April 2011 Archives

A US social worker has written a novel about a social worker and called it The Social Worker. You don't get much more social worky than that.

The author hopes the book -- "which focuses on an abused child named Joey who eventually becomes a social worker with many flaws" will change people's attitudes to social work. Best of luck to him.

Meanwhile on a more mental health note, a small study suggests that "future mood swings of people with bipolar disorder can be predicted by their current thoughts and behaviour." The finding suggests therapies such as CBT could be effective in treating the condition.

Finally, have you ever thought of knitting your own version of the royal wedding? Of course you have and you can now buy a book which shows you how to do it. Brilliant.

I don't often have guest posts on Mad World but this one struck me as unusual enough to warrant making an exception.

We ran a story last week about Cardigan, the UK's first social work dog. As something of a joke we added his name to our poll asking readers who they would like to see as England's first chief social worker. Perhaps spurred on by the handsome lead he currently holds in the poll, Cardigan has decided to email me his "manifesto" for transforming social work, if one can dignify it with such a name, and what purports to be a photograph of him - I'll let you judge it for yourselves...

My manifesto for social work change

I may be new to social work but it hasn't taken me long to sniff out where it's going wrong and how it could be improved. Here is my six point plan:

• Let's cut the paperwork. It takes up too much time and is difficult for social workers like me who can't actually hold a pen or type on a keyboard.
• Biscuits for all. I would prefer dog biscuits but you can have human biscuits if you must, although I do think you'd like dog biscuits if you gave them a try.
• Every social work team should have a dog. I've already had a big impact here in Upmead in managing conflict and building positive relationships with service users and that's something that could be replicated across the country.
• We must cut the long hours culture. Offices should close at 5pm to give us enough time in investigate every single interesting smell on the way to the park.
• NO meeting should last for more than an hour. I start getting restless and chewing the furniture after that.
• More pay. We do a tough job and should be able to afford premium brand tinned meat every now and again.

Can we make things better? Yes we can - together we can build a better social work future! Woof!
PS - You can contact me via Twitter @CardiganTheDog

Firstly, not-at-all-surprising research finding of the week: income loss linked to risk of mental health problems.

Secondly, and possibly more controversially, teenagers who listen to music are more likely to suffer from major depression than those who read books, another survey suggests. Do teenagers still listen to The Smiths? Perhaps people feeling depressed are more likely to turn to music than books? Or perhaps books take one's mind off things more effectively than music? Reading more books has got to be a good thing anyway.

The Archives of General Psychiatry reports on a long term study of people with personality disorder.

And why not check out these 10 fascinating facts about personality - you know you want to!

PS - can anyone identify the book pictured above?