Care Work
This article covers jobs where you would be helping people who need professional care and support because of illness, old age, disability or a combination of factors.
Care Assistant – Children
Care assistants provide basic personal care and social care to children and young people in a variety of settings, including special schools, day centres and residential care homes. They help children and young people with everyday tasks, as well as encouraging their social and personal development.
Usually working in a team, assistants plan and supervise activities that encourage the children to develop new skills and form relationships with each other.
Some care assistants work with children who have special needs, perhaps because of a physical or learning disability. Depending on the age and abilities of the child, a care assistant may help them to wash, dress, go to the toilet, and prepare or eat meals.
Care Assistant – Older People
Care assistants provide basic personal care, social care and emotional support to people who need help with day-to-day practical and personal tasks. The care assistant’s role is to enable older people to keep as much independence as possible and to be as socially and physically active as they can.
Care assistants work in hospitals, day centres or residential care homes.
The exact type of care they provide depends on the age, ability, health and level of self-sufficiency of the people they work with. Basic care could mean enabling someone to wash or have a bath, dress, eat, take medication or get around generally.
Social care is also very important, and it is essential that care assistants develop caring, trusting relationships with the people they work with. Planning and supervising social and recreational activities is an important part of some care assistants’ work.
Home Care Assistant
Home care assistants work with people who need support in their own home. This could be because of age, physical or mental illness, a physical disability or a learning difficulty.
Depending on the client’s needs and ability, home care assistants enable them to do day-to-day tasks, such as washing, getting dressed and preparing meals. They also provide social and emotional care, developing trust and friendship with the people they look after.
Field Social Worker
Field social workers visit clients in the community to offer advice, practical assistance and emotional support.
Most local authorities have specialist teams of field social workers, dealing with specific issues or groups. For example, field social work teams specialise in child protection, people with mental health problems and older people.
Building a trusting relationship with the client is a very important part of field social work. The social worker needs to become very familiar with the client’s situation (or ‘case’), making decisions based on a careful analysis of all the right information.
Education Welfare Officer
Education welfare officers identify and deal with problems that prevent children from attending school or making the most of their time there. They tackle a range of problems, including under-achievement, truancy, behavioural problems and exclusion from school.
Education welfare officers and teachers work closely together to discuss the history and possible causes of problems like truancy and challenging behaviour.
Residential Social Worker
Residential social workers provide practical and emotional support to residents in care homes and hostels. They work with one of the following groups:
- children and young people
- adults with physical disabilities or learning disabilities
- adults with mental health problems
- older people.
Social workers help residents with practical support, eg, helping them to do things like claim social security benefits, plan a budget, pay bills and keep in touch with family and friends. Social workers also plan and run group activities, to help residents relate to each other and maintain or develop their social skills.
They may also arrange any support services that the residents need, for example, counselling, group therapy sessions, legal advice or treatment for a drug or alcohol dependency.
Social Worker – Mental Health
Mental health social workers give advice and practical support. They also arrange for people with mental health problems to be supported by services like day centres, home care assistants, supported accommodation and self-help schemes.
Social workers in a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) help children and young people who have mental health issues.
With further training, social workers can become ‘approved’ social workers (ASWs), who specialise in caring for people who have been diagnosed with mental health problems.
Approved social workers have the responsibility and legal power to arrange the compulsory admission of a person to hospital. This is a last resort, taken if the client’s problems are so serious that they present a risk to the safety of themselves or others.