Categories: uncategorized
Date: 14 September 2007 11:38:44
Today I have been reading my Community Care magazine which is a publication for social care staff. This week they have been interviewing children who are in foster care about their experiences of social workers and their opinions on what they do, or don't do, as the case may be. One young man had this to say which really stopped me in my tracks...
”We looked after children all need an angel; a social worker who would recognise our struggle and help us live through the storm. Out faith is in this angel's shadow, this little bit of hope, this dream social worker. Our prayers are always near; wishing destiny will lead our paths to cross with this angel.”
I have been called many things in my working career, but I am not sure I have ever been called an angel! It's too easy in social care to get caught up with paperwork, budgets and politics, and to forget the individuals; the clients with hopeful and sad faces, those ravaged by homelessness, mental illness, poverty, addiction and despair and the children affected by their parents' failings. In the middle of it all I catch a flash of hope. Hope that makes me believe that I can make a difference to my clients.
Hope is a powerful thing for social care staff.
I need that hope as much as the clients themselves.