August 2011 - Fighting Monsters

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Panels

Since I’ve been employed as a social worker one of the constants in my working week has been the presence and existence of ‘panels’ in many different forms. There was a brief stage when we were told not to refer to them as ‘panels’ but rather meetings...

Published 31 Aug 2011 6:42 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, older people, work, old age, long-term care, health care, health, nhs, local government, National Health Service, decision-making, personal, personal budget, continuing care panel, funding panel
Technology, Social Media and Social Services – Finding new ways to ‘help’

I have some across lots of discussions and debates about ways of using social media and new technologies and interactions to ‘help’ social services become more effective. Most of it seems to revolve around building online directories and databases of...

Published 30 Aug 2011 6:39 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, older people, dementia, work, carers, socialcare, local authority, old age, carer, direct payments, Disability, personal, election, Twitter, british social work, personal budget, Social media, social work and technology, social media and social work, IPad, technology and social work, using technology with service users, YouTube
Weekly Social Work Links 29

After my absence last week, I’m back with some of the links I’ve come across that I’ve found useful over the last week (or two because I’m covering some of the posts I missed during my weekend away!) which relate in some way to social work – some more...

Published 28 Aug 2011 8:01 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, work, links, Social Work Blogs, personal, England and Wales, blog links for social workers, Gestalt therapy
Perspectives, Students and Ageing

I enjoy having students around. It helps keep me fresh and enthusiastic and to see my job through the eyes of someone coming into it rather than through the occasionally blurred eyes of someone who has been working for a while. I had a student shadowing...

Published 26 Aug 2011 7:21 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, older people, work, old age, elderly, social worker, personal, Student, shadowing a social worker, getting old, shadowing
Hemming and Haigh – The Journey of an Injunction

A curious news story broke on Monday. Curious because it is rare that the Family Court make public judgements. As the Yorkshire Post reports Victoria Haigh “caused” the girl, now aged seven, to repeat the untrue child sex abuse claims she had “manufactured...

Published 24 Aug 2011 6:37 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, social issues, work, socialcare, local authority, politics, personal, Christopher Booker, daily telegraph, Family court, Injunction, Elizabeth Watson, High Court, john hemming, john tune, Nicholas Wall (judge), sunday telegraph, superinjunction, vicky haigh, Yorkshire Post
Social Work and the March to Neoliberalism (or Personalisation gone bad)

I caught this article a few days ago on the Huffington Post by a Social Work academic, trying to explain away another aspect of the riots and cashing in on his status no doubt as an ‘authority’. I don’t have much time for the body of the article. He starts...

Published 18 Aug 2011 6:53 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, social issues, older people, work, old age, elderly, health, direct payments, local government, Employment, Disability, social workers, personal, personal budget, personal budgets, neoliberal social work, professor jonathan parker
Fixing the Broken not Healing the Wounded – a wrong-footed Government response

Our wise leader, David Cameron, clearly being an iconic Philosopher King, spent many days studying the possibly causes for the devastating riots in London and across England. He concluded after much intellectually rigorous pursuit, that the causes of...

Published 16 Aug 2011 7:04 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, social issues, work, discrimination, benefits, politics, london, health, personal, cameron, david cameron, Prime minister, iain duncan-smith, philosophy, Chipping Norton, broken britain, Emma Harrison, gang culture, gangs, Single-parent
Weekly Social Work Links 28

I’ve not been able to put together a ‘proper’ piece for this week but wanted to share just a few links I’ve come across. Apart, of course, from my interview on the Jessica Kingsley blog with the author of ‘Social Work Under Pressure’ there has been a...

Published 14 Aug 2011 8:14 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: work, links
Social Work Under Pressure – A Review

Jessica Kingsley Publishers sent m e a review copy of ‘Social Work Under Pressure – How to Overcome Stress, Fatigue and Burnout’ by Kate van Heugten I interviewed the author and the interview is available on the Jessica Kingsley Blog here . I know I’m...

Published 13 Aug 2011 8:53 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, work, health care, health, stress, personal, book review, jessica kingsley, jkp, kate van heugten, social work book, social work under pressure, van heugten
Blame the Poor – A Riot Rhetoric

I apologise for keeping on one track in my posts this week but I am preoccupied by events of the last week. I’m not the same person I was a week ago. Some of the pillars that I held on both tangible and intangible have gone now, never to be replaced....

Published 12 Aug 2011 6:58 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social issues, work, local authority, london, television, England, poverty, personal, london riots, Clapham, Croydon, Ealing, Riot
Communities

One word that has come up a lot in the last few days are discussions about communities. Whether is it ‘affected communities’, or ‘community leaders’ or ‘rebuilding communities’ and it has made me wonder about what the meaning of the word is. whizchickonabun...

Published 11 Aug 2011 6:55 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social issues, work, local authority, london, community, personal, david cameron, community building, Online Communities, boris johnson, Chipping Norton, Community leader, Community management, what is community
London – Some thoughts and hopes

I didn’t sleep much last night. Or the night before. Or the night before that. My city is burning. There is a tangible fear in the air. I’m not above it because I feel it and I see it. I don’t want to listen to politicians being parachuted in (when they...

Published 9 Aug 2011 6:58 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social issues, local authority, london, England, personal, david cameron, big society, london riots, Tottenham
Riots, Poverty and Assumptions

It would be remiss of me not to mention the rioting that took place in London over the weekend. I work and live in some of the poorer areas of the city and felt, indeed, still feel desperately saddened by some of the pictures and reportage coming from...

Published 8 Aug 2011 6:51 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social issues, work, local authority, politics, london, health, anger, poverty, Twitter, facebook, Brixton, David Lammy, london riots, Tottenham, tottenham riots
Weekly Social Work Links 27

A slightly truncated version this week because the last week has been a little distracting and we have a foster child who is likely to appear at any moment! So please add any other links or sites you’ve seen that have been useful in the comments section...

Published 6 Aug 2011 7:20 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, work, health care, health, nursing home, links, personal, Southampton
Commissioning

Yesterday, I caught up with a friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen for a few months. She works in commissioning. She didn’t work in commissioning when we first met but her career trajectory has taken a few odd side steps and there she is. We talked about...

Published 4 Aug 2011 6:43 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, work, mental health, local authority, health, local government, Home Care, Disability, caregiver, personal, Commissioner
Rankings and Musings

Quick post today as I have a few things on the go. So, Wikio sent me their top 20 UK Health Blogs and again, I’ve made the list. Thanks to everyone for your support and do check out the other sites there – there are some real gems and it’s a pleasure...

Published 3 Aug 2011 7:14 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, older people, work, old age, technology, links, personal, care homes, Wikio, activities in care homes, august, technology in residential care, wikio rankings, wikio top 20 health blogs
What does a Mental Health Social Worker do?

I think there’s a lot of misunderstandings about what I actually do at work. What do social workers who are in mental health services do? What do social workers who work in adult services do? I hope by reading, some people get to learn a little of my...

Published 2 Aug 2011 7:36 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, work, mental health, health, mental health social work, carer, social worker, approved mental health professional, personal, cmht, social work in the uk, NHS Trust, AMHP, Best Interests Assessor, Community mental health service, mhsw, what does a mental health social worker do, what does a social worker do
Life as a Social Work Student 4 – The Half Way Point

This is a guest post from the student who has contributed since before her course started. She first wrote here about her pre-course shadowing experiences, her initial impressions after a few months on the course, the start of her first placement and...

Published 1 Aug 2011 7:04 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, work, Education, social work student, Employment, Social Sciences, university, personal, social work in the uk, social work course, Colleges and Universities, guest post, blogs about social work, masters in social work, reflections of social work student, studying social work, university experiences, what's it like to study social work

August 2011 - Fighting Monsters

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

Archives

Panels

Technology, Social Media and Social Services – Finding new ways to ‘help’

Weekly Social Work Links 29

Perspectives, Students and Ageing

Hemming and Haigh – The Journey of an Injunction

Social Work and the March to Neoliberalism (or Personalisation gone bad)

Fixing the Broken not Healing the Wounded – a wrong-footed Government response

Weekly Social Work Links 28

Social Work Under Pressure – A Review

Blame the Poor – A Riot Rhetoric

Communities

London – Some thoughts and hopes

Riots, Poverty and Assumptions

Weekly Social Work Links 27

Commissioning

Rankings and Musings

What does a Mental Health Social Worker do?

Life as a Social Work Student 4 – The Half Way Point