Sunday morning and Sam Swann an
emergency duty social worker is starting
a long shift Sam like all EDT colleagues
works when others don't
weekend's nights and bank holidays the
work is diverse and the caseload usually
heavy we cover the whole spectrum of
Social Work really in terms of working
with children and families mental health
services people with learning
disabilities and people physical
disabilities and also old people so
really we cover a wide spectrum
predominantly and nine times out of ten
we work on our own we work through the
night which means that we have to
prioritize work we have to do
assessments and investigations so
there's a lot of responsibility and
accountability really because obviously
we have to stand by those decisions that
we make about time after a handover from
the colleague she's relieving Sam's work
starts almost immediately the phone
calls begin that's custody okay
appropriate adult okay quiet a 16 year
old is being held at Telford --zz main
police station suspected of carrying an
offensive weapon by law an appropriate
adult must be with him to safeguard his
welfare and ensure that he understands
all procedures and any charges being
brought against him as his parents are
refusing to attend that role will fall
to Sam so the officers are ready to go
but the sister is not there I am okay
well if you can give me a call when the
solicitor has gone into consultation
I'll I'll come along then all right then
so we'll give you a ring just before we
arrive okay
Sam's next case is a woman at a local
hospital who's causing staff concern Sam
may need to undertake a mental health
assessment she discusses the case with
the co cited community nurse crisis team
she's been placed on a ward where she's
continued and to complain a physical
complaints but they have but their
medical sort of investigations don't
identify that
any any medical problem okay so she's
known to us
she's care coordinated as sugar yeah
presumably they'll let us know if they
become concerned about her behavior and
jointly they decide that no immediate
action is needed as the hospital will
hold the patient until Monday and Sam's
phone is ringing again it's the call
she's been expecting from the custody
suite it is she's in consultation okay
so we'll come over see you shortly
bye-bye that was sergeant from custody
there the solicitors arrived so we need
to make our way over - to custody the
EDT roll demands experience and Sam has
plenty she's at school at 16 and came
into Social Work through an admin job I
was appointed a social worker sistent
and I also had a very caseload at the
time I worked at the local psychiatric
hospital I also had a few cases where
children one child the child texturing
register as it was known at that time
qualified in 1995 and chose to come back
into predominantly child protection I
became team manager covering the the
north side of town fir'd stayed in team
management for about probably about four
years until the job came up and EDT oh
no how are you good very rare
opportunity for a job to come up in the
emergency duty team where I am now so it
was an ideal opportunity really to go up
to go back in as a practitioner because
you have those at that experience and
knowledge base I think it's fair to say
that we all feel fairly confident in
doing the job but that's not to say that
it's not tough at times and sometimes
you do question is this the right thing
to do
okay then Cheers well this one actually
was record time I would say we were in
and out really within probably what an
an hour which is pretty amazing
that's pretty good he admitted it he was
charged and he's been bailed to go to
court a week on Wednesday back at the
office there are concerns that an
elderly woman is not coping alone at
home because she's having four calls a
day isn't she so she'll have had a
morning one some checks in with the
woman's home care service so it's the
same carer going in so that's good so
she'll wrecked she'll notice if there's
any change we won't see if there's
anything she's worried about okay all
right then thanks Linda bye
it seems to be good news and Sam will
continue to monitor the situation in the
meantime there's a new message waiting
that is our shop doc are out of hours GP
service who want help with a lady who's
suffering with severe anxiety and some
symptoms of depression a phone call to
the doctor who has visited the patient
reveals the woman's condition could be
serious fact that she's not eating and
drinking from a medical point of view
what how will that impact she sounds
very unwell
all right then bye-bye right so I've got
a coordinator for Mental Health Act
assessment on this lady she's a 64 year
old lady who he says is not actually
previously known to mental health
services and has had problems with
anxiety now for the past month or so
things have escalated in the last 10
days this assessment now takes priority
over Sam's other referrals and she
swings into action several phone calls
later she's on the road as an approved
mental health practitioner Sam's job is
to coordinate and take an active role in
the assessment
I've arranged to meet the psychiatrist
and another GP at the address the three
of us after was sex and agree a plan
really it's up to Sam to look at
alternatives to hospital and ensure the
woman's rights are protected we need to
talk to the husband and get his views
about the situation and then make a
decision then about the best way forward
over the course of two hours Sam and the
doctors decide the woman does need to be
admitted to psychiatric hospital the
woman's husband agreed to support the
decision of the team it was mental
health assessments are always well
they're just difficult really it's quite
stressful she was really very sad but
and I think the way we wrestle with that
is you have to decide what's in the best
interests of the of the service user
really as evening falls EDT manager
Helen Jones arrives to discuss the day's
caseload with Sam
what sort of the day if you had today
there oh it's me now it's been pretty
busy actually yeah yeah in fact I'm glad
you've come in because there's one or
two things we can probably pass over for
tomorrow but I need just to run in past
year then and that's all right Sam
agrees with Helen that it would be best
if they attend the next case together
it's a child protection matter and
requires a home visit
they are families where daytime services
have got concerns about neglect and
issues around a lack of supervision and
the parents lifestyle so in the daytime
it's difficult to
obtain evidence if that's what's needed
of what's actually going on in the
families in the evening so that's what
we're going to do we'll need to you know
check the family home make sure let's
see if the children are in bed make sure
that there's enough provisions but
generally that things are okay and mom's
coping well all right okay
got me I D yeah there are nearly 200
children in Telford under social
services protection Sam and the
emergency Duty team regularly undertake
these checks for their daytime
colleagues she was in bed when we got
there so she was quite defensive I
suppose understandably if we'd woken her
up but the children were asleep in bed
there was no suggestion that she'd been
drinking which is the major concern
really it's about her drinking than a
lifestyle you expect to have some
defensiveness when somebody's calling at
your house at that time really yeah
she's quite like really in fact it's now
after 11 p.m.
Helen goes home to sleep before her
Monday starts but Sam shift continues
there's still work to be done on several
referrals from the morning a mother of
three is claiming her jealous partner
has threatened her it's in relation to a
child protection matter with domestic
violence incident the man's already
wanted by officers if he's in custody
Sam can take the opportunity to speak to
the woman she's now checking that with
the police he's made threats to burn
down the house with the children in it
but so he's not been arrested he's not
in custody at the moment okay great
thanks for your help
cheers bye okay the situation remains
the same so I'll just hand that out back
to safeguarding in the morning and let
them know that he's still not been
arrested and they'll just liaised with
the police again in trying to coordinate
some
fifteen hours after the start of her
shift the calls keep on coming many are
from carers reporting looked after
children who've outstayed their curfews
Sam at risk Assessors each case the
outstanding thing now for me is to write
all the work up that I've done today so
that's really going to take up my time
over the next few hours and hopefully
try and get a bit of rest period as well
I guess really the rewards of the job
are the outcomes whether it's the
outcomes for children for any Klein
group really it's the diversity of the
work really you come on duty you really
don't know what what you're going to be
faced with that day and and art and I
enjoy that and it's challenging there's
a lot of on-the-job decision making
quick thinking that's why I enjoy as an
emergency duty worker I guess one of the
rewards is and for instance for an older
person you know there are a lot of old
people who who want to be at home and
they don't you know they feel safe at
home that's where they want to be and
quite often we just get referrals saying
this person can't be at home they've got
to go into into residential care and and
you know there are ways of avoiding that
sometimes and it's good if the outcome
means that we can provide support for to
enable that person to to maintain their
independence the same can be said I
think of people with learning
disabilities it's good to feel that
you're helping people learning
disabilities to maintain their
independence and to become a part of the
community really
it's Monday morning and some shift is
completed her colleagues now take over
and they're another part of what she
finds rewarding about the job there is
some good work that takes place and
there's a lot of people work really hard
and there's a lot of humor there's a lot
of them in the day time service there's
certainly a lot of team and support for
each other and and whilst we might not
get the recognition for it for the
reasons of confidentiality or you know
that people have human the human rights
legislation all kinds of reasons for
that but what's good about daytime
services certainly is that you can
actually recognize it with each other
and you can say to each other you did a
really good job there and that was a
tough decision but it was the right
decision and you did well and I think
the thing about Social Work is that we
learn we learn a lot from each other
really you know that that's a good thing
and there is a lot of camaraderie really
between individuals and yeah we do
overlap sometimes you know and because
that's the sort of thing that keeps you
going
you