A student social worker’s perspective
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Colette Bremang
Abstract
As a 2012 Newly Qualified SocialWorker, there are a few points Jeremy touches on that pertain to my recent experience as a student social worker. In particular, Jeremy discusses Porter’s notion of ‘them and us’, an apparent need within society to mark those who are different as some way separate from the whole. This resonates with my experience on placement with a London voluntary mental health agency.
I arrived on my first day of my first placement in earnest, armed with my social work codes of conduct and a smattering of mental health knowledge. I walked into the centre cafe and had an interesting conversation with a well-presented middle-aged chap about the complexities of personalisation and its impact upon mental health services. The conversation ended with my assumed colleague thanking me for all my hard work in curing his mother’s cancer. I immediately froze, quickly replaying our conversation, looking for clues that I had been speaking with a service user rather than a provider. I felt a real need to separate out the room and identify who did what, who went where and, crucially, what their diagnoses were! This was when the real horror set in. Where had this need to compartmentalise and organise the room into those suffering from an enduring mental health condition and those not come from? I shamefully reflected on how this directly conflicted with the core values of social work to promote social justice, encompassing the dignity, value and worth of the individual.
Jeremy also discusses the apparent ousting of the role of social work in mental health services with No health without mental health (HM Government, 2011) containing not one single reference to social work.
Abstract
As a 2012 Newly Qualified SocialWorker, there are a few points Jeremy touches on that pertain to my recent experience as a student social worker. In particular, Jeremy discusses Porter’s notion of ‘them and us’, an apparent need within society to mark those who are different as some way separate from the whole. This resonates with my experience on placement with a London voluntary mental health agency.
I arrived on my first day of my first placement in earnest, armed with my social work codes of conduct and a smattering of mental health knowledge. I walked into the centre cafe and had an interesting conversation with a well-presented middle-aged chap about the complexities of personalisation and its impact upon mental health services. The conversation ended with my assumed colleague thanking me for all my hard work in curing his mother’s cancer. I immediately froze, quickly replaying our conversation, looking for clues that I had been speaking with a service user rather than a provider. I felt a real need to separate out the room and identify who did what, who went where and, crucially, what their diagnoses were! This was when the real horror set in. Where had this need to compartmentalise and organise the room into those suffering from an enduring mental health condition and those not come from? I shamefully reflected on how this directly conflicted with the core values of social work to promote social justice, encompassing the dignity, value and worth of the individual.
Jeremy also discusses the apparent ousting of the role of social work in mental health services with No health without mental health (HM Government, 2011) containing not one single reference to social work.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Series editors’ introduction ix
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Lead essay
- Social work and mental health 1
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Responses
- Letting madness breathe? Critical challenges facing mental health social work today 29
- Agents of change? Social work for well-being and mental health 39
- Connecting psychological stress and colonialism 49
- ‘Diagnosis human’: markets, targets and medicalisation in community mental health services 57
- The problem with recovery 63
- A student social worker’s perspective 71
- Observations from the front line 77
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Concluding remarks
- Some concluding thoughts 83
- References 87
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Series editors’ introduction ix
-
Lead essay
- Social work and mental health 1
-
Responses
- Letting madness breathe? Critical challenges facing mental health social work today 29
- Agents of change? Social work for well-being and mental health 39
- Connecting psychological stress and colonialism 49
- ‘Diagnosis human’: markets, targets and medicalisation in community mental health services 57
- The problem with recovery 63
- A student social worker’s perspective 71
- Observations from the front line 77
-
Concluding remarks
- Some concluding thoughts 83
- References 87
