Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 2) | Página 28

Fundamentals of Social Work
are taught inter-professionally with mixed student groups, using a range of
teaching and learning strategies including interactive methods and involving
service users. But this of course is the ideal.
Such opportunities are difficult to create as they depend on the relationships
between the professions within the institutions of higher learning,
relationships with agencies, availability of placements and context. But where
they exist, students value the experience they gain and learning about the
different ways in which professions are deployed during their placements in
the statutory and voluntary sectors. This not only helps them to learn about
the roles of other professions, but also the roles of social workers. Students
gain from these opportunities too when practice teachers are deliberate in
discussing what inter-professional and inter-agency working involves.
Opportunities in inter-professional and inter-agency work such as in the
examples of the National Family Violence Dialogue Groups and the National
Committee on Youth Guidance and Rehabilitation are good for reflecting on
working across professions, agencies and systems. Lessons gleaned from
such opportunities include having clear aims, a recognition of the roles of all
the people involved in the particular service, an understanding of the power
differentials and strengths of different partners and the techniques involved
in bringing people on board in different ways. There are two main aims
in preparing students for inter-professional and inter-agency collaborative
practice. One aim is to help students understand the perspective of different
professions and the second is to learn about shared approaches to working
in a team which includes confidentiality, roles and boundaries. And in the
case of working in multi-professional teams, practice teachers can do well to
ensure students in social work do not feel that they are in a lesser profession.
No matter how limited these learning opportunities are for collaborative
practice, they do exist and we have to ensure that students have the
opportunity to work alongside and with other professions.
Perhaps we can devote more attention to better prepare students in the
university for effective inter-professional practice before their placements.
These can include lectures on working together, sharing information,
policy issues and organisational structures, how to overcome problems and
structures, what to expect from different organisations and the challenges
and dilemmas of practice.
To venture further, we can consider how to include older people and those
with learning disabilities in the process of learning about inter-professional
work. Clients or service users can talk about their perceptions of social work
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