Week 1 -- First week with SAFA and Middlemore Hospital

Placement 1st July - 5th July

Day 1 & 2 

I have had the opportunity to do a split placement with Safa (safeguarding vulnerable adults from abuse) and at Middlemore Hospital in the National Burns unit. Monday & Tuesday I sat with the SAFA Coordination and discussed what SAFA role is and how referrals are received. We had two case consults and discussed the following.

• Who made the referral.
• What was the referral about.
• Are their services already involved with the client

On Tuesday during the MDCAT hui (multi-disciplinary cross agency team's hui SAFA Coordinator presented her services to Government and non-Government to educate everyone on what SAFA do and what their role involves. I observed how Ecological Systems Theory looks at the individual as part of a system of interconnected influences. In your work at SAFA, where you discussed how referrals are received and case consults take place, this model helps you understand how individual behavior is shaped by multiple levels of influence, including family, community, societal systems, and cultural values. This can be particularly relevant when working with vulnerable adults who may have been affected by complex issues such as trauma, systemic discrimination, or family violence.

Day 3,4 &5 

On my first day in Middlemore Hospital, I met the team in the burn's unit, which consisted of a Physiotherapist, an Occupational therapist and social workers. We reviewed the daily task of printing off the patient handover for the burns ward. The burns unit is a surgical ward; we also cover the kids' surgical team. There are two social workers between the two wards. In the patient ward handover list, we check who is a burn patient and prioritize each patient based on admissions into the Hospital and their needs. The policy with burn patients is that a social worker sees all patients and cannot be discharged without a visit being conducted first. 

I observed the social worker assessing a child in the emergency department, and the psychosocial assessment was used to clarify the child's injury. The evaluation was done thoroughly, repeating it back to the family to ensure the information captured was correct. This model takes a holistic view of health and social functioning, emphasizing the biological, psychological, and social factors that influence a person's health. This is particularly relevant in hospital settings like the National Burns Unit, where social workers assess not only the physical injury but also the emotional and social aspects of a patient's recovery.

I observed Competence 7 of the SWRB professional judgement on the facts gathered by the social worker about the injury the child sustained. However, the social worker conducted the assessment with the family in a structured way so that she would have a set agenda for asking questions. It showed a Western process, and this created Taukumekume as I critically reflect; it was in an unfamiliar space, with no cultural processes, the unknown space of how to act, what you can and can't do, but this also created a space for me, to re-center my thoughts and resilience of the learnings and that every social worker practice is different and that is okay.