Social workers

[Charlieboy28]

Good now that were past the usual defence and attack stage of criticism I'm begining to respect that you have a hard job to do, and as you say, damed if you do and damed if you don't.

So I've offered you some respect, so how about coming across the bridge a little and recognise that there is an element of social workers that have the wrong attitude to the job and perhaps 'are' looking for some closure to their own past wrongly by helping others instead of sorting them selves out 1st.

I can imagine like a lot of people who go learn Psychology are on a search for some personal answers, the same might be true for social workers wanting to help and show compassion, would you agree ?

we all have reasons why we choose to do certain jobs , it is known i suppose that every social worker or social care worker has a story to tell. I would argue that it is often our own life experiences which equip us with necessary skills for social work, its what makes us good at the job. Im a working class boy from the mean streets of Birmingham, For me social work was always vocational, without meaning to be big headed im fooking good at it. My job as i see it is to temper the harshness of the system i represent, to protect my service users from the oppression from the very powerful local authority. to treat all ( paedophiles, child abuser, etc etc with the dignity and respect owed to them.

for the majority of the SW's i know stress and burnout comes not from the nature of the cases but dealing with your own bosses, begging for funding and services they wont provide. It is this that leaves SWs flaky IMO

I have recently had a 12 year old boy (himself raped and abused as a child) selling himself on the streets for drugs and it wasnt until i circumvented my TM and AM and emailed a head of service with my concerns that this child was about to be killed, that something was done.

The sws i depise are the tick box social workers, who have forgotten their SW values, who abuse their power and postition, who like in Taffy's case misrepresent the powers that they have, who wont take the necessary risks to maintain a child with its family, unfortunately these are the ones who dont care and as a result dont burn out, whats more they get on i nthe job and become mamnagers because money and managing budgets matters more to them than children's lives. ahhh but dont get me started on that

 

[silverclaws]

My sister in law used to be a really down to earth friendly person, then she went to college/uni trained as a social worker, met a fella who was above her on the social working ladder. We dont speak anymore because she's such a horrible fake sly devious bitch, to the point where she tried forcing her idea of family values on my family by poking her face in where it wasn't needed, Even though me and my wife have been together for 20 yrs and have 2 lovely kids, yet she's got 2 kids by 2 fellas. bloody hyocrite she is!!!

A friend of my sister was a lovely young lady who when I discovered she was training to be a social worker, I made the massive error of asking what did she think of the so called satanic abuse case up in the Orknies of Scotland and the other out on the NE of England, Darlington wasn't it. I said I made the massive error, because of what she then unloaded on me made me wish I had kept my gob shut for it was almost as if she recited a script and from that point onwards I lost interest in that lady, because she had become something different, something aggressive and forthright, almost as if she was brain washed.

I also used to be a scout leader, a GSL and I quit the movement shortly after the social workers became involved, giving us courses in what we must look out for and listen and report to social services. I was not in it for that, so I sadly quit, and will not go back until this country gets a grip of itself.

But it is a fact with many social workers that it is not commodes for old people they want to spend their life providing, it is they want to be recognised for uncovering a big case, but a pity the aftermath of the satanic abuse case up in the Orknies, for when the kids were given back some five years later, they had forgotten who their parents were and with some because of the suggestive interrogation methods used by the authorities to obtain evidence, many of those children now suffer mental health issues where they did not before.

The instigators of those particular cases should be in prison.

 

[greenstiles]

Thanks for being so honest.

I strongly believe that people who have been through life issues are great for helping people with those and similar issues BUT only after they have delt with their own stuff.

ie drug/alcohol workers who still have a prob themselves are not really suitable to work with such people.

I have experienced many things from a young age inc drug/booze/mental health/crime/violence/social workers briefly/freinds with all previous etc and it has given me a rapport and understanding of others personal issues and feelings i hope.

I have been involved in volunteer work since the early 90's with mental health/drugs/youth offending/housing.

I am not a professional,but i have been a service user and worked with service users. I like to think I can see it from boths sides

There are some great and dedicated workers, but some treat it like a factory job, sorry you can't do that. Others let their issues cloud their judgement.

I have seen and heard some pretty bad things from some care professionals, rules that are totally ignored at times.

Funding is always an issue, but it shouldn't impact on how we treat people in person and showing respect.

If you do as you say you do, then well done. It would be good to hear some positive outcomes that people have had with SW on here ? anyone ?

 

[silverclaws]

The term professional in my opinion is an abused term, for in essence all professional means is one is doing a job they get paid to do, yet this word have evolved (devolved ?) into implying that something professional or indeed 'pro' is better than something not, which is often not the case in practice.

 

[Charlieboy28]

The term professional in my opinion is an abused term, for in essence all professional means is one is doing a job they get paid to do, yet this word have evolved (devolved ?) into implying that something professional or indeed 'pro' is better than something not, which is often not the case in practice.

oh silverclaws you silly old sausage, while i do not usually refer to wikipedia have a look here to see how wrong you are

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profession

unlike so many so called professions which are really trades or occupations, Social work can fully lay claim to being a profession it does if you excuse the pun tick all of the boxes

 

[Charlieboy28]

My sister in law used to be a really down to earth friendly person, then she went to college/uni trained as a social worker, met a fella who was above her on the social working ladder. We dont speak anymore because she's such a horrible fake sly devious bitch, to the point where she tried forcing her idea of family values on my family by poking her face in where it wasn't needed, Even though me and my wife have been together for 20 yrs and have 2 lovely kids, yet she's got 2 kids by 2 fellas. bloody hyocrite she is!!!

A friend of my sister was a lovely young lady who when I discovered she was training to be a social worker, I made the massive error of asking what did she think of the so called satanic abuse case up in the Orknies of Scotland and the other out on the NE of England, Darlington wasn't it. I said I made the massive error, because of what she then unloaded on me made me wish I had kept my gob shut for it was almost as if she recited a script and from that point onwards I lost interest in that lady, because she had become something different, something aggressive and forthright, almost as if she was brain washed.

I also used to be a scout leader, a GSL and I quit the movement shortly after the social workers became involved, giving us courses in what we must look out for and listen and report to social services. I was not in it for that, so I sadly quit, and will not go back until this country gets a grip of itself.

But it is a fact with many social workers that it is not commodes for old people they want to spend their life providing, it is they want to be recognised for uncovering a big case, but a pity the aftermath of the satanic abuse case up in the Orknies, for when the kids were given back some five years later, they had forgotten who their parents were and with some because of the suggestive interrogation methods used by the authorities to obtain evidence, many of those children now suffer mental health issues where they did not before.

The instigators of those particular cases should be in prison.

lessons were learned from both the orknies case and cleveland.

you know the usual image of social workers is that they are wishy washy and indecisive, Social work largely due to the media has suffered a massive crisis of confidence and identity. it is in the process (hopefully) of reclaiming some of that confidence and identity.

its easy to recite the horror stories, the tiny minority of cases where mistakes are made. people led by the media like to vilify social work.
Drs, nurses, police officers, soldiers all make mistakes, yet they are still held in high regard, social work makes an easy target i think for headlines. Its largely because the profession is so misunderstood . While biased i think it is the most difficult demanding and complex job that there is, but equally the most rewarding.

Its unfortunate i feel that by someone attempting to make you realise that safeguarding children is everyones business made you quit the scouts, i agree the society today seems to think that predatory paedophiles are everywhere, its not the case, the vast vast majorty of abuse is perpetrated by other family members upon children.

 

[Charlieboy28]

oh and not sure what you mean about "discovering big cases" you do not get fame or fortune for it you know, confidentiality means you only get to hear about the crap stuff when things go wrong in the news.

The sun doesnt seem to be interested in SW saves another kid from abuse type headlines unfortunately

 

[silverclaws]

Wikipedia is hardly a reputable source of information as here, I can go to that page and put my interpretation of professional up on it, if I could be bothered to keep up with the bots again and yeah there are some pages on wiki I have been involved with, so take that place with a pinch of salt.

But language changes with the years and the more use of words in the wrong context helps those words change their meaning often to suit a given purpose

Professional is a noun meaning '' one who does X for a living'' recorded in the English language form 1811.

As to social workers being professionals, yes, sure they do the job of social work and get paid for it, so in that sense the are professional one hopes at what they do, but for social workers in general, perhaps if it was all of them started to act professionally, then more would hear nicer things about them and see them as a welcome use to society and not a branch of the SS.

 

[dyna-ti]

Social workers have my respect as the job they do is incredible.Their workload has increased exponentially even though their funding gets cut every budget.
The poor unfortunates of this country are the lowest common denominator at least in the eyes of the government. :x

That said.I have a mate who has just left the addiction side of it along with his GF who was a full time social worker for about 16 years.He has said in the past that the manner in which the rules work is so fubar that it isnt any wonder things go wrong.

I should have him post about it on here but that post is likely to be very very long and very very depressing. :?

 

[silverclaws]

oh and not sure what you mean about "discovering big cases" you do not get fame or fortune for it you know, confidentiality means you only get to hear about the crap stuff when things go wrong in the news.

The sun doesnt seem to be interested in SW saves another kid from abuse type headlines unfortunately

No leg up's the career ladder is usual reward for being prominent in their job, tell me there isn't fast routes up the career ladder and slow routes ?

And this incessant fascination for pedophiles around every corner has destroyed a lot of voluntary work, for many males simply will not get involved with anything to do with other's children at all, who does this affect, not me, but the children themselves who instead of learning about bushcraft, mountaineering and pioneering the old methods of instilling personal responsibility and confidence, what are children left with and so much is said about youth society today where the children know nothing of personal responsibility, do we wonder why ?

And do you know what, I got hassled by the police in the winter for asking some children to refrain from giving me lip whilst I was waiting for the bus, children went home spoke to mummy and ten minutes later I have the police giving me crap for daring to talk to children, let alone ask then to stop giving me lip when it was I was minding my own business.

Now I realise social workers are not the direct cause of what I experience, but they are in there with it.

The result of which is I do not feel comfortable out in society anymore where there are children around, I actually feel guilty for being a single male, how sad is that ?