social work reflection examples

For example, she can help the young clients keep guardianship over their children, continue to help administrations, soften the punishment for young convicts, or free them from imprisonment (Rivera-Ayala, 2021). Joe Farrell Reflection forms a central part of social work practice and education, and it is particularly important for social workers in placement settings or newly qualified social workers (Dcruz et al, 2007; Parker, 2010). Self-reflection is a vital part of evaluation of services and abilities. Firstly, I now believe that I saw and understood the situation in simplistic, binary terms. Whilst the idea of partnership suggests equality and collaboration, practitioners should still manage power relations with service users carefully, especially where a lack of confidence inhibits the service user from taking on the responsibility of partnership (Dalrymple & Burke, 2006). Cass, E., 2015. Social Work Field in the Time of Corona: Moving Forward Professionally From the Unexpected, A Common Experience: MSW Interns and the Fear of Treating Trauma. We're here to answer any questions you have about our services. Alices deteriorating mental health led me to conclude that her social worker needed to be informed of the situation. The intersection of Alices gender, her adverse experiences both as a child and as an adult, her diagnosis of schizophrenia and the fact that she has experienced poverty for the entirety of her life has led to oppression and discrimination at multiple levels. *aaL]5 w{X}qQJsG=8HY3^IwL68/ zRsb@MzzBAA3>8>[o]{z?#wfi a(e@hVqj!q*1N!)m y.DJ Department of Health, 2015. Nolan, D. & Quinn, N., 2012. Why knowing your "subject" is so important. Rain: What didnt go well? Maidenhead: Open University Press. The Journal of Adult Protection, 15(1), pp. Educating The Reflective Practitioner. Reflective Practice in Social Work, Exeter: Learning Matters. This involves revisiting your prior experience and knowledge of the topic you are exploring. Working with Risk. This is significant because reflection is particularly important when a critical incident like this has been experienced, and a less reflective approach could lead to a less holistic or even inadvertently oppressive account of what had transpired (Ruch, 2002). London: SAGE. Both of her parents committed suicide, she was raped and endured physically abusive relationships with two consecutive partners. WebReflection involves thinking about what needs to be changed to improve future outcomes. Miles, A. However, a judgment will ultimately need to be made as to whether the rights and needs of a vulnerable service user are best served by advocating for Alices wishes or actively encouraging another course of action that is safer for Alice (Kemshall, et al., 2013). In this essay I will explore my experience of reflection during my practice placement, and in particular in relation to a specific case study. I recognised that where unequal power dynamics exist in a relationship, it is usually the partner with the most power that benefits most from the interaction (Milner and OByrne, 2002). 2; Bengtsson-Tops, A., Ericsson, U. Furthermore, a social worker uses self-reflection to analyze personal and emotional feelings about a case or situation. I am currently on placement in a Supported Housing Hostel for adults in Cambridgeshire. In addition to this, Alice also has contact with a psychiatrist and regular medical reviews with her GP. Is there a schizophrenic language?. Assessing a clients strengths and limitations. For example, could my knowledge of Alices dysfunctional relationships in the past have resulted in me making assumptions about inherent personality traits? Modern Social Work Theory. Child and Family Social Work, 10(2), pp. Social Work Methods and Skills: The Essential Foundations of Practice. The worker expressed a great deal of frustration at the lack of inter-agency communication, written or otherwise, and a failure to disclose key pieces of information. 18, 197-295. Task: The Assessment Process When I met with the social worker we did a role playing exercise. 705-722. Schizophrenia, Socio-Economic Status and the Case for Primary Prevention. In your role, youll engage with stakeholders and organizations to manage strategy, advocate for positive change and maintain relationships. Disability & Society, 17(5), pp. Essential Guides for Early Career Teachers: Teaching Early Years and ProfessionalBehaviours, Observations and Reflections on my First Year Placement, Personal Value System vs Professional Value System, Understanding Roles and Responsibilities in Education and Training, Actually trying to "observe" children- the third free extract. Maidenhead: Open University Press. As will become apparent, forms of oppression and discrimination are a vital aspect of Alices narrative, and for this reason I propose to apply Fook & Gardners (2007) model to my critical incident and the subject of my case study. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. Macdonald, G. & Macdonald, K., 2010. (1985). Working with Substance Misusers: A Guide to Theory and Practice, London: Routledge. 1st ed. I have discussed my work with JK, and reflected on specific incidents and issues with him. A degree of scepticism about existing knowledge, beliefs and values. An important part of reflection in social work is the application and consideration of theories in practice (Trevethick, 2012). I observed the patience and empathy that Alices social worker demonstrated during the interview process. She played a client (Eds.) & Beresford, P., 2000. .HLNq 2Avv%%% w T-?(b`n1 An effective way to protect clients and practitioners alike is to avoid any suggestion that the ethical issue is Reflection leads students to be curious about the human condition, and to challenge their existing assumptions. Teater, B., 2014. Throughout field education, Brookfields guidelines can encourage the reflective process. White, S. & Featherstone, B., 2005. Maidenhead: Open University. h27U0Pw/ WebThe value of peer reflection. Read, J., 2010. McCarthy, T. and Galvani, S. (2004) SCARS: A new model for social work with substance misusePractice, 16(2), 85-97. 7-19. Knowledge and skills for child and family practitioners, London: HMSO. This means that each communication is potentially categorised differently and therefore there is a danger that co-agencies conceive of a given situation in completely different ways (Hall & Slembrouck, 2009). Brookfields areas of reflection can be adapted for social workers and implemented in several areas of field education. (Brookfield, 1998, p. 197). Savaya, R. & Gardner, F., 2012. Szasz, T. (1961) The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct, London: Harper and Row. Abingdon: Routledge. (1987) The Mentally Ill in Contemporary Society, Oxford: Blackwell. It can help students to analyze and integrate past and current knowledge into their practice. At the time of my critical incident Alice was failing to attend to personal hygiene on a regular basis, frequently appeared to be experiencing low mood and would often break down in tears even when engaging in mundane, everyday conversation. Reflective: Knowing when to say sorry and learning from your mistakes Motivated to care for them: [to] navigate difficult paths [in my life] and make time for me. Points and Questions to aid critical reflection: Adrian is studying for an MA at Anglia Ruskin University and he was nominated by his lecturer Dr Wendy Coxshall. People diagnosed with schizophrenia are often stigmatized by a discourse of otherness which portrays people with mental health challenges as a problem who must be controlled by bio-medical, biogenetic models (Beresford & Wilson, 2002). 721 Words3 Pages. Our regional engagement leads (who are registered social workers), shared their views on peer reflection. Champney-Smith, J. Therefore, social workers need to look at their own underlying assumptions, as well as dominant social narratives, in order to shape their holistic understanding and experience of a given incident. Specialist Communication Skills for Social Workers: Focusing on Service Users Needs. Cambridge: Polity Press. Luckily there are many models which you can use to guide your reflection. All rights reserved. Nerdrum, P., 1997. Bywaters, P., 2015. I was able to look at my own practice, and my own assumptions and narratives; however, I was unable to determine how best to address wider inequality and societal oppression of people like JK. 679-687. However, I do not recall being instructed or advised to use the two collaboratively. It asks the student to consider: How could I improve? It would also be remiss to discount the influence of gender and class on the assumptions I may have held. Dedicated to your worth and value as a human being! White, S. (2001) Auto-ethnography as reflexive enquiry: The research act as self-surveillance, in I. Shaw and N. Gould (eds), Qualitative Research in Social Work, London: Sage. JK had clearly been the subject of this stigma throughout his life. Supported housing is often regarded as a positive environment that promotes recovery-oriented practice (Harvey, et al., 2012), but it can also be experienced as an oppressive and hostile setting where staff are at best indifferent to the needs of service users or can actively act as the oppressor (Bengtsson-Tops, et al., 2014). Values and ethics are central to this framework, and comprise domain 2. Thank you Tarrell for this! Peer group reflective models including action learning principles also meet the restorative needs of a demanding profession and consequently learning and mutual support to address the emotional demands of social work, reflection and mutual learning are preferred over managerialist models of supervision (Boahen et al, 2021). In this reflective essay, I have explored my practice setting in relation to a particular case study. Although I will discuss my involvement with JK more broadly,I will focus on one particular key working session that we had, where JK was most descriptive about all his concerns and the issues that were effecting him (session A). 1st ed. In Session A this allowed me to see how JKs addiction and mental health problems were also linked to issues with accommodation, physical health, relationships and employment. It has to be noted that reflection is not always recognised as a self-evidently positive mechanism. WebSocial workers critically reflect on their practice, use analysis, apply professional judgement and reasoned discernment. Specific guidelines are useful for field educators in encouraging student reflection. Community Mental Health , Volume 53, pp. (LogOut/ This often means that residents have little consistency and no control over who they live with, resulting in an enforced togetherness that can lead to feelings of insecurity, anxiety and fear (Bengtsson-Tops, et al., 2014). I would volunteer less and make myself appear less capable and unable to perform the task at hand. This article aims to demonstrate being reflexive and doing reflexivity through reflection where, within the research, for example, the first author addressed the difference between meanings of research participants perceptions of their experiences and her own interpretations of the meanings. I have, therefore, chosen to discuss one such case, where I engaged in substantial reflection. Dalrymple, J. Yet risks remain, in essence, unpredictable phenomena that defy reliably accurate outcomes (Munro & Rumgay, 2000). & Padgett, D., 2017. 63-72. It has been noted that the theory base of social work is dominated by euro-centric discourse, meaning that certain paradigms or perspectives may be excluded unintentionally (Trevethick, 2012). Even where social work is undertaken with the best of intentions, for example in anti-oppressive practice, there is a danger that the voice and knowledge of the service user is lost by the intervention of the expert practitioner (Wilson & Beresford, 2000). Do you have a 2:1 degree or higher? Tew (2005) noted that the in the social model of mental distress, core values required include looking at the person and their situation holistically, removing the us and them thinking that tends to dominate mental health services, listening to what people really have to say, and being committed to anti-oppressive practice. Before we came together and realised we still had a lot of work to do, I was quite happy and thought we had been smart when we divided the work between us. When I worked with him, he lived in a housing project that was specifically meant to house ex-offenders. By this point, I was able to reflect on my performance, address the negative concerns that needed to be worked on, and highlight my positive attributes and moving toward them. 96-103. 191-198. (2012) Social Work: A Critical Approach to Practice, London: Sage. Parker, J. Three themes are identified: (1) No time for reflection, (2) Fear of reflection, and (3) Too much reflection. The group members develop feelings of mutual interdependence and a sense of belonging. [Online] Available at: www.skillsforcare.org.uk. Living in supportive housing for people with serious mental illness: A paradoxical everyday life. 116-120. This assignment is based on my work with one particular resident who I will refer to using the pseudonym Alice. For example, I utilize my time effectively. British Journal of Social Work, 1(37), pp. `pIs3o+& &;`KAarYP/B%,{gZQ"_nt~u\X]Jet{=s(hglWN_. Parrish, M., 2014. British Journal of Social Work, 45(1), pp. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. As noted above, this was particularly important in the case of JK, who was from a different culture than me. What qualifies as a critical incident is not rigidly defined but the event should be important or significant in some way to the practitioner and should offer the opportunity for professional learning (Fook & Gardner, 2007, p. 77). To some extent this is an area that I found reflection lacking in. I found this to be the case at times, when I was expected to write my reflections at a certain time, and have reflective supervision in a certain way. 1st ed. Kemshall, H., Wilkinson, B. Adult safeguarding and the role of housing. Opinions expressed on this site are the opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher. Example - Medium reflection Today I spent time with James (client) and his family on the ward. Although I engage with and explored multiple models of reflection during my placement, the model of reflection that I found most useful was Schons theory of reflection (Schon, 1983; 2002). Leung, T., 2011. Therefore, I found it important to not just reflect on my work and the working environment, but also the process of reflection itself. Tew (2005) believes if mental health services were more receptive to the social model of looking at mental distress, then significant amounts of this stigma and the resultant oppression would be removed. When working with JK, I was made aware of his engagement with mental health services, usually provided through the medical professions.

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