Fighting Monsters

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 and it is difficult to shake off and to rationalise.

If someone needs support, they need support regardless of age. I’ve noticed a little bit of snootiness among colleagues even, when I tell them I work, primarily, with older people. They seem to think it is a less radical or less ‘important’ area of work. Personally, I can’t think of an area of social work which needs as much input or progression than older people’s services because there has been a lot of stagnation not least from the workforce itself.

Conversely, that’s why there is so much progress that can be made in the area. I tended to think that it was because people don’t like to think about getting older or to think of what might happen to them - it is easier to disassociate the personal feelings if the ‘client’ is an ‘other’. A disadvantaged child. Someone with an illness or disability that we can approach from a ‘professional’ rather than ‘personal’ viewpoint.

With older people, we all have/had parents, family members and can think of ourselves in the future as being ‘old’. I like to think that some of my personal experiences of family members and providing care, care services and knowing what works - can help inform my practice.

Sometimes looking at the services from the inside can make one become more downhearted and frightened about ones’ own future and that of friends and family. But sometimes, it can make one very hopeful - and to be in a position to change that for some people and on a broader level, is a very particular and fortunate, I think.

The injustices, inequalities and discriminations exist where they would not be sanctioned in any other service area. Just the attitudes of other social workers can be indicative of this. And that is one of the reasons I like working in this area. There is such a lot that needs to be done.

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 any theory of perpetual motion that relates to social services departments or to local government in general that means if nothing changes for about two years, the whole service explodes!

In my first ‘real’ social work job after I qualified, I worked in a large open plan office with lots of ‘more experienced’ (read : older ) social workers and social work assistants. This, of course, led to any number of tidbits of information being passed on to the new girl! I remember being told that there would always be a reorganisation either in place or in consultation or being reviewed. Always.

I laughed a little at the time. It seemed to be one of those truisms that is flung around about working in the public sector (as before qualifying I had worked exclusively in the voluntary sector) but it certainly has a ring of truth to it in retrospect. There does seem to be a continuous process of change and reorganisation. Sometimes it has an obvious purpose - for example, when there is a change in central policy that ordains it - but sometimes there just doesn’t.

Of course, standing still or resting on ones laurels can never be a good thing and a part of the process of social work is looking constantly for better practice and ways of working but the amount of reorganisations which seem to involve going back to how things were previously seem to be unnatural and mostly, one can’t help wondering if the amount of man (person?) hours that are devoted to reorganisations and consultations couldn’t be better spent.

The current process of consultation has been going on for over a year. We’ve had about three or four afternoon discussion sessions which involve everyone sitting around listening to the managers discuss what they think should happen and everyone else either nodding sleepily through the provided cake and biscuits or scowling with worry as they count, in their heads, the amount of work they could be doing if they weren’t in the meeting.

There would be more incentive to be actively involved if there wasn’t the overall impression that any decisions that needed to be made had already been made at the time that we meet.

Currently, the proposals involve shifting four local teams into two larger teams. While we have been assured that there will be no change in the number of workers or the professional mix. I think it’s pretty obvious that there will be one or two edgy managers around the place for the next few months..