Fighting Monsters

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

The Last of the (New) ASWs…

I finished my portfolio for my ASW course yesterday. It’s the last time the ASW course will run because the next lot in the autumn will be doing the AMHP training. And it got me thinking a little bit… Naturally we spoke a little about the...

Posted Apr 30 2008, 04:46 PM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, work, ASW, mental health

Money matters

New technology is a wonderful thing. Most of the time. Chip and pin? A fantastic way to improve security for bank cards and accounts. Giros always went missing anyway, much better the ‘direct payment’ with benefits going straight into bank...

Posted Apr 29 2008, 10:24 PM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social issues, older people, socialwork, finance, socialcare

Who is watching?

I see that the Alzheimer’s Society having published a book called ‘Enabling’ which provides models for observation in residential care facilities in order to improve care, as there was an article about it in Care and Health. I think...

Posted Apr 29 2008, 06:16 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: residential care, social care, social work, social issues, older people, dementia

Care or Control?

I spotted this story on the BBC today which reported that anti-psychotic drugs are being used, perhaps too much, perhaps inappropriately, in residential and nursing care homes for residents with dementia. This is an area that is fairly close to my heart...

Posted Apr 28 2008, 04:18 PM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: residential care, social care, work, medication

Angels and Demons

I went to a friend’s birthday party and as a part of the general conversation, was discussing the differences of perceptions in the eyes of the general public at least, between nurses and social workers. You can probably guess which are the angels...

Posted Apr 28 2008, 12:45 PM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, work, nursing

Who pays for care?

Paying for long term care might not be the sexiest issue to be raised in political circles but, probably because it’s something that I deal with on a daily basis at work, it is nonetheless a key one. I think it’s easy for politicians to say...

Posted Apr 26 2008, 01:57 PM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, work

Tragedy and Responsibility

This tragic story about a man with learning disabilities and his mother who were both found dead left me with a couple of thoughts. Obviously it is an enormous tragedy and apart from speculation there are few facts available. My thought though was on...

Posted Apr 25 2008, 07:17 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, carers, learning disabilities

The curse is better than the cure

One of the things that was emphasised strongly on the course, is that someone should never be sectioned because they ‘refused to take medication’. That just isn’t a reason. It seemed to be almost natural to comment on that in the assessment...

Posted Apr 22 2008, 09:31 PM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: work, medication, side-effects, ASW

Asylum

It’s interesting that the meaning of Asylum as a place of safety is often lost amid political footballing of the term, backwards and forwards. I was trying to read through some work-related articles to get some more information for my current work...

Posted Apr 22 2008, 08:24 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social issues, immigration, asylum

And on and on..

Moving into the final stretch now and I’m wavering between feeling fairly confident and feeling completely incapable of finishing off the work. I think I’ve got things in hand more or less - but then I worry about the pieces that I haven’t...

Posted Apr 18 2008, 09:11 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: work, ASW, training, asw course, study

To the end..

Yesterday was the last day of the ASW course - well, the last ‘official’ day. It was funny but I spoke more to some of the people and on a more ‘real’ level than I had during the last few months! Anyway, the Presentation went OK...

Posted Apr 17 2008, 07:48 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: work, ASW

Eastenders!

Community Care’s Social Work Blog discusses the throwback of the Bianca Jackson storyline in Eastenders, where her children were put into care by Social Services because she was homeless (due to non-payment of rent). Honestly, I was annoyed when...

Posted Apr 16 2008, 05:39 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: Uncategorized

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