Leading Good Care by John Burton

Author:John Burton [Burton, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Social Work, Family & Relationships, Eldercare
ISBN: 9780857009852
Google: SI0QBgAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 27039341
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2015-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

REINSTATING A BROKEN BOUNDARY

All aspects of The Willows’ boundary had been tested and damaged by this episode. While Gill would still argue that Martha’s original admission and her therapeutic plan were right for her, the social worker failed to respect and use the boundary properly. She did not provide full information, she allowed herself to blur the boundary between her own political and moral outrage at Martha’s sexual exploitation and her duty as a professional partner in enacting the agreed therapeutic plan, and she attempted to interfere in decisions that were not hers to make.

Martha’s social worker was not the only culprit in breaking The Willows’ boundaries: Gill’s regional manager, put under some pressure from the social worker’s team manager to keep Martha and very reluctant to create a vacancy and drop in fee income, told Gill that Martha should stay and that it was both unjust to Martha and poor professional practice to insist that she left.

Even though half her team, Edwin and two more residents and nearly everyone outside the home was telling her she was wrong, Gill stuck to her decision. She was the only one in a position to make it. She had to weigh up the probable consequences for Edwin and Martha, for the other residents and the staff team, and for the whole community. She had to use her judgement. Of course she had doubts about it and did everything she could to find a suitable placement for Martha and to make her leaving as positive as it could be. In doing this she attempted to rebuild a working relationship with Martha’s social worker and she used her good connections and collaboration with other local services.

During this troubled episode, as manager of The Willows, Gill had to use the boundary to hold the community together and to protect it from intrusion from outside. Her ‘parenting/containing’ role was called on to give stability and care even though several members of the ‘family’ didn’t agree with her decision. The community – staff and residents – felt threatened by the possibility that Gill’s manager (representing the overall organisation (charity) that ran The Willows) and the social worker and her manager (representing the local authority) would somehow ‘take over’ the home and destroy the community. Gill had to convey a sense of safety and continuity in the face of a growing sense of insecurity and anger, even though she felt the same. She knew that there would be pressure put on her to accept a new resident quickly and that she would have to handle that boundary decision carefully, balancing the conflicting arguments inside and outside the boundary, trying neither to use the boundary in too defensive a way nor to open it prematurely.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.