The first social worker I met was abysmal.
My son was 17 before I appealed for help.
SW told him to get up off the floor, wondered why he was 'flapping his hands about, like that (then imitated my son
) then said he would be missing for a while as he was off to Chamois for a fortnight's skiing.
Happily my son passed to adult care when he was 18 and I can honestly say that all of the social workers I have met have been caring, devoted individuals. The most pro-active have been the ones temporarily assigned, they have had no compunction about rocking the boat.
Only encountered one in my Mam's care, a month before she died and she too was switched on, helpful and pro-active.
They get an awful pounding on this site, some of it is justified but most is not.
Sometimes I think people have high expectations of what support the state can supply and expect if they step back the State will support to the same level that they do, unfortunately it does not.
Hopefully after the next election we will have a more sympathetic government that will link health and social care and increase, by
any means, the money available to do it.
The mother of one of my disabled son's lifelong friends (my ex-husband's wife, in fact) has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Her son has Down's Syndrome, he is 27.
She is having to rely on Social Services to provide her, her husband and their son with the support they need to move forward.
Agonising torture. She would be lost without hope without the help and support of her social worker.
They have to spread themselves SO thin, they have to fight to get finances approved...they are angels.
