My Brains Not Broken
JANUARY 12, 2023
Earlier this week, I wrote about thought spirals , what they look like, and what we can do about them. Thought spirals can be tricky to deal with, but there are ways we can try and manage them. I’ve dealt with many thought spirals over the years, and these are some of the most effective ways I’ve found of slowing my brain down and getting back to center: Acknowledge what is happening to you.
My Brains Not Broken
JANUARY 3, 2023
Happy New Year! I’m sure you don’t need to read another post from me about how I feel about New Year’s resolutions ; I can save that song and dance for another year. Instead, what I’d like to focus on today is how I’m hoping to approach the year: what I can bring to the table, how I’m hoping to grow, and trying to build on what I’ve learned about myself in 2022.
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Gary Direnfeld
JANUARY 25, 2023
She thought him self-centered. He thought her a complainer. He hailed from a family where dad abandoned him and his mother, when he was an infant. Grandmother, a widow, took care of him much of the time, feeling guity for his situation. Given his mom was hard working and grandmother aging, as he got older he was simply left much to his own to manage.
Social Work Futures
JANUARY 3, 2023
In foresight practice, history is held with the greatest regard – in fact no ethical or credible foresight is really possible without consideration of the forces, patterns and ingredients of “how we got here.” To be a futurist or foresight practitioner, is to be a devoted student of history as well as whatever is ahead. In my work preparing to deliver a meaningful and (hopefully) useful and relevant set of frameworks for social work as a profession to think about its future
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Community Care
JANUARY 18, 2023
Hospital social workers should be reinstated onto wards to support people to achieve better outcomes on discharge, amid the current severe pressures on the NHS and social care. That was the message today from the Adult Principal Social Worker Network in an open letter to health and social care secretary Steve Barclay. The letter, which has been backed by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) England, warned that a lack of social work assessments prior to discharge was leading to peopl
The New Social Worker
JANUARY 30, 2023
In its most brutal truths, Spare is a memoir about a lonely, isolated, abused, purposeless boy who becomes determined to face his realities in order to mature. Read our review and commentary on Spare.
Social Work Update brings together the best content for social work professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
My Brains Not Broken
JANUARY 10, 2023
Over the years, I’ve learned a number of words, phrases and definitions that have helped me understand my own mental health. Some of these are connected to mental illness or medicine, while others are connected to mental wellness. In this recurring series, I break down some of the mental health terms I’ve learned over the years. Today, I’ll be breaking down thought spirals : what they are, what they look like and what we can do about them.
Gary Direnfeld
JANUARY 23, 2023
I recently declined two requests for couple counseling. I always screen referrals for domestic violence as well as substance use. I ask a series of questions that can continue depending on the answers. Therein we can develop a risk profile for the likelihood of future violence. Couple counseling can be an intense setting where issues are laid bare. If a partner discloses issues of violence or abuse, it can upset the other who engages in such behavior.
Social Work Futures
JANUARY 18, 2023
As all know…technology is ever shaping our shared world. What is the right “stance” for social workers? Lean into new tech opportunities – explore, experiment or develop new applications? Or resist, interrogate and complicate deployment of tech and datafication of modern life? The truth is that the answer is probably “both,” and definitely not “hide and avoid it all…” Most urgently – social workers need to plug in and learn with gusto.
Community Care
JANUARY 10, 2023
Councils’ Care Act 2014 duties have arguably been “permanently undermined” by widespread non-compliance during the pandemic, a study has found. Authorities across England cut provision to people needing care and support and carers, for example, by closing day centres or reducing respite services, without making use of the so-called Care Act easements, found the research by the University of Manchester.
Speaker: Gary Direnfeld, MSW, RSW.
You may have the clinical skills to manage a private practice, but your success could actually hinge on marketing skills. For a thriving practice, you need to differentiate yourself from others and present yourself in a way that attracts referrals. These days, much of that happens online, including on social media. In this webinar, Gary Direnfeld will discuss how social media marketing can help you build your private practice and grow your client base.
inSocialWork
JANUARY 17, 2023
Cassandra Walker , LCSW. Last summer, the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) — the organization that administers social work licensing exams nationwide — released its exam pass rate analysis inclusive of the race and age of exam takers. In a nutshell, Black people, older adults and persons whose first language was not English fared significantly worse in passing the exam.
The Guardian
JANUARY 21, 2023
Call for inquiry after Observer investigation uncovers scale of trafficking by criminal gangs Dozens of asylum-seeking children have been kidnapped by gangs from a Brighton hotel run by the Home Office in a pattern apparently being repeated across the south coast, an Observer investigation can reveal. A whistleblower, who works for Home Office contractor Mitie, and child protection sources describe children being abducted off the street outside the hotel and bundled into cars.
My Brains Not Broken
JANUARY 17, 2023
Sometimes, depression takes. It takes things away from you, and you feel empty. You didn’t even know you wanted some of these things. But depression puts those things out of reach, making you feel less than once again. Depression doesn’t care what your plan is, or what your goals are. Your timeline is irrelevant in this scenario. All that’s in front of you is a long, painful, endless moment, as far as you can see.
Gary Direnfeld
JANUARY 8, 2023
Please realize, an affair is a traumatic experience for the one cheated on. Regardless the quality or issues in the relationship, fidelity remains an expectation. When broken, trust is difficult to repair. That repair requires unequivocal taking of responsibility by the one who had the affair. There is no wiggling around trying to blame it on a poor relationship, drugs, alcohol, whatever.
Social Work Futures
JANUARY 10, 2023
This page will be activated just before Laura’s presentation.
Community Care
JANUARY 6, 2023
The Scottish Government must pause its ‘disruptive’ plans to remove social care from council control, in order to shore up local authority services that face real-terms cuts in 2023-24. That was the message this week from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities , in response to the 2023-24 Scottish budget , published last month, which COSLA claimed would put social care services under “tremendous pressure” The Scottish Government said the budget would provide over £5
Blurt It Out
JANUARY 24, 2023
Sometimes, our brain is far too busy. As thoughts stack up, creating a never-ending whizzy-blur, distractions can help us cope. We might struggle to avoid self-damaging behaviours or grapple with dark thoughts. Perhaps we feel overwhelmed, anxious, or restless. Alongside self-care, self-help, and support from loved ones and/or professionals, sometimes we just need to ride.
The Guardian
JANUARY 8, 2023
Care England says current funding is ‘inadequate’ if homes are to pay staff more and manage rehabilitation Care providers are demanding double the usual fees to look after thousands of people who need to be discharged from hospitals to ease the crisis in the NHS. Care England, which represents the largest private care home providers, said on Sunday it wanted the government to pay them £1,500 a week per person, citing the need to pay care workers more and hire rehabilitation specialists so people
My Brains Not Broken
JANUARY 31, 2023
There have been many moments along my mental health journey where I’ve felt like I’ve failed. I don’t quite know how I’m failing or in what way, but I feel that I am. There’s a sense of impending doom, a fear that I am not living up to my potential, that I’m not accomplishing enough. Enough what? you might ask. To be honest, I don’t know what to tell you.
Gary Direnfeld
JANUARY 4, 2023
Why would you want to invest in a relationship if what you saw between your parents was yelling, screaming, put-downs, or even hitting, pushing, shoving and perhaps even injuries? The learning for some is the closer you get intimately, the greater the risk of harm and/or betrayal. The thing is, even if you are with a good person, that fear, conscious or unconscious can undermine getting close.
International Federation of Social Workers
JANUARY 31, 2023
(In the photo: Members of the ASO board with IFSW representatives) At a press conference today in Kabul, the Afghanistan Social Work Organization (ASO) invited speakers from The Ministry of […]
Community Care
JANUARY 9, 2023
Government plans for the NHS to discharge people from hospitals to care homes risk inappropriate placements and neglect the root causes of the acute pressures on the health service. That was the warning from social care leaders today after the government announced £200m for integrated care boards (ICBs) to ‘block book’ residential beds with a view to discharging 2,500 people from hospital.
Social Work Blog
JANUARY 6, 2023
The January 2023 issue of the journal Social Work is now online. NASW members can read it here. Here are some of the articles in this issue: Beyond Ramps, Curb Cuts, and Captions: A Call for Disability Justice in Social Work. Despite decades of advocacy, Disabled people continue to experience ableism—such as inaccessibility, stigma, and exclusion—in all realms of social work.
The Guardian
JANUARY 26, 2023
Laura Winham, 38, had severe mental illnesses and was ‘abandoned’ by NHS and social services, family allege A severely mentally ill woman whose dead body lay in her home unnoticed for more than three years was effectively “abandoned and left to die” by NHS and social services who missed repeated chances to save her, her family has alleged. Laura Winham, 38, had schizophrenia, struggled to look after herself, and had become estranged from her family.
My Brains Not Broken
JANUARY 26, 2023
After writing earlier this week about how my mental health catches me off guard , I wanted to build on that message and have some tips and techniques for people to use when the same thing happens to them. But before I could dive into that, I had a few thoughts that were nagging at me. I understood how these things catch me off guard, but I couldn’t understand why.
Gary Direnfeld
JANUARY 23, 2023
Take pride in the child who wants to be a chef, a carpenter, a plumber, a dancer, a musician… The issue is finding a passion and supporting it. If they have found it, let them run with it. Let them explore. Get out of their way. Point them towards where they may gather experience. Let them try, reach. Therein they have purpose. It need not be easy.
International Federation of Social Workers
JANUARY 16, 2023
Wars demolish the infrastructure of societies, displacing people and destroying economic and social functioning often contributing to intergenerational trauma. Andy McClenaghan from the BASW podcast series ‘Let’s Talk Social Work’ […].
Community Care
JANUARY 20, 2023
Most English councils are struggling to recruit and retain social workers, with finding and keeping children’s practitioners the biggest challenge across the workforce. Those were among the findings of a Local Government Association survey , which the LGA said showed that a “workforce crisis” was threatening council services. Eighty three per cent of authorities said they were experiencing difficulties recruiting children’s social workers, with 72% saying retention was a
The International Association Of Schools Of Social
JANUARY 2, 2023
TITLE: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL WORK IN REALISING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS. Date: 18th January, 2023, Hybrid Mode, (Hybrid event/ in person Nelson Mandela University). Please register to get meeting link : [link]. CO-HOSTED BY IASSW/ ASSWA/ NELSON MANDELA UNIVERSITY/JOHANNESBURG UNIVERSITY/ASASWEI. Time: 9h00 to 17h00. The Sustainable Development Goals are designed to hold governments around the world accountable to ensure that the debilitating poverty and inequality in their countries are s
The Guardian
JANUARY 28, 2023
Inquest into case of a 61-year-old Norfolk woman left in an ambulance queue triggers challenge to Steve Barclay A coroner has urged the health secretary to take action to prevent needless deaths after a woman died of heart failure following a four-hour wait in the back of an ambulance. Lyn Brind, 61, was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, with chest pains and low blood oxygen levels but could not be admitted because the hospital had “no space”.
My Brains Not Broken
JANUARY 24, 2023
Life has its ups and downs, and mental health is no different. There are times when I feel like my mental wellness is in the best place it’s ever been. Other times…not so much. Most of my time is spent bouncing somewhere in between these two extremes, but highs and lows are part of life. I’m used to dealing with these highs and lows, but part of that familiarity is what I’ve learned from previous experiences.
Gary Direnfeld
JANUARY 23, 2023
She thought she would do his new girlfriend a favor. She decided to tell her he was a narcissist. She just wanted to warn him. You know, a sisters thing. Trouble is, it backfired. The new girlfriend was still in the charming and love bombing phase with him. She loved this guy. Next to her previous boyfriend she thought he was amazing. The new girlfriend had already totally bought it when he explained his ex was crazy, so when she called to warn her of him, it was just taken as evidence of her cr
Social Work Blog
JANUARY 19, 2023
The South Carolina State House with the state flag flowerbed in the foreground. The National Association of Social Workers South Carolina Chapter (NASW-SC) is strongly against the proposed House Bill 3515, also known as the “Entrepreneur Freedom Act.” The purpose of this bill is to repeal and do away with licensure for social workers and many other professions in SC.
Community Care
JANUARY 31, 2023
A leading judge has excoriated the government and Parliament for a six-year failure to address judicial warnings about a chronic shortage of secure care for children “in extreme crisis” However, Sir Andrew McFarlane has detected signs of hope in an apparent shift in Department for Education (DfE) thinking to accept its responsibility for filling a gap that has seen 60-70 children waiting for a secure bed each day.
Social Care
JANUARY 13, 2023
"Working at Vida has shown me how important it is for all nurses to have the opportunity to take a placement or work in a specialist dementia care setting and to interact with people living with dementia." [Image created by freepik.com ]. The power of placements. I’m a registered nurse working for specialist dementia care provider, Vida Healthcare. I’d like to share my experience of working in a specialist dementia care home and why more nurses should consider gaining experience within care sett
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