“Social enjoyment, as both an important life and employment skill, needs to be taught and practiced as early as possible. We need to provide our young people with safe, predictable situations to practice enjoying a social interaction. The successes I’ve seen in my own work demonstrate that social enjoyment is indeed a skill – and thus, can be learned.”
“One of the most important messages I would want to give to a newcomer is that your reluctant client will probably never [become a ‘willing’ client]. Why should s/he? Compliance with you and your rules is a massive victory. If you can rejoice with your clients when they are finally getting rid of you, this is very liberating. Social work and care does not change people’s personality fundamentally, it helps them function.”
“Night staff have to provide the same level of person centred, individualised care as day staff. Their primary task is seen as the promotion of sleep. This can often mean that they feel compelled to get people back to bed as quickly as possible. Often, however, residents need, time, food, activity, and TLC as well as an opportunity to talk and discuss, particularly their fears and worries.”
We were thrilled to launch Reflective Practice in Mental Health last night at an event hosted by the book’s editors, Martin Webber (pictured) and Jack…
Exploring Bullying with Adults with Autism and Asperger Syndrome is the new workbook by Anna Tickle, a clinical psychologist, and Bettina Stott, who after many…
Children & Young People Now have featured a great article from JKP author, Dr Gillian Ruch, in which she argues that a focus on improving…
‘Placing the relationship at the heart of practice means recognising that, as we suggest in the Introduction, ”despite all the continuing upheavals in policy and procedure, social work [will] always begin and end with a human encounter between two or more people” and that this encounter, or relationship as it develops, is the medium through which the social work task can be carried out. Social work is never a neutral activity but can, at its best, offer a vulnerable or distressed person the experience of being valued, supported and understood – perhaps for the first time.’
“When I was young, I had no self-esteem and figured the difficulties my Asperger’s caused made it impossible for me to achieve anything. I gave up on myself and the world. Now that I am older, I realise that Asperger’s is probably the main reason that I have been able to achieve so much…”
Hilary Abrahams is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Violence Against Women Research Group at the University of Bristol. She has worked extensively on the support…
“Contrary to what is normally understood, children on the autistic spectrum do recognise when we use their own body language to communicate, provided we respond using the repertoire of their personal behaviours. We are shifting their attention from solitary self-stimulation to shared activity, remembering that what is important is not just what they do – but how they do it, since this tells us how they feel.”