Above title by Swheatie of the KUWG
From Community Care magazine online
‘Why I’m retiring from social work to fight the cuts damaging our service’
After 42 years in social work, Terry Skyrme is stepping down to channel his energies into campaigning. Here, he explains why.
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by Terry Skyrme, social worker and Approved Mental Health Professional
I have been a qualified social worker since 1972, right at the birth of the generic social services department. In a few weeks time I will complete my last shift. I’ve felt driven to retirement. This post aims to explain why.
For the last five years I’ve worked as a social worker for a mental health crisis team and as an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) in Norfolk.
When I joined, the team had five social workers. We managed to carve out the space to do proper social work. We worked at times of crisis with patients and their families to help resolve social and family problems. We carried out our duties as AMHPs and had a degree of pride in our work. We truly felt we were making a difference, protecting patients’ rights, advocating for their entitlement to services and using our knowledge of local resources.
I realise now we were lucky. When our mental health trust became a foundation trust in 2009 things changed. The trust claimed this as a great achievement. In retrospect, it heralded the beginning of serious cutbacks....
Continue reading on Community Care website....
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