Shorts Media

Resilience – dirty word?

It sometimes feels like resilience is a dirty word. Whispered in hushed tones in corridors in case over heard. Or spoken out loud as a rallying call to try harder and be...

Empathy, Sympathy and Compassion

“Empathy Is Walking A Mile In Somebody Else’s Moccasins. Sympathy Is Being Sorry Their Feet Hurt”. (Rebecca O’Donnell) The nature of our work as social workers, (or any caring profession for that matter) is...

The Merchant of Venice and Critical Thinking

Was Shylock in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice making a critical decision that was necessary and proportionate, when he was demanding his pound of flesh? Let me give you a brief rundown on...

Dr Dan Siegel’s Hand Model of the Brain

George Bull, Social Worker at the Connected Carers Team South Tyneside, explores Dr. Dan Siegal’s hand model of the brain and its use in social work practice. In the Solution Focussed Therapy...

To be or not to be? Did Hamlet have the Mental Capacity to make that decision?

If the Mental Capacity Act was law in Denmark in the fourteen hundred’s would poor Hamlet have been able to make the decision, to be or not to be? Let’s explore the...

Who IS to blame….?

The Guardian this morning (August 1st 2019) reports that social workers are being blamed for their own stress and burnout. You can read the article here.There are some very damning statistics in...

Unique!?

Recently, when teaching the first year BA students where Iwork I’d gone off topic….. this never comes as a surprise. And I asked the students, “What is the unique contribution that social...

How to start your day!

Start right! we are going to be productive throughout the day how we start our day is crucial in setting ourselves up with the right frame of mind. Too simple? Well, neuroscience...

Forming our views; Rishi, social workers, and primates.

In the caring professions our experiences are the cornerstone of our practice, setting our moral compass and future decision-making processes (heuristics). Despite each individual experience being important our brains are designed to...