Getting a grip on social work

Abstract

This paper describes the visceral nature of social work practice from a more subjective and personal point of view, using a case study involving three small children who I have worked with. The youngest boy was removed from his parent's care by social services at 9 days old for serious non-accidental injuries, which were caused by his mother, although further assessment showed that this was within a household where the father was also sexually abusing the other two children. I will describe the work I undertook in a multi-agency team with this family although the information in the case study is an amalgamation of a number of families I have worked with as a social worker over the years. I hope to describe the maddening dynamics social workers face when assessing difficult family situations and almost unthinkable subjects such as female aggression, the denial of reality, the confusing dynamics of lies and the terror of sexual abuse.