by Peter CorserGeorge Robertson was secretary-general of Nato in the late 1990s. When trying to persuade all the countries to agree a uniformed response to a particular issue he said it was like "trying to move a dozen frogs in a wheelbarrow". This made me laugh when I heard it. However, it took 10 years for me to appreciate the true meaning of the phrase. The realisation came once I had become an approved social worker (a role that has now been replaced by approved mental health professionals) and had the task of trying to arrange for an ambulance and a police car to arrive at the same place at the same time to take a person to hospital.
I think most approved mental health professionals have faced the
frustration of phoning the ambulance service and the police to be told
by both services they will not attend until they get an ETA from the
other. There follows the situation where you essentially wait for one
service to blink first.
When the first party turns up, you face the agonising wait for the other while trying to charm whoever is there to hang on just another five minutes because the controller says the absent party is nearly there.
Priority response
Of course it is somewhat overblown comparing a Mental Health Act assessment with a decision by Nato. But the seriousness of the need to convey somebody to hospital should not be underestimated. Yet the truth is that in most cases it is. The message that is constantly heard from the police and ambulance services is "we do have emergencies to deal with". The fact that it has been decided that somebody should be in hospital to protect themselves or others is not considered any kind of priority.
I have no wish to be too obstinate about this. Obviously a motorway pile-up will take priority over a conveyance to hospital. What is relevant is the view that what social workers do is not a priority - unless a person is blocking a hospital bed or is causing a nuisance in a police station.
Just another task
It is also indicative of governments' attitude to the arena of social workers. We are treated as just another task to be dealt with once the main issues such as teachers and the police are dealt with. That is, until there is a crisis: it is then that ministers fall over themselves to deal with us. But only until the crisis dies out and we can go back to being quietly ignored.
Peter Corser is a mental health social worker
When the first party turns up, you face the agonising wait for the other while trying to charm whoever is there to hang on just another five minutes because the controller says the absent party is nearly there.
Priority response
Of course it is somewhat overblown comparing a Mental Health Act assessment with a decision by Nato. But the seriousness of the need to convey somebody to hospital should not be underestimated. Yet the truth is that in most cases it is. The message that is constantly heard from the police and ambulance services is "we do have emergencies to deal with". The fact that it has been decided that somebody should be in hospital to protect themselves or others is not considered any kind of priority.
I have no wish to be too obstinate about this. Obviously a motorway pile-up will take priority over a conveyance to hospital. What is relevant is the view that what social workers do is not a priority - unless a person is blocking a hospital bed or is causing a nuisance in a police station.
Just another task
It is also indicative of governments' attitude to the arena of social workers. We are treated as just another task to be dealt with once the main issues such as teachers and the police are dealt with. That is, until there is a crisis: it is then that ministers fall over themselves to deal with us. But only until the crisis dies out and we can go back to being quietly ignored.
Peter Corser is a mental health social worker
The real nuts & bolts of the job.
Senior managers, local & national politains or indeed the public have no idea. If they did they would be up in arms,
I would say it was more indicative of societal attitudes towards mental health, and by extension towards people in difficulty. With regards to people with mental health difficulties, they are seen as different than other people, and not as an ordinary person with a genuine need for assistance.
With regard to the Daily Mail fest which goes on whenever there is a tradegy, which may have had some social work involvement, the social workers of course become the scapegoats. This is because we live in a blame orientated culture, and blaming the social worker, is about as close as we can come to blaming the feckless poor.
There will perhaps be questions raised about why no one living near by didn't notice anything. These are all distractions from questions about why we live in a society where so many of our citizens live in abject poverty, and in many cases try to deal with situations for which they do not have the adequate skills.
You see this when they show pictures of filthy houses and parents are gaoled for neglect. Of course it makes society feel better to lock away these evil doers, than to really look at what we as a society more generally do about tackling the underlying issues.