Physical and sensory impairment

Social care in this area focuses on athe assessment and care management of service users with physical and sensory impairments. This could mean helping service users who have recently become physically or sensory impaired adapt to their new situation or assisting them to gain further support or funding. Your role might be to set up a care package for an individual to be cared for at home, finding a residential or care home for someone, or simply listening and supporting a service user or carer who is in need. Sometimes the service user is unable to communicate and a social worker’s role may be to help the family rather than the patient. 

Service users in this area face issues such as having to adjust to life in a wheelchair, being unable to see, or not being able to work or look after themselves. As a result the role of a social worker might be to provide help at home, offer advice on what funding is available or simply offer emotional support not only to the service user but also to their families who may be struggling to adapt to the changes. 

Individuals may have been born with physical or sensory impairments or have developed them as a result of a head injury, embolism or illness. Many service users have both physical and sensory impairments and therefore cases tend to be quite complex involving other professionals such as the police, occupational therapists or psychologists. You might work with individuals who have physical and sensory impairments in a hospital’s social services department or in the community; there are also opportunities to work for a charity or voluntary organisation.

Shoptalk

Hospitals are now proactive towards social services involvement in patients’ care. From admittance, hospitals are planning how to ensure that a patient can leave as soon as possible. This means that they aim to involve social services from the earliest opportunity to give a social worker adequate time to assess an individual and start setting up the required care packages. There is also an increased use in this field of direct payments and the independent living fund allowing those people with physical and sensory impairments to choose and pay for their own treatments and services.

Skills required

• Good organisation and communication skills.
• Empathy and compassion.
• The ability to listen to service users and be approachable.
• Self-motivation.

Starting out

Few social workers are given a full induction and are normally allocated a range of cases where different assessment and care management skills are required. These cases will initially involve simpler, less in-depth pieces of work enabling the social worker to develop experience and knowledge of the sector.

In brief 

• Best bits
  When a care package comes together and one of your service users can go home with support in place.
  The long-term nature of the cases in this field offers the chance to build good relationships with service users.
• Worst bits
  The lack of funding can be frustrating if you find good services for service users but are unable to deliver them.
• Don’t bother if... 
  ...you only want to work on short-term cases.