Struggling to keep up

Casey is a really likeable student, however right from the beginning I noticed that she doesn’t seem to have the same capacity as other students I have supervised. Despite her best efforts, Casey struggles in supervision to understand many of the fundamental principles of social work practice and cannot seem to get her head around any particular theory. When spending time with clients she returns to the office distraught and often in tears as she feels so ‘sorry’ for them and is unable to make sense of their situation regardless of regular debriefs and discussions. I decided that although I like Casey, she just isn’t right for my team and in the back of my mind I didn’t think she was going to "cut it" as a social worker. I therefore called the Uni and told them it’s not working out and I would like to end the placement.

Key Considerations:

  • Casey’s capacity to understand Social Work Practice
  • Casey’s participation in supervision
  • Casey’s emotional well being
  • My role and response to Casey as a supervisor
  • The matching of students to appropriate programs and practice areas

What went well:

  • My attempting to meet Casey’s educational and support needs by having regular supervision, discussions and debriefs.
  • Casey is trying her best to understand and engage in social work practice

What didn’t go so well:

  • did not raise her concerns with the Uni or ask for extra support, wanting to end the placement instead.
  • I did not raise their concerns explicitly with Casey and talk about some possible ways for them to address the issues.
  • I made a judgement that Casey just isn’t cut out to be a Social Worker so has essentially ‘given up’ on her.

What you would do differently next time:

  • As soon as I noticed or felt that Casey was not grasping basic concepts and was struggling in practice, they should have raised this for discussion directly with Casey. What was Casey’s interpretation of her capacity and performance? Could there be any other factors contributing to Casey’s performance?
  • Rather than waiting and then deciding to end the placement, I should have contacted the Uni to discuss their concerns and explore the possible options and or strategies could be put in place to assist.
  • Could I have thought of activities and or tasks that would be more appropriate to Casey’s capacity? Could Casey attend any training that would help?