Communication and Collaborative Working Assignment Sample

• Subject Name : Law

Interprofessional Collaboration can be defined as working together between agencies to facilitate a joint planning and service delivery which can take a number of forms such as cooperation and effective planned communication. The government perceive collaboration from local to international welfare services as an essential ingredient to policy success (Gardner, 2003). Present day social work an increasing number of take place in an inter-agency context and social people work collaboratively with others toward interdisciplinary and cross-professional objectives” (Crawford, 2011)

For the purpose of my case, I will also like to look at the historical of children acts and interprofessional collaboration. The Adolescents Act 1989 put in region a statutory rule for interagency collaboration for adolescents and their families. The Adolescents Act 1989 laid the basis for joint working which led to a vary of regionally commissioned services for children, from family centres to therapeutic offerings (Crawford, 2011)

In compliance with subsection 14(c) and area 5(7) of Facts Safety Act 2018, all people involved which include service users names will be modified to guard their identity. Family A consists of a care giver (family friend) whom I will referred to Angela, father named Judge, mother(deceased) and the two teens will be named ken and Stacey.

A 40-year old black African father of Stacey and Ken, aged 12 and 14 respectively. They were under section 17 of The Children Act 1989 made the subjects of a Child in Need plan. This happened after Stacey made an allegation of sexual abuse against her father, a judge. An allegation was also made against Judge of domestic abuse towards his deceased wife. Judge was arrested and bail conditions were set prohibiting him from having contact with the two children or unsupervised contact with any person under the age of 18. Since the passed away of judge’s wife, Stacey and Ken has remained in the care of their family friend, Angela, 39 years old. The agreed plan following the death of their mother was that Angela would obtain a legal order to provide permanence to the children and allow them to remain in her long-term care. Ken has a diagnosed of Autism and Angela has two children to her own.

Before making plans to visit the family, I read up previous assessments chronology and case notes to know why the family were initially referred to social services and to familiarise myself with the family background history. According to Teater (2014) it is very obligatory for a social employee to be organised. I took the initiative to write down a plan before starting any work and I gathered all information about the service users based on the presenting issues reported to children social service. Reeves (2008) suggests that gaining an understanding of the service users’ needs early in the social work process is essential, regardless of the social work’s theoretical model. I additionally drew up a genogram of the household with the aid of my practice educator. This used to be an opportunity for me to exercise preparatory empathy, or ‘tuning in’ to the family’s views (Woodcock Ross 2011). I also drew up a table to help me identified the people I might need to collaborate with and the potential scope of interprofessional practice. The diagram below identifies the role that individual person or organisation has in practice (Crawford, 2011).

Understanding Collaborative Practice

While the diagram and the note on file gave me a step by step knowledge of the event, I went had a conversation with the previous allocated social worker to gain more insight into case and this gave me a better-off understanding of the family background. For instance, my colleague shared the family conference group (FCG) she had with the family that the children felt emotional about their mother’s death and how they made a decision not to visit their father. She shared that the children are more comfortable living with their family friend Angela. Another technique that includes youth and households as section of the interprofessional crew is the household group conference (Gardner, 2003). This conversation with my colleague gave me a suggestion of how to approach the children on my first visit and my involvement under a child in need was to be supportive at this difficult times for the children and intention to work in collaborate with individual and other people involved in their care.

Good verbal exchange skills are critical to any shape of social work practice, from therapeutic interventions through to the most mundane bureaucratic activities (Koprowska, 2014). On arrival, I met Ken, Stacey, Angela and her two children at home. Ken appeared anxious about my presence on my entry to their living room as he was unsure of who I am and why I am visiting them. I noticed that Ken felt moody and redrawn. While I was trying to settle down and introduced myself to the family, Ken asked me who am I and my profession. I introduced myself to the family and the reason for my visit. David seems to be calm and settled after my explanation, responded that oh I remember you are coming to see us today.

As described by Miller and Rollnick, (2012) motivational interviewing involves attention to natural language about change, with implication for how to have more effective conversations about it, particularly in contexts where one person is acting as a helping professional for another. I explained to the Angela that after my conversation with her, I would like to get some information from the individual child about their well being as this will helped me to understand their concerns and wishes. I also mentioned that I would be taking some note to help me to complete my report at the start of the meeting. Angela informed me that she was worried mainly about Ken behaviour, that he seemed very emotional whenever he remembered his mother death as he was of little age when their mother passed away. She mentioned that Ken performance in school was not encouraging and he would like me to speak with the school and Ken. Angela informed that Stacey sometimes grief her mother, but she quickly moved on. Angela told me that Ken would not speak out in front of people unless I discussed with him privately. During my conversation with Angela I maintained eye contact and I used my active listening skills. Emphasis that active listening have to also be built-in within verbal exchange as it is a crucial tool that sustains collaborative working between provider customers and professionals.

After my meeting with Angela, I asked Ken his preferred place to talk, and he responded that he would prefer a private place like their bedroom as he does not want other people to listen or interfered in the discussion. Angela also agreed to this then we went to the room with the door half opened. Before the start of the meeting, I informed Ken that I will be taking note to write my report while listening to him. Before going into the discussion, I asked Ken how he was feeling and if there are any concerns, he would like to discuss with me. Ken told me that he does not know what was wrong with him, but he always felt his mother presence around him, and this has affected his performance in school. By employing ‘second order skills’ to take a look at and replicate upon the interaction, I was once in a position to decide upon a communicative strategy and parent out which first order competencies I need to use to reply to Ken (Koprowska 2010). I decided to use my empathic understanding while demonstrating active listening. Using Egan’s model, I was visibly tuned in by means of lean forward and through my body language, with the aid of doing this, I wished to motivate Ken’s feeling in order to ease her anxiety and exhibit admire and acceptance and to lay foundation of working relationship.

Ken said he always isolate himself from his friends as he feels different from them and feels tired quickly. Open questions and invite a wider range of responses and service users is free to choose how to respond (Lisham, 2009). I used open questions by asking Ken of his understanding of autism, Ken responded that he knew that he has autism and it is forever, but he does not have much knowledge of how to take care of it. Ken shared with me that he watched lots of documentary about people living with autism who cannot communicate effectively. Since I made a little research beforehand, I explained the meaning of ASD. Ken informed me that he felt he needs to know more about the impact of the ASD. We spoke about the adverse and positive effects of ASD on individual people and how this can be managed and improves daily. Immediately I realised Ken was not aware of his autism impact and which might properly have negative side effect with the grieving process.

According to Cottrell (2003) reflection is about deep thinking with the aim of better understanding. Through critical reflection, I was able to relate Ken attachment with his late mother. Bowlby (1969) state that the main point of attachment theory is that all children are born with an innate need to feel loved and wanted by their parents. Bowlby theory of attachment can help social workers in understanding and making sense of their client behaviour (Teater, 2014). I also reflect back on my understanding of grief and loss by reflecting on most popular model developed by Elizabeth Kubler Ross who argues that there are five stages of grief and loss which includes the following: Denial (to disbelief and in shock, Anger( self-anger of the person blaming themselves and this can be direct to anyone) bargaining( hoping for things to go back to ways things were in the past) depression( feeling loneliness, sadness and hopelessness of themselves) acceptance(recognising the truth and ability to carry on). I am aware that individual can experience grief in difference ways and children with disability can find it difficulties to let go. Collaboration offers the possibility of an improved process for children and families (Crawford, 2011), therefore immediately I knew I had to collaborate with the school, children bereavement counselling and the health visitors to ensure Ken and Stacey receive maximum support.

After my meeting with Ken, I had a conversation with his sister, Stacey who seems not to have the grief experience more than her brother but she also reported that she missed her mother presence and she wished all that happened to the family can go back to the way they were. First, I taught about my position, then leaned forward to listened to Stacey about her experience because being laid back can seemed I am not interested or involved. As Egan (2007) says that the worker should face user of service ‘squarely’, I asked Stacey about her well-being and was managing in school irrespective of her grieving. Stacey said she has managed to get some new friends and meeting up her attainment as expected of her.

I mentioned the use of solution-focused strategy to unravel the issue raised via way of the family. By asking Angela to find out the steps that we wished to achieve, I located that this increased positive, solution-focused technique elicited her cooperation a long way higher and ensured that the sketch used to be extra reflective of the family’s needs. For example, Angela identified a trouble with grieving as a serious scenario which used to be making the youth to experience emotional overwhelmed and named this as an issue, she would welcome information with. However, while it was critical to collaborate with Angela in placing the agenda and wishes for work, I recognised that I also had a statutory obligation to make positive that ken and Stacey welfare and well-being was once as soon as mentioned at the same time as inserting the motion plan.

My placement inside a Child Protection team, which uncovered me to the approach of Public Law Outlines being initiated by using way of the neighbourhood authority, influenced my sense that clear verbal alternate was quintessential for mom and father to apprehend what movements would observe from theirs so that they make an knowledgeable choice. Honesty, clarity and transparency are values in communicative practice that social workers ought to reason to demonstrate. Finally, as I mirrored upon my work with the family, I acknowledged that micro-skills of verbal exchange and spending tremendous time with the household had enabled me to build a wonderful relationship in which giant improvement toward protection for Ken and Stacey had been made. As a student through reflective activities, case studies, I will proceed to advance my transferable knowledge, competencies and awareness of values applicable across all practice to improve as an inter professional social worker.

References

Gardner, R,.(2002) Supporting families; child protection in the community. Chichester: Wiley

Crawford, K., (2011) Interprofessional collaboration in social work practice. Sage, London

Egan, G., (2007). The skilled Helper, Brooks/Cole. Belmont, CA. USA.

Koprowska, J. (2005) Communication and interpersonal skills in social work. Exeter: Learning matters Ltd.

Quinney, A. and Hafford-Letchfield, T., 2012. Interprofessional social work: Effective collaborative approaches. Sage Publications Ltd.

Cotrell , S. (2003) The study skills handbook, palgrave study guides. Palgrave handbook, Maidenhead:McGraw-Hill.Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 33(4), 820–832.

Koprowksa, J. (2010): Communication and interpersonal skills in social work. Learning Matters

Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment. Attachment and loss, New York, 1

Miller, W.R. and Rollnick, S. (2009), Ten things that Motivational Interviewing

is not. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 37, 129-140.

Woodcock Ross, J. (2011): Specialist communication skills for social workers. Palgrave Macmillan

Lishman, J (2009) Communication in social work. Palgrave Macmillan

Koprowska, J. (2014), Communication & interpersonal skills in social work. London: Sage Learning .

Teater, B, (2014), An introduction to applying social work theories and methods. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Community Care, (2016). 2020 Vision. Retrieved from https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2004/01/05/2020-vision/

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