Talking #TeamCWPT blog

Daniel is a forensic social worker in the Community Forensic Mental Health Team at CWPT. In the latest Talking #TeamCWPT blog, we caught up with him to find out more about how his life experiences made him want to work in learning disability and mental health services.

Entering the healthcare sector and becoming a healthcare assistant

Daniel started working at 18 whilst he was in college. After going to a jobs centre, he found a job as a healthcare assistant at Brooklands Hospital. Although initially it was just a job whilst he studied, it would pave the way for his career path.

My first job was at Brooklands, as a healthcare assistant in the 90s. It was very much the old model of care, and I was working within learning disability services.

Although I moved on from that role, I continued working within learning disability services after that - from the NHS to local authority organisations and multi-agency services, I feel like working in this sector was embedded within me.

Qualifying as a registered social worker

Although Daniel's love of supporting people played a huge role in influencing his career path, it was his lived experience as a carer for boys who accessed similar services that made him want to become a social worker.

I've always loved supporting people since I was a child, but my lived experience with accessing services led me to want to do my social worker degree. As a parent with boys who needed support from learning disability services and seeing first-hand the challenges these young people faced, it made me feel like I could give something back.

Daniel rejoined the NHS when he started working in CWPT's children and young people mental health services, in the Crisis Team. After spending just over 12 months in the role, he's moved to become a forensic social worker in the Community Forensic Mental Health Team. A forensic social worker is a social worker who supports people involved in legal, court, or criminal justice processes, helping to assess needs, manage risks and protect rights.

Once I qualified as a registered social worker, I then did my master's in criminology and joined CWPT again in the Crisis Team. I loved it, and I still do. It was nice to work clinically, whilst also bringing in my social care background.

More recently, I've joined the Community Forensic Mental Health Team. I specifically get to bring my knowledge from my criminology degree and social work practice, as well as clinical knowledge, to support people who have had massive challenges in their lives. We are working with high risk and vulnerable individuals, and that does pose challenges and it's not always easy, but it's about bringing all the support that is available to individuals together to get them safely back into the community. For me, it's about empowering people to feel confident to go back into the community and understanding that they know they can trust us to help them do that.

From my caring responsibilities, I feel like I have 'by proxy' experience of mental health. My work within learning disability services has given me that experience too. It all interlinks. When you're in a crisis environment, you are often supporting people who are neurodivergent, and as being neurodivergent myself, that has been a massive skill I've been able to bring to work. It's nice people can lean on me for advice, as I think we can sometimes forget the carer's experiences in the background, but they're integral to supporting the individual.

I've had the luxury of working with the full life cycle of people. To me, the most important part of the job is being caring, nurturing and supportive, and that doesn't stop no matter where you work.

Feeling safe in the NHS and at CWPT

From all the different places and organisations Daniel has worked, he feels like his time in the NHS really supports shared responsibility and a feeling of safety at work.

I feel quite safe in the NHS. I love the multi-disciplinary team working approach and the idea of shared risk. I never feel on my own, and I've never come across anybody who isn't willing to give a helping hand when I need it. And that's the same across the board - from when I worked in crisis to now being in forensic services.

I've never had so many supervision sessions and regular catch ups. It makes me happy to be at work, as I know I am supported. The flexibility and accommodating my caring responsibilities are so helpful, and that support is what brings out the best in me, which lets me give the best support to our patients.

Making a difference

The thing that motivates Daniel is being able to see the impact he's having and seeing the difference he makes to people's lives.

I love my role - I really see a purpose to it and can see what it does for other people. Even down to the basics - when we think of the hierarchy of needs, some of the people I support don't even have their basic needs addressed (sleep, shelter, food), and I get to develop those supportive environments for them.

My main role at the moment is helping individuals with their reintegration into society. Being able to give people the time and the space to just talk and understand what's going on for them is really important.

When thinking about how he looks after his patients, Daniel also reflected on the importance of looking after ourselves: We work with sensitive individuals, and we need to recognise that. I think as staff, we need to be kinder to ourselves. Not everything needs to be done straight away, and sometimes through taking a breath and reflecting, we can find the best solutions.

With thanks to Daniel for sharing his story. If you're interested in working within mental health or learning disabilities, check our current job opportunities: https://www.covwarkpt.nhs.uk/all-jobs.