Ley 115 de educación preescolar

Trust was spoken about by client participants in three main ways, these being, building trust with social workers (n=11), genuineness (n=8) and social workers maintaining confidentiality (n=3).

152

Building trust with social workers

Jessie explained that a caring social worker will understand that it takes time for clients to trust and will work with the client to help that happen. She shared an experience she had with a Centrelink social worker:

I was a little bit scared at first. When you go there it feels like, well it’s all about whether you get paid or not and that creates a different dynamic, because getting paid is really important. I was a bit suspicious, but the social worker was really on the ball and tried really hard to help. She went out of her way and spent more time with me than I expected. She was really compassionate and understanding and so that helped me to trust her.

Luke commented:

It takes a while to feel comfortable and to trust. You know, you need to get to know them and feel that you won’t be criticised or judged. My social worker is really good though. I tell him a lot of stuff I have never spoken about to anyone because I can trust him.

For Margaret, trust was one of the most important things. She said: If I can trust them, then that makes a big difference. There are not a lot of people that I do trust, but if I trust then I feel safe.

Eve believed that social workers need to know how important trust is to clients – that trust can be broken in an instant. She relayed an experience from a past social work interaction:

It took a year of trust building with this particular social worker, and one sentence, one sentence was all it took to break that. It was about her stuff. It was nothing about me; I knew that and I understand that we all have those bad days, but if you have a bad day, perhaps you ring up later and apologise and explain. She didn’t do that. I got up and walked out and never went back.

In contrast Eve stated that she implicitly trusts her current social worker. Like Margaret she equated trust with feeling safe. Eve explained:

It’s a safe place for me to land and I think having that alone can save your life. Four of the client participants interviewed had primarily worked with social workers who were supporting them for mental health reasons. These participants found it particularly difficult to trust. Scott explained:

I don’t really trust anyone. I don’t really open up to my social worker because I have been burnt before. I mean, he is really good, but you know, I don’t really trust anyone…I don’t want to end up in hospital again…I never sign anything if I don’t know exactly what it means.

153 David chose to not have the interview for this research recorded, in spite of being told that only I would have access to the recording and that it would be kept in a secure place. It became clear that this was a trust issue. He said:

I would rather not have it recorded. I am happy to talk to you and you seem really nice and you can write things down, but you know, I would just rather not. I would rather not have a tape with my voice on it hanging around.

For Nicky, his willingness to divulge personal information depended on his impression of the social worker. Past experiences of being admitted to a hospital mental health ward had made him very wary of speaking to social workers about his symptoms and feelings. He explained:

Sometimes I choose not to talk about some stuff because it’s a bit personal. It’s really hard with mental illness, because often people just don’t get it. So, it depends a bit on the person. If they seem to really care about me and

understand me, I might open up a bit more, but you know, I don’t want to end up in hospital again. Sometimes they can over-react and take things the wrong way and the next thing I am being admitted, so I have learned to work out who I can trust and even then I would usually rather talk to my family.

For Chris, a lack of trust meant that he would not risk discussing feelings and emotions with a social worker.

I just get social workers to help me with filling out forms and making

appointments and things. I don’t talk to them about anything personal. I have been burnt in the past by social workers when I was younger and so I keep those things to myself now.

Genuineness and honesty of social workers

Participants closely related the concept of trust to genuineness and honesty. ‘Being real’ helped to build trust with social workers. Clients emphasised that genuineness and honesty were integral to a caring interaction. They appreciated social workers who were ‘up-front’. Archibald mentioned the importance of ‘being real’. He said:

I like it when they are real. She might say, ‘I can’t be bothered doing that’, and she might say, ‘Oh, don’t be lazy’ or something. I like that.

One third of client participants said that it was obvious when a social worker only pretended to care, that is, when the care was not genuine. Jessie displayed disgust as she spoke about how a social worker pretending to care had made her feel in the past:

154 It is really important that they are genuine, because people can really tell. Even if they have to tell you that they are feeling frustrated it is much better than them pretending. There was a social worker whose body language showed they were really annoyed with me and when I asked them if they were annoyed they stopped doing it and said, ‘No, I am happy you are telling me this’. I was thinking, ‘I know you are annoyed’. So I just felt really silly and thought, ‘Just say it’. Pretending to care is worse than not caring at all.

Eve also expressed that pretence could easily be identified. She said:

You can smell it if it’s not real. You can look into a person’s eyes and know that they don’t really care, that they are just doing a job.

And Margaret realised that constant care is not always realistic. She was adamant that it was important for social workers to be up-front when care was not possible. She explained:

Sometimes they will have their mind on something else, and I understand that. It’s up to the person to say I’m not available right now and not just pretend to care and listen.

Emma’s long term experience with social workers assisted her to recognise the difference between genuine and disingenuous care. She had learned to guard herself against the latter. She explained:

If someone just says what they think they are meant to say I pick up on that fairly quickly and that could be because I’ve had a lot of counselling and I’ve had good and bad experiences. So, I’m probably a little bit more watchful because I know it can be bad. If I recognise the pretence then I will water my story down and don’t go back to that person again.

Social workers maintaining confidentiality

Three participants stressed the importance of confidentiality, believing attention to this principle is crucial to caring practice. Emma mentioned confidentiality many times throughout her interview. These are a few of her comments:

It is paramount to me that my information stays private, that they have really helped me to feel – and I know at the end of the day I have no control over it – but if they’ve been really professional in a gentle, kind way and they’ve talked to me about it being confidential, they’ve talked to be about what happens with notes, they’ve talked about where the information goes and how long it stays there and all of that – it makes me feel better.

One social worker I saw didn’t even talk about confidentiality. I said, ‘Do you need my files or anything?’, and she said, ‘Oh no, but I can get them’. I just said no, I didn’t want that because I knew I didn’t want to tell her much. She didn’t even mention confidentiality and that is so important to me.

155 She took copious notes, but she didn’t talk about who would see them or what

would happen to them. That’s uncaring to me, because would she like someone to do that to her? I was in too much of a state to think about it at the time, but later I thought, ‘She took notes, what’s going on with those?’

Eve presented a traumatic experience regarding confidentiality. She had been seeing a social worker for several weeks, discussing her struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder. She felt that her privacy had been breached, and was stunned by the complete lack of care. She shared her story as follows:

When I saw him he said, ‘Well, I’ve had a round-table conference with all my colleagues about you’. I’m like, ‘What!’ He said, ‘We had a lovely chat about you’. I’ve just envisaging everyone sitting with their feet on the desk drinking beer. He said, ‘Oh, we’ve come up with what it is with you – you have Cinderella complex’, and I said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’, and he said ‘It means you think you’re hard done by’. I just picked up my bag and said, ‘Thanks very much, see you later’. I can laugh about it now, but bloody hell, can you believe it? That just showed me how much he understood and cared.

Emily explained that confidentiality was something she was always wary of: My social worker doesn’t write any notes, which is good. I get nervous when they start writing down what I am saying. In the past a social worker used to write things down but then let me look at what she had written and ask if I was happy with it.

Scott appreciated the fact that his social worker would never talk about him to staff at the residential facility he lived in, without him being present. He commented:

Before he goes he might talk to the staff, but he won’t talk behind my back. I am there too.

Experiencing Care by Social Workers as Paying