There are several reflective models such as Rolfe et al. Forenza, B. Avoiding the traps: Seeking good practice in the use of self assessment and reflection in professional courses. Reflection was particularly important when making the transition from university learning to the learning experienced in a placement setting. (1993) How we Think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the education process, Boston: Health Publishing. The examination of your beliefs, values, attitudes and assumptions forms the foundation of your understanding. more than 2 years ago. Jessica Eslinger, MSW Ixer, G., 2016. If your specific country is not listed, please select the UK version of the site, as this is best suited to international visitors. Educating The Reflective Practitioner. I would volunteer less and make myself appear less capable and unable to perform the task at hand. After having many struggles in my field setting, I began to reflect more and more on myself and my performance. 1205-1223. Cass, E., 2015. His four complementary lenses can suggest a number of questions as social work students reflect on a challenging situation in field placement. I have printed out your article to reread so I can remind myself to self reflect. 207-216. The Six Cornered Addictions Rescue System (SCARS) was useful in that it took into account a person who was dealing with an addictions situation holistically, rather than just focusing on the addiction in isolation (McCarthy and Galvani, 2004). Handbook for Practice Learning in Social Work and Social Care: Knowledge and Theory. Arriving at an understanding of the multiple levels of oppression and discrimination that have shaped and distorted Alices life has not only heightened my awareness in this particular case but it has also changed the way I will approach practice situations in the future. Critical Thinking and Professional Judgment for Social Work. 885-902. Thompson, N. (2009) Practicing Social Work: Meeting the Professional Challenge, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 96-103. Hall, C. & Slembrouck, S., 2009. Communication in Social Work. In virtually all cases the people that live at the project either have an underlying mental health condition or experience drug or alcohol misuse, often there are a combination of these factors. 91-105. Developing a Health Inequalities Approach for Mental Health Social Work. Schon, D. (2002) From technical rationality to reflection-in-action in R. Harrison, F. Reeve, A. Hanson and J. Clarke (eds) Supporting Lifelong Learning: Perspectives on Learning, London: Routledge. Social workers in England, London: HCPC. 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). It would also be remiss to discount the influence of gender and class on the assumptions I may have held. 4th ed. As a social worker, I hope to have a profession that involves helping children; being a school guidance counselor, a therapist, or possibly even being a social worker in the pediatric ward of a hospital. This essay was written by Adrian Bloxham and was the winning social work entry in this years Critical Writing Prize 2019. .HLNq 2Avv%%% w T-?(b`n1 Alice wishes to live independently and this is the preferred option for the social worker. The group members develop feelings of mutual interdependence and a sense of belonging. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. 1st ed. Kemshall, H., Wilkinson, B. British Journal of Social Work, 39(1), pp. Boud (1999) describes how reflection can shape a reflective journal in a field seminar. Care and Support Statutory Guidance. In social work, reflection has strongly encouraged students and practitioners to increase awareness of the self in working with clients in practice. Stressful Encounters with Social Work Clients: A Descriptive Account Based on Critical Incidents. I think that is [an] important [value]. Thanks for writing this article. However, returning to Schon (1983), he notes that reflection takes place within our own understanding and the meaning that we attribute to an event, rather than within the event itself. Lightening: What came as a surprise? Living in supportive housing for people with serious mental illness: A paradoxical everyday life. My work with Alice has taught me many things, most notably the impact of personal and structural processes of oppression and discrimination. There are critics of the way reflection is promoted in current practice environments, with some bemoaning the cult following that has developed around reflection in the social work sphere (Ixer, 1999: 513). 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. Reflection also allows social workers to link theory to practice. Foucault M. (1967) Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, London: Tavistock. I noted the way that Alices social worker handled difficult or emotionally salient passages during interviews (Goss, 2011), particularly the use of silence and the importance of being patient rather than asking superfluous questions to fill uncomfortable pauses (Trevithick, 2012). 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). The opportunity to work with Alice has provided much to reflect on and learn from. Can Poverty Drive You Mad? 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). Locating Emotional Intelligence at the Heart of Social Work Practice. During Session A, the fact that I chose to explore JKs mental distress alongside the other issues that were going on in his life allowed me to identify that his physical health, including intense back pain that he has been experiencing, was having a substantial effect on his mental health, and I encouraged him to seek help and support with this. Parrish, M., 2014. Health Soc Care Community, Volume 26, pp. This involves revisiting your prior experience and knowledge of the topic you are exploring. 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). Davis, A, (2007) Structural Approaches to Social Work in J. Lisham (Ed.) British Journal of Social Work, 30(1), pp. Source: Reflective Writing. 1st ed. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UKEssays.com. Healy, K. (2005) Social Work Theories in Context: Creating Frameworks for Practice, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Communication can be seen as a process whereby information passes from one person to another and is understood by them. (White & Featherstone, 2005, p. 214). 2nd ed. Risk, Advanced Liberalism and Child Welfare: The Need to Rediscover Uncertainty and Ambiguity. Stephanie also advises young people to improve their situations and gives her professional consultations. 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. Different models of reflection supported me throughout the reflective process. The theory base of social work is essential to all the work that we do in practice (Teater, 2010). 43-52. WebUnderstanding peer reflection and CPD. Once I began doing more, I became more confident to speak up. Yip (2006) aptly notes that models like those described above are most useful when starting out the reflective process, and I quickly adapted and developed a model of reflection that was most appropriate for me. In the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) in adult services, Newly Qualified Social Workers are expected to work on a portfolio which includes reflecting on their practice.Critical Reflection Log Part 1: Beginning the ASYEThis example of a critical reflective log is the first of four reflective logs required for the ASYE portfolio.Consider 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). hP0Pw/+Q0L)4 Basingstoke: MacMillan Press Ltd. Payne, M., 2014. Data analysis indicated that critical reflection is not a priority for direct practice social workers in the context of privilege. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Woodcock Ross, J., 2011. WebWhen selecting the CI it needs to be something concrete that actually happened and you were involved with or observed not abstract. reflective model, Gibbs reflective cycle and Kolb reflective model. British Journal of Social Work, 28(1), pp. JK had clearly been the subject of this stigma throughout his life. As noted above, this was particularly important in the case of JK, who was from a different culture than me. & Burke, B., 2006. Learn more , 2023 Field Educator | Simmons School of Social Work, 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115 | T: 617.521.3970 | F: 617.521.3980 | [emailprotected], The Field Educator: A Scholarly Journal from the Simmons University School of Social Work, $1000 Prize for Excellence in Field Education Research, Experiential Learning in Preparation for Field Placement, Inauguration of Simmons School of Social Work Trauma Training Project, MSW Student Field Readiness: Boot Camp, Students and Field Instructors in Ongoing Supervision Groups, The Reflecting Team in Supervision of Social Work Interns. WebI feel I have improved my skill of communication and the power of talk which is an important aspect of social work and to develop my practice and knowledge further during my first year as a qualified social worker I would like to attend training in relation to working with involuntary clients including researching further how to engage service Nolan, D. & Quinn, N., 2012. Ingram, R., 2013. The role of housing in adult safeguarding. Savaya, R. & Gardner, F., 2012. Theorizing Social Work Practice. Free resources to assist you with your university studies! For this example reflective log, I will use Gibbs reflective piece to unpick the learning gained. Fook, J., 2012. Self-reflection is a vital part of evaluation of services and abilities. However, I do not recall being instructed or advised to use the two collaboratively. The reflector makes sense of what has been learnt from the experience and what future action might need to take place. What was challenging? Within the workplace, after receiving negative comments from a supervisor, the social worker should take the time to carefully consider these comments. We've received widespread press coverage since 2003, Your UKEssays purchase is secure and we're rated 4.4/5 on reviews.io. WebReflection involves thinking about what needs to be changed to improve future outcomes. 1st ed. WebSocial workers often need their own psychiatrist first, in order to be the most efficient in their 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. This is why it is important for social workers to listen to the perspectives of the people with whom they work, and be willing to accept different paradigms than their own or the dominant paradigm (Milner and OByrne, 2002). Source: Reflective Writing. 175-188. The asymmetry between the social worker and service user emphasises the need for the practitioner to be cognizant of the inherent power imbalance in the relationship (Leung, 2011). 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). Constructive Social Work. Due to the limits of the current medium, I will be focusing mostly on reflection-on-action. An example could be recognizing that an individual facing housing troubles has a strong support system of family and friends who can help. WebBrookfields areas of reflection can be adapted for social workers and implemented in several areas of field education. 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. The Analysis & Discussion are the sections where we would typically find critical reflection and evaluation linked to theoretical frameworks or policies.