Sub-theme 2.2: Social work clients

During the interviews and workshops, how news media portrayals of the profession affected clients became a central point. This was due to the fact that in their daily practice, clients were the group with whom participants had the greatest amount of contact. Issues regarding a client’s perception of social work became central to providing meaningful interventions. During the discussion participants drew upon both their personal experience and observations from the reflection process in exploring the impacts. The analysis

identified three main points in relation to clients: the confusion, the significance of personal experience and the impacts on clients’ trust. The next section of this chapter will explore these points and draw upon interview and workshop data for examples.

i. The confusion

The link between news media portrayals of the profession and clients’ attitudes and beliefs was identified as mainly indirect. For example:

Stuff in the media feed the public image and the public image affects practice. It’s a fine line but there’s a connection and I think at times the public image is pretty poor, often negative things that hit the headlines or people who aren’t social workers that have few boundaries and poor training that are portrayed as social workers. People are left with the confusion … I find people don’t really seem to know what we do.

(Participant 13, Interview)

Participants were unable to identify specific examples where their own practice was directly impacted by a single piece of reporting, but rather that news media plays a role in shaping public, and therefore client, attitudes towards the profession. The lack of coverage resulted in the vast majority of participants arguing that clients in general had high levels of

confusion about who they were and how they could help. This confusion was in relation to

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the role of social work and in particular how it differs from other professions, including youth workers and psychologists, and also how it varies across organisations, for example, child protection and community services.

I’m frustrated by the lack of understanding of the work and the lack of understanding of the resources and capacity. I say I’m a social worker and people don’t know what that means … (Participant 1, Interview)

When discussing client attitudes, participants focused on the initial stages of engagement, as this was when questions regarding their understanding usually arise. It was suggested that the absence of coverage contributes to clients not understanding the range of interventions and support that can be provided. This was expressed as almost a daily affirmation of the lack of public status, as for the most part clients did not seem to express anger when meeting a social worker, but rather indifference. Participants who took part in the study worked across numerous fields and although there were some differences in terms of client attitudes, for example, those working with adults in drug and alcohol fields were never assumed to be child protection officers, the confusion regarding the expertise of social workers was shared. While social work may be commonly associated with protective services, as the literature suggests, this was not recognised as an issue of major significance for participants, even those working in paediatric and family-specific fields. Participants reported that while there may be a level of curiosity and apprehension regarding the link between them and protective services, it was not automatically assumed. Participants identified that the client’s own history played a much larger role in this, as will be explored in the next section.

ii. The significance of personal experience

People sometimes assume child protection, but it’s more than ones that have had child protection involvement … (Participant 14, Interview)

In the discussion regarding the influence of news media on clients, participants employed what could be argued to be elements of agenda setting theory (McCombs 2004) in their views on the effects of media coverage. Agenda setting theory argues that the media will

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only be of significance in the absence of personal experience and will not determine what someone thinks but rather what they think about (McCombs 2004). Participants’

understanding of media influence identified the importance of personal experience, especially in relation to child protection practices. Even for workers who have worked in family support and protection-related fields, the presumption that they were child protection was only there from clients who had prior experience with protective services.

As evidenced in the statement below, participants proposed that while the association with child protection is dominant due to historical practices, personal experience has far greater significance in shaping the attitudes of clients in the early stages of engagement.

… you come in and try to work with them well, they’re already like ‘she’s hopeless, she’s not going to know what she’s doing!’ and see you as pretty much ‘she works for the government she’s going to take my child off me!’ and that’s pretty much about it. It can be from the media but probably more personal experience. I’ve had families say to me I’ve read about this and I’ve read about that especially when a social worker has been charged with something but it’s more their experience of engaging with (protective) services when they haven’t had a good outcome … (Participant 18, Workshop 1)

The degree of possible trepidation experienced by clients was also identified as only pertaining to the initial engagement stage. The ability of the individual worker played a much more important role in shaping clients’ understanding than anything they may have seen or read. Several participants, and in particular those that have been practising for more than ten years (n = 8), also identified as part of the reflection process a perceived historical shift in public and client attitudes. The main point is that since the early nineties, they believe the association with child protection and social work has decreased, possible due to the deprofessionalisation of the sector, and that the association was experienced more for older clients. Therefore, while the link between social work and child protection was present, personal experience and the ability of the worker to engage and build trust was identified by participants to play a more significant role.

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iii. The impact on clients’ trust

As typified in the quote below, client trust became a central issue in regard to how participants’ identified the impacts:

I don’t have much confidence that my clients know what a social worker is, I always every time I meet someone new explain that I’m a social worker usually because people make an assumption that I’m a

psychologist. I’m conscious that often I get questioned about what’s a social worker. Professionally it’s a bit undermining, I feel devalued because my clients have no sense of what that is or have any value in it.

There have been numerous conversations over the past where people say

‘oh but this is a really tricky case! Should we see a psychologist?’

(Participant 11, Workshop 2)

While several participants spoke of clients infrequently being hesitant to engage with workers out of the belief that they may be child protection, especially those who had prior protective experience, the biggest issue was in relation to the trust in the competency of workers. One participant observed a direct link between the absence of social work in the news media and the value that clients place on the profession:

Clients and co-workers question the professional status of social work quite strongly; it’s a combination of personal experience and the media … (Participant 10, Interview)

The concern focused on the suitability and competency of the professional that has been tasked with helping them, more than any protective fears they may hold. This presented a new understanding on the impact of news media as the majority of the literature focuses on the concern regarding the worker’s underlying protective motives as hampering trust, not their professional ability. Several participants observed that the absence of social work in the broader public sphere creates a level of professional mistrust and a desire by clients to be seen by someone more qualified. In particular in regard to counselling, as it was seen to be the domain of psychologists and not social workers whose skill set was deemed less

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professional and equated potentially with pastoral care practices. The majority of

participants suggested that this is evidence of the low professional worth that social work holds, exacerbated and perpetuated by a news media that does not understand the profession. The next section continues to explore the impacts on clients in relation to the effects of media coverage on direct practice.