Blogs

I didn’t even know that yesterday was the day set apart to celebrate social work across the world until a friend informed me at around 9pm. I had spent the morning in lectures for my Masters in Social Work. The lecturer was one of the senior staff...

The great thing about our service and all early intervention in psychosis teams is that we have an open referral system. what this means is that we can take referrals from anyone and anywhere; GP's, schools and colleges, mental health teams, youth...

Taunton web design company owner Karl Winn has sent The Sun into outrage overdrive by suggesting he would rather employ a paedophile than a former member of the armed forces, presumably because of his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read...

The British Psychological Society has summarised a piece of research linking negative parental perceptions with later attachment problems. Read More...

I’ve been less prolific than usual and I’m aware of that! Mostly it is due to an rapid increase in workload combined with the additional work involved in having a student for whom I am responsible (and believe me, it is a fair whack of additional work...

The last month has been a rather stressful time due to academic work and further placement concerns. Hence my total silence. As usual the assignment accompanying the last module was accompanied by a set of criteria to show what the tutors would require...

Has social work lost its political edge? Participants in a roles and tasks project in Northern Ireland think so. A report published by the Northern Ireland Social Care Council found that social work is less political and needs to reaffirm its role as...

A couple of articles in Psychology Today illustrate the mental health benefits and music and dance . Read More...

by Bronagh Miskelly In this week's Community Care magazine (11 March 2010) an unfortunate error has occurred. In the headline for the story about Lisa Arthurworrey joining the social work register the words "Harringey social worker" were...

One of the Task Force recommendations was the establishment of a College of Social Work with potentially Royal chartered status for Social Workers. It fact, the summary quote is A new and independent College for Social Work led and owned by the profession...

I mentioned our use of MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examinations) to provide a rough guide to cognitive levels – and I’ll emphasise the ‘rough’ part of that as really they can only be considered in conjunction with other tests and assessments of daily functioning...

I am running late for a training course that I haven’t finished the ‘pre-reading’ for yet – due to an unusually busy weekend (for all the good reasons which involve sunshine and basically being outside!). But I thought it would be remiss not to mention...

In terms of social care this could be the most important election choice ever so the Political Parties must set out their intentions for social care now On BBC South East (and probably on the other regional channels to) they are asking for people to contribute...

The British Association of Social Workers has been asked to reconsider its position on the development group for a national college of social work while it ballots its 12,500 members on forming its own UK-wide college. Allan Bowman, chair of the National...

Image via Wikipedia I had been intending to write a few ‘book reviews’ of books I had come across over the past few weeks/months and had never got round to it but when I noted (thanks to a librarian sister) that today is ‘World Book Day’ – I thought it...

A residential social worker who failed to inform police an eight-year-old child in her care had run away has been cautioned by the General Social Care Council. Jillian Outterside was due to collect the child from Paignton Community College, Devon, on...

One in three social workers is being bullied by his or her current manager, according to a straw poll by Community Care . We asked more than 780 readers, "Is your current manager a bully?" and around 250 answered, "Yes". Also this...

Here's a mental health good news story. Leeds-based Community Links, a mental health charity, (staff pictured left) feature in The Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For list. Read More...

Under the strapline "some cases should never be opened" a new horror film called Case 39, featuring Renee Zellweger, opens in the UK this week. Read More...

i had a really hard week, a service user i work with was discharged from hospital after being an informal patient last Friday. over the last week things have started to deteriorate, the person in question is in the prodromal phase of psychosis so sometimes...