Fighting Monsters

May 2008 - Posts

• Safeguarding Adults?

  One of the key policies that I’ve worked a lot with over the past few years, has been the introduction of the ‘new’ Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA) scheme and the Safeguarding Adults procedure - when there is a suspicion of abuse... Posted May 31 2008, 06:58 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social care, social work, older people, work, learning disability

• Walk away

  Yesterday I was called to an ‘emergency’. Well, as I don’t operate strictly in a crisis setting, it was more to act as a gatekeeper to the ‘real’ emergency services. In essence, did Mr A need to come into hospital? It wasn’t... Posted May 30 2008, 05:40 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social issues, work, mental health, local authority, housing, hostel, homelessness

• Differences in Depression

  Breaking completely unsurprising news.. Men and women express different symptoms of depression according to a study from Cardiff. But there are some interesting points that I wasn’t aware of. The breakdown of the symptoms is quite interesting. According... Posted May 29 2008, 05:51 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social issues, medication, mental health, psychiatry, women, sexism, gender, men, depression

• Into the ‘hoods

  Yesterday was European Neighbour’s Day. I know about this because I read The Guardian’s website! It was a timely then, that yesterday I spent a morning with the neighbour of one of the people that I work with. We’ve met a number of times... Posted May 28 2008, 05:44 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: residential care, social issues, older people, work, elderly, long-term care, neighbour, local, caring, friendliness, local solidarity, carer, neighbor, neigborhood

• Get out of Jail Free

  I haven’t had much experience of working within the criminal law system but I noticed an article via Mental Patient about Town from the Independent which was depressingly unsurprising when it states that there are a growing number of people who... Posted May 27 2008, 05:33 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social work, social issues, older people, work, forensic, mental health review tribunal, MHRT, jail, prison

• Ageism - the ‘acceptable’ face of prejudice

  Social workers are supposed to be a liberal group. We are trained extensively in anti-discriminatory practice. I can’t imagine there are any social work courses in the country that don’t, at least explore, the implications of discrimination... Posted May 26 2008, 06:14 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social care, social work, social issues, older people, work, carers, discrimination, ageism, old age, elders, rant, caregivers, prejudice, nhs

• Indulgence

  A completely self-serving and indulgent post if I can be forgiven, so I’ll keep it brief! It’s Sunday, it’s a holiday weekend and I’m fairly busy but I did get a letter yesterday from the university confirming that the portfolio... Posted May 25 2008, 07:05 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social work, work, ASW, training, uk, me, mental health social work

• A Healthy Mind

  A lot of discussion exists around mental illness and disorder but while I was reading the Oxford Handbook of Psychiatry yesterday, I came across an interesting passage about good mental health. ‘Good mental health is more than simply the absence... Posted May 24 2008, 05:38 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: mental health, google books, health, psychiatry

• Prevention before cure

  It is all very well for the government to call for better preventative care for older people. It is a noble aim - and a cost effective policy too. But I can’t help but be a little bit cynical. As long as the Fair Access to Care bands exist and restrict... Posted May 23 2008, 05:56 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social care, social work, social issues, older people, work, elderly, uk, fair access to care, prevention, health care

• Gaining Approval

  In order to become an Approved Social Worker (ASW) the requirements are as follows - undertake a course of sixty days training (a mixture of lectures, seminars and supervised practice in a placement setting ) -apply for a warrant (after some more supervised... Posted May 22 2008, 06:07 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social work, work, ASW, training, mental health, warrants, assessment, mental health profession, being an asw

• Asylum or Sanctuary?

  Who says words don’t matter? The Evening Standard reports on study from the Independent Asylum Commission which concludes that ‘asylum’ seekers should be renamed ’sanctuary’ seekers due to the negative connotations of the... Posted May 21 2008, 06:40 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social issues, immigration, media, sanctuary, evening standard, language, asylum seeker

• ‘Social Work at its Best’

  Over the weekend I had a look at the GSCC document ‘Social Work at its Best’ which is a result of an 18 month consultation process throughout England to establish what Social Work is and should be in the future. It makes fairly interesting... Posted May 20 2008, 06:09 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: work

• Sticks and stones

  One of the leaflets I picked up, amongst the biros and the mousemats at Community Care Live event last week, was a publication by SHIFT - an organisation that I’d never heard of until last week. But they publish what I thought was an interesting... Posted May 19 2008, 06:46 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social issues, mental health, discrimination, suicide, political correctness, media, suicide reporting, SHIFT, press, writing guide

• A decent place to live

  I seem to have had something of a ‘home’ themed week in one way or the other, so thought I’d round it off with a few thoughts about more general housing. In one of the previous teams I worked in, we had a basic line that a lot of the... Posted May 17 2008, 06:51 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social care, social issues, work, local authority, social policy, housing stock, right to buy, uk, poor housing, housing, social housing, social justice

• Living in DoLs houses

  Just when I thought I was pretty hot on all the acronyms that are flung around the workplace, I have been hit with a few more. It came as a result of a conversation with one of the managers (there are whole swathes of different levels of managers in the... Posted May 16 2008, 06:24 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social care, social work, older people, work, ASW, capacity, learning disability, long-term care, human rights, deprivation of liberty, bournewood, european court of human rights

• Afterthought

  I just read this story on the Times website about an elderly couple that were found dead following a visit from social services as they feared that they would be separated due to differing care needs. There isn’t really much that can be said, apart... Posted May 15 2008, 09:02 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social care, social work, social issues, older people, work, elderly, long-term care, wales

• Creating home at home

  Yesterday, one of the plenary sessions I attended at Community Care Live was a discussion of an initiative by Help the Aged called My Home Life. As it says on the site, it is ‘a new initiative aimed at improving the quality of life of those who... Posted May 15 2008, 05:07 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: residential care, social care, older people, work, nursing care, elderly, long-term care, help the aged, relationship-centred care

• Live and Life

  Community Care Live starts today. I expect attend a few of the workshops and plenaries that will be taking place. I wonder what a collective noun for social workers would be. I can’t think of many things that would be printable (so to speak!) but... Posted May 14 2008, 06:15 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social care, social work, work, community care live, london, irena sendler, goodness, hero

• The Right to (Free) State Care

  Brown announced that he was starting a six month consultation to make decisions about reforms to the ’social care’ system and in particular, its funding. The Wanless Social Care Review was produced back in 2006 and it examined ways of paying... Posted May 13 2008, 06:19 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social care, social work, social issues, older people, work, local authority, politics, care funding, elderly

• Spend, spend, regret?

  The Independent writes about the link between bipolar disorder and overspending. It doesn’t really come as any surprise and seems logical that a link would be made. I remember a conversation I had with a patient who spoke in terms of genuine regret... Posted May 11 2008, 07:52 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social work, work, finance, mental health, benefits, debt management

• The Cost of Caring

  The Guardian published an article this week about the germination of a New Deal for Carers and the results of the consultations that they ran over a period of a couple of months. I hadn’t known this had been going on so thought I’d look at... Posted May 10 2008, 11:13 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social care, social work, carers, local authority, new deal for carers, government, benefits, reform

• Compare and contrast

  This article from The Guardian’s website compares the use of medication for older people with the safeguards in place when prescribing for children. It made a lot of sense to me. It is a part of the sensation that ageism permeates much of society... Posted May 08 2008, 06:09 PM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social work, social issues, older people, work, socialwork, socialcare, ageism, old age

• Shuffling the deck

  There is another reorganisation in progress at work. I’ve managed to put it to the back of my mind for as long as I’ve been concentrating on the ASW training but that doesn’t mean things have been standing still. I wonder if there is... Posted May 08 2008, 06:43 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social work, work, reorganisation, local authority

• Sport for all

  MENCAP reported yesterday that funding for learning disabled athletes is struggling following the ban on these athletes after some reported shifty behaviour regarding eligibility of some athletes who apparently faked having learning disabilities, in the... Posted May 07 2008, 08:59 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: work, olympics, sport, discrimination, learning disability, paralympics

• Whither Social Work?

  Working in a multi-disciplinary team presents different challenges for social workers and social work in general. We have monthly ‘professional’ meetings where I work which, I think, is to ensure some kind of group supervision (as my line... Posted May 06 2008, 06:48 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social care, social work, work, socialwork, consultation

• Using IMCAs

  I was surprised when I spoke with colleagues who were working in a local CMHT, that few of them were aware of the IMCA (Independent Mental Capacity Advocate) service and none had used them. I have used IMCAs a few times over the last 8 months or so and... Posted May 03 2008, 07:00 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: social care, older people, work, socialwork, capacity, MCA, mental capacity

• What a difference a decade makes..

  Well, 11 years actually since the Labour Party swept into power. I’m not surprised by the poor performance of the government in the local elections this year. People tend to get tried of the same faces but there were some very obvious pointers too... Posted May 02 2008, 11:02 AM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: work

• No place like home

  I saw on the BBC yesterday that a man died in an EMI/Dementia registered nursing home in Hertfordshire. It was only a passing reference on the news but I thought I’d check the CSCI report of the home in question. This is a quote taken from the CSCI... Posted May 01 2008, 04:32 PM by Fighting Monsters Filed under: residential care, social care, social work, social issues, older people, dementia, work, nursing care