From pet sitter to domestic abuse advocate: the unseen life of a mental health social worker

by Kathryn March

When I say I’m a social worker working in mental health services this is generally met by either, “sounds complicated”, or, “What is social work with adults?”.

Neither the usual definitions of mental health social work, nor the simple phrase, “I support people”, ever feel enough to encompass the complexity and range of my role.

I prefer to explain that I help people to do the things they can’t do or, alternatively, find professionals and services that can. But even that doesn’t feel like enough to encapsulate all the different elements of mental health and adult social work. So where should we start?

The many hats of a mental health social worker

As part of a specialist team covering a rural area, I support people who struggle with their mental health or substance use. We cover both working-age adults and older people, meaning that I may support dementia patients one day and younger adults experiencing addiction the next.

In the three years that I’ve been working in this team, I’ve carried out your everyday social care tasks, like assessments, support planning and safeguarding enquiries.

But I've also been a pet sitter, a family mediator and a removalist. I’ve helped fix older people’s phones and laptops, have been a personal shopper grabbing toilet paper for a person who was housebound or ordering a fridge for someone struggling to navigate the store’s website. I’ve arranged GP appointments, found quotes for cleaning services and even been a gardener.

Was the majority of this within my skillset? Not really, but that’s what the people I was supporting needed from me in that moment.

Reality vs the job description

You wouldn’t find these tasks noted within the Care Act 2014 as a duty bestowed upon the local authority that I work for. You definitely wouldn’t find them in my job description. So why do we do them?

Because our job is so much more than the social worker title. I work FOR the people that I have been allocated to support.

When an older person was detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act 1983, he didn’t consider a social care assessment or his discharge support plan as an immediate priority. He was more concerned about his cat, fish and gerbils having someone to look after them while he was gone. So that’s what I did.

From housing officer to financial adviser

I also often find myself having to take on the roles of other professionals.

I’ve been a housing officer supporting an 18-year-old to join the housing register and an unqualified mental health nurse helping someone develop a safety plan on how to manage their thoughts of self-harm.

I’ve also been a domestic abuse advocate and a healthcare assistant, and have also tackled financial matters, ensuring people are claiming the correct benefits.

This multitude and unpredictability of responsibilities can understandably take its toll on our emotional and mental wellbeing. As social workers, we can only do what we have the capacity to do within a week - we still need to look after ourselves.

‘We undersell our role’

The reason I write this is to display that adult social work, particularly in mental health, is not one thing: it’s not linear or simple, but rather messy and even random at times.

As social workers, we undersell our role, describing it as something that is specific and organised and follows pre-determined processes and procedures. But we do so much more than follow a legal framework.

There are endless misunderstandings about the role of a social worker. The most common, of course, is that all social workers do is remove children from their parents’ care.

Some people are not even aware that adults’ social work exists, or of the multitude of roles that sit under this branch of the profession. This highlights the importance of being more open about what we do.

What is social work?

The age-old question, “What is social work?”, even follows you into professional settings, like multi-agency meetings. This happens especially with doctors from NHS mental health services, who are often the people that should be making referrals to my team.

When I was first asked this question, surrounded by multiple professionals, I remember feeling frustrated and slightly put on the spot. I’ve scrambled to explain my role in a way that is brief, while still being all-encompassing, and generally referred back to my responsibilities under the Care Act 2014 or rambled about eligibility criteria.

In theory, this group of professionals should have an awareness of the mental health social worker role. They often share the same spaces, both physically and metaphorically. I wonder if this is linked to the lack of representation of adult social care in the media or misunderstandings of mental health social work in education for health professionals.

Multi-agency groups may benefit from training around the role of mental health social work, ideally delivered by the social workers in those spaces.

‘Lack of awareness prevents people from seeking our help'

Can my role be explained to someone who hasn’t experienced mental health social work? I’m not sure, but I would encourage all workers to be more open about our jobs and some of the things we do to support people.

We’re rarely mentioned in the media unless something goes majorly wrong. Without the direct experience of our services, people are unlikely to be aware of what we do and, therefore, seek our help when they need it.

Not everyone knows that they can reach out to adult social services for an assessment if they’re struggling to do certain tasks independently, or when there are safeguarding concerns for an adult. This lack of awareness could mean that vulnerable adults are bereft of the critical support they need.

Inspiring future generations of social workers

Equally, by being open about our role, we might be able to reach more prospective social workers.

While I was at university, there was a general attitude that adult social care was “boring”. If our voices were heard more about our role, maybe this would change and have a lasting impact on recruitment and retention.

Within adult social work, we’re professionals with a wardrobe full of different hats, ready to switch them out at any time to meet the needs of the people we support.

No day is boring nor predictable. This is precisely the reason why I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, and encourage all social workers to be more open about the beauty and complexity of our roles, not just the struggles that come with our job.