About

As the blog title suggests, I am a social work student, in the first year of a postgraduate (Masters) degree at a university in the north of England.  I came to this career choice late in life, after trying out various others, and spending a few years trapped within the disability benefits trap, on the way through my 37 years, but finally feel I have found my place in life.  As my mother would tell you, from childhood I have always been naturally drawn to those people often labelled as outcasts and ‘underdogs’,  so social work (in it’s pure form) seems to ‘fit’ me perfectly, and it is something I am passionate about.  Despite that, I did not enter it lightly.  In fact, if I am honest, during the last year of my undergraduate degree I spent hours trying to decide between pursuing a research and lecturing career (PhD), a corporate graduate scheme, or social work.  My main doubts about social work focused on whether I would be able to cope with the stress and emotional frustrations involved and, importantly, whether I was willing to take the risk of being tried in the public court of the national tabloid press should a decision I make prove to be the wrong one.  Eventually however, I decided that following a career which did not sit comfortably with my beliefs in human dignity and worth, social justice and the need to get one’s hands dirty at times would always result in more stress than being in social work!  So here I am now, 6 months in to a two year course….

The purpose of this blog is to contain my reflections and thoughts on the social work education/ training I receive,  on experiences I have within my practice learning placements (due to start soon, gulp!), possibly on news items relating to social work or otherwise, and possibly also small snippets about my personal battles with ill health/ disability (bipolar disorder, epilepsy, and Crohn’s disease) along the way to achieving qualified social worker status.

Any experiences I describe that involve other people, agencies or situations will be fully anonymised, with names and enough details changed to prevent identification- therefore, if you think I am writing about you, your sister, father, great aunt nellie, the big dog from ‘that house down the road’ etc, you are completely mistaken!

Aside from my MA studies, the rest of  my life consists of diverse interests and activities!  I offer free welfare rights advice to friends (of friends of friends…) Having spent several years acquiring and honing skills in these areas, I cannot see the point of not using the skills I have in making applications and preparing appeals to help people who really need them.  I am a very ‘crafty’ person, enjoying making greetings cards using papercraft or cross stitch techniques.  I’m also an enthusiastic musician, enjoying singing in a group and playing the guitar (usually poorly!)