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Tuesday
27
February 2018

“My days are busy but I’m lucky to really love my job” – Think Ahead participant Zoe describes her typical working day

Think Ahead participant Zoe Rice-Jones has written an article for Blueprint, a Cambridge-based magazine about mental health, describing the work she does training to become a mental health social worker. Zoe is training and working in a local community mental health team made up of social workers, nurses, doctors and psychologists who collectively support 700 people with mental health problems.

“I often get asked what I actually do on a daily basis. Social work is a profession built on values of empowerment, person-centred care and promoting social justice, but sometimes it’s difficult to define what this means in practice.”

Zoe describes a typical day, which involves supporting people with their finances, connecting them to other services, using therapeutic techniques, and working with their friends and family.

Read the full article on the Blueprint website.

One of the people Zoe works with is a man with a diagnosis of depression who will soon be leaving hospital. She helps him to make arrangements and apply for funding so that when he returns home he has support in place for activities like cooking or grocery shopping, which can be difficult for him to carry out when he is unwell.

Zoe concludes: “My days are usually pretty busy but I’m lucky to really love my job. By its very nature, working in mental health can be emotionally demanding at times but having a supportive team and close supervision has helped to encourage me whenever things get difficult.”