I've just had a mid-point review and if things continue the way they are doing, I will not be passed - I have been made aware of this at my mid-point review meeting today. My placement last year was at a homelessness charity and my role was essentially that of a support worker. This was an activity and advice drop-in centre, the work and general working environment was very positive, happy, and recovery based. I enjoyed the hands-on, practice role of the support worker. There was little in way of care coordination. This year I'm on a CMHT placement. I haven't enjoyed the work and work environment quite so much, there has been far less direct engagement with service users, something I have really missed from my time on my first placement. I just feel lost. The colleagues I'm working under have questionned whether my personality is cut out of the social work profession, the intensity to it, the workloads, how will I cope, the paperwork. I am more of an introvert than an extrovert but I don't shy away from challenging things and people when I feel something isn't what I deem right/appropriate. I just feel so upset, lost and confused now. I have another 50 days to try and turn the situation around/to demontrate that I do have competency and can cope with and manage my own workload. Another option that was discussed was the potential extension of my placement from 100 days to 120 days. They mentioned how my university education (my MA course), in their opinion, hadn't sufficiently prepared me for a statutory placement and that the support worker role last year also hadn't sufficiently equipped me with what lies ahead on a statutory placement - i.e. questionning the point of it really.
I just don't know what to do, confused with how I feel and what I want in life. I enjoy the area of mental health but, I don't know...I'm a hands-on person, I like doing things physically, perhaps I'm not cut out for the profession (which can equate to being a type-writer for long periods of the day etc), I like the concept of helping others, finding solutions to problems...
If you can make any sense of my own feelings and ramblings, what do you suggest I do, what could I look at doing?? I'm in my mid-20s now and I need to get a career started and I'm just feeling so down about the situation although I feel I'm keeping my chin up reasonably well given the circumstances...
I think my advice would be to plug away at it, take advantage of all their feedback and concerns etc and go out of your way in whatever ways you can to address the issues they have presented. You have spent 2 years almost studying, and of you give up now, you will have lost all of that. You have 50 more days- possibly 70- to learn and develop as much as you can, try to adapt to what and who they want you to be and pass. It may be hard,especially as obviously your confidence will have been knocked now, but you can do it. It is possible to pull things back and even finish on a flourish.
One point though is that as these issues have been raised now, at the mid-point review, there should also have been a plan put in place to help you work on them and pass. I think you need to utilise supervision sessions to revisit these issues frequently to get feedback on how you are doing and how you can do better- and if it's lacking, insist on it. Also seek regular support form your university liason tutor too, and don't feel shy of calling another review meeting, mid-way between now and the final review if you feel it necessary.
It seems that in some ways they are acknowledging that the fault does not lie totally with you, but with the last placement experience that the university provided you with, especially as the possibility of extending the placement has been offered (unusual as far as I know). I have heard of other students told the same thing, and similar comments form practice teachers too, and it is something that the univeristies need to address.
Maybe you are not suited or destined for a life in statutory social work- it's not for everyone- but there is life outside of statutory work for social workers too! Many workers work in non-statutory services, where there is less emphasis on care co-ordination and more on personal contact. So please don't give up now- you have got so far to throw in the towel.
Hello1984,
I am sorry to hear you sounding so bad. I guess there are a number of things going on for you here - firstly, you really enjoyed your first placement, felt that you fitted, enjoyed the work, learning something new and being able to have direct work with clients so it gave you very positive feelings. I guess that the key point in that placement which you recognise is that you were akin to a support worker. There is no doubt that going from that kind of role into a CMHT is going to be a huge culture change. CMHT's can be difficult, confusing and full of jargon (not least the legal language!) and I personally feel that a CMHT is not neccessarily the best placement opportunity for any student as a limited variety of work is available if you are not qualified.
I think it is also fair to say that most social work education does not train you sufficiently for statutory work. I remember (many many years ago) that I was unable to get a statutory placement (it wasn't so important then) and so my first job was in the voluntary/private sector. For me, that gave me vital experience as a social worker and helped me gain confidence before then entering LA work. Not all social work operates in the statutory sector.
Secondly, I know how horrible it can be to have a mid placement review and realise that all is not well. Your reactions at the moment are perfectly natural, you are questioing where you are going and if the taste of social work you are currently experiencing in the CMHT is want you really want to do.
I guess that I would say to you, that you have come along way already and it would be a shame to quit now. However social work in the statutory sector is minimal client contact (as many posters on the forums have testified) although there are jobs which can give good client contact. Social work positions in the independent sector do offer more client contact.
I am an introvert and I have loved most of my time as a social worker and in many ways I would not do things differently if I had my time over again. It can be enormously rewarding and devastatingly frustrating and upsetting but I do now that I have helped some people to turn their lives around, and thats what matters to me.
My advice to you, such as it is, would be to try and see your placement as a 'means to an end', learn what you can, do what you can and struggle to the end, because when you qualify, that is when you can choose (even whether to do social work or not) where you work, how you work and with whom. At the very least you will have gained a professional qualification that you can return to, and at the best you can enter a career which will give you as many 'highs' as 'lows' and make a difference. Perhaps becoming a little more dispassionate about your placement will help you to do what you need to do in order to pass.
Hope this helps! x
hya.
I feel really sorry for you but you've got to keep your head up, and take the fact that you now have 50 days to sort it all out as a positive.
I'm also on the MA and about 25 days short of finishing. My university have been absolutely useless and failed to prepare any of us for any type of placement. They also gave me a placement for first year which was basically and admin role, and had nothing to do with social work. This placement I was put in a very busy safeguarding team and it was basically sink or swim. Thankfully I was given an excellent practive teacher who has helped and advised me continuously and I have now been offered several jobs in the area as a result of how I did this placement.
My point is that I couldn't have been any worse prepared for this placement, but I got the support I needed. Find out exactly what you need to do in the last 50 days in order to pass, and stick to it completely. Don't accept that you may not be suited to the profession, quite frankly thats BS. your on a masters degree, 150 days of placement done and your uni have not flagged up any concernes until now. They can't just take away 2 years of your life and tell you they were pointless. Fight it with your uni, because essentially they should not be taking the students if they are failing to provide adequate placement opportunities for them, but be as nice and as productive as you possibly can on placement because essentially everyone will be assessing you now!
Also, print out the keyroles and identify which ones you have met and not met. As long as you stick to these and the the codes of values and ethics, I can't see what more you can do....whatever you do, do not give up. You've put in way too much time and effort to have someone take it away from you now, and 50/70 days is loads of time!
All the best and hope it works out!
It sounds like you are feeling disheartened but don't let that dampen your determination to make a difference in the lives of other people. The people who will work with might have at some point faced such adversity from institutions holding all the cards and felt disempowered. This is a chance for you to develop some more empathy for how those people must have felt. Combined with this; let your drive and determination allow you to prove the placement and uni wrong! Keep going!
sorry to hear about your dissapointment, i did a placement in a CMHT and i now work in the same one, what struck me was how isolating it can be for a social worker and for a social work student even more so especially if your placement supervisor or practice teacher are not around much.
it's a shame that you dont feel you have seen much of the service users as i spend a lot of time with mine but that is because i ensure i do so, when i was a student however it was hard, i think one of the issues for me was that the other members of the team who were not from a social work background were not used to the style of social work placements, nursing students or OT stuidents are not allowed to hold their own caseloads or do indivdual work with people and so expected that for me as a social work student things would be the same, luckily my placement supervisor who was a social worker managed to put them right about this but with out her i probably would have crumbled.
dont think about giving up social work over this it maybe that you would be more suited in a team that is not multi disciplinary at first to get your confidence back as a social worker, i have been working now for a year if you include my 100 day placement and it is only now i am begining to feel confident and sure of my social work role and that is from good regular supervison with a senior social worker and lots of reading.
good luck
Thanks for all your comments. I will be sticking at it until I'm either passed or failed. There is a review meeting scheduled for 25 days time (day 75 of placement) and if there has been sufficient upward trajectory in terms of my development, my competency, then I'll remain on placement until 100 days or, more likely, 125 days. The values and theory of social work chime with my own, that's what whetted my appetite to go on a social work course. I had worked for Mind as a volunteer, in a befriending role, this for about 6 months, 1 night a week. Like I've already mentioned, the difference between the nature of my first placement and this CMHT placement has been huge and I guess this has had serious implications for my practice, for how I've developed and come along with regard to competency. I like to feel active and involved, and I felt I was when working as essentially a support worker on placement last year at a homelessness charity/advice-drop-in centre. I had so much more engagement with my practice teacher last year, whereas on this placement, things are different work-wise, my practice teacher has her own caseload of approximately 22-23 and she's trying to fit me in around it. There's so much to why this placement has encountered difficulties. I'm trying my hardest, I am going to stick at it but at the same time I'm deeply concerned about my future. Do I want to be a care-coordinator where there is so little service user contact and so much paperwork, bureaucracy...what do I do if I'm passed and of course, if I'm failed. What then?
The CMHT I'm based with - it's full of strong personalities, they've been in their roles for a long time, been bruised and battered, and I'm so fresh to the profession. I've really been plunged in at the deep end with this placement, it's been quite unforgiving and what is worrying is that, although I have worked with service users, attended ward rounds, CPA meetings, psychiatric unit visits, home visits, 1 risk assessment with a service user, I'm now on day 50 and still without my own caseload - I'm supposed to be being given 3 shortly. *fingers crossed* Giving me the opportunity, which I need to be presented with, to either sink or swim. I guess then I'll start truly knowing whether I'm cut out for the profession.
Thanks for your kind words, for some of the kicks up the backside (although I'm not quitting/trying my hardest not to be in a defeatist mindset), and your words of wisdom/advice etc..
I know I'm a talented person, I am intelligent, caring etc, I have the human qualities to get on with people but I fear that my being ill-equipped for this placement, because of what has preceded it, could prove my downfall. Anyway, I will persevere.
Another route to take is that if I fail this placement, to retake a placement in a different setting next year, not in one with so many different professionals, so much office politics going on. But then, would they have me? Would they take me on knowing I'd been failed from my previous placement? My practice teacher (p/t) is very jekyll and hyde, one day singing my praises, the next, finding a fault and drumming it home to me. My practice teacher is a really big, larger than life, personality and it has had implications for the engagement between us. My p/t on last placement was far more mild-mannered and was a more suitable character for being a practice teacher. It has felt emotionally draining working with my p/t. It's already a huge change to the nature of my placement from last year but my p/t really drills that point home - I worked hard on placement last year, had much engagement with service users, had really good, therapeutic relationships with service users (to use some social work jargon), got on well with colleagues, rarely had disagreements or fell out. I'm very much the opposite to the type of personality my p/t is, she's in a job, she's got the power to pass or fail me. Anyway, I think I'm posting this particular post just to get some stuff off my chest, I got some of it off my chest when talking with my tutor a few days ago but I'll be seeing my tutor again tomorrow when I'm in at uni.
Lastly, and this isn't me being defeatist, it's me being objective and looking at the reality or potential future reality. I am keen to work in mental health, I really enjoyed working in the homelessness sector last year...what could I do, what non-social work jobs are out there that I could apply for? I have an excellent reference from them when I was given my end-of-placement report...had a good rapport with colleagues and service users etc, and enjoyed the nature of the role. Any thoughts?
I'm not quitting. I will persevere. In a sense, I'm in a position of having nothing to lose and everything to gain. Which is also unfortunate in a sense...