The HSE and social workers.

Flimbos wrote: »

The HSE have been trying to employ 270 extra social workers, but maybe there is a reason why they cannot fill these posts. My other half worked as a child protection social worker, and had an unbearable caseload to deal with constantly. There simply weren't enough hours in the day to deal with each case. Late evening emergencies were commonplace. This was normal for all front line social workers, while the same health centre where she worked was top heavy with admin and middle management, some doing very little actual work. In the end she left the job, close to burn out, and is now considering a change of career.


Perhaps if the HSE looked at the staff structure of a typical child protection health centre, things might improve. Much more support is needed for front line staff. For example, social workers have to spend a lot of their time supervising access visits between clients and their parents. Something like this could be delegated.



A letter in today's Independent from a similarily stressed out worker is worth a read.


http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/hse-carers-are-simply-doing-their-best-2186599.html

social workers are in the main , proffesional hand wringers , wooly liberal do- gooders who make all the right noises but have no real power and therefore no effect on change

irish bob: god preserve you from learning how the word of a social worker, to help mammy, can change your life forever baby

opinion guy wrote: »

So if its not their fault then why are you bad mouthing them on here ? Maybe you should support them in their work by lobbying the HSE/your local TD for change instead of bad mouthing people trying to do their best in a god-awful soul destroying system. don't ya think ?

if someone involves themselves in a crisis despite having no means of resolving or aiding the situation , then they are IMO motivated by piousness and little else , profesional hand wringers and deliberators are everywhere in our health service , especially when it comes to the area of mental health , i see it all the time in relation to a cousin of mine who needs to be in an institution but cannot for the simple reason that he hasnt killed anyone yet , i have no interest in conversing with politicians about a system where political correctness is all encompassing

Memnoch wrote: »

Sorry to hear about your cousin. Fortunately or unfortunately, committing someone is much harder than it used to be since the change in the mental health act. This is to protect the rights of the individual being committed. It is probably more a fear of litigation that is holding back the social workers (or as I said before, a lack of resources) than political correctness. The litigant society we live in is not as you would put it, a result of "liberal do-gooderness," rather a result of a culture of blame and greed.

Also committing someone is a complex decision, and without knowing the particulars of the case, I can tell you that if mental health professionals (i.e. the attending psychiatrist - I presume your cousin has seen one) felt that your cousin was a danger to themselves or others then I doubt any social worker would stand in the way of that.

Naturally, families have most contact with social workers or community nurses in these kinds of situations which make them convenient lightening rods for venting frustration. You keep saying political correctness is the problem, I wonder if you would illustrate why you feel this.

the prevailing view among mental health proffesionals ( when it comes to those who are not the full schilling ) is that the rights of the patient supercede all other considerations , this includes the wellbeing of the patients immediete family or the broader community , anytime you hear reports on tv about psychiatric patients in mental hospitals , the report centres around how awfull it is that theese people are locked up and not living among the community , ive never once heard it mentioned that some people ( if not the majority of people ) dont want certain individuals to be free , thier are familys up and down the country suffering terribley due to the fact that they cant get thier son or daughter committed yet the media would have us believe that the familys of mental cases only ever want thier loved ones to be free , time was , people were put in the big hourse for trivial reasons but the pendelum has now completley swung the other way , many innocent people have died as a result of the pollitically correct wooly liberal policy that prevails regarding the mentally unwell , my mother is from the south west , thier was a guy from her surrounding area called brendan o donnell who killed a young mom , her infant child and a priest some years ago , this nutcase was notorious in his area for years before this attrocity occured yet no pre-emptive action could not be taken , o donnells rights trumped every other consideration , thier was another case a few summers ago where a young man from the midlands was up in dublin for his cousins stag part , upon returing back to his cousins appartment one evening , he was attacked by a knife wielding maniac and stabbed 72 times , when arrested , the psycho told gardai that he had just killed the devil , thier are numerous other storys involving people who should not have been walking around , unfortunatley , the present policy by the mental health services prevents pre - emptive action and nothing is done untill the problem enters the realm of criminality and then its too late , therefore the only people who have any real effect are the police , social workers and other do - gooders provide nothing but lip service