Author: Andre Coleman

According to Ewles and Simnett and Edelman Mandle , values and principles mean powerful drivers of how we think and behave. These are often a significant element of culture, where they form a part of the shared rule set of a group. Every people’s personal values and principles influence their work contribution significantly in health and social care management. There are different types of values like instrumental values, personal values, political values, social values, economic values, religious values etc.

Vilkka (1997) and Edelman Mandle (2005) have stated that instrumental values mean being honest, courage, polite, gentle, well-behaved etc. In addition, these values mean to have a good moral. It has a great impact of work contribution. For example, in a care home employees may need to keep the service users’ belongings which are valuable. In this case, they have to be honest. Otherwise, dishonest people may take those materials and flee away. So instrumental values influence work contribution.

Posner (n.d.) has cited that personal value means dignity, creativity, courage, attitude of care, independence, friendliness etc. It can influence work contribution. For example, a person with good creativity skills can serve the service users in a better way. In addition, if they become friendly and positive in caring, then the service users or the clients will be happier.

The ethnicity of people, tradition, regional ties, linguistic ties, national ties etc. are included in cultural values. For example, if anyone is from white ethnic background, then they will be more punctual where Asian ethnic people are less sincere. Another thing can be, people who are from the Middle East are very honest.

Social values may include equality, justice, liberty, freedom and national pride. These are the values that put the rights of wider groups of people first. As it promotes equality, justice, freedom and liberty then it can impact on work contributions significantly. For example, in a care home there may have employee and service users from different ethnic and national background. Their culture can be different from each other. So, following equality law, justice, national pride etc. improve workplace contribution.

According to Connor et al (2006), work values mean autonomy, dedication, teamwork, competitiveness, trustworthiness, reliability, professionalism, ethics etc. Autonomy means feeling relaxed and confident. It is universal truth that if anyone fell relaxed, ambition, and confident then she or he can play a very good role in work. Another thing is teamwork. It is always better than single work. Dedication has a positive impact as well. Doing favor to someone is called dedication. Health and social care is mainly related to co-operation and co-ordination between the employees and clients. For instant, an employee may not able to handle heavy things. So, in that case if anyone helps him to accomplish his task that is called dedication. It improves work outcome as well.

Trustworthiness and reliability are the two main sources of work effectiveness (Holloway Wheeler, 2002). If the employees trust one another, they can work with free from tension. Because they know whatever the co-workers are doing are correct. Also, they should be reliable so that staff can get help from them whenever it is required.

According to Allison (2001) and Posner (n.d.), professionalism has a significant effect in work contribution in health and social care. If professionals forget about their role and start making close relationship with clients, then it brings very negative outcome for the staff. They may be penalized for breaking organizational law. Sometimes, they chat with their co-workers ignoring the service users. But those follow the professionalism rules, can never do such kinds of things. As a result, clients will be happy and work outcome will be increased significantly. Thus, proffesioanlism influences contribution to work.

Litman (2009) has stated that economic values may include ownership of property, contributing to common good etc. This value means the value around money. According to some people, this is the most important value for work contribution because if the employees are paid soundly, then they must try to give their best. In reverse, if their expectations are not fulfilled, they must not give their best.

Religious values are the other important values. According to Cooper Palmer (1998), these are spiritual values, which means how we should behave, including caring of one another and in worship. Religion views have one of the most significant effects to work contribution. For example, according to Muslim laws, if you do not try to give your best to your employer, then you will be penalised by your god. So, those people who have respect on their religion, they will always try to do better in work. Thus religion values can influence work contributions.

According to McPartland (1991), principles are the policy, objectives, rules, fundamental norms, or value that state what are the role of an individual, or an organization, or a community. It also makes a distinction between fairness and unfairness. So, it can influence work contribution as well. Some people may have principles which may be directly opposite to organizational principles. For instant, if a conservative Buddhist is told to serve a non-Buddhist client, he/she may not give positive response and it will affect work contribution negatively. On the other hand, if an open minded Christian is told to something that is work related, they will do with 100% positive attitude. Thus, principles influence workplace contribution in health and social care.

1.2 Analyse how your own cultural values and beliefs influence your work in support and care of service users in your work place.

According to Kitayama Cohen (2007) and O’Donnell (2001), different cultural values and beliefs impact support and care of service users in workplace differently. Values and principles include equal rights, diversity, confidentiality, protection from abuse and harm. In addition, personal values are beliefs and preferences, culture, political perspectives, interests and priorities, change over lifespan to date etc.

I have my own culture and beliefs which also influence the care of the service users. For instance, I am not either vegetarian or non-vegetarian. I take all types of dishes which are halal because I am a muslim. So, I may not be interested to serve those people who will eat much haram dishes. But, in the same time I may provide a better service than a Buddhist. The reason of that is most of the Buddhists are non-vegetarian and they are not willing to serve the people who deserve meats. My culture and value has taught me to treat every person equally. It has also taught me to give adult people their freedom. So, I will not discriminate any people. People from any background are same to me. So, I can provide them a good service.

1.3 Explain how development of new priorities targets and legislation impact upon your role as a care worker.

There are a few new developments in legislations, priorities, research, policies, principles and values that can impact upon my role as a care worker. For example, Sex Discrimination Act 1975, The Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995, The Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000, The Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004, Disabled Persons Act 1986, Human Rights Act 19980, The Work and Families Act 2006, The Children and Young Persons Act 2008, Care and Support Green Paper, are the legislations and priorities that impact upon my role. Sex Discrimination Act 1975 states that it is unlawful for an employee to discriminate anyone because of their sex. The Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995 has given a legal status and some rights to carers. Carers are requested to assess their ability of work under this act. So, as a carer now I do self-assessment and inform it to local council and they take necessary steps. The Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 is very necessary for all the carers as it ensures their rights. According to this act, authorised people have to assess their needs, give priority to their wishes, and provide training whenever they need. It also facilitated co-operation between care workers and authorities in relation to the services. The government has recently prepared green paper where care and support system will be mentioned. Also, the government has given carers to express their opinion. In addition, they have engaged all the carers, stakeholders, service users, shareholders and members of the public to give their views to improve care plans. So, now I can share everything related to job with authorized persons and work with free of hassle. Thus these priorities and legislations impact upon my role as a care worker.

1.4 Discuss how the changes in personal values have contributed to your personal development

Pavlina (2008) has cited that the changes in personal values and principles have contributed a lot in personal development. For example, if I change my beliefs and preferences then it affects the service users. I used to think that serving the lesbian or gay or people who are not from my background are not good. But when I can come to know the legislations and change my beliefs then I can serve them as well and that is a part of my personal development. As an Asian my culture is different from European culture. So, while serving clients I may have to face difficulty as I don’t know their culture very good. But when I will be aware of their culture and views then I can deliver a better service because my cultural value will be changed that time. Thus the changes in personal values have contributed to my personal development.

Produce, monitor, revise and evaluate plans for personal progress in developing the skills and abilities required of a care worker

2.1 Assess your own preferred learning style and abilities

As a care worker personal progress is very important as it is related to the skills and abilities. According to Jonassen Grabowsk (1993), preferred learning style and abilities vary from person to person. Kolb’s (1984) states that, learning style can be concrete experience (feeling), diverging (feeling and watch), accommodating (feeling and doing), active experimentation (doing), reflective observation (watching), assimilating (thinking and watching), and abstract conceptualization (thinking). Learning from experience from outside world can be categorized as assimilating learning style. But usually people can learn four ways and those are watching, listening, writing, and reading. This is called linguistic learning method. Basically I prefer to learn in all ways but it depends what am I learning? For example, if I want to learn how to provide a better service to the service users then I prefer to learn it by linguistic mode and then by assimilating and accommodating because by this way I can read, watch, feel and think that I am doing. Then I have to do that practically. I can take notes as well if I want. The reason of that is there are certain things of learning where practical learning is more important than theoretical learning. After that I like to learn by writing and reading. There are a few things where it seems that easy after reading. But after some time I may forget that because only reading can not stimulate the memory cells most effectively. So to stimulate the memory cells effectively, I need to learn by writing as it stimulates my memory cells better than reading. I miss much information while learning by listening. A diagram of my learning style is given below:

Reading-Writing-Diverging -Accommodating- assimilating

2.2 Produce and justify a personal development plan with short-medium-and long term aims and Outcome

Gallen and Buckle (2001) has noted that acquiring new skills, updating practice, learning, career development etc are the main parts of personal development.

According to them, personal Development Plan (PDP) is important for all types of people whatever they are employee or employer or student. As a care worker or a as student of Health and Social care management personal development plan is vital for me. It can be short term, long term, short-medium-and long term aims. My personal development plan with short-medium and long term aims can be learning IT skills, being well-disciplined, improving presentation skills, negotiation policy, learning human resource management, learning people psychology, different types of acts and legislations related to health and social care, making effective decision, acquiring knowledge about medicine, improving leadership skills and developing communication skills.

IT skill: At this era information technology is the most important thing to learn as it has an effective impact in Health and Social care management. Without learning IT skills none can reach in a good level of their career. In addition, this branch is vast as well. So I have to spend a long time to be efficient of this branch. Now-a-days all information are saved and managed by computers. In addition, in some cases, computers can be used to diagnose the problem of the service users. I need to learn about programming, Microsoft word, Microsoft excel, power point, drawing good diagrams, presenting power point slides etc.

Negotiation policy: this is the area where I must need to improve. For example, when my manager will tell me you are going to be paid this amount of money for your job then I have negotiate with him if I am not satisfied. I have to show him/her the reasons as well why I should be paid more. This is important as money has an influence of employee’s mentality and employee with good mentality can provide good service.

Presentation skills: as a social worker I should have good presentation skill what I don’t have at all. If I can not present anything clearly to the service users then many misunderstanding will take place. So, I have to avoid this. It is not possible to improve presentation skills by day night. So, I will do a long term plan to improve my presentation skills.

My personal development plan and its outcomes are shown below in the table:

Development area

Mode

Duration

Outcome

Information technology

Long term

5 year

Be able to keep records correctly, create necessary soft wares if necessary.

Presentation skills

Long term

1 year

Make clients understand what services they are going to get

Negotiation policy

Short term

3 month

Ensured self betterment

Human resource management

Short-medium term

3 month

Managing human resource

Law, legislation and acts

Long term

5 years

Be able to deal with complaints and play by rules.

Leadership skills

Short medium

3 months

Leading effectively.

Decision making

Medium term

1 year

Be able to take right decision.

2.3 Discuss the arrangements to monitor the progress of your personal development plan.

The progress of my personal development program can be monitored by the outcome and job performances. For example, if I take IT and leadership skill as my personal development plan then it can be monitored by my record keeping skills, saving patients data, handling electronic devices etc. leadership skills can be monitored by the way I am managing people. For example, if hundred employees work under me I have to manage all of them efficiently where ever they are from or who ever they are. In addition, my progress can be monitored by performance appraisal.

2.4 Evaluate your personal development plan in context with your duties as a care worker

Bild Pountney (2007) have shown the necessity of personal development plan of a care worker. So, as a care worker my personal development plan is very important. IT skills and decision making were included in my personal development plan. As a care worker knowledge about IT helped me to keep all medical records digitally. I could find out information from computer or any electronic devices quickly. Decision making was another important thing. For example, if any frail client tells me he can not move and breathe properly. Also, he does not know what happened to him last night. But so far, he knows he did not take any food last night. In that situation, I am to take quick decision otherwise something can happen seriously. So, in context with my duties as a care worker these are essential to include as my personal development plan (PDP).

Analyse the application of principles of professional engagement with service users in a specific setting

3.1 Analyse the nature of different professional relationships in health and social care context

According to Fritz Omdahl (2006), professional relationship is a process by which staffs make relationship with individuals, service users’ family and friends, workers with other agencies, colleagues or any authorized persons related to health and social care. Usually, it is focused on some specific principles of an organization. The natures of professional relationships are described below:

Relationship with service users:

All the service users’ should be respected as individual and service users’ with no mental problem can choose any services those are required.

Service providers are entitled to provide appropriate care to clients without any hassle. In addition, healthcare professionals are not allowed to discriminate anyone while providing service.

Carers, doctors, social workers or any healthcare professionals must ensure service users confidentiality. They are not allowed to disclose any information to anyone unless it harms to their clients.

Every health care specialists, carers or service users will ensure the full autonomy of their clients.

Engagement with co-workers:

A good understanding and work relationship among the staff must be established so that they can work as a team. Martin et al (2009) have stated that, teamwork always ensures good outcome of work.

Health care staff, social workers, carers will share their views and knowledge with everyone which are related to job to provide better service.

Every staff will respect other cultures and may accept the good knowledge from them.

Employers and service providers will work together to keep a workplace with no discrimination, harassment, bully etc.

Everyone will work together to keep a safe workplace.

They will make a work relationship among them but not more than that like emotional relationship. this can harm engagement among the employees.

3.2 Analyse effectiveness of different models of care/support in health and social care settings

According to Heller et al (1999), health care services can be provided by various models e.g. bio-medical model/conventional medical model, bio-psycosocial model, traditional social care model, NHS social care model etc. But in the UK health care services are traditionally delivered by bio-medical model. Every model has particular effectiveness for providing health care which are described below:

According to Srivastava (2007), effectveness of conventional medical model:

Supports are available in terms of healthcare as conventional medical model is formed by the basis of NHS and western health care systems.

Protecting illness and disability becomes easier as health services are mainly geared towards treating the sick and disabled people.

A high value can be ensured in terms of specialist medical services especially in institutional setting or clinics.

This model gives a chance to conduct medical research effectively.

Effectiveness of bio-psychological model:

In 1986 Kleinman and Good have stated that bio-psychological model focuses on the psychological, emotional, social and mental problem. As a result, experts can identify service users’ mental needs effectively.

It recognizes that disease or illness can be neither studied nor treated in isolation from social and cultural environment.

It considers the links between socioeconomic deprivation and adverse health e g improving access to health care and reducing health inequalities.

Effectiveness of tradtional social care model (according to Leira, 2002):

It always priorotse the vulnearable groups so that they can get help from the service providers without any hassle at any time.

Service users and their organisations are fully involved in the development and even delivery of services. It also empower the people.

Effectiveness of the NHS social care model:

Glasby Littlechild (2004) has shown that NHS social care model always prioritizes the improvement of care for people with long term conditions.

This model will help to ensure health and social care organisations take an overall structured and systematic approach to improving the care of those long term conditions

The immediate focus should be the introduction of case management for the most vulnerable people with complex long term conditions so that long term hospital admissions can be reduced.

It aims to achieve early detection, good control to minimise effects of disease and reduce complications, improve effective medicine management. It also promotes independence, empowers patients and allows them to take control of their lives. Overally, it improves patients’ quality of life.

3.3 Critically analyse own role in promoting individual’s choice, ability and right to care for and protect themselves

According to Bradley et al (2009), own role is very important in health and social care workplaces to promote individual’s choice, ability, right and to protect the service users. The lists of my plans are given below to implement these things:

As a social care worker I will must protect the rights and promote the interest of service users. This means I will Treat every person as an individual, Respect their privacy and promote the individual views and wishes of both service users and carers. In addition, I will promote equal opportunities, Respect diversity and different cultures and values for service users and carers.

I must strive to establish and maintain trust and confidence of service users and carers. It includes to be honest, trustworthy, Communicating in an appropriate, open, accurate and straightforward way with the colleagues and clients. In addition, I will be relieable and dependant, honoring to service users and carers. Also, I will be adhering to policies and procedures about accepting gifts and money from service users and carers.

I will promote the independence of service users while protecting them from dangers. It means Using established processes to challenge and report dangerous, abusive and discriminatory or exploitative behavior and practice.

I will ask them to give their opinions because people usually feel important if anyone asks about their choice or wish. I may identify their emotional needs as well by this way.

I will talk to the service users cordially about their concerns and interests so that they can express what they want. So, I can be aware of them and can protect them.

(CD lesson 3, page 7, little bit)

3.4 Analyze the dilemmas that may arise in professional relationships and how you would deal with them

In 2005, Tribe Morrissey have noted that, lots of dilemmas can arise in professional relationship e.g. abuse, ethics, challenging behavior, risk, conflicts between values and principles, confidentiality vs. disclosure, values of others etc.

For example, ethical dilemmas can arise frequently in professional relationship. it means people can not understand actually what to do. Though sometimes they are able to take a decision, many questions arise like is it correct that is done? Usually, there are two types of ethical dilemma and one is the Right to Accept or refuse treatment and other one is the Patient Bill of Right. A patient with no mental problem can take his medical decision. They have right to choose whther they will accept death or life. But as a medical professional his/her duty is to ensure client’s well-being or save life. So, this is an ethical dilemma. But most of the cases, it is suggested to give priority of the client’s wish.

Another dilemma can arise in terms of ensuring client’s confidentiality and disclosure of any information. For instant, if a care service user tell his/her carer like this, “I want to tell you something if do not disclose it.” After that the carer can come to know that his/her clint is being abused by another carer. By that case, he/she should infrom it to an authorized person to protect the client from abuse but she/he is already told not to disclose it. So, dilemma can arise between confidentiality and disclosure by this way. In this case, the carer should tell it to an authorized person to protect the client from abuse and to ensure safe-guarding and well-being.

1000 words

4.1 Evaluate own contribution to your work team

Bradley et al (2009) and Leathard (2003) have mentioned that in health and social care every individual’s performance is very important. My own contributions as a social care worker are evaluated below:

In my workplace I always inform my colleagues about my activities to an appropriate level of detail.

I always behave in such a way so that it supports the team to be more effective. It means my actions, speech, language, body language, gestures, written and verbal communications are always polite.

I am efficient in computer skills. So, I can handle all the electrical data.

I share my views, ideas and information relevant to job with team members. I also accept other’s ideas and information to make team work smoother.

I always offer assistant in a friendly and helpful way whenever it is required.

I suggest clearly if I have any better idea to improve team work at an appropriate time.

4.2 Discuss how your contribution influence the effectiveness of the teams of which you are a member.

According to West (2004) and Snee (n.d.), contribution of every individual has an influence of the effectiveness in a team. My contribution also influences the effectiveness of team work in various ways. For example, I know about the Legislations, Policies and Good Practices which are relevant to health and social care. So, I can provide a very good service to the clients. Moreover, my colleagues often are benefitted by me. As a result, teamwork becomes developed. in addition, I can communicate in a effective way with my fellows. So that, lots of misunderstanding, ambiguity, conflict, backstabbing, and mistrust can be avoided which influence the effectiveness of team work.

I have a clear idea about the role of individual. So, I can specify their roles and they can perfrom according to that and it increases team outcome significantly. In addition, I am aware of different cultures and values and I act in a way what they want. According toaˆ¦aˆ¦. it inspires teammates which are another root of effective teamwork.

I have very good leadership skills and it helps to lead my colleagues. Time management is one of the most crucial skills that I have. So, I do my job in time and I suggest other people to follow me. They also follow me which influences team effectiveness.

Thus my contributions influence the effectiveness of the team.

4.3 Describe the limits of your work role and how these impact on your work with others

According to Heron (1998), every employee has limitations of their roles and responsibility and these are influenced by others. As a care management trainee I have some limitations as well. For example, I am not allowed give any new medication to a service user at any condition. In addition, as I work in management position, I should not involve in care work. I am not allowed to gather any personal information both of colleagues and clients. I should not handle their documents which are supposed to handle by their lawyers. Failing to do any of these has very negative outcome of individual role. Colleagues may not trust and respect. Also, employees may not listen to me and I can be frustrated. As a result, work outcome can be reduced sharply.

4.4 Analyse the barriers for effective team working and how you would contribute minimizing such barrier.

West (2004) and Snee (n.d.) notes that effective teamwork is very important in every sphere of work and there are lots of barriers of effective team work. For instant, poor leadership, interpersonal interactions, poor communication, professional codes, poor team dynamics, high expectations, different priorities, lack of trust, silo thinking, pressure of high accountability can be the barriers of effective teamwork. In the same time, there are many ways as well by which social workers can minimize these barriers.

As a social care worker I am required to work with my colleagues as well as various professionals and it is a daily occurrence for me. These professionals could be doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists laboratory technicians and pharmacists and many other professions. My colleagues and they may be from different cultures and they have different values. So, at the starting level of job all people need to share their views and knowledge and it wastes lots of time.

Leadership has a great impact of team working because almost everything flows from here. It is leader’s fault if a team can not perform in proper way. The reasons can be not enough communication among the employees or lack of proper guidance. Sometimes, leaders fail to specify of individual’s agenda. So, team members are not aware of their roles and can not perform well which reduce the productivity of team work.

Poor communication and high expectations are the other barriers of effective team work. These cause lots of misunderstanding, ambiguity, conflict, backstabbing, and mistrust among the employees. Employees have to work under stress as well if they have to fulfil higher expectation.

Study from Anon (n.d.) has shown that, poor team dynamics can cause breakdown of team dynamics and team can fail to achieve their goals. Also, absenteeism of employees reduces team dynamics and cut performance of a team.

Ways to minimize barriers of team work:

Trust in all colleagues.

Being respectful to seniors and team leaders.

Communicate effectively with the employees.

Let the employees work according to their ability.

Focus on team as well as individual performance.

Constructive criticism should be improved.

Reducing the absentee rate etc.

Overall, any organization can minimize the barriers by following these things and does excellent team work.

4.5 Discuss how you can contribute personally to the effectiveness of your team

According to Snee (n.d.) and West (2004), every individual can influence team effectiveness significantly by playing their professional roles. My own contribution can influence team effectiveness as well and some of the ways are given below:

Share own views, ideas with co-workers.

Offer help to service users and colleagues whenever it is necessary.

Provide suggestion for the betterment of work.

Respect everyone in the team especially the seniors.

Explaining team roles and goals to eve

The underlying principles for this assignment are to critically evaluate my professional development in a practice placement setting and record reflections for future learning. Within this essay, I will include my reflections on the social work process of assessment, planning, intervention and review, and will critically analyse what I feel was successful and unsuccessful in each process, with efforts to identify what could be changed to enhance future practice. I will also include my knowledge, skills and values incorporated into my practice with two service users and my group work, while explaining my efforts to promote anti-oppressive practice. Throughout my assignment I will endeavour to portray my learning journey from the beginning to the end of my placement and conclude with future learning needs, to enhance my practice as a social worker.

Introduction:

The practice placement I acquired was a Court Children’s Officer (CCO), based at the Belfast Family Proceedings Court. It forms part of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. My role as a CCO, formerly known as a Child Welfare Officer, was to use my training and experience to ascertain the wishes and feelings of children and their families in private law matters. The role falls within family and child care services and determines that the child’s interests remain paramount in court proceedings. As a CCO my role was to deal with cases where assistance was needed to help parties focus on the needs of their children, as opposed to continuing the incriminations as to who was responsible for the breakdown of their relationship. As a CCO I was then asked to present the information to court in oral or written report format. The CCO is used if other efforts to get the parties to reach a decision in the interests of their children have failed. This is to prevent the court process itself contributing to a lengthy breach in contact before it reaches a decision. As a CCO I was also responsible to act as liaison officer between the court and HSS Trusts, or other agencies (e.g. NSPCC etc) in respect of the court’s decisions. Although employed by the Trust, I was responsible to the court.

Before commencement of this placement I had limited understanding of the court process, and the legislation involved in private law cases. I was excited about the prospect of the experience I would gain having undertaken law and court modules, and attended court for certain flexible learning days, but I was also anxious about identifying the social work role within such a specific placement. “I feel nervous and uncomfortable. I’m finding the role intimidating being surrounded by legal professionals and legislation (being just a student). I’m worried about having to provide oral and written evidence to the court, and perhaps having to disagree with the legal representatives views in court. I feel deskilled and anxious” (PPDW: 21/01/10). After this initial anxious stage I began researching private law and knowledge, and used my practice teacher and on site supervisor to ask questions.

Having completed a practice placement last year I already knew of the benefits of using reflection as a crucial aspect of my practice and learning. Thompson (2005) explains that it is important that practitioners use not only established theories, but use their own knowledge and experience to meet the needs of service users. He claims that “reflective practice should help us to acknowledge the important links between theory and practice and to appreciate the dangers of treating the two elements as if they were separate domains” (Thompson, 2005: 147).

I was anxious to identify the social work process within my placement, as it was not evident on commencement. I was already familiar with the process of assessing, planning, intervention and review having had a previous placement with adults with learning disabilities. Within a court, however, this was very different, as a direction of the court determined my involvement with service users. Schon (1987) identifies that more than ‘a process’ is needed with service users – practitioners need to incorporate experience, skills and intuition for outcomes to be successful. The knowledge and skills that I identified, within my Individual learning plan, were skills in working with children, assertiveness skills, report writing and presenting skills, organisational skills, and group facilitation skills. I also wanted to enhance my value base as my previous placement helped me challenge issues around learning disabilities and the current placement is a very different setting. I wanted to develop my values around children’s feelings about parental separation, and also working in partnership with children to ascertain their wishes and feelings about contact issues.

I have outlined below the three cases I intend to use that will help identify my professional development within my placement setting. I will use these to provide an analysis of how my knowledge, skills and values have been developed through the social work process.

Family C: Polish origin

Child C (Age 7) currently resides with her father. The parental relationship lasted for seven years. Mother (Ms C) moved out of the family home to gain alternative accommodation when the relationship broke down. Ms C and the child’s contact have been very sporadic since. Contact has not taken place since December 2009. Mr C is concerned with Ms C’s new accommodation being unsuitable for the child’s safety staying overnight – claiming alcohol misuse and the child coming home “smelling of smoke”. Ms C requires an interpreter and is seeking a Contact Order.

As directed by the court I carried out an assessment of Ms C’s home, and also used mediation and counselling when meeting with the parties to focus on the child’s best interests. The child’s wishes and feelings were also ascertained.

Family E:

Child E (14) currently resides with his father (Mr E). Mother (Ms E) is seeking a Residence Order. Father currently resides with the child in a family hostel provided by the Belfast Housing Executive, which Ms E is concerned about. Court direction stipulated me to ascertain the child’s wishes and feelings about residence with his father and contact with his mother. In addition to this I used mediation as an intervention to try to help the parties reach agreement about the child. I concluded my work with the family using a Person Centred Review with Child E to determine if the plans implemented earlier in my practice were working, and what he would like to change when his case was due for review in court.

Group Work:

My group work consisted of working with teenage girls at a high school in North Belfast; they were aged 14/15. I worked alongside the Health for Youth through Peer Education (HYPE) team who regularly visit schools to promote sexual health awareness. I co-facilitated this group and worked to educate the group about sexual health and relationships. This was to promote the need for the provision of accurate information to prevent teenage pregnancies and STI’s, which have been highlighted as statistically higher in this area of Northern Ireland.

Preparation of placement

As indicated above, to prepare for this placement, I began by developing my knowledge base around the court setting and private law, so that I could be accountable to the court and the Trust for my actions. Trevithick (2000:162) claims to be accountable denotes ‘professionalism’ – by using knowledge, skills and qualifications, and adhering to values and ethics when serving a client. I began to tune in to the placement setting using knowledge, skills and values, with legislation such as The Children (NI) Order 1995, The Family Law Act (NI) 2001 and The Human Rights Act 1998.

I tuned into the court setting and the rights of the service users who used it. Article 3 of the Children (NI) Order 1995 claims that the court should act in the best interests of the child, and I was interested in seeing if this occurred or if parental interests were considered higher. I tuned into the effects that divorce and separation have on children, and focused on gaining knowledge on how to minimize the negative impact this may have on children. The issue of contact in private law proceedings is a complex subject which raises questions of rights, responsibilities and ‘ownership’ of children (Kroll, 2000: 217). I was initially interested in researching if children knowing both parents were in their best interests, and why.

Having had a placement with adults and learning disabilities last year I had reflected on the medical model versus the social model of disability, this placement was very different in that it would be the a legal context versus the social work role. I found this initially difficult as the legal obligations of the court over-shadowed the social work process. Court directions dictated the aspects of work to be done, which I found difficult as service user needs were not necessarily established and met.

Assessment:

Ms C’s assessment required me to meet with her, discuss issues regarding contact with her child, and investigate her living environment to determine if it was suitable for the child to have contact in. Prior to Ms C’s assessment it was necessary for me to tune in to contact disputes between parents. I recognised that there is significant animosity with both parties, but that having contact with both parents is in the child’s best interests to promote for attachment, identity and positive relationships. To initiate Ms C’s assessment I had received court directions, a referral and met with her legal advisor. I was at this time I was informed that Ms C was Polish and required an interpreter. The Human Rights Act 1998 and the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 both stipulate that an interpreter should be provided for health services to promote anti-discriminative practice and equal opportunities.

I was then required to make a referral to the Trust interpreting service, and they informed me that they would make initial contact with Ms C. I found this unnerving, as the interpreter would be making first contact with the service user, and I would have liked the opportunity to explain my role. Having carried out previous assessments, I knew that communication was essential for the assessment and central to the process of gathering information and empowering service users (Watson and West, 2006), therefore to not be able to make initial contact with a service user I found to be restrictive and stressful.

On initial contact with Ms C (and the interpreter) communication was difficult to establish. I found that by communicating through an interpreter I was limited in gathering information. I found it difficult to concentrate on Ms C, especially observing body language and tone of voice; instead I focused on the interpreter and actively listening to her. Ms C came across as frustrated and disengaged, showing signs of closed body language. I felt empathetic to Ms C because of the court process she was involved in, and the fact that she had to go to court to gain contact with her child. I felt the initial meeting with Ms C was not as successful as I had hoped, I was not able to discuss the issues affecting her, and unable to establish an effective working relationship due to the barrier on an interpreter. I left the meeting feeling deskilled and questioning my practice. On reflection, I should have provided more time to Ms C due to the language obstacle and gathered more information on her issues. I should have focused on Ms C and not the interpreter, and used the interpreter more effectively to establish a relationship. For future learning I will endeavour to use these reflections.

The next part of Ms C’s assessment was her home assessment. I was initially reluctant to carry out a home assessment, as I had no previous experience, and did not know what was classed as an “unsafe” environment for children. I began tuning in and identified that a home assessment required strong observational skills for child protection concerns. I also discussed the home assessment with my practice teacher and on site supervisor for aspects I should be concerned about within the home. It was indicated that a safe environment for a child did not have to be overly clean, just safe considering where the child sleeps, fire hazards, is there evidence of drug or alcohol use, or smelling of smoke (as Mr C alleges).

On entering Ms C’s home, as the interpreter had not arrived yet, I was reluctant to try and converse with Ms C. Ms C spoke limited English, and I did not want to confuse or alarm her by trying to discuss the case issues. However, I did try to use body language and facial expressions to reach for feelings and try to build a rapport by asking general questions about weather and work etc. I feel this helped our relationship, and helped me empathise about how difficult it must be to not be able to communicate effectively. By the time the interpreter had arrived I felt more at ease with Ms C, and addressed her (as opposed to the interpreter) with non-verbal cues such as nodding and body language. I felt more comfortable talking with Ms C, I felt more able to understand her frustrations at the court process, her ex-partner and his allegations.

Prior to the assessment of the home I had gained stereotypical perceptions about Ms C’s home. I thought that the house, as it was in a working class area, would be unclean and neglected. However, the assessment of the home, using observational skills, indicated no child protection concerns, a clean environment for a child, and Mr C’s allegations unfounded. On reflection of my perceptions I feel I was oppressive to Ms C having been so judgemental, and I felt guilty about my opinions having been class discriminatory.

Throughout the assessment with Ms C I found that by using an interpreter Ms C was able to stay informed and in control over her situation (Watson and West, 2006). I feel that by working with Ms C has helped my challenge my future practice with individuals who are non-English speakers. It will help me consider the needs of the service user, before judging them solely on language or their country of origin to provide equal opportunities. I now feel interpreters are required for a balance of power between the worker and service user, and promote anti-discriminatory practice.

Planning:

According to Parker and Bradley (2008: 72) Planning as part of the social work process is a method of continually reviewing and assessing the needs of all individual service users. It is based upon the assessment and identifies what needs to be done and what the outcome may be if it is completed.

Prior to the beginning of placement I had limited experience of planning, or group work. It was important for me understand the facilitation and communication skills needed for successful group work, and help to develop my understanding of group dynamics, group control, and peer pressure for this age group.

The key purpose of planning the group was to enable the young people to develop their knowledge and skills to be able to make informed decisions and choices about personal relationships and sexual health. I began preparing for the planning stage of the social work process by meeting with the HYPE team and researching their work. I was interested in the sexual health training for young people at school, as my own experience at school showed that the information was often limited, and I was interesting in finding out if it had been challenged.

I then began by tuning in to how I wanted to proceed through the planning process, and researching the topics of the different sessions as I considered I had limited knowledge on sexual health awareness. As I had to plan every week separately it was important to tune in to each and use knowledge, such as group work skills to inform my practice.

During initial sessions I noted how group members were quiet and withdrawn, this was important to note as the subject of sexual relationships may have been embarrassing for them to discuss. I too felt uncomfortable discussing the material, as I had limited understanding of sexual health, but it was important for the group to overcome these anxieties and work through them together. I identified that ‘ice breaking’ techniques were required to facilitate trust and partnership.

As the sessions progressed, one of the main challenges found was that peer influence was a major issue, with some of the participants controlling other quieter members. I felt it was necessary to include all members and encouraged participation using games. However, it was important not to push individuals when they became uncomfortable, as this could cause them to withdraw and disengage, disempowering them. Another challenge was that despite time management of the sessions, inevitably there had to be flexibility. Some of the group monopolised more time than others and it was necessary to be able to alter the plans according to time restraints.

I also needed to be aware of my own values when planning sexual health awareness training, as it is still regarded as a controversial issue, especially in Catholic schools with teenagers (www.famyouth.org.uk). I considered sexual health awareness to be a great benefit in schools, but obviously due to religious considerations many Catholic schools continue simply to teach abstinence as the only form of contraception. This was important to consider as the group was facilitated in a Catholic school and many of the members or their teachers could have had religious views and opinions on the sessions, creating tension or animosity. Reflecting on this parental consent had been provided for the group, but the group itself were required to take part during a free period. I consider this to be an ethical dilemma as the children’s views weren’t regarded as highly as their parents. If undertaking this group in future, I feel it would be necessary to ask the group if they wish to take part, and give the opportunity to withdraw – promoting anti-oppressive practice.

Intervention:

Prior to this practice placement I had limited experience using intervention methods. My previous placement focused on task centred work with service users, but in the court children’s service this could not be facilitated due to the time restrictions of the court. I had also previously used Rogerian person centred counselling which I found I could use some of the theory and apply it to this setting.

After gathering a range of information from the court referral, C1 and other professionals, I began to tune in to E’s case. I had been directed by the court to ascertain his wishes and feelings in regards to residence and contact arrangements, and mediate between his parents to find agreement about the child’s residence. As Child E is fourteen, I felt it was necessary to research levels of development for this age group and understand, according to psychologists, what level Child E would be at emotionally, physically and psychologically. I found that Child E should be at a level of becoming more independent, having his own values, and being able to make informed choices.

One of the most important issues, through mediation, was challenging my own values and becoming aware of my own stereotypical views on adults who have separated, and the effects on their children. I had to challenge the idea that Child E just wanted to reside with his father as he was the less disciplined parent, or that Child E would most likely be playing his parents off against each other to get his own way. However, by challenging these views, and working with the parties through mediation, I came to realise that E had strong views about living with his father and had a stronger attachment to him. By reflecting on my values I realised that it was oppressive to consider the child as manipulating and could have affected my work with him.

I found that having to be a neutral ‘third’ party in mediation was difficult, I found myself having a role as a witness, a referee and a peacekeeper trying to find common ground. Despite this I feel a ‘third side’ was necessary to help the parties work through issues. I found the most difficult aspect of this role to be impartiality as I found myself empathizing more with the mother (as the child refused to live with her). However, I also understood the child’s reasons behind his decision.

During mediation, and in court, I also challenged my judgements on gender and the notion that the mother is the ‘nurturer’ or ‘primary care giver’ in the home (Posada and Jacobs, 2001). The child clearly stated that he wanted to reside with his father, and when using questioning skills to probe about this, he claimed he had a stronger bond with his father, and that his mother was continually ridiculing him. I found myself having to alter my views about attachment and mother being the primary care giver and focus on what the child wants.

As the intervention progressed I used family mediation session to work through issues. I found that effective communication was principal in ascertaining Child E’s wishes and feelings, and helping the parties consider his views, as opposed to their own relationship incriminations. This not only empowered E by promoting partnership, but also gave him the knowledge that the court would be considering the information he provided. Within the meeting I felt I could have paced the meeting better and made better use of silences with E, as I dominated the conversation.

I consider mediation to be successful as it helped the parties focus on the needs of the child, and helped them realise that they had a child’s feelings to consider instead of the adversarial relationship built from court.

Review:

Prior to the review process I had experience of carrying out person centred reviews (PCR) through my previous practice placement. I had previous training on PCR’s and found them to be more effective than traditional reviews, due to the service user involvement. A PCR is an example of a person centred approach and the information from a review can be the foundation of a person centred plan (Bailey et al., 2009).

Within the family proceedings court the purpose of reviews are to reassess interim plans, and either change them, or confirm they are working for the child(ren). In Child E’s case a review was necessary to indicate if living with his father was working, and to discuss if he wanted to change anything about his interim plans, which were introduced three months earlier. Within the court children’s team a review is fundamental to consider what is in the child’s best interests, assess what is working and what is not working, and how to progress (considering the child’s wishes and feelings).

Child centred preparatory work with Child E was fundamental to the review success as it established what was important to him (Smull and Sanderson, 2005). Reflecting on my person centred work last year; I recognised that it was important to have preparatory work with Child E as it promoted choice and options to explore. I had also recognised that the information gathered from the preparatory work could be the foundations of the review itself, especially if Child E felt embarrassed or shy speaking out in front of his family on the day of the review (Smull and Sanderson, 2005)

I conducted the review with Child E and his parents present, but reflecting on this it could also have been useful including his school teacher or other friends to have a holistic approach. Throughout the review I feel I was able to engage the participants successfully using goals to focus on, and we were able to create a person centred plan for Child E. During the preparation for the review Child E had expressed that he felt he was having too much contact with his mother, and would like to limit this, he also expressed that this was an awkward subject to discuss with his mother present. I identified this in the review as child E did not wish to. I used skills such as facilitation and communication to show that Child E felt strongly about this issue, and both parents claimed they understood his view point. The review was also useful in presenting the information in court, as the child could not be present and I could advocate on his behalf.

On reflection of Child E’s review I feel it was a successful measure to determine what was working and not working since plans were implemented from the last court date. I had confidence in facilitating the review, but I did feel I perhaps dominated the conversation as both parents were hostile towards each other, and Child E was shy and unassertive about expressing his feelings. During future reviews I will endeavour to promote communication between parties, while empowering of the child. I will use better use of silences and encourage active involvement.

Conclusion:

“No matter how skilled, experienced or effective we are, there are, of course, always lessons to be learned, improvements to be made and benefits to be gained from reflecting on our practice” (Thompson, 2005: 146)

I feel this PLO has provided me with learning opportunities and identified my learning needs. It has encouraged me to reflect on my knowledge, skills and values and ensured that I used my reflections to learn from my practice.

At the beginning of placement I was concerned I would oppress the service users by having limited understanding of the court process, and unable to work effectively as a result. However, through training, help from my practice teacher and knowledge, I soon realised that the placement was about providing support, not being an expert. I feel I was able to establish a balance of the legal requirements of court and social work role, which has contributed to my learning experience and future knowledge.

As my placement progressed I used tuning in and evaluations to analyse my practice, and use them to learn from. My placement has enabled me to improve my court report writing skills, presentations skills and legislation knowledge, which I consider to be invaluable for the future.

In terms of future professional development, I will endeavour to challenge my stereotypical assumptions about service users, I will seek advice and guidance from more experienced members of staff, and I will use knowledge and theory to inform my practice prior to meeting service users.

Future learning requires me to continue to develop skills in working with children, to use silence as a skill, as listen actively to what the service user wants. Having an opportunity to work within the court system has been invaluable, but I would also like the opportunity to have more experience working with children to enhance my knowledge, skills and values further.

References:
Bailey, G., Sanderson, H., Sweeney, C. and Heaney, B. (2008) Person Centred Reviews in Adult Services. Valuing People Support Team.
Kroll, B. (2000) Milk Bottle, Messenger, Monitor, Spy: Children’s Experiences of Contact. Child Care in Practice: 6: 3
Parker, J., and Bradley, G. (2003) Social Work Practice: Assessment, Planning, Intervention and Review. Learning Matters Ltd.
Posada, G and Jacobs, A. (2001) Child-mother attachment relationships and culture. American Psychologist. 56(10), 821-822.
Schon, D. (1987) Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Smull, M and Sanderson, H. (2005) Essential Lifestyle Planning for Everyone. The USA: Learning Community
Thompson, N. (2005) Understanding Social Work: Preparing for Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Trevithick, P. (2005) Social Work Skills: A Practice Handbook (2nd Ed). Buckingham: Open University Press.
Watson, D and West, J (2006) Social Work Process and Practice: Approaches, Knowledge and Skills. Basingstoke; Palgrave Macmillan
Williams, P (2006) Social Work with People with Learning Disabilities. Learning Matters Ltd
Webpages:
http://www.famyouth.org.uk/pdfs/CondomControversy.pdf – accessed 24/4/10

SOCIAL THEORIES FOR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
A REFLECTIVE REPORT ON GROUP POSTER

The main purpose of the report is to demonstrate an understanding social work theory for practice person-centred approach in relation to adults with depression; the target audience is social work students. According to Teater (2010:1) theory “helps to predict, explain and assess situations and behaviours, and provide a rationale for how the social worker should react and intervene.” Therefore social work theory for practice is defined “as a set of ideas used to guide practice and which are sufficiently coherent that they could if necessary, be made explicit in form which is open them to challenge.” Payne (1997:150) held the view that for a social work theory to be successful in achieving its result it required three elements, perspective, an explaining theory and a model. Teater (2010:4) emphasised that social workers may combine learning theory with social learning theory to work with a service user, as theory informs practice. Payne (2002:270) stated that “a theory cannot be evaluated only in relation to its ideas and effectiveness, because the ideas have a historical and social context and effectiveness is judged according to particular institutional requirements.”

When my group met each group member gave suggestions of what theory they thought would be a good idea we decided to create a poster on Person-centred approach. The title of the poster was “A person-centred approach in relation to adults with depression: a guide for social work students. The purpose of developing this poster was to inform and educate social work students about Person-centred approach in a relation to adults dealing with depression. To have an understanding of my role and contribution to the group it is essential to review the process of how the team formed. The group formed not as a result of choice but as a result of random selection but with consideration of where we lived as this would make it easier to come together. The formation of the group made me realise that I did not have a choice in deciding who I would work with but despite that I was happy with my group and we worked well to complete the task at hand. The group was small and consisted of 4 people 3 females and 1 male and with different experience and educational background. A group can be defined in a many different ways which relate to function, membership for instance why people join and whether membership is voluntary and its goals and eventual purpose. Cartwright and Zander (1968) describes the group “as an aggregate of individuals standing in relations to each other, the relations exemplified will depend on or determine the kind of group, whether it is a family, an audience, a committee, union, or crowd”.

Hogg et al (2005) defined a team as “a group of people organised to work interdependently or cooperatively to complete a specific or accomplish a purpose or goal”. On reflection it is essential to note that my group was a task centred one because it was purely set up in order to complete the task at hand. Basically the group had collectivism this relates to “a world view based on the idea that the group needs and goals are more important than any individual”. We worked to complete the task and went through Bruce Tuckman groups develop through five basic stages: Forming – apprehension, Storming – conflict, Norming – status and role attainment, performing – goal striving and accomplishment, Adjourning – disbanding or re-organizing (Thompson 2010: 92).

No one had been nominated as leader but there were two definite leaders who took on the role of deciding what task each of us should do. This occurred as a result of the two feeling that they were going to take on more, we let them take the lead due to their willingness to undertake the greater part of the task. Despite this I managed to take charge when it came to the title and how information was displayed. Due to the lack of clear leadership this meant that we did not always meet up and there was no time to rehearse before presenting to the class. Each team member was given a task to complete but due to lack of clear roles and responsibilities and we got on to complete the task at hand. According to Thompson (2009:160) “good practice is based on partnership, team work and good communication amongst all members”. It was essential to create positive group dynamics as this would aid the relationship between the team members, as such the relationship had to be constructive as well as productive (Lafasto & Larson 2001).

Belbin (1996:64) stated “that an approach to human relationships in work groups, in which each individual has a defined role”. In this case there were two people that were the leaders and they were dominant in making decisions without consulting the rest of the team. In relation to team roles I took on the role of resource investigator Belbin (1981: 84) describes this as a person that is very optimistic. I endeavoured to relay my opinion in order to contribute and make corrections as expected by the group but to my work was disregarded in my absence. There are a number of issues that can affect a good group dynamic and for our team it was poor communication, different information would be passed on yet after meeting the other teams had done something differently. This factor I believe affected my performance and others as well. For instance we emailed each other what our ideas but the two leaders were negative towards my suggestions and the responded in a way that demonstrated decisions had been made already.

Furthermore not all members received updates due to not being linked in so there was missed information, at the time of presenting suggestions on how it should be done were ignored this was annoying and evoked some strong emotions. Unfortunately it was late to resolve this issue I felt strongly that decisions were made without critical analysis and this was a direct result of lack of leadership.

When we started to develop the poster we recognised that we had limited time, space and therefore we decided to develop a poster that was precise, concise and easy for the social work students and service users to understand. The purpose was to inform and provide an understanding of about the social theory for practice and also how well it works with service users. It was also essential for the design and colour scheme of the poster to be practical. According Fook et al (2007:54) states that “depending on visual workshops students or people are more likely to remember colourful presentations and are drawn to them”.

The poster was good it described the social work theory for practice and was

clear and precise on the subject matter, but despite this I felt that the poster should have been more about the social work theory for practice than the subject depression. The arrangement of information was sufficient considering the information that had to be gathered but it would have been better to have less information on the poster. The poster illustrated clearly that the service user was the expert of their own recovery and this in turn empowered them in making good choices, this evidently highlights the advantages and disadvantages of the person-centred therapy. Trevithick (2012: 91) emphasised that social workers should work with service users holistically in order to get a better understanding of their life. Service users and carers express that the most essential quality they would appreciate from social workers is understanding and patience.

This I believe was as a result of the fact that social work theories and service policies vary in their assumptions on the nature of service users, their problems, society and role of social workers. Whittington et al (1995:27) states that “when a social worker makes sense of a problem or issue he or she also makes certain assumptions”. This is subjectivist philosophy and works with free will. It deals with insider’s view, self determining ways and human nature for instance dealing with the relationship that the client has with the social world around them (Stepney et al 2000). The poster did not illustrate the advantages of the usage on the therapist this was due to limited space and only focusing on the service user. For instance a therapist may not feel weighed down while working with a service user who is aware and more positive this will empower the therapist as well as the service user. Rowe and Llic (2009) stated that “posters are brilliant way of transferring knowledge and suitable form of educational publication”. He further emphasised that people are more likely to be drawn to visual elements of a poster than the subject or content and it was essential for the author to include their name in order to effectively convey the educational subject matter.

As a student social worker I have to critically analyse and appraise the social work theories there are six critical criteria’s namely; Subjectivist- objectivist = philosophical position, Theories of society= provides an explanation, Research and research evidence= provides evidence and credibility to theories, Ethics and theories of social justice =provides understanding against the BASW codes of ethics and values, Service user and carers perspective=an insider perspective and Model of practice= theories are in context. There are six theories in social work practice namely psychodynamic theory, Social learning theory, Theory of moral reasoning, systems theory, conflict theory and theories of cognition.

The person-Centred approach was adopted work of the psychologist Dr Carl Rogers (1902-1987),the approach was psychotherapy and counselling. He believed that “the basic nature of the human being, when functioning freely, is constructive and trustworthy”(Rogers 1961:94). The Person-centred approach (PCA) “is an emotional and psychological approach to the person a ‘way of being’, from which perception of self, reality and behaviour may be reorganized. Its underlying principles are “the primacy of the actualizing tendency, the assertion of the necessity and sufficiency of the therapeutic conditions and the realization on the part of the therapist – of a non-directive attitude” (Rogers 1947).

According to Thorne (1991:36) “one of the limitations of person-centred approach resides not in the approach itself, but in the limitations of particular therapists and their ability or lack of it to offer their service users the required environment for transformation and development”. Thorne on the other hand unreservedly accepted that in his own experience, there are particular kinds of service users who are unlikely to be much helped by the approach.

Furthermore Christopher (1996:22) concurred that “there are sincere attempts to understand our own motivations, theories, service users are best achieved through considered and critical dialogue and reflection.” Nevertheless person-centered approach is very relevant in social work practice and this approach as “a psychosocial approach takes into account that people have both inner worlds and outer realities but the way we perceive the world sometimes differs from the way others see it” (Coulshed & Orme, 2012:108).

Trevithick (2012:124) stated that “person-centred approach was a well researched psychological approach that is based psychoanalysis-Freud (1856-1939), behaviourism based on theories of Pavlov (1927), Watson(1970),Skinner (1974)etc and humanistic psychology Carl Rogers(1902-1987) and Maslow (1973).”

An internet search on PsycINFO revealed 612 educational journals on person-centred therapy of these 411where peer reviewed journals the data was gathered from a range of groups, ages and genders. The bulk of the studies demonstrated that person-centred approach is essentially effective in getting results with service users to transform their lives. There is research evidence on the use of person-centred approach or therapy in mental health settings with adults, children and older people. It is essential to note that despite the fact that it has been used in cognitive behaviour therapy has also shown that it is a successful implement. There are a number of other approaches for instance pharmacological, psychodynamic and psychoanalytical evidence has shown that as a course of action it is short term but it is better to have intervention than non at all. The observed research, analysis as well as other types of research are vital in appraising the social work theory for practice. Orme et al (2010:159) stated that “when one finds research or peer reviewed journals there are questions to be asked for instance who owns the research and what their objective is”.

In conclusion the making of the poster was a new experience for me but helped provide clarity on group dynamics, theory of practice related to the poster and social work practice.“The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.”(BASW 2012)

APPENDIX 1

REFERENCES

BASW 2012 Code of ethics

Belbin, R, M. (1993) Team Roles at Work, Oxford; Heinemann

Christopher, J.C. (1996) Counselors’ inescapable Moral visions Journal of Counseling and Development, 75, 17-24.

Coulshed, V and Orme, J. (2006) Social work Practice, 4^th Edition, and Palgrave Macmillan.

Fook J and Gardner F (2007) Practising critical Reflection, A Resource Handbook, Open University Press.

Healy, K. (2012) Social work methods and skills, the essential foundations of practice Palgrave Macmillan.

Hogg, Micheal A, Vaughan, Graham, M. (2005) Social Psychology 4^th Edition Pearson, Prentice Hall.

Howe, D. (2009) A brief introduction to social work Theory.Basingstoke; Palgrave Macmillan.

Orme J and Shemmings D (2010) Developing research based social work practice, Palgrave Macmillan.

Payne, M. (1997) Modern social Work Theory, 2^nd Edition, Basingstoke Macmillan

Payne, M. (2005) Modern social Work Theory, 3rd Edition, Basingstoke Macmillan

Rogers, C. R and Russell, D.E (2002) Carl Rogers: The Quiet Revolutionary – An Oral History. Roseville, CA: Penmarin Books

Stepney P and Ford D (2000) Social Work Models, Methods and Theories, A framework for practice, Russell House Publishing.

Stogdon C and Kiteley R (2010) Study skills for social workers, SAGE publications.

Thompson N (2009) Understanding Social Work, 3^rd edition, Palgrave Macmillan.

Trevithick P (2012) Social Work Skills and Knowledge, a practice handbook, 3^rd edition, Open University Press.

Wilson K, Ruch G, Lymbery, M and Cooper A (2008) Social Work, An introduction to contemporary Practice, Ashford Colour Press Ltd.

For this assignment I will explain personal values, prejudices, ethical dilemmas and the impact they have had on social work practice by reflecting on one of my beliefs and how I had to challenge myself to overcome it.

Using Marxists and Feminists views of oppression I aim to identify, recognise, respect and value diverse individuals for which I will give an example of which happened to me and how I had to challenge discrimination towards others.

I will also discuss theoretical frameworks to tackling oppression and discrimination by using the PCS model and how people can become empowered through groups, advocacy or legislation.

Personal values, Prejudices, Ethical Dilemmas, Conflict of Interest and their impact on Social Work Practice

A value is something that concerns someone or a belief they hold, this determines how a person behaves, values do not determine if something is said whether it is right or wrong in today’s society. However, a person’s belief’s can affect how they behave towards others.

“Prejudice is a term which has rather negative connotations and is normally taken to mean a hostile attitude towards a person or group”

(Billingham et al. 2008. Pg. 196)

One of my values and a prejudice of mine is that any job I am employed in will eventually go to people working in a foreign country, especially India. This all stems from when I worked for a third party credit card processor, after giving them nine years of service I was going to be made redundant and my job would be actioned from people in India. For the next two months I would have to train people from there all the applications I was currently or had worked on. This gave me a dilemma do tell them all the information I knew or just some of it? I had to be professional, so I gave them as much information on the applications for which I knew about, I even created user guides to aid with the training and they could use when I had left the company.

When talking to the people I found that we had things in common with each other and they were saddened that a person would lose their job. It wasn’t their fault I was being made redundant but the companies in which we worked for. I had successfully challenged the new belief that had risen from a sad situation.

“Values are only as good as the actions they prompt”

(Preston-Shoot, 1996. Pg 31)

When working with people from other countries I will need to put my own values and prejudices aside, as everyone deserves help and advice in their lives no matter where they come from in the world. If I fail to put my values and prejudices aside whilst working with them it will affect the help they will receive from me, I need to be open minded to all cultures. Thompson (2005) explains that there is a need for genuineness (congruence) to be achieved in social work, that a positive working relationship between service user and social worker is needed based on trust and respect for each other to develop.

Identify, Recognise, Respect and Value Diverse Individuals

Thompson (2006) describes discrimination as “to identify a difference and is not necessarily a negative term”. But when used in terms of legal, moral or in a political sense it is referred to as being unfair e.g. being unfairly treated for your sexuality or ethnic origin. If this occurs it can lead to a person being oppressed.

When looking at oppression from a Marxists view D’Amato claims that people are oppressed because of the class in which they live in, that women, homosexuals or people of non-white skin are subordinate to the Bourgeoisie and Capitalism is needed in society as it shapes and depends on oppression for its survival. Marxists argue that if racism, sexism or homophobia was to be embraced it will mean that a capitalist government would need to be overthrown and that oppression is essential to the struggle of socialism.

From a Radical Feminists view Zeiber (2008) argues that women are oppressed within the patriarchal system, that marriage and the family are a result of capitalism. Holmstrom (2003) speaks about Socialist Feminism, agreeing that women are oppressed by the dominance of men and of the economic inequality because of the positions of power males have within society.

I work on a farm where we often have Polish as well as British people working there. One year a colleague was making cruel jokes towards the Polish people, as others were making fun at their culture, and their Catholic beliefs were wrong. I could see that something was wrong, so I spoke to them; they told me they felt they were being discriminated against and started to feel very oppressed because they were not British.

Then I spoke to my manager about the situation which was happening and he left me to “deal” with. I had to think about how I was going to approach it so both parties would be happy with the outcome.

So I asked the perpetrator to come outside and talk with me. I told him that the Polish people were unhappy the way in which he was treating them. He was shocked as he thought they were all “having a laugh” with each other. It was hard for me to confront the perpetrator as it was my father, a man I looked up to.

Reflecting on what had happened I knew I had said the correct things to my father as they continued to work with each in harmony, not wanting to offend each other, enabling a good working environment for all.

Discrimination can be found in institutions like the church, prison or by a person in a position of power. It can be covertly actioned by using disguises like the Klu Klux Klan in USA wear masks concealing their identity or overtly actioned like apartheid in South Africa or the BNP in Britain.

Theoretical Frameworks for Understanding Discrimination and Oppression

Thompson (1997) shows how oppression can be analysed using the PCS model and there are three levels:

Personal (P) – an individual’s views e.g. prejudice against a group of people.

Cultural (C) – shared values between others, what is wrong or right, this in turn forms a consensus.

Structural (S) – how oppression of society is formed through institution who support cultural norms & personal beliefs e.g. religion, media or government.

Here is an example of the PCS model in action:

P: Young man in the club you work at makes offensive and derogatory comments about a gay man who attends also. He says that ‘gay people are not natural’ or ‘normal’.

C: Gay people largely repulse the community around him, and many of the community members are involved with the local church, holding firm views about ‘sexual morals’.

S: Popular tabloid media berates the ‘abnormal’ activities of gay people. Religious leaders of all faiths support the instatement of laws to stop equal rights for gay people. Legislation is passed by parliament that compromises the rights of gay, lesbian and bisexual people. There is an overwhelming ‘consensus’ of power used in all forms of structural life.

(Wood, J. 2001)

By using the PCS model it can help a person build an idea as to why others act the way they do e.g. the stereotype of a teenager wearing a hood, you believe they are trouble makers because of what the media have reported, but not every teenager is out for trouble.

Another theoretical framework to tackling oppression and discrimination is through empowerment.

By empowering someone means to enable a person to gain control over and taking responsibility for own their actions. The Humanistic approach by Carl Rogers (1959) encourages people to become empowered.

As student social workers we are taught about empowering the service user, to focus on their strengths and to work together as equals, we also need to safeguard vulnerable people, to take into account a person’s economic, political and cultural background at the same time.

Groups also work to empower people as they offer support and if they act as one they can become powerful. An example of this is from the Times Online dated June 13th 2007 ‘How football made us’ (see attachment 1), by forming a football team for mentally ill patients they each became empowered able to do things on their own without having help from others.

Make use of Strategies to Challenge Discrimination, Inequality and Injustice

There are strategies in place to help educate people about inequality, discrimination and injustice such as advocacy and legislation. As social workers we need to support and speak up for individuals that face being oppressed or discriminated against.

By using advocacy to represent those who are unable to speak up for themselves. E.g. have learning or communication difficulties. Walker (2008) advises that advocacy has it strengths but also has its weaknesses.

Strength from using advocacy are: People who have been socially excluded from mainstream society gain a voice, when a service user has a social worker who listens can be given confidence to speak for themselves, thus growing in self confidence and social workers can learn and understand more on how it feels to be disempowered when listening to a service user.

But the weaknesses are: there is a danger that the social worker can put their own views forward and not those views of the service user, the advocate can take over, thus the service user can become disempowered and the social worker may find that by using advocacy it can put them in conflict with the organisation in which the work for, their loyalties can become split.

The legislation in place is to help and protect people against inequality and discrimination, for example:

Equal Pay Acts 1970 & 1983 – prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex relating to pay and terms of contract.

Race Relations Act 1976 – prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, colour, nationality or ethnic origin.

Later amended in 2000 to include a duty on public authorities in carrying out their duties to have due regard to eliminate unlawful discrimination and to promote equality.

(Brayne et al, 2010. Pg. 89-90)

The British Association of Social Work (BASW) has a code of ethics relating to how social workers must become more cultural aware. Paragraph 4.1.6 (pg. 49) states that as a social worker you will:

Recognise diversity among cultures and then recognise what the impact of their own cultural & ethnic identity can have on others.

Gain working knowledge and understanding of service users ethnic and cultural affiliations and the values, beliefs and customs associated with them, even though the service users may be different.

Communicate effectively in a language in which both parties will understand, if needs be then by using an independent interpreter.

By using the tools I have learnt through the course I will be able to challenge discrimination, inequality and oppression, I will be more open minded to people that need help from social services and no matter what their cultural background is I will be able to use this knowledge successfully.

Words used 1622

The 10 Essential Shared Capabilities are to set out the minimum requirements that all mental health services staff should possess as best practice. They are about relationships, behaviours, expectations and attitudes. They also allow service users and carers to be aware of what to expect from staff and services (NES 2006).

The 10 ESC’s are, working in partnership, respecting diversity, practising ethically, challenging inequality, promoting recovery, identifying people’s needs and strengths, providing service user-centred care, making a difference, promoting safety and positive risk taking and personal development and learning.

I will now give an overview of each of the above capabilities.

Working in Partnership involves working with service users their families and carers in a positive way to develop and maintain supportive relationships. Working this way helps people to make decisions and choices. (Edwards 2000). Whilst on placement when involved with service users who were starting treatment for Hepatitis C treatment it was very important to make them aware of how a good support network helps as this treatment can have an impact on everyday life causing flu-like symptoms, emotional issues, sleeping problems and loss of appetite. (Roche 2009).

Respecting Diversity is about providing care that makes a positive difference taking into account, age, race, culture, disability, gender, spirituality and sexuality. (The Scottish Government 2006). On placement within the Addiction Services it was very important not to discriminate any service user. There were many different people who attended the addiction team and it was imperative to treat them equally. According to NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (2009), we as nurses must try to eliminate discrimination and promote equality of opportunity for everyone.

Practising Ethically is about identifying the hopes and rights of patients and their families. It is important to work within the law and treat all service users as individuals. (NMC 2008). Whilst on placement the NMC Code of Conduct must be adhered to and The Code (2010) states that “you must support people in caring for themselves to improve and maintain their health”.

Challenging Inequality involves addressing the consequences of stigma. Patients with mental health problems must be treated with the same rights as everyone else suffering from other health needs. (See Me 2010). On placement the service users I cared for all had substance misuse concerns. This group of people are often stigmatised. I found that most of the service users had many contributing factors to their addictions and could sympathise with them more.

Promoting Recovery is all about working together with patients and professionals to provide care which helps service users overcome mental health problems. It gives service users hope and optimism in working towards a valued life. (Tidal Model 2000). The recovery process on placement was about helping the service users try and overcome their addiction or help them to manage it better.

Identifying people’s needs and strengths involves gathering information about service users’ health and social care needs. Assessments can be carried out to help focus on the service users strengths. (De Jong and Miller 1995). On placement I spoke with a service user who had remained drug free for 3 months. This service user had had her children taken from her and put into care. She was being assessed by the GP and nursing staff to see if they felt she was ready to have her children returned to her.

Providing service user-centred care involves working alongside service users and their families to help them negotiate achievable goals for the individual and identifying all resources that are available to help these goals be achieved. (Shepherd, Boardman and Slade 2008). On placement I worked alongside my mentor in helping a young pregnant girl with a benzodiazepine addiction. Her goal was to slowly detoxify herself from the drug as it can cause cardiac problems and facial clefts in unborn babies (Be My Parent 2010). The GP decreased her prescription by 2mg each week.

Making a difference involves ensuring that services are of a high quality and are suited to each individual. (The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health 2003). Most of the service users found it very helpful if they were provided with leaflets to make them aware of the effects that the illegal substances had on their lives.

Promoting Safety and Positive Risk Taking involves working with service users to decide the level of risk they are prepared to take with their health and safety. All care must be planned to maximise the benefits for the patient ensuring safety is maintained. (Morgan 2000). It was important on placement to make service users aware of the damage they were doing to both their physical and mental health. Again leaflets being available seemed to help.

Finally, Personal development and learning involves keeping up to date with any changes in the way services are provided. It is a lifelong learning process and is important to reflect on the practice you provide. The Nursing and Midwifery Council 2008, state it is important to keep your knowledge and skills up to date throughout your working life.

The 10 ESCs relate to and support the delivery of mental health policy and legislation in mental health practice in Scotland by linking up with the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003. The principles of this act should influence our practice accordingly. Some of the principles include non discrimination, equality, respect for diversity, respect for carers and participation all of these principles relate to the 10 ESCs. The Nursing and Midwifery Council Code of Conduct framework exists to give nurses the foundation of good nursing and midwifery practice, and is a key tool in safeguarding the health and wellbeing of the people in our care.

During this placement I have found working through the 10 ESCs very beneficial as they have helped me improve my experience of mental health nursing and how to better my care for service users. I am also aware of the importance of keeping up to date with any changes and how the learning experience will continue throughout my nursing career.

Work Based Learning 1 – Module 3

This part of the assignment will describe the links between service users and carers involvement and the 10 ESCs. It will also discuss different levels of involvement that service users and carers have. Also what local approaches are available to help increase service users involvement in their care.

NHS Education for Scotland (2010) states that involving service users and their carers is about encouraging them to have responsibility in their own care and treatment and to be involved in the development of services. By using the 10 ESCs there are things that can be done to overcome any of the following barriers, losing hope, negative experiences of mental health services and stigma. ESC 3 – Practising Ethically helps service users to build up a relationship with their nurse and shows the nurse how to recognize the services users rights and hopes

There are three levels of involvement which are, individual, organisational and strategic levels I will now discuss the service user and carers involvement at each of these levels.

Involvement at an individual level includes individuals being given choices and having involvement in all stages of their care process. Service users and carers should have easy access to any information or advice available to them and

What do you consider your personal strengths and limitations in terms of your development as a professional social worker? Considering my strengths, I am cooperative, good-natured, generous, helpful, humble and modest and I trust others. As a professional, I am non-judgmental, not blaming the client for their troubles. Even if someone hurts my feelings, I am quick to forgive. These qualities are important for me, because I am working and will work with a variety of persons – healthcare professionals, clients, and so on – who may exhibit inflexible and demanding personalities that may be challenging to work with.

Finding the right treatment or service for each client based on their needs requires a creative person. I am also meticulous, hard-working, well organized, have good self- discipline, and take my obligations seriously. These traits are suitable for when I am working independently or carrying heavy caseloads.

My extroverted personality also suits my career objective as a social worker as interaction with others is a significant portion of a social worker’s job. Regarding communication skills, I am talkative, assertive, sociable and active. Over the years I have also succeeded to mature emotionally.

One of my limitations is that, although I speak four languages fluently, my Spanish is not acceptable yet when it comes to communicating with Hispanic clients. I am overcoming this personal limitation by taking a course in the next semester as a starting point. My other limitation is a lack of experience as a social worker. As I learn and seeing the issues that clients have, I am discovering that there is much more to learn. There are many concerns that I still do not know how to handle, but I am learning and will learn more in the near future.

Personal Qualities
2. What qualities do you possess which prepare you for graduate social work?

Some of my personal qualities include being motivated and enthusiastic in a thoughtful and respectful manner. I am able to maintain a courteous and caring demeanor, even in stressful situations. I have a high score for intellect, which indicates that I strive to learn and maintain my current knowledge, which is essential for a good and passionate social worker. I am genuinely concerned with other people and try to treat everyone with courtesy and kindness.

I have always had the desire to study and strive in my area of interest. When I had an opportunity in 2005 to go back to school, I was fully committed to excel in my studies. My goal is not just to get good grades, but also to fully understand the concepts in my studies and be able to analyze them. There are many social issues in our society that I would like to personally contribute to for the improvement of society. Through learning, I was able to understand some of my own experiences from the past, and instead of taking them as a terrible lesson, I accepted them as challenging journey.

One of my academic goals is to keep up my above average grades. I put in enormous effort and hard work into my studies. Making it to the Dean’s list every semester is also a priority. Upon arriving at this university, I was determined that I would spend my next four years in pursuit of new ideas and experiences.

Current and Past Experiences
3. What professional skills and experiences make you an appropriate candidate for our program?

Regarding my work experience, since 2005 I have been responsible for daily programming of activities and providing positive behavioral goals and objectives for an eight year old boy with high functioning autism. This year, I was employed at California Psychcare as a behavioral instructor. This company is one of the vendors for North Los Angeles County Regional Center where I provide therapy for children with autism.

Besides my part-time work, I have also been an intern since August 2009 at the Domestic Abuse Center, which is located in Reseda, California. We are trained volunteer advocates responding with police to domestic violence calls, offering immediate assistance with medical, legal and counseling referrals and shelter options.

From January to May 2009, I was a volunteer at the Therapeutic Living Centers for the Blind in Reseda, California. The clients were legally blind and also had some degree of cognitive disability. My interactions with them included learning appropriate prompting, assistance and communication techniques. In May 2009, I received a Dr. Russ Miller Scholarship Award given by the CSUN Sociology Department.

Future Goals
4. Discuss how your professional goals are consistent with the mission of the CSUN MSW Program.

Regarding my professional goals, I have a strong desire to help others. This insight comes from the fact that my mother had a serious mental disorder, namely bipolar disorder, while she was alive. In Yugoslavian society, it was a shame and a stigma to have someone mentally ill in the family. My mother tried hard to adjust and to act normal, but this was beyond her abilities, particularly around the time when the civil war started to break out in Yugoslavia. Instead of demanding to adjust, the family members should have understood that they had an ill person in the family. My father and I lacked this knowledge at that time. When my father got sick from stomach cancer, the whole situation was spinning out of control in my family until it ended in tragedy. My beloved mother could not cope any longer with life’s challenges and she committed suicide. My father died five months later. I strongly feel that my mother could be alive today, had she received help, which is the reason for my choice of future career.

After completing a Master’s degree, I would like to develop psycho-educational workshops. Families with mentally ill members often find themselves overburdened. These families do not have the appropriate knowledge or skills to handle or take care of the mentally ill; they need special training, support and knowledge. Moreover, the families need to know how to interact with service providers effectively and how to interact with their mentally ill members. Consequently, I strongly believe that these workshops will result in good outcomes for the whole family. I never had any professionals approaching me and offering me this knowledge. Even though we were a middle class family in Yugoslavia, it was assumed that if we did not need financial help, we did not need any other help or information. Hopefully for some families who have a mentally ill member, this support in the form of workshops will be beneficial.

My other passion when it comes to career objectives is helping soldiers returning

from war to adjust to everyday life again. We can work to develop a clinical strategy to

reach out to traumatized veterans who have not been able to return to civilian life. After completing the MSW program, I would like to, as a social worker, offer veterans and their families some services such as resource navigation, crisis intervention, advocacy, benefit assistance, and mental health therapy for conditions such as depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and drug and alcohol addiction. For many combat veterans, their problems are compounded by multiple mental ailments. Thus, in facing the challenges on return from combat, it is vital for the veterans to receive family support and understanding.

Many civilians are judgmental when it comes to returning veterans, claiming they

are strong and will get over their war experiences. It is therefore the duty of a passionate psychiatric social worker to educate the public about this sensitive topic and to help these veterans who deserve to be helped. These are my main career objectives.

I come from a country with rich cultural and ethnic diversity, where I lived as an ethnic minority. This self-awareness helps me understand cultural sensitivity better as well as the clients’ cultural beliefs, when working with the specific client populations.

Beside English, I speak Hungarian, Serbian and Croatian and I am in the process of learning Spanish. Knowledge of Spanish will be an asset for me as a social work practitioner. Physical, social, psychological and emotional problems attributable to lifestyle, environment, substance abuse and stress will continue to grow in number and complexity. There will be a need for creative and imaginative interventions.

Professional Objectivity
5. Identify three client populations that might create a value conflict for you
or that might cause you to lose your professional objectivity. Describe what
approach you will take in order to work with each population listed.

One of the client populations for which I need to be more objective is working with gang members. I realize that being in a gang is more than just doing drug deals and participating in other illegal gang activity. My approach to overcome this deficit is through education to learn about the history of gangs, their language and symbolism, economic considerations and factors that contribute to gang activity as well as the risk factors and the impact of migration and immigration on gangs. I need to learn about how to address the root causes, to recognize that young people often join gangs to achieve a sense of belonging and find a supportive community in them that they frequently lack at home, to understand the inner workings of the gang to find out exactly what it provides, who its members are, what activities they are involved with, and how its leadership is structured. I believe that these adolescents are not inherently bad; instead, faced with limited choices, they are making decisions that lead them down a negative path.

Another client population causing value conflict is the terminally ill as such encounters will expose me to feelings of pain, sorrow, anger, helplessness, and hopelessness. Setting realistic short- and long-term goals in treating these clients and focusing on what can be done, even in situations that seem hopeless, can prevent a sense of failure and despair. Furthermore, achievable goals can be set even in the difficult situation of treating terminally ill patients. The goals might include improving the patient’s quality of life in the final days, instilling a sense of choice and acceptance of physical limitations, helping them cope with parting from family members, and examining their priorities.

The third client population is the elderly. Elderly clients are affectionate and eagerly wait for a social worker to visit them. Most of them treat the social worker as a friend. Professional objectivity is required, so that I will not visualize the client as a family, and to keep in mind that the goal is to help them develop the ability to do well without a lot of support.

Time Management
6. Clearly describe the plans that you have made in order to ensure that you will be able to complete the MSW Program you are applying for given the course workload of the program and the number of hours that are required for field education.

As I work part time for 15 hours per week, I have chosen to undertake the three-year program. My husband works full time and I am not the sole financial provider for my family. I am planning my other areas of life around my studies, so I can fully commit and keep up with good grades.

7. If you are applying for the threeaˆ?year program (or stated that you would consider either program on your application), include an additional discussion regarding your current employment, time management, and specific plans to accommodate sixteen hours per week of field education (of which eight to sixteen are during internship business hours) during the second and third years of the program.

My work is flexible; I mostly work afternoons and sometimes on weekends. As stated before, I work as a behavioral instructor with children who have autism. I go into the clients’ homes to provide services. I never work more than three hours per session. I have been able to establish a professional, but friendly relationship with these families; therefore, I can change my schedule, as long as the required hours are completed.

Through the process of reviewing my journal entries, I was overwhelmed by incidents I went through. I realized some unfortunate and unintentional racism and microaggressions in my journals. I noticed that resulted in producing weak and imperfect assumptions. According to Sue and Sue, Microaggressions are “brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to a target group like people of color, women and gays “(2007. Chap5). It was obvious I did things according to my own culture and somehow disregarding others’ cultures unintentionally. Added to this, I found out that I was immature and unfair to make conclusions without further scrutiny. Scrutinizing all these non-stopping cultural thoughts, I started to think if I am culturally knowledgeable enough to be a counselor who got the necessary skills and means to work effectively with clients from multicultural backgrounds. Trough my previous journal review, I began to think about the reason why I struggle to bring up these multicultural calamities. Being hesitant on how I am going to provide therapy despite existing diversity issues. Despite all the readings, guest speakers and activities conducted in class, I find I still have some prejudice and assumptions in my subconscious mind such as homosexuality, which is challenging according to my religious beliefs as a Muslim. As a professional therapist, it will be helpful to get rid of these feelings and always stay away from being prejudiced against persons practicing different habits and beliefs. Sue and Sue said that “the belief in the inferiority of others as well as the belief that one has the power to oblige certain standards upon others of another culture is also witnessed” (SS 4). The ethnocentric monoculturalism mindset that Sue and Sue discussed in chapter four both shocks and amazes me.

Reading my journal entries helped me to reconsider the decisions and stereotypes I made about other ethnic minorities and especially homosexual communities. As a result of the journal reading, what are the measures that would help to avoid these stereotypes, perceptions, and beliefs do we hold about culturally diverse groups and may help us to maintain an effective relationship? (SS 2)

As far as my feelings are concerned, I was very frustrated and feel guilty and ashamed of being careless about a variety of multicultural minorities. Besides, it is not fair not to scrutinize these cultural calamities and not to withdraw from others and their situations and circumstances. This curiosity developed in me a sense of appreciation to tolerate these differences and willingness to find out more about my biases willing to work hard in order to be more aware of my weaknesses and change them. “Feelings of shame and pride are mixed in the individual and a sense of conflict develops” (SS 10)

Identity was given a generous part in my previous journal entries as I dedicated more space and time for better understanding of myself. More than that, the conversation I had with my colleagues, guest speakers, and class instructor as well as through readings, helped me to define my identity within my family and other groups in which I have belonged, especially the Muslim communities. This considerable wind of change actually taught me to not take cultural issues for granted anymore, to spend more time and effort figuring out who I am. However, it is still hard to devote completely to accept given cultural differences and to solve identity issues. But, it was comforting that Slavic people had been referred to as such a strong religious affiliations and characterized as “a cornerstone of their identity” (MGG 52, pg. 713. In dealing with multiracial backgrounds and issues, it is awkward to ask coworkers or individuals from different counties questions like “Where are you from?’ or “What are you?” because asking questions about ethnicity generates a sense of being offended and differentiated, and it is sometimes perceived as rude, insensitive, ambiguous and misconstrued. However, the idea is certainly not to make the person feel questioned or offended or attacked when asked about their ethnicity (SS 18). Maria Root’s Bill of Rights (SS 18) is a great inspiration to me since it gave me a much greater understanding of what we “ask” multiracial people to do when we ask about their heritage and expect it to “fit” within the monoracial classification system. Conceptualizing identities and giving them more focus is a good idea (SS 18; Torres, Jones, & Renn). It is crucial for more understanding of the topic of identity development. Personally, I still need to fully recognize and improve my own understanding of myself, my background, and my culture. Added to this the feeling of guilt was also common in my journal entries, and Sue and Sue stated that without such an awareness and understanding, we may unintentionally discriminate among multicultural groups. When this happens, we may become guilty of cultural oppression and be a threat to multicultural minorities (SS 10) I did feel guilty about many things, but it is very significant to be aware of this problem now in order to avoid it in future confrontations.

Personal Reflections on My Experiences

This class was an important step in my journey in life; it helped me to recognize many unintentional biases and stereotypes. It was a positive influence on me by improving my competencies, increasing my vigilance and cultural sensitivity. Yet, there is still a threat of underpathologizing a client’s symptoms without taking into consideration cultural backgrounds. More than that, the understanding of a client’s cultural context, having knowledge of culture-bound syndromes and being aware of cultural relativism, are challenging because, being oversensitive to these factors, the therapist’s pathology might be influenced negatively. As a result, this process ends up underpathologizing disorders (SS 4)

It is fundamental to put up with and value the difference of other cultures, and this class helped me also to think about it seriously as I believe during this short semester I achieved a level of cultural sensitivity and awareness by discussing the IDI Profile which presented information about how to make sense and how to react and treat these cultural similarities and dissimilarities.

Emotions such as anger, sadness, and defensiveness took a part of the discussion about experiences of race, culture, gender, and other socio demographic variables (MGG 1). These feelings can either improve or reduce the understanding of the notion of multicultural calamities. That is why I believe this class was very important to take. As a professional, working with a multicultural population, I am sure that I need to know that I am different and how to deal with it in an appropriate way. Moreover, in my little work experience, I worked with many different people who are from diverse cultures and that led to some challenging times to understand each other in the beginning in terms of language, eye contact, and sometimes body language. I have discovered that by making statements of similarity, I have the possibility to share our differences that can influence my professional and personal life. Discussing the language difficulty openly with a client may be a beneficial tactic in the future. Working with older adults was a good point that Sue and Sue covered in their book. They are aware that it is important to critically evaluate our own attitudes about old adults and their daily attitudes and concerns. Sue and Sue stated some legal and ethical issues that should be in mind while dealing or working with older adults (e.g., competency issues). Older adults need care and respect in terms of their mental status, and as a counselor, I have to know how to deal with those people in professional way.

The disabled population is another community that I learned to be aware of how to work with. Three models of disability affecting individuals were presented in the Sue and Sue book. First, the moral model is a “defect” considered a sort of sin or moral lapse. Second, the medical model is represented as a defect or loss of function that resides in the individual. Finally, the minority model is seen as an external problem involving an environment that fails to provide a shelter for individuals with disabilities. (SS 26) I learned that I have to treat people regardless of disability status with the same expectations and gather information about my client’s disability. Those people gave me strength.

It was also interesting to be aware of social class issues, and this class was beneficial in helping us as future professionals to figure it out. As discussed in chapter 12 in Sue and Sue, “Multicultural counseling and therapy must be about social justice, providing equal access and opportunity to all groups; being inclusive; removing individual and systemic barriers to fair mental health treatment, and insuring that counseling/therapy services are directed at the micro, meso, and macro levels of our society” (SS 12.) I learned that as counselors, we need to be hard working and supportive for immigrants and offer needed services for minorities and provide for local, state, and federal immigration laws. It is a big challenge to be able to work within different cultures setting, but keeping up will help people face all the barriers coming in the future.

Within my family, I feel powerless. I still have some issues that cannot be discussed with them, and most of these are cultural issues that I cannot change immediately always lead to conflict. The issues range from the handling of emotions, such as being able to express anger or shame about specific things, or being able to talk loudly about making my own decisions such as my relationship with the person who I choose to live who is from another culture. I learned also that sometimes, even the married couples of similar backgrounds; they may still face some intercultural concerns. However, relationships from multi cultural backgrounds reach to the edge of success and go beyond given culture differences.

As far as my IDI-personal plan is concerned, I mentioned that culture is about the rules of how to function within cultural context. Within the process of understanding these cultural differences and rules, I was somehow sensitive to those rules, but it is an important factor that participated to ameliorate my cultural awareness. I think I need to learn more effectively about my own culture including history and rules of myself and my family.

The encapsulated Marginality part in my IDI- personal plan signified that I am trying to figure out how to correlate my intercultural beliefs with my identity and how to make such transition. This condition transition between culture and identity is referred to as Adaptation and Integration. To demonstrate this transition, I am saying to myself, “Who I am?” compared to “What is my true culture?” like my Berber origins compared to other cultures in my country.

Another brief statement in my IDI-personal plan stated that I avoid learning about other cultures and ignore their history.

The profile also shows that I may have a commitment to the idea that people from other cultures are “like us”, or those people should share the same set of “universal” values I have. I may also have difficulties in identifying important cultural differences that influence intercultural relations, and I need to resolve these issues before I can exercise my greatest potential of intercultural competence (Bennett & Bennett, 2002).

In my professional part of my IDI-Personal plan, I mentioned that I have to be able to experience the existence of other cultures and I should be sensitive and aware in order to be effective with my clients.

It terms of working with people of color, it is useful to discuss the reaction of the client to a professional who is from a different ethnic background (e.g. “Sometimes clients feel uncomfortable working with a counselor of a different race”) and be aware of mistrust and work to earn a client’s trust (SS 14). It is very significant to comprehend the dissimilarities, assist the clients to be relaxed in working with me as a professional, and be trusted and well-liked.

Assessment of the Effectiveness to date of The IDI-based Personal Development Plan

My IDI Individual Profile helped me reflect on my experiences around cultural differences and similarities. As I reviewed my IDI profile results, I considered past situations in which I attempted to make sense of cultural differences and similarities; this can assist me discover statements that may have guided my actions in these situations. Moreover, I need to focus on a situation I am presently facing.

The IDI-based personal plan helped me to learn more about my own culture. I was surprised when I read the outcomes of my IDI result, especially in terms of being aware of my biases that I was thinking were strengths. In my developmental task, I stated that I have to recognize cultural differences that are escaping my notice. I have to learn more about my own culture especially its heritage. I will explore my own culture by gathering necessary information.

The IDI gave me the chance to be more conscious of “who” I am and where I came from.

Steps to continue developing my sensitivity to difference and cultural competence

I need to continue developing my sensitivity to difference and cultural competence and be able to work successfully with clients from diverse ethnics and cultural backgrounds. I need to continue developing awareness by recognizing the value of population diversity.

It is correct that one cannot discover everything about other cultures. However, I need to get awareness about other groups. I also need to separate my religious insights and respect others’ religion beliefs. I need to recognize and be mindful of who I am and where I came from. I need to be aware of my privilege as an educated person in my family. Finally, in order to continue developing my own sensitivity to difference and cultural competences, I have to recognize how my culture is viewed by others. I need to attend workshops and seminars about other cultures. I need to learn about others’ culture by watching documentaries and movies as much as possible.

Visiting other countries and participating in its cultural events and festivals, and sharing experiences with other people will be a very effective plan.

Within this assignment I will demonstrate the knowledge gained in my practice since starting my post qualifying degree and consider my future learning and development. This training has been about gaining or updating knowledge, but I have also gained further insight into how I work as a practising social worker, I would agree to Gillian Ruch’s (lecture notes, February 2008) comments about taking care of yourself quoting Simmonds, le Riche and Tanner that:

“Knowledge of others cannot be acquired without knowledge of oneself. Knowledge of others cannot be substituted for knowledge of oneself. Knowledge of oneself cannot be acquired without a relationship with others.’ (Simmonds, in le Riche and Tanner 1998:96)

Focus on the Child

Assignment on Observation of child in Nursery or play group:

For this unit I had to observe a child between the ages of 0-5 years. I had mixed emotions and anxieties. The anxiety was about visiting a place I had very little knowledge of, what would I be observing? What would the young person I was observing be like? Was I competent enough? This helped me to reflect on my own anxieties when visiting children in need in their homes. It has been an important learning experience to understand the impact of my presence that might have on children and their families.

The challenge was to observe a child without any specific reasons or concerns with regards to that child. Therefore observing a child without any professional skills of communicating and engaging children, raised the question: “How can a professional give up the sense of being in control and become a student again, lay down one’s tools and simply be open to what is happening?” (Segal 2002-3, p16).

Reflecting on this activity I realised the danger in my actual practice. All of us have our own preconceptions, our particular mind sets and prejudices. We have a tendency to see what we are looking for and to look for only what we want to know about. Rarely do we take time to stop and watch intently. These observations sessions offered me with the opportunity to develop ability to remain detached, to suspend judgements and refrain from participation.

Assignment on ADHD:

I was able to consider current research and ways of supporting children with ADHD and their families.

Throughout my research for this assignment I found little evidence that socioeconomic and environmental factors caused ADHD, I also found little evidence that poor parenting or a hectic home life caused ADHD. There are different approaches to treatment of ADHD such as Medical approach and Behavioural modification approach. To date it is unknown what actually causes this condition, which is arguable and so makes it much more difficult in treating ADHD. In addition to this some of the researches suggest that the medications for ADHD can cause potentially harmful side effects and does not treat the cause of Attention Deficit Disorder. I am aware that most doctors would argue that the medication used is safe and beneficial. However in my opinion it is important to recognise that ADHD is a disorder that is managed and not cured. Therefore it is essential for all agencies to work together: medically, socially and educationally, with a common understanding of the whole approach for treatment. Behaviour management techniques take time and great patience on everybody’s part. But the techniques have been shown to be very effective. In my experience the importance is given to curative rather than preventive measures. I am of the opinion that children with ADHD should get a package of treatments involving the medicines which are closely monitored by doctors and parental involvement with other agencies support for them to manage the children’s behaviour with setting appropriate boundaries.

Practice in Partnership with Children, Young People, Their Families and Carers

This piece of work highlighted the importance of working in partnership with professionals as well as families to get the best possible outcome for the children. For this particular assignment I tried to reflect on my own understanding about working in partnerships whilst working with the family.

Family Rights Group suggests a definition of partnership, ‘Partnership is for each other, rights to information, accountability, competence and values accorded to each individual input. In short, each partner is seen as having something to contribute, power is shared, decisions are made jointly and roles are not only represented but backed by legal and moral rights.’ (Family Rights Group, 1991). Children’s safety and welfare should be paramount. A learning curve for me was the understanding of importance of self awareness and how this helps to promote the service users best interests (Ruch 2005). It was crucial to consider theories of attachment, child centred services and task centred approach, whilst working with the family to achieve best outcome for the family. It is important to be mindful to practice in an anti oppressive and anti discriminatory way at all times. It was enriching experience to recognise the importance of doing assessment with the families and not on the families addressing power imbalance between professionals and service users.

Participation, partnerships and networks

Research Report

This unit gave me opportunity to study thoroughly on one specific subject. As a practitioner working in a very busy front line team it is always hard to go back to become student to learn and unlearn. I was always interested in gaining in depth knowledge in the area of unaccompanied asylum seekers. This study answers the question,’ Can Collaborative Practices be developed to enhance the services for Looked after Children with specific reference to Unaccompanied Asylum Seeker Children [UASC]’.

“Collaborative working” is often used to refer to “the process of working together with other professions” (Quinney 2006: 10; Balloch and Taylor 2001) with Whittington (2003) defining it as “partnership in action” (Whittington 2003:16). This area was chosen due to the author’s experience of working in a front line team where such examples of working collaboratively with professionals when dealing with UASC are prevalent, and strategies for improved collaboration are always needed.

Home office reports that there are approximately 360 children are trafficked into and within the UK each year. Therefore it is therefore necessary when considering what strategies need to be developed to address these shortcomings and to build on pieces of practice that supports all the professionals including fosters carers and social workers to ensure the children are protected. The study also raises flaws in training to both carers and social workers with regards to current legislation and policies to be practiced. Lack of understanding of such important information may result in ineffective responses to identify the risk factors and react efficiently towards it. This study gave me opportunity to acquire conceptual understanding and recommendations for my future interventions with such vulnerable group of children.

Innovative Regulatory Practice

Group Presentation

This particular unit turned out really very hard due to many reasons. The members of my group were from same place and I was not in the same area. Initially there were difficulties of distance and co ordination and I started feeling left out. However with confrontation and with the help from tutors we managed to come up with a good plan of actions and the presentation was prepared as a group activity. I was able to reflect on my style, creativity and interpersonal skills and used them all to be creative in the presentation. I enjoyed researching a topic that I needed further knowledge of: the subject of Trafficked children, which has proved very useful in my work for me and colleagues. On reflection it has shown me how research and knowledge can be effectively used and strategies can employed in working with people to change things together and develop new ways of working which improve practice, knowledge and skills. This very much linked with my Research topic and gained further knowledge in subject matter.

Enabling Others

Taking a role as work based supervisor for a final year student for their 6 months

Placement in the team

This unit enabled me to reflect on my own practices and support a student in placement. I am aware that people work and learn differently and have different needs. I have learnt the importance of balancing and developing my own theorist and reflector styles of learning which has been facilitated by my post graduate training. It has been valuable to understand my own position to be able to recognise and consider other people’s perspectives in my styles of learning. This analysis enabled me to use different approaches and strategies to help students and others to learn and develop. I am more confident to enable others in the work place. I am able to use the theoretical knowledge gained from the course and practical experiences to enable my student to acquire the same.

Aims for the Future

As social workers we are tasked with making judgments and decisions about individual’s lives on a daily basis it is therefore essential that analysis and reflection take place to ensure that those decisions are the right ones. To do this job effectively requires self-knowledge, support and professional competence at the very least. “The nature of the training, ongoing supervision and consultation that are required is something that needs urgent attention at many levels” (Rustin 2005, p19 in Ruch, 2008).

The knowledge gained in completing my post qualifying degree will enable me to incorporate critical reflection into my everyday work practice with service users, student social workers and other professionals across agencies. As usual, social workers are seen to be the reasons why children die when incidents happen. There is a great responsibility on everyone to try to change our culture of blame and help develop personal responsibility and sense of community. Having a more thorough knowledge of the process of change, everyone is different and has different views, enables me to work in such an environment. The course has provided an opportunity to be challenged, learn new things and make sure that I continue to do so.

Self-monitoring is a personality trait which measures the ability of an individual (he or she) to adjust their behaviour to the demand of the external situational factors. There were many situations where my behavior was not proper with respect to understanding of other person’s situation. Every employee gets stressed as they approach deadlines. I have neglected colleagues many times by not replying to their urgent emails because I was much worried about completion of work on time, though the sender required input data from me to go ahead further. I gave inappropriate answers to colleagues who approached me for technical doubts that added unnecessary arguments. The management had introduced a new process for the projects like documentation, reviews and so on. I argued many times by not thinking from perspective of the manager and the organization. There were situations when I got escalated with trivial issues. However, the problem might have been solved easily if I had thought from the other person’s perspective and acted accordingly.

1.Action Described
People Centred Manager Skills that I will develop
Example of New Behaviour you will display given this new skill
Resources you
need to
implement
action
Action’s specific benefits to an organization according to theory ( Kinicki &Kreiter)

Not replying to important emails when under pressure.

Giving vague answers when I was in stress

Argued with manager against new process by not thinking in right perspective

Escalated with trivial issues when in stress

Be more flexible and respond to others in an appropriate manner.

Think twice before responding to others.

Communicate in a clear and good manner.

Stay cool and calm during stress and control the temper levels.

Avoid unnecessary arguments. Think objectively.

Understand the issues objectively before intensifying.

Spend some time on replying urgent issues. If I cannot reply immediately, I would inform they by email or phone.

Give clear answers to people according to the situation and let me them that I would attend them later if I am busy.

Think objectively, think from others point of view before raising concerns. Be patient.

I would practice constructive criticism.

Avoid discussing unnecessary issues.

Take help from friends and colleagues by discussing how would they handle stress and plan their work.

Gain knowledge on how to interpret both the verbal and non-verbal gestures.

Practice pranayams(breathing exercise) and do meditation.

Improve communication by talking and reading Communicating in Digital Age(Kinicki &Kreitner, 2009)

There is must success with high self-monitors and career success (Kinicki &Kreitner, 2009)

Good communication within the team and improves well-being of the group (Kinicki &Kreitner, 2009)

High self monitors are people who are emotionally mature especially managers who can help their employers reduce conflicts, anger and stress related problems.

(Kinicki &Kreitner, 2009)

Reflection 2 and Action plan 2: Measuring your desire for Performance Feedback

I strongly believe that feedback helps what actions an individual need to change. I come under the category of moderate desire for feedback as per the hands-on exercise. As a person I knew what I did and how much I am supposed to do (a task). Generally I work according to the plan as scheduled by me ahead of the task. Sometimes, I regret for not taking feedback about my progress at work. Even though I am satisfied with my work, often I get doubts whether the management is happy about the quality of my contribution the organization. Most of the time, I did not bother negative feedback and did not handle in a proper manner in order to avoid feeling insecure. Many times I got a feedback with a negative message like I does not listen to team leaders, come late to the office and leave from work before closing hours. Because of this I should not show deaf ear to all kind of feedbacks rather I must get used to take objective feedback to improve my self-efficiency.

1.Action Described
People Centred Manager Skills that I will develop
Example of New Behaviour you will display given this new skill
Resources you need to implement action
Action’s specific benefits to an
organization according to
theory ( Kinicki &Kreiter)

Working according to the plan without taking feedback.

Neglecting to take feedback with regard to progress of my work.

Avoid by not taking

feedback from management with regard to the quality of work done by me.

Avoiding negative feedback

I would take feedback from team members and plan accordingly to improve.

Get up to date feedback for progressing, improve quality and productivity of work.

Take regular feedback with respect to quality of work.

I would rather focus to improve in the areas where I feel uneasy by using objective negative feedback.

Schedule the task to be done and work on it, request colleagues to go through it and get feedback to improve planning the thinks.

At the time execution of the task, regularly get help from colleagues in the form of feedback to find out whether I am at par with others.

When I complete the task, I would ask team members to review it so that the mistakes are traced out and can improve the quality of the task(work).

It would be better for me to take feedback from others as I cannot be objective for my own performance. Consider, for example how I can improve my communication skills.

Schedule a timetable for getting feedback time to time from a well organised teammate so that I can get proper guidance.

A user friendly centralised system should be developed to help people to give feedback

A moderator to be present in the discussion to ensure that the feedback is objective

A new approach for building positive relation between

managers and employees so that work is managed well and there is a good outcome as expected. (Performance Conversations Model, Christoper D.Lee).

Employees gets motivated to improve performance, attitude and their intensions from performance feedback.

Sometimes even the negative feedback can have

positive motivational effect

(Kinicki &Kreitner, 2009)

The outcome of feedback gives behaviour direction, resistance, effort and persistence

(Kinicki &Kreitner, 2009)

“http://www.amazon.com/Performance-Conversations-Alternative-Appraisals-Christopher/dp/1587366053”

Reflection3 and Action plan 3: Job satisfaction

Job satisfaction has relation with motivation at work. I have low job satisfaction with recognition, compensation and supervision as per the hands-on-exercise. I came to know that my friends are paid more for doing similar jobs in other companies. I also regret about the goals set to me by my manager at the time of appraisal. It has effect on my compensation which lowered motivation. However, I have not approach my manager to express my concern and to worsen the situation I got frustrated and decreased my efficiency at work. My manager is a headstrong person who wanted things to happen in his way. As an employee I expected to have freedom at work. Many times we ended up with arguments there by creating uncomfortable working conditions. Because of constant supervision my frustration levels increased which reduced the productivity. Often, team members were blamed for unnecessary issues that were not relevant to work which in turn lowered the motivation level among the team.

1.Action Described
People Centred Manager Skills that I will develop
Example of New Behaviour you will display given this new skill
Resources you need to implement action
Action’s specific benefits to an organization according to theory ( Kinicki &Kreiter)

Did not discuss with manager regarding

appraisal.

I have not given the feedback to the manager, so work atmosphere is not improved.

Getting stressed and their by neglecting work.

Expressed my frustration on team members for which I ended in bad relationship with team.

Got de motivated and reduced the production level due to unnecessary arguments with the management.

I would express my views by talking to manager and come up with all the available options.

Always give quick feedback to the management so that they take immediate action on concerning issues.

Analyse the issue and act accordingly so that a good environment is created.

Maintain healthy relationship with team members by being calm while at work.

Avoid arguing unnecessarily by thinking objectively and positively so that at least new issues may not be raised.

I prefer to take feedback from the management so as to understand how they think of the productivity.

I would approach the concerned authority and let them know about the problems in the team.

Talk to the manager personally about sensitive matters like appraisal to maintain good relationship.

Reducing the frustration levels when talking to colleagues. Get dedicated to work along with the team.

If there are any problems approach the management and let them know and talk to them clearly.

Expecting the onsite opportunities to work on a project cover the lost compensation.

I make sure that I

attend various programs that improves me personally

and team coordination.

Get used to new activities like yoga, playing indoor games to calm down yourself.

Know myself at what level I am in the team by taking feedback from my team members.

There is a conntection between job satisfaction of and motivation (Kinicki &Kreitner, 2009)

There is a positive relationship between customer satisfaction andorganisational citizenship behaviours (Kinicki &Kreitner, 2009)

The more the person is healthy and has control on him the better the positive atmosphere is created in the organization

(Kinicki &Kreitner, 2009)

When we are satisfied we perform well and performance in turn causes satisfaction(Kinicki &Kreitner, 2009)

Reflection 4 and Action Plan 4: Ethical Behaviour

As a fresher I misused office resources when I was working for a company. As per rules of an organization, we were not supposed to divulge confidential information to the people who are not part of our team but many times I talked about the project with friends. We are supposed to use landline phones for office purpose only i.e. to clarify doubts with team members but we misused it for personal purpose. The company used to provide food and transportation for employees who work after 9 p.m. We used to stay till 9oclock to have food and go home by office car. We used to move around in the lunch break and back to the office late in the afternoon session. Sometimes we abscond from office during work hours by telling that we were not feeling well and take official leave. We were supposed to internet services for searching only the data that was relevant to the technology we were working on but many times we misused by watching news, cricket scores, chatting and so on. Many times we blamed each other for errors in the project work even though our mistake is there. Inspite of us being unethical to the organization we were not pointed out by the management because of our work performance.

1.Action Described
People Centred Manager Skills that I will develop
Example of New Behaviour you will display given this new skill
Resources you need to implement action
Action’s specific benefits to an organization according to theory ( Kinicki &Kreiter)

I am unethical to the company by using its resources for personal purpose

Using internet services for personal use.

Blaming others for errors in the project.

I would send a clear message by cultivating good habits and behavior about ethical conduct.

Let the management know what need to be done to restrict the employees from misuse of the resources and suggest them to take severe action.

Talk and listen to the senior employee about the ethical standards. Make a habit of following ethics of the company.

Be regular to the office and work till the office hours are completed.

Make use of the available resources strictly for office purpose only and not doing personal work in the office.

I would be responsible for what I do and rectify the mistakes I have done by approaching collegues.

Attend various ethical training programs to tackle with the ethical issues.

Make use of the decision trees to evaluate the ethical questions.

Attend meetings and informal conversations where leaders talk about ethical behavior by telling the situational examples.

By being ethical one can act has a role model for others to follow and create good atmosphere in the company(Kinicki &Kreither, 2009)

Create an environment where employees are given chance to express them so that companies ethics are not violated(Kinicki &Kreither, 2009)

Provide training sessions on ethics at the time orientation, online lectures and through seminors (Kinicki &Kreither, 2009)

Reflection 5 and Action Plan 5: Intrinsic Motivation

We were supposed to deliver a project to the client in a very less span of time. The task became a huge challenge to me because the time span is not sufficient. We were told to work for extra hours in the office. I went into a perception that I lost passion about my work because it was difficult for us to adjust all of a sudden to the new work environment.

My team members and I could not give output up to the expectations because of the low intrinsic movtivation this in turn has effect on capabilities of my decision making. We lost confidence and passion for work. We did not get proper requirements from the client and as well from manager i.e. he does not give clear picture of what we are supposed to do. It was very difficult to go ahead with the project in less span of time because we were supposed to learn new concepts to implement in the project. Inspite of me working hard I do not get proper information from my lead or manager from time to time.

1.Action Described
People Centred Manager Skills that I will develop
Example of New Behaviour you will display given this new skill
Resources you need to implement action
Action’s specific benefits to an organization according to theory ( Kinicki &Kreiter)

Lost passion at work because of new work environment.

Did not get proper requirements from manager.

No idea of new concept to be implemented in the task.

No recognition from manager for my work.

Get inspiration by recognizing my passion at work and by modeling desired behaviours.

I would discuss with the employees about the tasks.

Give proper training on the concepts before going ahead with the task and give support to learn.

Report to the manager from time to time about work, be ethical.

I would work with commitment and compassion till the project is handed to the client.

When I get a task I would sit with the colleagues and get a clear picture of what we are supposed to do.

Implement the task using new concept and approach team mates if necessary.

I would work for extra work in the office and let the manager know if I help others at work by working late nights.

Motivational lectures from the management or video tapes showing the examples for commitment towards work.

Come to a solution by analyzing the task, approach the manager for modifications for confirmation.

Sample documents that are related to our task.

A system should be developed where the employees are monitored and rewarded .

The company benefits from high productivity if the job performance of its employees is raised

Identify and implement various kinds of managerial behaviours to improve intrinsic rewards(Kinicki &Kreither, 2009).

The organization have high retention rate if the employees feel that they are more valued

The organization can improve bottom line results.

“http://www.ehow.com/how_4714830_foster-intrinsic-motivation-workplace.html”

“http://www.callcentrehelper.com/building-better-performance-through-intrinsic-motivation-48.htm”

This essay seeks to discuss the concept of personalization in the health and social care services in the united kingdom whereby highlighting various theories that define the aspect of risk assessment as well as determine the risk concept as it exists in personalization and the available risk assessment models and finalize the discussion by highlighting the national and local reports relevant to personalization in the united kingdom (Keohane, N., 2009).

Risk refers to the potential danger that one is exposed to given the situation is operating in or the activities that he is performing. Risk can lead to loss of life or property depending on where the risk happened and what was involved. The issue of risk can also have the influence on the final result of a given process. Any human activity in one way or the other poses some kind of risk and if not well handled it can amount to maximum destruction. Risk in some other situations can be motivated by constant exposure to activities that are dangerous to one’s life.

This first part of the essay aims at discussing the process of risk assessment, the conceptual frameworks, theoretical models and practice tools which inform the processes of risk assessment with regard to personalization and the associated risks

The process of doing risk assessment is aimed at determining various risks in personalization in the health and social care services. Assessment on risk has to be accompanied by intervention since the process of doing risk assessment is to determine the risk and the course of action required. Risk assessment in the health and social care sector need to be a continuous process in order to guide the decision making process for the services providers. Assessment is also important in helping the service providers to come up with strategies that should be applied when dealing with risks (English Community Care Association, 2010). Use of risk assessment in the health and social care services, needs proper planning based on the previous reports in order to establish what is already known about the social services from the past experience and research information (DWP, 2006).

Personalization is the process of availing public sources for the users. It’s informed as a philosophy and a policy on reform on the various ways public services should be presented to those who require them. It requires very deep thoughts about the services that need to be rendered to the public. One has to think first about the user before thinking about the service, this is so because it assists in determining the kind of service the person requires and then present the same to him to meet his/her needs.

Personalization normally takes different forms depending on the service that need to be offered to the public. But in most cases it’s done in such a manner that it provides many choices to the users through different service providers. This approach has been developed in the service care whereby various budgets are being prepared and funded alongside the universal services that need to be accessed by everybody (Gregg, P., 2008). This policy has become the fastest rationale in reforming various sectors such as the health sector which is one of the most important sectors that deal directly with the people in terms of providing them with healthcare services. The approach of providing the services to the public is something that has received support from many governments, agencies and individuals as indicated in the report on personalization of 2010 during the general election.

Personalization process is a public engagement by an individual whereby the social care providers are associated and involved. Since personalization is an agenda that which one needs to take part in, it has some risks to the care providers which include; lack of privacy to personal life and information. The carers’ in most cases are exposed to the risk of having their personal lives known to the public. They also risk by having to sacrifice much of their time and other commitments for the public activities as well as incurring personal costs in order to provide for the need (DWP, 2008).

One of the risks associated with personalization, is the demand to ascertain the advancement the public services providers have attained. The phase of implementation has been a real challenge because of the difficultness to identify what exactly should be done in personalization. Based on the previous discussion, personalization is all about social care and it has been developed in such way that it takes into consideration four main factors namely; the ability to choose and manage the services, social capital as well as prevention and ensuring access to those services that are of the national importance with a strong concern about making users self direct on public services (ESRC/ACEVO, 2009). In some cases, personalization has been established in such away in that it’s now a broad agenda of ensuring that services are tailored to the users by employing the state-led users’ approaches. This part of the discussion will take a look at various reforms that have been incorporated to ensure that services are driven to the individuals. We will give consideration to adult social care, health, employment services and housing.

Personalization has a long history in adult social care that was initiated by the independent movements in the 1970s that has led to total society care reforms in the 1990s. It campaigned for the need to have people who are physically able to get direct payment, which later show the inclusion of the elderly, disabled children, mental cases as well as those people who have problems in learning. In response to this, the social enterprise in control together with the local authorities developed a budget for direct payments to individuals through an integration of various sources for more creative use (DWP, 2008). The evaluation on this initiative that was done in 2005 revealed that many people appreciated the plan as it empowered them to have a say on their lives

Another agenda for personalization has been to provide good housing. It’s intended at addressing people’s housing needs in a number of ways to make sure that accommodation is among the care agendas. Decent accommodation is one way of providing social care. Being one of the government’s ‘think family initiative’ housing of families at risk was oriented and became one of the elements that were considered when preparing the budget. Local authorities also provided funds to support people in acquiring decent accommodation for those people who are vulnerable to risk (DWP, 2008).

Personal health budgets are currently piloted to various services within the health sector which included mental health, maternity care and drug abuse care. The cost of managing the services individually is not an easy thing for many people and therefore the legislation has been put in place to give direct payments to the health sector. There has also been the tailoring of health support to individuals with chronic diseases like diabetes and HIV/AIDS through the involvement of experts who provide personal care to these patients (Duffy, 2008)

Therefore, personalization being an important process that is intended to deliver services to the users, there is need to involve different parties such as the multi-agencies, individuals, different groups and institutions to assess the whole process to establish the associated risks. During personalization more focus is put on adults in most cases and it is believed that emphasis is not put in to recognize children as special people who are at risk and need special attention. The internal control for children has embarked on a journey to establish the need to have personal budgets and a wide range of activities for the children, young persons and their respective families through the taking control programme of 2010. In the year 2007, the department of education by then, announced various pilots that should be applied to provide individual budgets for the children who are disabled and their families through the act of aiming high programme. In Yorkshire and Humber, the work of providing children with care has been supported by improving the experiences of the children at that point when they are becoming adults. The special schools were also included through the person centered planning. Those children who may have additional needs such as physical or learning problems were found to be at risk of neglect or abuse and through the (BHLP) model, the budgets were piloted to aid their needs. This model has so far seen children being introduced into a culture of, ‘I can do’ starting from the bottom up (HM Government, 2007).

In the area of providing employment, the jobcentre plus initiative launched in 2002, has since then incorporated personal advisers for those that are seeking jobs. However, through the assessment report, it was found that the caseload was so big and can not be handled to deliver personalized support for individuals and therefore more career training was essential for the advisers to make them more effective according to McNeil report of 2009, on career progression and development. This led to provision of block contracts in order to cover the jobseekers who have different needs (HM Government, 2007). The Gregg report of 2008 came up with the idea of personalized conditionality for the people that are not working by combining the whole idea of personalization with the concept of conditionality to those behaviors that are insensitive to change. The flexible new deal was established by the department of work and pensions in 2008, to help in creating a more personalized service provision for the people that are out of work. The public sector came into agreement to assist in placing people to work through a public funding that will be provide depending on the number of people who have been placed to work(ESRC/ACEVO, 2009).

In education sector, personalized learning was put into the agenda in 2004 by David Miliband by then the minister for school standards. He described it as ‘an high expectation of every child, given practical form by high -quality teaching based on a sound knowledge and understanding of each child’s needs’ that is according to the report produced by Miliband in 2004. The Children’s Plan published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in 2007, stated that there is need to make learning the norm for every year to ensure that every child is given proper education and no one should be left behind. The government announced a 1.2 billion sterling pound for three years plan to support personalization for educational needs (English Community Care Association, 2010).

Risk assessment is a technique that is used in social work to assist in setting the ground for making informed decisions since it provides all material facts about the users of the services and different people who are ignored within the community and who require immediate attention.

Frequent assessment framework on risk is provided for use in order to give all the participants the opportunity to regularly conduct risk assessments in order to determine the various needs for the users that need to be supplied. This will enable individuals directly deal with evolving needs with regard to health and social care (Hurst, G., 2009).

Given the need to reveal the likely risks, a given systematic procedure with specific frameworks, models and practices have to be employed to ensure that the process of assessing the risk is a success. This essay has sort to go through various tools and practices that need to be considered when looking the risks that are likely to occur and they include the following; Time is of essence during then process since it’s required to enable the assessors to go through all possible areas that may be a course of any eventuality. It’s important that all the involved parties are given humble time to accomplish their assessments to come up with a good report. Time is required to collect all historical facts and the same time to compare all information to help generate concrete conclusions.

What the assessor should not do at all, is just to collect materials and put them down on record because this avoid the views of the users and other social carers. All concerned people need to be honest to each other at each step as this will create moment consultation and discussions doing the assessment (Hurst, 2009). Those parties that are deemed vulnerable should always be given a hearing to avoid any conflict. Every party should feel honored and respected during the exercise. What must not be done in this case is to avoid recoding any information especially the disagreed areas because this might be the situations that are prone to risk.

It’s important for the assessors to understand what exactly the service user desire to know. In this case what should be avoided is to assume things especially the way one is supposed to address the other colleagues (ESRC/ACEVO, 2009). Every material needs to be made available to the users. It’s supposed to be easy to be retrieved and acceptable by the professionals. At the same time they also need to consider the importance of sharing materials and facts at any given time. It’s absolutely very necessary to keep consultations a life for both the assessors and the users. What needs to be avoided here is being selfish in consultations with the advocates especially when they believe that the time of assessment is likely to be a little bit longer and want to rush to avoid criticism and concerns about the assessment report (GSCC, 2008).

This part will critically analyze awareness of individual, group and institutional decision-making processes and the implications for multi-disciplinary systems and processes.

Individuals, different groups, and decision making processes need to apply risk assessment reports to make their decisions with regard to the needs that are there. Once a need has been identified, it is important for various service providers such as commissioners, users and service providers to work together as a team in order to come up with a strategy that can be used to meet the needs of the users. The process of containing risk is called management of risk and it’s aimed at reducing any associated dangers that may result from that risk. In most cases the risk that has been there for the services providers is the one associated with lack of information and financial resources to determine and manage their affairs (Duffy and Fulton, 2009).

Various agencies and other third party services providers need to come up with various ways to manage new and emerging risks at work especially when dealing with the local authorities in order to be in a position to minimize the danger of failing to meet the users’ needs. There is need for collaboration between the local authorities and other agencies to avoid the risk of meeting the market demands. Its appropriate in some cases to have contingency funding in place to fund for activities incase there could be a likelihood of the market failure. On the other hand, commissioning organizations need to elaborate the extent to which they can handle the legal liabilities especially if there are legal disputes that may arise in the process of delivering services.

Commissioning of personalization is the process of redefining new approaches to be applied in providing services to the users (GSCC, 2008). The approach was developed as a result of the need to reach many people and avail a number of services for the customer choices. The approaches are expected to be convenient and faster in services delivery apart from being cost effective. In the processing of commissioning, however, so many challenges have come into being as result of personalized approach to service delivery. Commissioning of services does not mean that only people whose job title is written commissioning will be doing the job but the service users also need to be involved in the process of providing services to the number of the services providers who can be used at any given time to assist in service delivery (DWP, 2008).

Good commissioning is important in attaining the vision described out in Putting People First. It needs a transformation within the commissioning agenda in regard to the investments commissioners have, the different markets they wish to work to shape and the kind of relationships they wish to need to build in order to meet people’s needs (Gregg, 2008).

Commissioning in the transformed social care is somehow different but no much important task. As councils differ to increasing proportions for their investments meant to make individuals to come up with their own service decisions, commissioners have to find ways to use to work in partnership with service providers to make sure a wide range of selections are made available and that the right kind of support for budget bearers and self-financiers. This will definitely mean that there is a need to come up with more innovative services that better relate to persons selection decisions (Duffy, 2008).

In actual sense personalization is the mechanism developed to tailor services to the users in a more convenient way. The process ensures that all essential services are channeled to the right people at the right time. The activities surrounding the delivery services include a number of key players who take part in the exercise. These services are delivered to meet the needs of individuals. The key players of service delivery are; the social care workforce, third party organizations, the private sector organizations, user-led organizations, commissioning and the policy regulation (DWP, 2008).

Social care workforce as an agency is used when there is total need for change at levels on the various strategies that are used to offer the services to the people and their duties include the following; to provide personalized social care and supportive services incase of any need. They are key players used by the government in performing its central role of service delivery to the users. These people are supposed to add value to the lives of people through their distinct contributions especially for those services that relate to bettering life and empowering the people to be independent for all those who use these services including; families, carers and communities. The social workforce is intended in supporting independence, choice as well as control over difficulties that different individuals face such as disabilities, age and mental health related problems (HM Government, 2007).

Advocacy workers groups are established to fight for the needs of people and protecting their rights. They support the people in making sure that services for consumption are always available for the users and at the same time ensure that they are safe and life promoting services (Gregg, 2008). Personalization for advocacy workers means working together with people who are the users of the services to ensure that services provided are genuine. They also assist in monitoring the systems that are used to deliver the services.

They are also meant to enhance the advocacy levels to make sure that care for people is well funded and does not fall below the required budgets that are used to support services to the public (Hurst, 2009). They also advocate for changes to the types of services that people require and the budgets being spent for the purpose of accountability in the sector of social care.

They also assist to negotiate for people to get more support than the usual conventional one. This is aimed at providing more personalized services that support individuals to enhance their capabilities in terms of contribution to the community, improve their lives as well as the community life (ESRC/ACEVO, 2009).

Home care service providers in most cases in many occasions assist to offer services that confine with personal needs thus creating the need to have more support from people who use them. These are called the home care service providers and their main agenda is to make sure that services are put closer to the users. These are organizations that are started and within the community to perform various duties in relation to services provided. There duties include developing systems and trainings to assist the staff enhance their knowledge as well as creativeness and innovation in person centered approaches (DWP, 2006). They think on how to add on the expansion of assistance offered to individual workforce so as to increase more specialized services to the diverse markets. It’s also important for the home care services providers to find the best to provide their services whether directly through the councils or personal budget bearer.

This part seeks to evaluate the local authorities’ reports on personalization

The 2009 report by the Association of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and the Local Government Association (LGA) which carried out a survey on the process of putting people’s needs first when delivering services indicated that a number of recommendations were put forward to assist in delivering well transformed needs which conform with the needs of the users. In the report, the following recommendations were arrived in order to transform service delivery to the people; the transformation of the social care proved very necessary since it was discovered that there was conflict of interest among different service providers since among them, there were those interested in the same services. This has proved difficulty in promoting transparency and accountability within the sector thus requiring total transformation for efficient management of the public services (Hurst, G., 2009)

There is need to streamline the process of transferring funds to those who are eligible so that to have personal. There is need for all partners to come up with systems that are cost effective as an intervention to reduce the high demand for services and lastly ensure that people who receive and use these services are well informed of the available options within the community to meet their needs (GSCC, 2008).

The report on personalization produced by the centre for Public Service Partnerships (CPSP) indicates that personalization is an important factor in providing services to the public. This reform since then has raised many important questions that need urgent debate on the way forward about personalization using personal budgets. Personalization of public services is meant to last even if it means using individual budgets to empower the users purchase the services.

Personalization policy must be supported and maintained. The report went further to state the need to improve on personalization in order to extend service delivery to the public. Many of the public services like social care, handling of long-term diseases among the citizens, child care, developmental training, higher education and support for those people who are not working either because they are retired or aged require a model of personalization will assist in channeling public finances down to the people in order to allow them make their own informed choices on what to purchase and from where (Duffy, 2010). However, this strategy is accompanied with challenges that need to be taken care of. Firstly, it will require that the relationship between the individuals and the state be streamlined in order to determine what services should be channeled and by which provider. This is likely to abolish monopoly in the public sector services enjoyed by third party businesses and other sectors previously enjoyed the government protection. The whole process of personalization will mean fair competition and dealing within the public services production sector. However, this requires proper regulation to control the quality of services and the costs of obtaining those services (HM Government, 2007).

Learning outcomes

The services suppliers have to change their way of operation to fit in the competition that involve many suppliers in the pubic service delivery sector. There is need for service providers to develop models that are more personalized thus meeting the specific requirements of the users. The demand for public services will shift from the commissioners to the providers thus creating more demand for services which in some cases will not be easy to manage without enough cash flows. This will require more funding to facilitate (GSCC, 2008).

The regulations used should be citizen based to allow for proportionate handling of risk. This is to protect the user from exposed to higher risk than the service provider. No single service provider will enter the sector to reap from the public but must put the interest of the users first. The main function of commissioners in this case is to recognize the needs and various aspirations in relation with the users and other professional bodies that deliver services. They also expected to assess the needs where there is no uniformity in service delivery and allocation of financial resources to the users. They will also be expected to monitor the quality of services and their standards against the legislative requirements. This regulation is very necessary since it protects the users from accessing substandard services (Duffy and Fulton, 2009).

Under this strategy, the citizens must be supported to make their own well informed choices from a variety of sources. This model raises a fundamental question on the kind of relationship that is there between the professional adviser and the users that will motivate the discharge of very important information concerning various services as well as information about power and authority between them. A lot of counseling is required for the users to follow the professional advice and access to advocacy (DWP, 2006). However, personalization means that the service users are able to make informed choices. This is necessary to avoid conflicts between the users and the service providers. Personalized services are expenditures incurred on the public budget and must therefore be well managed to benefit the final users. While spending the public budget, there is need to take into considerations various factors such as purists and pragmatists, dogmatic and idealistic so as to provide well balanced services for all users regardless of whom they are.

Personalization in the social care context, require proper knowledge about the divergent needs the users have, their rights and the possible risks that may face the process. Risk assessment and care provision services are supposed to offer more meaningful and legal direction which the various participants will require in order to provide satisfactorily services to the public (DWP, 2006). The personalization process must be designed in such away in order to offer quality services that are more responsive and cost effective so to enable the carers’ avoid any kind of unnecessary challenges in the execution of social care services to the community. There is need also to start smaller units that offer community care within the society so as to assist in protecting the abused within a given public setting (Gregg, 2008). People who have learning problems need to be provided with special care homes within the community where they can be supported and provided for. The social care workers are expected to practice professionalism while carrying out social duties in order to add value to the services provided.