Social Worker Took Her Own Life.- This could have been me.

https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2018/08/15/social-worker-took-life-stress-caused-work-arrangements-coroner-rules/

Behind the headlines is the story of 66 year old Annie Peel from Cumbria......In a nutshell, she found the pressure of the job intolerable and was facing competency intervention, two complaints and had a manager she did not like. She had had bouts of mental ill health before during her 28 year career...  Cumbria of course, considers "The health and wellbeing of all its staff to be of the utmost importance...continues to invest in the wellbeing of our workforce... " and the report helpfully includes contact details of The Samaritans, in case anyone is upset by it. 

This could have been me...I haven't been doing social work for 2.5 years now as I didn't want to put up with the craziness any more. I knew of an office which had 3 staff die in the course of a year, all stress related. One a young woman of 33 who had a brain tumour. It is sad, as when I started the job back in the 80's, it wasn't perfect but there was a recognition that the work was demanding and people had more realistic work loads and working hours...and I'm sure I did better work with families. 

This social worker who died was in her 60's, and didn't get the help she needed. I'm glad that the coroner made a clear link between her work and the stress that drove her to take her own life.   A Social Worker commenting on the article says "Younger management often bully older experienced staff. My experience is that older staff are not wanted and they certainly are not supported."  This is borne out in the original article.. Anni Peel wanted to move into a less demanding, lower grade job.  I assumed at first she wanted to move from being a social worker to being a social work assistant. Not so.

Annie Peel was a team manager who wanted to have less responsibility. She had how many social workers reporting to her directly or indirectly?  Most likely at least 20.  I know from experience that is very stressful.  At her age, and already with mental health issues in her history (most likely also work related, but that is not spelt out), why did her employers not accept that?  

She was a person who, according to the local paper,  "... had a great sense of humour that could lift spirits and colleagues and families alike held Annie in their affection. The shock of Annie's untimely death has been felt in the Carlisle teams but also across the county." I know so many social workers who might fit that description, How sad that her sense of humour was not quite enough to see the ridiculousness of her employers putting her through the machinations of capability rather than employ someone new and untried.  If her work was really that bad, why not move her along with dignity to a less arduous post?  At 66 this does not seem unreasonable... Why could this not happen?

But managers, even Directors are driven by political pressures including cost saving. And more than that, it is society's choice to prize the culture of "work till you drop and then some more", if it will save some money.  Will people actually pay for a service with enough staff?   The  employer preferred to persecute her, is how it reads.  Another commenter who gives her name as Anne Edwards... 

"Can there be anyone who has not experienced agonising panic attacks, huge anxiety and daily fear that something may go wrong. It is harder for older workers who may struggle more than younger people e.g. with computerised records or with the pace of work, especially if the person suffers from health issues ( more common as one ages)"   and one commenter says;
"I’m thoroughly ashamed sometimes to be associated with my own profession for failing in its duty of care to its own staff and being so frightened of the bogey man (Ofsted) that they fail staff and in turn children..."  This sounds like internalized oppression, experienced by persecuted minorities whose self respect is deeply eroded by the way they are treated so that they turn on themselves...

Although I have now been out of social work for 2.5 years, I have friends still there, and I know it is not improving.  But now I'm aware of the wider picture too.  The general acceptance of stress as normal part of working life.  Research in vast amounts highlights the link between stress and deterioration in physical and mental health. But in general  mainstream just ignores it with a bit of handwringing and tokenism. 

I think it's the first time I've read an article in commuity care highlighting this issue quite so clearly, often it's full of what social workers have got wrong etc... But I do think it is about a bigger picture of how we define being human,I feel we got besotted with computers and have misused technology so that it dehumanises as an agent of control.. It's so interesting that children in Silicon Valley are sent to a WALDORF school and are not given gadgets till age 11... it sounds remote from talking about stress in social work but there is a connection. You may know what I mean...? 

 I cannot really understand how it is that (speaking in shorthand) we think it is OK for a small number of people to half kill themselves working 60 plus hours a week whilst many many people have no work at all. Yet we are increasing the retirement age. And part time work is limited.And we complain about loneliness and poor care of the elderly and children not having empathy etc etc... and mental ill health and suicide rates amongst children.... 

Meditation, faith,  spiritual practice and other forms of self care etc kept me fairly sane through some challenging times.  Now I might teach meditation but it is a bit frustrating to see how we think it is OK to be frenetic most of the time, as long as we meditate! I may not have expressed this very clearly but I think there is a spiritual, as well as "merely" a health issuse. Yes it's definitely undervalued work and really,  how can stressed, fearful, shamed staff do good work with anyone? 

 I read a book called Whack-a-Mole: The Price We Pay For Expecting Perfection by David Marx, He begins by sharing a story from his own life about how he once did something quite dangerous at home, even though it was his job to be responsible for Health and Safety... It is a long while since I read it but it totally underlined the dangers of a blame culture. I doubt it was read by many social work managers...

 Condolences to Annie's family and I honour her for all the good work she did.  Such a shame to end not just her career, but her life. I am glad that Community Care is publishing this, so often it is reporting on the latest flaws and failings of staff.. and I am glad the Coroner made such a clear judgement.    How can we support each other in a system which is based on divide, intimidate and rule.  I think it needs to be something outside of social work and not just an Employee Wellbeing Service which Annie did not wish to use.   Annie Peel was a team manager who wanted to have less responsibility, why did her employers not accept that?  She was a person who, according to the local paper,  "... had a great sense of humour that could lift spirits and colleagues and families alike held Annie in their affection. The shock of Annie's untimely death has been felt in the Carlisle teams but also across the county."But managers even Directors are driven by political pressures including cost saving.  It is society's choice to prize the culture of work till you drop and then some more, if it will save some money.  Will people actually pay for a service with enough staff? 

That could have been me, but I didn't choose to stay in an exposed role like Team Manager, I didn't choose to stay as a hard pressed front line worker, and eventually I didn't choose to stay in any local authority social work job.  Life is different now, uncertain, challenging, but I'm not oppressed, shamed and harried on a daily basis.  I wish I could help those who are.
  
And I think I've needed 2.5 years to detox...It's not easy looking back at a working life much which was a case of surviving and maintaining sanity within a system designed, deliberately or not, to turn people into puppets. And in which I feel I wasted much of my creativity and potential.. But at least I am alive!  Annie Peel did not see a way through her current stressful situation and there, but by the grace of God, I did.

Shanay Walker.... Reflection. 2017

This was written while the press was reporting on Shanay's case,  back in  2017.

Looking through the reports from the Court, it is so sad. A 7 year old child, her life over and we don't know exactly what happened. Her aunt found guilty of cruelty. Not murder, not manslaughter, but cruelty.  I've decided to write a response. Shanay deserves that I take the time and do this.  Since the last post, I've had ups and downs.  Right now I feel differently about the job. I don't think I'll be doing it for many more years, and I've made peace with it in some way. And I'd like to contribute....

So here goes. 

I feel so sad for this child. I know as well there are going to be some anxious professionals, waiting for the inevitable finger pointing.  For Shanay was in foster care for  2 years, from the age of 3 and a half.  The foster carer told SW that Shanay was standing at the top of the stairs, saying that she was falling. The report says that the foster carer said it was all attention seeking. So what was the response? They put up a "Dog Gate" as a stair gate was not big enough.  

Why do we think that "Attention Seeking" explains anything?  Maybe a child seeks attention because they need attention!  Did anyone look below the label and look into whether the child needed help? It sounds like a classic symptom of trauma, to do something frightening, dangerous, in order to better cope with stress, to feel a little bit powerful, and yes, to get attention.  

Shanay was either Taken Away from or Handed Over by her mother. The reports use both phrases. It seems more likely that mother "handed her over" and mother was depressed and not able to cope. It looks like mother was white, or possibly mixed race.  Shanay spent 18 months in foster care. Things had to progress...

You can imagine the conversations in the office. "We need to enure permanence for her, she can't be in foster care for ever.  She's a slightly older child, we have to consider a carer within the family if we can. 

The aunt is offering to look after her.  Paternal aunt. Shame father is in prison but at least it's family and Grandmother will help.  She's only 21 but what is the alternative? Long term foster care- that's not ideal. She is a bit too old to be adopted. We have to decide." So an assessment was no doubt done, maybe it was a good one, maybe not. The mindset would be to look for the good points. Keep the child at the same school, keep the child in the family circle, reduce the number of children "looked after".  Under a Special Guardianship Order the case can close after a couple of years. Not when a child is looked after.  

Grandmother was charged with cruelty to Shanay and found not guilty. But she was found guilty on other charges of cruelty. she was questioned about her own background. Punishment was by beating, which she said she stopped when she came to the UK, and also "peppering" ie putting pepper on a girl's vagina as a punishment for having sex.  She herself had been raped and the aunt and her twin sister were the result of rape. Kay Ann came to this country at 13.  Both she and her sister were angry with their mother about their childhood.   Grandmother says that at 3 a m on 31st, maybe 30th July, her daughter Kay Ann phoned her and said "I love you." Grandmother said she never tell me that.... I knew something was wrong." 

Lately I've been reading a lot of assessments and think to myself, where is the history?  We don't seem to look into family history properly any more.  Did someone do this in Nottingham?  Was the background thoroughly considered? I don't need to wait for a Serious Case Review to reflect on the importance of having an indepth understanding of a family background. Of course, maybe they did. And on the other hand, this was a church going family, and I think somewhere it says that Kay Ann aspired to join the police. She offered herself as a carer. 

We all know the saying, don't look a gift horse in the mouth. We want families to take responsibility, we don't want expensive legal battles, we get criticized for having raised the bar too high in terms of what we expect of carers. Someone, somewhere ( several someones) will have said, we are OK with this. There can be a support package, we'll keep an eye on things. The risks are low.  Yes, we have processes and procedures and planning is done, we hope, thoroughly. 

Then, there were the reports from school.  The bruises. The burn. The "can't go swimming, chlorine makes her hair fall out.". Aunt's righteous anger about the child being spoken with by an "unofficial" Safeguarding Officer, a Classroom Assistant. Aunt being "intimidating".  Shanay explaining things. Not always in the same way, but she seemed to have a loving relationship with her aunt....Investigations took place. A multi agency meeting, agreeing to close the case a month before she died. 

Someone asked me yesterday, how could this happen?  

All too easily.  We have this naive belief that children are going to tell us the truth, verbally, if there is a problem.  Shanay was saying things were OK, and the social worker observed a loving relationship. But at school, much more familiar territory, they observed something else.  Behaviour that showed a complete alteration in the child, who by all accounts was bubbly and lively.  But not around her aunt... The teaching assistant said 

"I remember at the end of the day, when conversation took place with Kay-Ann, Shanay would stand there with her head down, slightly rocking and saying 'yes' and 'no'."

Did the social worker get told about this body language?  Was this often observed?  At times, Shanay did talk about the punishments at home.  

"Between July 2012 and July 2014 witnesses said Morris:

• Threw Shanay into a wall after she stole water.
• Dragged her by the hair.
• Put clothes in Shanay's mouth if she wore the wrong thing.
• Forced Shanay to eat things she did not want as a punishment after she had stolen food.
• Told Shanay to repeatedly run up and down stairs."

(http://www.nottinghampost.com/shanay-walker)

We don't know, yet, how often these were reported but it is sad to think that this was a child who was an "open" case. People were meeting about her still, just a month before she died.  They genuinely believed things had improved, there is no mention she was ever on a Child Protection Plan. It seems no one thought there was a significant risk of harm. 

How is it then, that reading the journalist's reports, it all seems so glaringly obvious and to raise so many questions. 

Such as- 

Were the school's concerns taken seriously? 

Was the child listened to, not just her verbal communication but her "bodytalk?"

Why did mother have so little contact and were her concerns listened to? 

Did the assessments which no doubt were done, really explore her family background?  (How often would we talk in depth to a grandmother who is not the main carer? Would the daughters feel too much loyalty to say to a social worker what life was really like for them, even if they did feel anger towards their mother?

How much support did Ms Kay Ann Morris get? She did not, it seems to me, start out with bad intentions towards her niece. Her text to Ms Walker says "I'm sorry, I was not strong enough."  Not strong enough to be a firm but loving carer...not strong enough to protect her from an attack by someone else, not strong enough to control her own rage. 

Was there good management oversight, reflective supervision, a manageable workload, clear guidance?  

But I don't think the questions are just about social work. The neighbours who heard and saw the worrying signs. They were shown the child and told she was OK, so did they decide not to "report".- more than likely. None of us like interfering in other people's business. Maybe they knew her, knew she had taken in her niece and it was not easy.  The Teaching Assistant found Ms Morris intimidating. Perhaps the neighbour did too. Perhaps the social worker did.  We are so lacking in self awareness, generally speaking, that we may not know that fear of looking silly or fear of being shouted at by someone with a strong personality might get in the way of doing what we really know to be right.  As professionals, it's even more possible, because we are supposed to know better!  I wonder, though, how easy it would be for a social worker to admit in supervision to feeling nervous or frightened by a client. It's different if they are labelled dangerous, that's acceptable. For a social worker to own the feeling is possibly not so acceptable.  I'm troubled about Shanay going into a shop at 9pm and asking for a drink. Taking a can of fizzy drink. And was anyone concerned about this little girl out and about in her pyjamas? Did anyone think it was strange?  

It seems the shop assistant simply told her she had to pay, which presumably she could not. 

I think, Shanay,  we have to look at how our society is. And make some changes so we don't lose children like you in future. 

I'm sorry for you, but I know you're actually in a better place now. I don't happen to believe that the end of the physical life is the end. I have a sense of you, laughing and singing and dancing, happy and free!  Maybe you were sent to earth for this particular mission. Part of the Wake Up call, come back to Love.   You did your bit and suffered and died.  Thank you for how you've touched me, somehow, and how your unbroken spirit was recognized by the Judge.   

I feel sorry for your social worker, foster carers, managers, everyone in Nottingham who will be facing a difficult time in the next year.  I hope that people will seek to identify mistakes not to have a witch hunt!  I hope that there will be compassion and wisdom in the probing and empathy with those who are subjected to it.  I hope that everyone involved, the neighbours, the shop keeper, the school, extended family...thinks what could I do to prevent this happening again? 

I feel sorry for your mother. She had problems and could not cope. No doubt she is blaming herself and others. I hope she can find forgiveness for herself and for others. She missed out on something special with you. 

I feel sorry for grandmother, brought up in a way that somehow will always seem right to her. Crossing an ocean does not mean changing your mind. And we don't do a lot to change hearts and minds in our culture. 

I feel sorry for Kay Ann Morris.  Someone out of her depth is how it seems. She meant well, at least she had a sense of duty, and may simply not have been able to cope or to admit that.  And that might be what she really meant when she said: "I was not strong enough." 

I am going to remember you and maybe, just maybe, do my job in a different, better, stronger way.