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19 Aug / 16Features
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 / 16Features
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 / 16Features
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 / 16Features
“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 / 16Features
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 […]
