Lessons from social work’s past

January 6, 2012 in Uncategorized

I ran into  a social worker the other day that I once held in disdain.  She employed “work to rule” tactics in a time of change in our agency.  She “dug her heels in” at every turn obstinately refusing to bend to the new regimen.  She used every trick in the book and she understood the book inside and out, after all, she had been a shop steward for years.  She opposed integrated health care and I was for it.  I saw so many benefits for it in the literature on best practices. She was demoted and I left not long after for a different climate…admittedly somewhat disillusioned as the façade of integrated care and best practices cracked and revealed just another means to cut services and to increase work loads.

Lately I have been reading about early radical social work and be damned if most of the tactics she employed weren’t prescribed and acted upon during the 70s by radical social workers.  Even today structural/radical social workers are encouraged to dig in with their unions as a way forward to fight for change.

Well, when we spoke the other day she told me, more or less, that she had mellowed  or as she said it “I integrated” finally.  Her workplace remains a war zone though, under constant threat of more cutbacks and increasing demands for efficiencies (aka higher caseloads).  She does not fight it anymore she told me.  She will retire in a couple of years.

Wish I had known about those early radical social workers.  I would have understood her better and held her in a kinder light.  More importantly I would have listened and might have comprehended sooner what was happening to our programs.  It was a great gift, though, to see her in a different light.

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