?t know

7. Have you or anyone close to you ever had a social worker?

8. What advice would you give to social workers wanting to do a good job?

9. Do you want to say anything else about what you think of social workers?

Thank you, shoppingsecret

) Which of the words on this list you would particularly associate with social workers?
Powerless Supportive Interfering Non-judgemental Overworked Powerful Oppressive Prejudiced
Helpful

2 a) Are your thoughts about social workers
a) Mostly positive
b) Mostly neutral
c) Mostly negative

2b) Why do you think this is?
They do not have the resources to provide any sort of sensible service.

They seem to have to have 10001 meetings, rather than meet with people. They're always being reorganised, I've been through about 4 SWs and have only met one of them, if I phone, they ar ein meetings and never ring back. everything takes an age to sort out- over a year to sort out direct payments for example.

3. When families with children need support, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly offer useful support
   b) Sometimes offer useful support
   c) Rarely offer useful support
   d) I don?t know

4. When elderly people need support, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly offer useful support
   b) Sometimes offer useful support
   c) Rarely offer useful support
   d) I don?t know

5. When children are at risk of abuse, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly succeed in protecting children
   b) Sometimes succeed in protecting children
   c) Rarely succeed in protecting children
   d) I don?t know

6. If people with severe mental illnesses become dangerous to others, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly offer useful support to the person and succeed in protecting others
   b) Sometimes offer useful support to the person and succeed in protecting others
   c) Rarely offer useful support to the person and succeed in protecting others
   d) I don?t know

7. Have you or anyone close to you ever had a social worker?

I have one for my son. Although at the moment I am on a list and just have the duty SW, as they've cut back on the people having named SW.

Since ds1 moved to an SLD/PMLD school I have found ss far more willing to help, when he was in mainstream they weren't interested. Friend's experiences seem to be similar.

8. What advice would you give to social workers wanting to do a good job?

Get hands on experience so you understand the practical problems of the conditions you are dealing with.

that went wrong, should be powerless, overworked and prejudiced.

Thank you missus. gratitude forever an all that.

in one word? ineffectual (is that a word) but its a problem of the system in the main, imo.

Sob! I'm doomed to be ineffectual by the system. Hmm. Will have to be even more unrealistically optimistic than usual from here on in.

Mental health nurses aren't perceived positively either (either by patients, other nurses or patients relatives) that's why your sense of worth needs to be boosted by peer relationships and by the intrinsic knowledge that you are doing a good job. The thing is, scummymummy, there are so many shit people in our profession (well there is in mine anyway)that it can be disheartening at times but if you became so disillusioned that you left the profession....well it only serves to exacerbate the problem.

I found my SW quite good scummy. She was terribly worried to find us sitting in the dark though, (ds1 was going through a phase of insisting certain lights were off, I'd half tackled it and was psyching myself up to do the rest). She was genuinely concerned though and did seem to have a good grasp of the sorts of difficulties we face. She was non-judegmental and helpful. I looked forward top building up a relationship wth her, and working together. And then? She was removed from us and we were lumped into the group with no SW but "are welcome to ring the duty SW". Considering ds1 is going to require a SW for the rest of his life I thought that was rather ludicrous. It's also a pain because I needed to ask someone whether I could use my dp's for X- but have no SW to ask, so instead am paying out of my own pocket, when I could in fact be usring dp's.

That's what I mean when I say the system makes people ineffectual.

1. Which of the words on this list you would particularly associate with social workers? Powerless Supportive Interfering Non-judgemental Overworked Powerful Oppressive Prejudiced Helpful

2 a) Are your thoughts about social workers
a) Mostly positive
b) Mostly neutral
c) Mostly negative

2b) Why do you think this is?

I have had person negative experiences with social workers. And know many people who have also had similar experiences.

3. When families with children need support, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly offer useful support
   b) Sometimes offer useful support
   c) Rarely offer useful support
   d) I don?t know

4. When elderly people need support, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly offer useful support
   b) Sometimes offer useful support
   c) Rarely offer useful support
   d) I don?t know

5. When children are at risk of abuse, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly succeed in protecting children
   b) Sometimes succeed in protecting children
   c) Rarely succeed in protecting children
   d) I don?t know

6. If people with severe mental illnesses become dangerous to others, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly offer useful support to the person and succeed in protecting others
   b) Sometimes offer useful support to the person and succeed in protecting others
   c) Rarely offer useful support to the person and succeed in protecting others
   d) I don?t know

7. Have you or anyone close to you ever had a social worker?

My stepson has a social worker who has been entirely useless and completely unhelpful and uncooperative with his father (my dh).

8. What advice would you give to social workers wanting to do a good job?

Remember that a child has two parents (fathers matter too). There is more than one right way to bring up a child. Being different doesn't make you a bad parent.

9. Do you want to say anything else about what you think of social workers?

I think that social workers need more in-the-field training and less power to disrupt families. They also need to be introduced to more cultures and different ways of doing things. And social workers should be better trained to respect both parents' views on a situation and not assume that just because the children live with the mother, that the mother is always right. SW's should be give more tools for helping rather than just inspection and removal duties.

1. Which of the words on this list you would particularly associate with social workers? Powerless Supportive Interfering Non-judgemental Overworked Powerful Oppressive Prejudiced Helpful

2 a) Are your thoughts about social workers
a) Mostly positive
b) Mostly neutral
c) Mostly negative

2b) Why do you think this is?
Basing this on my mother's social workers. She became progressively ill over several months and was in need of care at home as she lived alone. Cambridge social services were useless - unacceptable things like urgent but simple messages not being returned, lack of communication between social workers, social workers allocated to us not being available on the phone for weeks at a time, due to being off sick. Colleagues not covering the work. Very casual attitude to me when I phoned to ask about progress. No clear communication about the assessment process (almost deliberately withholding info). I needed to know this in order for my mother to get her entitled level of care.

I felt that as my mother was old and would die within months, Social services did not want to waste time or budget on her. Really bad memories of it all - sorry!

3. When families with children need support, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly offer useful support
   b) Sometimes offer useful support
   c) Rarely offer useful support
   d) I don?t know

4. When elderly people need support, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly offer useful support
   b) Sometimes offer useful support ( I can but hope)
   c) Rarely offer useful support
   d) I don?t know

5. When children are at risk of abuse, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly succeed in protecting children
   b) Sometimes succeed in protecting children
   c) Rarely succeed in protecting children
   d) I don?t know

6. If people with severe mental illnesses become dangerous to others, do you think social workers
   a) Mostly offer useful support to the person and succeed in protecting others
   b) Sometimes offer useful support to the person and succeed in protecting others
   c) Rarely offer useful support to the person and succeed in protecting others
   d) I don?t know

7. Have you or anyone close to you ever had a social worker?

Yes - my mother.

8. What advice would you give to social workers wanting to do a good job?
   Need excellent communication between colleagues. If a social worker only works part time, this is even more important. Also to answer phone messages every time - even if the answer is not a full one. To clearly explain all options and not withhold information.

9. Do you want to say anything else about what you think of social workers?
   Add a Message
   No

Thanks again jj and plummy.
And thank too sofia and tigermoth. Sorry to hear of both your experiences though.