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1 Sep / 16Expert insight
“It’s really given me confidence”: A participant’s reflections on the Summer Institute
This Monday Think Ahead participants will join community mental health teams across the country to begin their on-the-job training as social workers. Here, Jenni Wingrove, a participant who will start training in Luton, shares her reflections on how she’s feeling ahead of starting the role, and the best bits of the six-week Summer Institute. Why […]
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30 Aug / 16Expert insight
“Sharing our experiences in order to do something positive” – Summer Institute 2016 comes to an end
Today Think Ahead’s inaugural Summer Institute ends. Our first cohort of participants are readying themselves to move into community mental health teams for 12 months of on-the-job learning starting in September, and this week’s teaching has included a focus on preparing for entering the workplace. My favourite thing about the Summer Institute has been bringing […]
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19 Aug / 16Expert insight
Ensuring social work perspectives are valued: week five at the Summer Institute
It’s the penultimate week at the Summer Institute, and communication has played a big part in this week’s learning. Communication skills are hugely important for social workers in many elements of their job. Of course, being able to build relationships with service users is crucial – as Frances Turner, an experienced mental health social worker […]
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12 Aug / 16Expert insight
Eco-maps and safety assessments: inside week four at Think Ahead’s Summer Institute
This week at the Summer Institute risk assessments – or rather ‘safety assessments’ – took centre stage. Participants spent a day exploring how to assess the level of protection from harm that a person with mental health problems might require, through a mixture of teaching sessions and group work. These sessions included looking at some […]
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5 Aug / 16Expert insight
Developing leadership skills at the Summer Institute
We’re half way through our 2016 Summer Institute, and this week our participants have been learning about leadership. Leadership is an important part of the Think Ahead curriculum, because mental health social workers need the ability to make difficult judgement calls and influence others. During this week’s teaching, participants took the Myers Briggs Personality Indicator […]
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29 Jul / 16Expert insight
“Human rights are often deep at the heart of important social work decisions”
Our 96 participants have now completed the second week of their Summer Institute. This week they learnt about some of the legal and ethical aspects of social work, including a strong focus on human rights and liberty. These issues have a real impact on social work practice day-to-day, because social workers have to make tough […]
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22 Jul / 16Expert insight
Week one at the Summer Institute
Today marks the end of week one of Think Ahead’s Summer Institute – the six-week residential where our participants receive an intensive grounding in mental health social work, before they start training on-the-job in community mental health teams in September. Throughout this first week, participants have had an introduction to social work and mental health […]
