A compass for carers and families navigating self-directed dementia care and support

Key points:

• A Family Guide to Living Well with Dementia published in March 2023 by Liz Leach-Murphy who has over 25 years’ experience working within health and social care, and her co-author Jayna Patel, is an easy-to-follow and accessible guide to help families and carers gain the knowledge and insight to be able to support a person with dementia live the life they wish.
• The book follows Living a Good Life with dementia – a Practitioner’s Guide which was published in 2021 for professionals and carers to gain knowledge and insight to be able to develop creative ideas for the care and support they want to see.
• Both books promote the idea of asking ‘what is possible?’ when it comes to delivering person-centered, self-directed care, looking beyond traditional service provision and seeking solutions in communities.
• Practical planning tools and communication strategies are illustrated and shared to empower those living with dementia to express their preferences and have the confidence to be in the driving seat of their own care and support.
• Many of the person-centred planning tools and approaches to communication are transferable and work well for those supporting, not just those living with dementia, but others who access health and social care support.

Brenda has always loved arts and crafts. Receiving a dementia diagnosis hasn’t quelled her artistic nature. Understandably, she would like to continue to enjoy her creative pastimes and find others with whom to share this interest. With the help of her daughter, she uses the local library to find an arts and crafts group that meets each Wednesday in the community centre in the next village.

It’s seeing countless people like Brenda and her daughter need solutions that lie outside traditional care provision after working within health and social care for over 25 years, that drove northern England-based social enterprise Imagineer Development UK CIC founder, Liz Leach-Murphy, together with her co-author, Jayna Patel, to write their book A Family Guide to Living Well with Dementia.

Released by Critical Publishing in March 2023, the book centres around recognising that people diagnosed with dementia can still have a fulfilled life they can make the most of – provided those supporting them understand how to make that possible.

Community-based solutions

For instance, wanting to attend the arts and crafts group but reluctant to travel alone, Brenda goes with her daughter for the first few weeks, until she gets to know another member of the group, Enid. As they get acquainted, they learn Enid drives past Brenda’s house on the way to the community centre. After having a chat, Enid starts to give Brenda a lift to the group. As the weeks go by, Brenda gets to know the rest of the group and really enjoys her time there. The group even begin to sell some of their crafts to raise money for a local charity. As Brenda has settled into the group, she now feels comfortable using some of her personal budget she’s entitled to under the Care Act 2014 on a taxi to get there when Enid is unable to attend.

Brenda’s consistency in attending a group she’s passionate about is made possible, in part, thanks to her and her daughter’s awareness of Brenda’s eligibility for a personal budget, which empowers her to experience choice and control over how she’s supported. It’s also made possible by Brenda and her daughter knowing that the answer to directing her own support may lie within their local community rather than conventional services.

Combining policy, legislation, and practical solutions

A Family Guide to Living Well with Dementia is borne out of a gap in the market for a book that presents the links between the health and social care legal context, guidance documents and national dementia strategies with good, actionable practice, approaches, tools, and informed advice to achieve person-centred dementia care and support, with an emphasis on communities.

The result was authors Liz and Jayna publishing Living a Good Life with dementia – a Practitioner’s Guide in 2021 for professionals and carers to gain knowledge and insight to be able to develop creative ideas for the care and support they want to have in place. The guide ends with recommendations for local authorities, social workers, health, and nursing professionals on how practice can be experienced in a more person-centred way.

In contrast, the more recent book is an easy-to-follow, accessible guide to develop families’ and carers’ understanding of how to support a person with dementia live the life they wish. Reflection questions interspersed throughout transform the book from a passive experience for the reader, into one of active introspective thinking of how the values of person-centred self-direction can be made a reality in their lives.

Both books draw on the evolution of practice from over 40 years, learning from the pioneers who developed person-centred planning tools like Circles of Support and Solution Circles, which are outlined in both books through step-by-step guides so they can be easily applied in real-life scenarios. 

Lived experience and Dementia Friendly Communities

Interviews with families and people with lived experience, case studies and time spent with practitioners, social workers and community projects leaders for their view on providing good support with people with dementia and some of the systemic issues they face formed a solid foundation for both books. Detailed research into policy, legislation, and the strategic development to improve the lives of those living with dementia care in wider society is also woven into both guides as is some of the Think Local Act Personal reports on the positive impact personal budgets had on older people.

An examination of how different local areas have implemented Dementia Friendly Communities is included. This includes identifying how dementia championing ideas have been put into practice, illustrated by real-world examples, like Northumberland Dementia Forum initiating a dementia awareness training package for local bus drivers as part of their Certificate of Professional Competency so that those living with dementia who use public transport in rural and urban areas across the UK benefit from having a well-trained and sensitive point of contact in their bus drivers.

Understanding a person by communicating in a way that works for them

A Family Guide to Living Well with Dementia contains information, not only on people’s and carer’s rights within the UK health and social care legislation and the paid and community-based support options available to help people self-direct their own support, but also on behaviour and methods of communication, including practical tools and engaging illustrations to help those living with dementia express themselves and their wishes.

All types of communication are explored, including the idea that sometimes, building an understanding of a person and what matters to them doesn’t always require talking; spending time together, watching and learning can work just as well.

This was the case for Phillip who found it difficult to respond to direct questions and would easily become distracted by things going on around him. The inability to convey what he liked and didn’t like naturally led to feelings of frustration for him. When it was thought all methods of communication had been exhausted, one of his person-centred planning facilitators suggested Philip and his family / carers meet in the local town where he had spent most of his adult life.

The meeting was arranged in a local café that Phillip used to frequent. On the way to the café the person accompanying him noticed how much Philip was looking around, into shop windows and how he seemed to enjoy being back in the town. Philip’s enjoyment was discussed with him in the meeting at the café and Philip decided that, rather than spend a long time in the café, it would be good to revisit some of the places he used to go into on a regular basis, such as the post office, greengrocers, and local shops. So much was learnt on this visit about the friendships Philip had in the area, the shops he really liked, the things he looked for in the shops and the items that captured his attention, all things that could help personalise his future support.

The confidence to explore what is possible

Dementia is devastating for every family. Feeling lost in the sea of health and social jargon and being forced to learn to adapt and do their best in what can often be difficult circumstances adds to the burden.

A Family Guide to Living Well with Dementia serves as a reliable anchor and compass, helping families navigate care and support, know what to expect from professionals and feel prepared for conversations that need to be had. The intended outcome is to help readers weather the storm that health and social care can sometimes be perceived as, placing those living with dementia in a stronger position to be able to self-advocate and be in the driving seat of their own care and support, rather than them depending on being told what’s possible.

Readers will be instilled with the confidence and strength to explore what is possible when it comes to care and support for someone living with dementia to avoid the person dipping into a patient role receiving care, their life diminishing because of how they’re treated.

The hope is for both books to reach a wide audience, provide a positive influence for practice and create a vision of what good support would look like that those supporting people living with dementia can help shape and implement.

Liz Leach-Murphy and Jayna Patel
Authors of:
Living a Good Life with Dementia (2021), Critical Publishing
A Family Guide to Living Well with Dementia (2023), Critical Publishing

Click here to find out more

How can professionals support children and young people’s mental health?

As a society, our current approach to mental health is damaging and limiting. There is a tendency within the media and support agencies to assume a continual rise in emotional difficulties among the young. We are told—in very general terms—that it is virtually impossible to escape mental health damage caused by factors such as engagement with social media, the fallout from Covid-19 lockdowns, and peer pressure. While some children and teenagers have negative experiences, this is not the case for all children and teenagers – yet we act as if it is. One problem with embracing this deficit model of mental health is that it leaves little space to show children and young people how to develop resilience in the face of life’s challenges.

Over a four-year period, I worked with teenagers to develop supportive and creative techniques which we used to work through difficulties and build emotional resilience.  

We found that if we single out individual children and young people who already consider themselves to have poor mental health, we perpetuate the otherness of experiencing emotional difficulties. This can further exacerbate poor mental health as an isolating experience, which in turn can create a myth that other people are doing alright. This creates a binary set of ideas about mental health as being either poor or good and gives children and young people the false impression that we are either happy or sad, coping or not coping.  

I believe that this attitude towards mental health is contributing to us losing sight of the emotional complexity of the human condition. In reality it is normal to feel a wide range of emotions—including feelings such as worry, sadness, contentment, anger, happiness, and relief—but we are not teaching our children and teenagers this. Instead, we pathologise and catastrophise difficult emotions when they arise, and escalate and create potential crises by speaking in limited diagnostic terms (currently our societal focus is on anxiety and trauma).   

For now, I believe that children and young people’s mental health will only improve if we broaden our treatment of mental health and move away from our current deficit model which is very individualistic in focus. Instead, it would be far healthier to work with all children as part of a not for profit or school curriculum and to include the psychology of happiness, satisfaction, and what makes for a meaningful life alongside addressing challenges in our everyday treatment of mental health. 

Drawing upon case study examples I show that it is possible to work creatively with children and teenagers in group settings and that given the opportunity, most young people enjoy taking part in a wide range of activities designed to create change in how they think about themselves and respond to others. I know from working in this way that the process makes a positive difference to how individuals feel and how they go on to cope with problems when they arise. The work that young people and I did together also challenges an overt societal focus on the individual with mental health issues, and shows the benefit of learning from peers, and also celebrating acts of kindness in ourselves and others.  

Rather than problematise childhood surely, we would all rather children and young people foster hope about themselves and their futures? It is exactly this that my book sets out to do and show a wide range of practitioners how to replicate. 

Rachel Burr, 2023

Rachel Burr is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sussex. An anthropologist and social worker with an international background in child protection, her overarching focus is on developing practitioner-orientated techniques for working with and enhancing emotional strength among children and young people who are living in challenging and difficult circumstances.

Her most recent book Self-worth in children and young people – Critical and practical considerations challenges the dominant approaches to children and young people’s mental health, and provides straightforward practical strategies that can be used to address emotional upset, loss and aid recovery.

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We are so excited to announce…

How to Thrive at Work, Mindfulness, Motivation and Productivity is out today!

By Stephen J Mordue

An essential read for anyone experiencing low level anxiety or stress, this book pulls together the various individual strands of business logic, scientific research, self-care, spirituality and common sense to provide a one-stop guide to thriving at work.

From the fundamental principles of self-care, all the way through to maintaining motivation once you have it, Stephen applies the experience he has gained from 19 years as a social work practitioner, lecturer and team manager, to give a comprehensive guide to getting the best out of your work life.

You will see as we go through the various chapters of the book that developing a mindful way of approaching things is crucial. This is nothing scary. Mindfulness is simply being able to focus yourself in the moment to the exclusion of everything else. All of the things I’ll talk about will help you develop this way of being. Because mindfulness is just that. It’s not a thing you do it’s a way you ‘are’. We shall see that mindfulness fuels motivation, and that a range of self-care activities and ‘being-organised’ techniques beat procrastination and keep you moving forward. This is an idea for work but also for things beyond work so that we can have productive lives whatever we are doing. It’s a whole life approach.

Introduction: mindfulness, motivation and productivity

1. Self-care: the fundamental principles

To mention a few, this chapter explores the theory, basic principles and context of self-care:

‘When identifying solutions to work related stress, interestingly, respondents in Marc and Osvat’s (2013) research cited solutions to the problem as being outside of the workplace – for example, movement therapy, family support, conversations with colleagues and friends, walks and unplanned vacations.’

2. Rest: don’t just do something

Rest can feel counter-intuitive when we are trying to be productive, instead, Stephen looks at its essential role in workplace productivity and therefore workplace well-being.

‘Rest is essential as it generates two other ‘r’s’, recovery and recuperation. For those of us working in the knowledge and information roles that dominate workplaces, or creative roles that are essential in the economies we labour in, then our ‘legs’ are our brains. We need to rest effectively to recover our psychological capacity in the same way Hoy rests for a physical recovery.’

3. Sleep: nutrition for the mind

This chapter addresses the importance of sleep for thriving at work, covering its various elements, including: the language of sleep, getting to sleep, the quantity vs quality argument, the impact of sleep on productivity, the benefits of routine and the impact of external influences such as alcohol and caffeine.

4. Nutrition: the impact of what you eat and drink

The focus in this chapter is less on calories in and calories out and more on the impact that what you eat has on your well-being overall and, as a consequence, your productivity.

5. Exercise: how moving more means you do more

Deep dives into the known benefits and variables of exercise. Areas of this chapter include: addressing the question of what do we mean by exercise, and how much should we do? Considers the psychological benefits of exercise, the impact of stress on our motivation to exercise, and what types of exercise work best.

6. Mindfulness, meditation and reflection: giving yourself space

This chapter covers mindfulness topics including spirituality, the cognitive triangle, the origins of mindfulness, awareness, breathing and living in the present, to name a few.

7. Being organised to fuel productivity: how do you know what you need to do and how do you do it?

Diary management, prioritising, planning ahead and thinking work tasks through is not common sense and people have varying degrees of skill in these areas. These skills are crucial in managing in any workplace. We have to balance the competing needs of our organisation, and often other organisations, while trying to meet deadlines and be focused and ‘in the moment’. More than this I feel we’ve lost the ability to plan. We live in a world where many things are available in an instant.

8. Finding your motivation mojo: making a start’s the hardest part

Looks at impacting factors such as procrastination, self-determination theory and extrinsic and intrinsic motivation .

Motivating yourself to get started – or ‘making a start is the hardest part’, as I’m fond of saying to my wife,
which doesn’t annoy her at all – can be difficult.

9. Maintaining the thrive state

The most crucial part of productivity is consistency, here Stephen offers tips for how to keep up the momentum so that we can implement positive changes for the long-term.

How to Thrive at Work will be available in Paperback, Kindle, EPUB and PDF for just £14.99 on Friday 15 January 2021 here! – https://www.criticalpublishing.com/how-to-thrive-at-work

#work #career #job #business #office #worklife #selfcare #mindfulness #wellbeing #careerprogression

Social Work and Covid-19

Lessons for Education and Practice

By Dr Denise Turner, Editor

This book emerged as an idea in March 2020, during the first UK national lockdown. The impetus was a virtual pin board resource which I had hurriedly created in an attempt to do something helpful during that unfamiliar time. As I watched this transform rapidly into a thriving online community, it occurred to me that a book could also connect people involved with diverse aspects of social work, by giving voice to personal and professional experiences during the early part of the pandemic. 

In initial conversations with the publisher, we agreed that production deadlines would need to be kept tight so that the book was still relevant once the pandemic was under control and life had returned to the much heralded ‘normal.’  In keeping with this tight deadline, all the authors worked hard to produce their Chapters, whilst juggling work, childcare, online shopping, and all aspects of life suddenly made so much more complex by Covid-19. As the summer of 2020 brought a relaxing of restrictions, ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ and a return to widespread travel, I wondered if the book would still have any relevance by January 2021. 

As I write this blog, I look back on those thoughts and wish they had been true. Instead, as the book nears its publication date, the UK has just entered its third national lockdown, with cases surpassing over 2 million globally.  Despite my fears, the book is still bleakly relevant and most of what is described remains the same, despite accompanying changes. The UK death toll has reached a previously unthinkable figure, Clap for Our Carers has been re-branded as Clap for Heroes and lockdowns are no longer unfamiliar, with the Chief Medical Officer for England, Chris Whitty, warning of the potential for further restrictions in the winter of 2021 if the rate and volume of infection are not successfully suppressed.

Themes within this book also remain at the core of our lives, as we face yet another year of living with the pandemic.  Whilst the themes were not created by the pandemic itself, the virus has brought them into sharp relief, highlighting inequalities and offering the potential for future change. One of the key themes, which runs as a thread throughout all the Chapters, is our increased reliance on digital technologies to maintain social and professional relationships. In her Chapter, Amanda Taylor-Beswick, describes the digital shift from pre-pandemic to pandemic social work and offers salutary advice for the profession once we are finally free of the virus: 

This chapter urges social work to engage more judiciously with the phenomenon that is digitalisation. It calls for the profession to be more attuned to not only its own digital future but the implications of the digital on our collective futures, so that the integrity and efficacy of the profession and the value of humanity, can, on some level, be preserved.

The safeguarding of children has also been a priority issue during the pandemic, as social workers have increasingly been forced online. In their Chapter, Nicola Labuschagne, Gema Hadridge, Laura Vanderbijl, Sarah Jones, and Ellie Geater, offer insights from practice during the first UK lockdown, which echo the themes of digital connectivity discussed in Chapter 1: 

While support from managers may be available, the informal discussions that occur naturally between colleagues throughout the workday have decreased considerably, leading to practitioners having to manage feelings of uncertainty and anxiety on their own at times. For example, during a WhatsApp video call between a social worker and a parent, the mother turned her phone towards the ceiling for the entire call.

The lack of ‘water cooler moments’ also appears in Chapter 5 where two experienced Practice Educators discuss the challenges of social work education during the first UK lockdown, embracing the now endemic ‘unprecedented’ and the concept of ‘un’- words to describe this. 

One of the key features of the pandemic is the way in which it has also exposed existing inequalities. In Chapter 3, Dr Kish Bhatti-Sinclair draws from original research to discuss the sequestered experiences of asylum-seeking children during the pandemic: 

The 2020 Covid-19 UK-wide lockdown resulted in measures on asylum-seeking children, including urgent dispersal of children looked after by services (such as the Dover based Kent Intake Unit), forced deportations and urgent age assessments for those deemed to be over 18 regardless of possible risks and legal actions (Townsend, 2020).

Dr Prospera Tedam’s Chapter is an intense and searching account of how Black African Social Work students have experienced the pandemic, highlighting inequalities in treatment as one student states: 

 I’m not happy. I’m not happy and there is no point telling my university. They won’t even reply to our emails. All I can say is that it is because I’m Black and hmmm we don’t matter. I’m not happy.

In Chapter Six these themes of the student experience are picked up as a thread by Andrew Lorimer, Rachel Sharples and Francis Sentamu, three final year Social Work students whose studies have been severely disrupted by the pandemic. Francis, in particular, as a Black African student describes a living nightmare during the first lockdown, when he and his wife contracted Covid, but had to maintain home schooling and care of their three children: 

 In April 2020, Francis’ wife experienced mild symptoms of Covid-19, and the family were forced into isolation. In less than a week, Francis went on to experience severe symptoms of Covid-19. With three children living in a two-bedroom flat, it was impossible for the family to effectively self-isolate and keep the children safe. For Francis, looking after his family with the illness and at the same time trying to study and complete university assignments was very difficult. The available bedroom for self- isolation had very poor internet access, which greatly hindered Francis’ ability to access online materials for studying.

Despite all of this, the three students describe their journey from ‘surviving to thriving’ a resilient approach which will undoubtedly help them during their time as qualified practitioners in the continuing pandemic. 

Resilience is also highlighted in Varsha Tailor’s Chapter, as she describes the many setbacks which she faced as a disabled woman during the first lockdown, but through which her obvious determination is an inspiration: 

I see my personal healing mirrored in the environment around me – with no or very little road traffic noise and pollution. I was amazed at how the cherry blossom tree bloomed – not in 15 years had I seen that many and such large cherries on it! I also found it easier to breathe as the air quality improved and the skies were beautiful.

The final two Chapters of the book focus on end of life and death, themes which have become unadulterated during the last year, as we have grown horribly accustomed to facing an increasing daily death toll. Marie Price argues for the importance of good supervision in end of life and the final Chapter calls for reinstating loss and change as central concepts within social work education. 

Throughout this time, many people, like Varsha, have found hope in watching nature, discovering new ways of being, or connecting with previous passions. Despite the uncertainty and the constraints of the new lockdown, I want to end this blog by focussing on hope. In their Chapter, Dr Ariane Critchley and Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh describe how ‘poetry helps’:

 Poems told people stories we could bear to hear and comforted those of us suffering grief, loss, anxiety or illness.

Returning to my original hope of connecting people during the first UK lockdown, before this book has actually been published, poetry has connected Ariane and Autumn with a Chilean poet and academic, Dr Edgardo Toro Quezada. As the connection also happened through social media, another theme of the book is clearly highlighted here. I hope it will be the first of many connections and links facilitated by this book as we all move forward into an uncertain future, where connectivity will be crucial. 

Each Chapter in the book is followed by a set of reflective questions which aim to be useful to students, educators, and practitioners alike. In England it is comforting to see that Social Workers have been given high priority for vaccines and I hope that one of the consequences of the pandemic may be a renewed respect and increased funding for Social Work and Social Care. 

My own respect and gratitude are due to each individual author in this book, who gave up precious time amidst the extra stresses created by the pandemic to meet a tight deadline and contribute to this collection of voices. I hope it will achieve its desired aim and be a useful anthology for Social Work educators, practitioners and those receiving services, during this next stage of the pandemic and beyond. 

Thank you all. Stay safe.

Available 11 January in Paperback, EPUB, Kindle and PDF for just £14.99!

For more on Social Work and Covid-19 click here:

https://www.criticalpublishing.com/social-work-and-covid-19

Book Review

YOUNG REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS, THE TRUTH ABOUT BRITAIN 

by Declan Henry

Unpacked by the former editor and presenter, and SAC Cert, Mediation & Negotiation – SAC Cert, Foundation of English Law – Richard O-Brien

Now I am going to be fully honest here and say that YOUNG REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS, THE TRUTH ABOUT BRITAIN is not the title of a book I thought I would ever pick up, let alone read. I suppose it is not a subject which I had any great interest in learning about. I know the author, Declan Henry, very well having interviewed him on Irish TV some ten years ago. I have kept in touch with Declan over the years and watched both his professional career as a Social Worker and as a successful writer of (some seven books to date) continue to flourish, much to his credit!

“As reader, I get the impression that the author knows many of these young children well. Having worked with many of them over the years, he has seen first-hand the real struggles and pain that they experience daily. “

The author explains that it is not enough to take these children in, but they must also be cared for as they learn to adjust to a different life in Britain. Many have come from complex situations, including war torn countries, and the scars that they bring can remain with them for many, many years. 

Along with many others in this country, I was under the impression that when these poor children and young adults get to Britain, life becomes happy ever after; but that is truly not the case. In fact, for many, the nightmare is only just beginning. The myths that many of these children and young adults are put up in grade A hotels when they arrive here in Britain is quickly dispelled when the author uncovers the harsh living conditions that many face for months on end. Food is often poor, there is lack of real supervision, and many become vulnerable.

FFREC0 Iraqi Internal Displaced Persons in Northern Iraq (Kurdistan) planning to come to Europe in the next coming weeks or months.

YOUNG REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS, THE TRUTH ABOUT BRITAIN is a fascinating insight into the world of Refugees and Asylum seekers here in the UK and Ireland. The author must be congratulated for the time and effort spent researching for this book which can only mean that the reader is getting the full truth about the very difficult and often highly dangerous journey that many of these poor children and young adults face. The author is highly academically qualified to write such a book, having gained a Master of Science degree in Mental Health, and having been a qualified Social Worker since 1993. As reader, I get the impression that the author knows many of these young children well. Having worked with them over the years, he has seen first-hand the real struggles and pain that they experience daily. 

The book will appeal to a very wide readership, including those professions which are likely to come into contact with many of these children and young adults in the course of their work. A great read then for the legal profession, Social Workers, Youth Workers, Police officers, Prison Officers, the Probation Service, NHS staff, and indeed those of us who want to gain a real and better understanding of what it is like to be a Young Refugee and Asylum Seeker living here in Britain. I think the reader, having read this book, would be hard pressed not to have some genuine empathy for their plight and suffering. I commend the author greatly, It is a really superb read!

For more information on the author: www.declanhenry.co.uk

Richard O’Brien, SAC Cert, Mediation & Negotiation – SAC Cert, Foundation of English Law

Past, Editor of The Irish Community News, TV & Radio Presenter

Lights, Camera, Action! Mental health and physical health: One Health

In this post, Daniel Wilding discusses from his personal and recent participation in a film produced by the mental health charity Mind, how recovery from mental health is inter-linked with, and can in fact improve bodily health.

In May 2018, I was delighted to be asked by the policy and campaigns team at the mental health charity Mind to participate in the making of a film they produced for their ‘One Health’ campaign. Since, I have been reflecting on the ways in which my General Practitioners (GPs) over the years have helped me to manage my mental health (recovering from anxiety and depression) by improving my physical health. I still use the strategies today.

My motivation to become involved in the project mentioned above came from a shared desire and passion to use film and social work to campaign for services to offer advice, support and interventions that would help people improve their physical health as a way of managing their mental health. I wanted to write this blog to disseminate that important message.

In my view, as a community mental health practitioner, social worker, and expert by experience, the help I got from my GPs was crucial in my own recovery, maintenance, and aim to achieve optimum mental health. I received help with my weight and food management, exercise, alcohol intake, mindfulness and sleep.  The film acts as a powerful form of communication to service managers and policy makers, as to how crucial the care of people’s physical health is when recovering from mental ill health. Therefore, I feel the film will provide social workers and allied health professionals with additional insights into this area of mental health care.

A prominent theme in the campaign and film is the role of the GP in supporting people to make changes to their physical health that will help manage their mental health and individual participants’ experiential narratives of this. However, social workers are, by our professional role as agents of change, in an ideal position to support our GP colleagues with this aim.

I wanted to bring to the attention of readers and viewers the importance of understanding how and why making changes to one’s physical health will simultaneously improve mental health. Robust and evidence-based interventions regarding diet, weight, exercise, alcohol reduction, smoking, and sleep can improve physical health outcomes for people recovering from and managing mental ill health.

The video (Mind, 2018) makes three crucial arguments:

1. Intervening in a person’s physical health to manage their mental health is not a new concept. It is a current and real concern that needs to change at a policy level. Participants’ stories contained within, testify this works. However, greater action needs to be taken by health and social care professionals and the government. The multitude of cases and individual stories prove the above.
2. There is a focus on GPs providing the help discussed, but social workers and service users themselves can assist in producing a positive change throughout society.
3. Physical health support to improve outcomes in managing mental health requires practitioners who are educated about holistic interventions. Social policy change may emerge from qualitative data captured through the medium of film, hence shining a spotlight on the issue leading to political action and change.

References

Mind (2018) Mental health and physical health go hand in hand: Find the words. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVEmJAbPisA&t=13s (Accessed: 18 July 2018).

We publish a range of books on mental health, such as Critiquing Personality Disorder:  Social Perspective by Julia Warrener and Modern Mental Health: Critical Perspectives on Psychiatric Practice edited by Steven Walker.

 

 

The W word: Witchcraft labelling and child safeguarding in social work practice.

We are very proud to have published an important new title, The W Word: Witchcraft labelling and child safeguarding in social work practice by Prospera Tedam and Awura Adjoa. In this post Prospera and Awura outline their reasons for writing the book and the approach it takes.

We are delighted to see our book published and wanted to write this first blog to reiterate our commitment to halting the practice of witchcraft labelling which we know is ongoing in some of our communities. In the last year, we have continually reflected on Awura Adjoa’s childhood experiences and considered how things may otherwise have been for her.

Our motivation to write this book emerged from our shared desire to expose the practice of witchcraft labelling and the impact on its victims. We outlined the psychological, emotional and physical impact on Awura Adjoa and examined the ways in which her migration and family dynamics placed her in a vulnerable position and open to witchcraft labelling.

We were particularly concern about the widely held view that witchcraft labelling is a recent phenomenon in England and sought to explain how this form of child abuse is often hidden and silenced within communities and in families. We make the case for a more robust framework for assessing families where witchcraft labelling may be occurring.

We appreciate that the book makes difficult reading in parts, due to the honest and deeply concerning narrative presented by Awura Adjoa, however we felt there was no way to present this information to the audience for whom it is intended. Awura Adjoa would like to see parents and families engage with this book in order to evaluate their own parenting particularly if they hold beliefs about the presence of witchcraft.

We felt that this book would provide social workers and child safeguarding practitioners with additional insight into this form of abuse and develop their skills in identifying, assessing and intervening in families where children have been labelled or are at risk of witchcraft labelling.

A prominent theme in the book is the role of the faith leader or pastor in the labelling process. Awura Adjoa essentially had two pastors determine her fate- the one who labelled and the one who cleared her. Conversations must be ongoing with faith groups and leaders if we are hoping to address this growing issue.

The role of the school and educational establishments is also considered in the book, particularly around what could have been done to identify that Awura Adjoa was at risk at home and within her community.

The need to understand complex family forms and dynamics is another key area we wanted to bring to the attention of readers. Complex family systems can impact on the effectiveness of any intervention with and for children who may have been labelled.

The 3 main arguments proposed by the book are:

• Witchcraft labelling in England is not new. It is a real and present concern among some communities and within some faith groups.
• There are multiple actors associated with this form of child abuse. It is never a ‘secret’ and members of the family and community will be aware of the accusations and label.
• Witchcraft labelling requires intervention from child care practitioners who are culturally aware and sensitive, non- oppressive and who understand the complexities of working cross-culturally.

Gay (2010) suggests that stories are told for multiple purposes- to entertain, educate and inform or to evoke emotion. The W word is by no means entertainment. It will evoke various emotions as it did for us as the authors and its primary aim is to educate and inform. Consequently, we make no apology for the content, it is Awura Adjoa’s lived experience and needed to be told in the way that is has.

Awura and Prospera

Who are you? The Power of Self in Newly Qualified Social Worker Practice

Today we have the second blog post from our NQSW, Daniel! Have a read to find out his thoughts on the importance of self as a Newly Qualified Social Worker.

Maclean (2016) argues consideration of self is a vital aspect of critically reflective practice. I am developing my sense of self as a mindful, reflective, and self-aware practitioner. I have reflected how I identify with the concept of the ‘wounded healer’ in my journey into social work education and post-qualifying practice (Brown et al, 2016:76). As a former user of secondary mental health services and practitioner with lived experiences of mental health problems, I bring several positive insights into my professional role. For example, experiential learning as a service user myself and the genuine rapport these experiences developed. Furthermore, as a man in social work I am in the minority. Several authors (Brown et al, 2016:83; Turner, 2016:18-19) acknowledge this gender imbalance, placing an emphasis on how men can make a positive and valid contribution encouraging the celebration of positive male identities in our profession.

Moreover, I am a practitioner with dyspraxia and Irlen Syndrome. Dyspraxia is a recognised disability and ‘a form of developmental co-ordination disorder, a life-long condition affecting the organisation of movement, perception and thought’ (Dyspraxia Foundation, 2016). Irlen Syndrome is a perceptual processing disorder which effects the brain’s ability to process visual information (Irlen, 2015).   My professional identity and sense of self consists of one that contains multiple differences and strengths.

            These differences bring with them several challenges and opportunities. There is the challenge of reasonable adjustments as outlined in section 20 duty to make adjustments of the Equality Act 2010. I have experience of the intrusion of assessment alongside the relief of appropriate and helpful intervention. I have been deemed eligible for several adjustments to be made to my work environment such as provision of a job coach, specialised computer speech-to-text software, a smart pen and coloured overlays. The opportunities this sense of self offers is abundant such as awareness raising of specific learning difficulties within social work, building on the work of charitable organisations (Dyspraxia Foundation, 2016). There are opportunities to feel more supported, comfortable, and competent in the workplace. These challenges make me seek opportunities to use my creativity and resilience to influence the workplace making a difference for myself and others (Adams and Sheard, 2013:54; Howe and Caldwell-McGee, 2016:93).

In her model of reflection, Maclean (2016) encourages consideration of goals in practice. My goals for this practice were to achieve the reasonable adjustments to my workplace which I am entitled to and eligible for. I acknowledge that others’ goals, specifically my assessor and line manager, aimed to facilitate and support me achieving these. Consequentially, this could lead to more efficacious support of and practice with the people I serve.

            Finally, the use of self in newly qualified social work practice is powerful. I believe if we combine the appropriate use of legislation with critical reflection, resilience, and self-awareness we can develop into confident and competent practitioners. I feel more help is needed for male practitioners in social work to do the work and continue to build gendered alliances with people in practice.

Daniel Wilding, Community Mental Health Practitioner/Social Worker, December 2016

References

Adams, J. and Sheard, A. (2013) Positive Social Work: The Essential Toolkit for NQSWs. Northwich: Critical Publishing.

Brown, P., Cook, M., Higgins, C., Matthews, D., Wilding, D. and Whiteford, A. (2016) ‘Men in social work education: building a gendered alliance’, in Bellinger, A. and Ford, D. (eds.) Practice placement in social work: Innovative approaches for effective teaching and learning. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 71-87.

Dyspraxia Foundation (2016) Join the Foundation. Available at:  http://dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/what-we-do/join-foundation/ (Accessed: 6 November 2016).

Equality Act 2010, c. 15. Available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/20 (Accessed: 6 November 2016).

Howe, K. and Caldwell-McGee, P. (2016) ‘Managing the personal: from surviving to thriving in social work’, in Keen, S. Parker, J., Brown, K. and Galpin, D. (eds.) Newly- Qualified Social Workers: A Practice Guide to the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment. 3^rd edn. London and Califomia: Learning Matters/Sage, pp. 85-107.

Irlen (2015) What is Irlen Syndrome? Available at: http://irlen.com/what-is-irlen-syndrome/ (Accessed: 11 November 2016).

Maclean, S. (2016) ‘Whatever the weather’, Professional Social Work (March), pp. 28-29.

Turner, A. (2016) ‘The Great Divide’, Professional Social Work (July/August), pp. 18-19.

If this post interests you and makes you wonder about the thoughts of NQSWs, why not look a bit further? Starting Social Work: Reflections of a Newly Qualified Social Worker by Rebecca Novell offers a fantastic insight into the thoughts and feelings of NQSWs. More details about the books can be found on the Critical Publishing website.

If you have any questions, you can reach me at keisha@criticalpublishing.com – as always, we would love to hear from you!

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Preceptorship as a viable alternative to the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment

Introducing our new social work blogger! Today we have a great post from our new social work blogger, Daniel Wilding. If you are a student or newly qualified social worker, this blog post is a great read for you!

Have a read and see why.

I am a newly qualified social worker employed as a community mental health practitioner in an assertive outreach service.  I am currently undertaking a preceptorship with the support of my preceptor and practice supervisor (Lalonde and McGillis Hall, 2016) because my employer does not support the optional Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) (Kent, 2015).  The weather model of critical reflection (Maclean, 2016: 28-29) is useful for reflection. This model shall now be utilised in an exploration of how a social work preceptorship can be a useful alternative choice of employment and early professional development for student social workers on the cusp of qualification.

Maclean (2016) asserts that relationships are critical on which to reflect in practice. I have enjoyed the opportunities to build relationships with colleagues in my multi-disciplinary team of community psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists, an occupational therapist, art therapist and psychotherapist, a clinical psychologist, assistant practitioners and several support time recovery workers. We work with adults of working age who are recovering from schizophrenia in the community. I feel the relationships I have built with service users have impacted my practice in the following ways. I have seen how my support is valued and complimented by service users through significant life changes such as moving home and through a mental health crisis triggered by the stress of this transition. Elsewhere, I have seen how delivering support with activities of daily living is valued by a service user with chronic pain and schizoaffective disorder. Lastly, I have seen and heard how my knowledge and skills pertaining to section 42(1)(b)(c) enquiry by local authority of the Care Act 2014 has been sought from me by colleagues in psychiatry and the allied health professions in their work safeguarding clients.

Maclean (2016) encourages critical reflection upon organisation. In my view, there is a crucial organisational issue that impacts on my and our practice. My employer is an organisation that delivers health and social care from a primarily medical model. At a recent away day, our clinical psychologist delivered a presentation on the Recovery Star (Triangle Consulting Social Enterprise, 2015). Prior, she and I discussed the UnRecovery Star (Recovery in the Bin, 2015) as a counterpoint to the former because it is underpinned by the social model of disability. It was striking how my knowledge was shared within the team and the positive feedback this generated from colleagues. Reflecting this back to the organisation, I believe the recruitment of more student social workers and newly qualified social workers could benefit my organisation and improve the service because of our particular set of skills can help aid mental health recovery of service users.

In conclusion, it has been seen how a newly qualified social worker’s skills, experience and expertise can be a valuable addition to an organisation consisting of mainly nursing, medical and allied health professionals. A preceptorship programme can offer a stimulating and interesting career alternative worthy of consideration by student social workers seeking an alternative employment option to the ASYE.

References

Care Act 2014, c. 23. Available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/23/section/42/enacted (Accessed: 26 October 2016).

Kent, S. (2015) Assessed and Supported Year of Employment – questions and answers. Available at: http://cdn.basw.co.uk/upload/basw_122527-3.pdf (Accessed: 30 October 2016).

Lalonde, M. and McGillis Hall, L. (2016) Preceptor characteristics and the socialization outcomes of new graduate nurses during a preceptorship programme. Nursing Open. doi:10.1002/nop2.58.

Maclean, S. (2016) ‘Whatever the weather’, Professional Social Work (March), pp. 28-29.

Recovery in the Bin (2015) ‘UnRecovery Star’, Recovery in the Bin, (no date). Available at: https://recoveryinthebin.org/unrecovery-star-2/ (Accessed: 26 October 2016).

Triangle Consulting Social Enterprise (2015) The Recovery Star. Available at: https://www.staronline.org.uk/star_mock_homepage.asp?section=152 (Accessed: 26 October 2016).

If this blog post is of interest to you, why not dig a little deeper? Positive Social Work – The Essential Toolkit for NQSWs by Julie Adams and Angie Sheard and Modern Mental Health – Critical Perspectives on Psychiatric Practice by Steven Walker et al. provide interesting and varied perspectives and opinions on the making of a newly qualified social worker. Further details of both books can be found on www.criticalpublishing.com.

If you have any questions, you can reach me at admin@criticalpublishing.com – as always, we would love to hear from you!

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