No two days are the same for Alexandra Gravell, a newly-qualified adult social worker, who reflects on the highs and the lows of her first year working with vulnerable adults in North Tyneside.
Social worker Alexandra sometimes lies awake at night thinking about the vulnerable adults she helps to support.
“It’s part and parcel of the role,” she says. “And if you don’t have those sleepless nights and worry about people, then you’re in the wrong job.”
The 22-year-old, a former student of George Stephenson High School, has just completed her first year as an adult’s social worker at North Tyneside Council and describes it as a challenging role but one she wouldn’t swap for the world.
“This is my first job out of uni. My previous job was as a passenger services operative at Newcastle Airport - they’re the people in purple shirts who help disabled and vulnerable passengers. That was me.” she explains.
“I was a young carer as well for quite a lot of years. I always knew I wanted to be in this profession where you’re with people. I’m a people person. So, social work it was.”
Alex’s role is to support people with a wide-range of complex physical and mental health issues and regain control of their lives.
“We see people with physical health issues - people in wheelchairs, amputees, strokes, heart attacks and people suffering with mental health issues such as bipolar disorder as well; if people don’t need specialist mental health input then they sometimes come to our team instead.
“Your first port of call is to find out if the person is safe, if the ambulance service, other professionals or family members have any concerns - especially with older people – and to establish what measures are in place to protect them and what further support is required.
“We do a lot of ringing around other agencies including mental health services involved, GPs, hospitals. There’s a lot of liaising with other services. If anyone has support needs, they need that multi-disciplinary team around them so that their needs are getting met.
“But no case is the same; every individual on my case load is different. It’s not a one-size fits all. It’s about knowing what’s out there, so that you can tailor the support to that person.
“For a lot of people, we come into their lives when they’re at their most vulnerable. It’s not very often that we go in and everything is hunky dory, because then we wouldn’t need to be involved.
“I think it’s kind of a privilege in that sense, that we get to see people at that point because they trust us to come in and see them at their worst.
Emotionally demanding?
“It is. Some cases you definitely take home with you. And I’ve had sleepless nights about some people. It’s about having that empathy and a bit of humanity really, because they are people. They’re not a case study on a page.
“I think it’s very easy to get embroiled in the politics of things and forget there’s a real person at the end of it.”
What sort of response does she get from the people she works with and their families when she comes into their lives?
“When you’ve got an older adult with children who are perhaps struggling and can’t manage in their carer role, there may be a discussion around residential care. I think people’s perception is that we just walk in, put someone in a care home and throw away the key. And that’s not it at all.
“The ultimate goal is to keep people at home. It’s the best place for everyone, a familiar environment, more individually-focused, and only when everything else has been tried would someone be taken out of that environment. This comes back to the strengths-based approach that’s used throughout Adult Social Care.
“If you’re working with older adults, typically they’re from that generation where everything is kept in-house. And you’re met with the barrier straight away. The first thing in our job is actually breaking down that barrier and getting a foot in the door and I think that’s the same with adults and children, because as soon as you ring up and say you’re a social worker, that’s a negative response right away.
Is it fair to say that some people aren’t always the easiest to help?
“Many times I’ve stood in front of someone who has been shouting and screaming in my face. Again, at the back of your mind, this is a person who needs help and if I don’t help this person then who will? There are people who don’t want to be helped, and my job isn’t to force them to have support, it’s about advocating on their behalf and enabling people to live the life they want to live.
“I’ve never wanted to be in a job where it’s the same thing day in, day out. It’s important to know your strength…mine is thriving off the unpredictability and working with people. It couldn’t be a more perfect job for me.”
