Reading is often seen as a solitary activity, but socialworkers, clients with mental health conditions and children in care, are amongthose reaping the benefits of read-aloud groups that get staff and patientsreading together. The Reader Organisation, a charity and social enterprise, runs around 300 read-aloudgroups across the country (find your nearest one here). Groups take [...]
Last night saw the launch of our live social work practicedilemmas online debate series. We kicked things off with a debate over thecomplex issue of judging mental capacity, and discussed a case study of a 64year old woman with clinical depression (you can replay the debate here if you missed it). Massive thanks to the [...]
Photo: Flickr Stew DeanLast night I attended Confidence and competence – an event organised by recently qualified social worker Zoe Betts (check out her recent ComCare blog) for her fellow NQSWs and social work students. The night saw some great talks from Victoria Hart, a mental health social worker, and Sherry Malik, deputy chief executive [...]
Tomorrow at 7pm we’re hosting the first of a series of live online discussions debating social work practice dilemmas. Our first event focuses on the story ofJackie, a 64-year old client with clinical depression who claims ‘everything isfine’, despite her social worker being concerned that she is malnourished. You can check out the full case [...]
So yesterday I flagged up Louis Theroux’s documentary on autism. The programme, available on iPlayer, is a powerful use of video by a journalist to explore the issue. But what about the potential for clients and social workers to tell their own stories, and the issues affecting them, directly through film? Today I was sent [...]
Picture: BBC Tonight sees the start of a new two-part series fromdocumentary maker Louis Theroux focusing on two issues familiar to many in thesocial work – autism and dementia. In the first programme – airing at 9pm tonight on BBC Two -Theroux travels to New Jersey, USA, to visit what the programme makers havedubbed ‘one [...]
Social work throws up plenty of complex cases, but few simple answers. Sharing experiences on difficult scenarios can prove an invaluable, and often lively, way of discussing how to approach tricky cases. That’s why Community Care is launching a series of live, online debates focusing on practice dilemmas from the frontline of adults’, children’s and [...]
Socialworkers are understandably wary of talking to journalists. And rightly so, givena lot of the press pack too often portrays the profession as nothing more than a group of monstrouschild snatchers, with talesof ‘care failings’ drowning out any positive social work stories. Image via Flickr (Infrogmation) Butthere are exceptions, and today I came across an [...]
All is not well with welfare, particularly the coalition’scontroversial work capability assessments (WCA) programme. Last week PaulFarmer, chief executive of mental health charity Mind, resigned from theindependent panel charged with scrutinising the WCA after coming to theconclusion that the Department for Work and Pensions was failing to suitablyoverhaul a system that is ‘damaging people’s lives’. [...]
Mad World highlights the latest research, policy and debate about all things mental health along with some social work stuff and the odd piece of random nonsense, just to keep you on your toes.
It is written by community editor Andy McNicoll.
Email: Andy McNicoll
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