Understanding Service Users' Perspectives

RDP Reflection 1:

In this refection, the York Model of Second RDP workshop is used, in which I would discuss my experiences in the form of surprise, satisfaction, dissatisfaction and learnt. During working in this workshop, I was surprised to know the activities and behaviour of services users who came here to discuss their experiences with social services. Three service users came in contact with service provider group and share their feelings as well as experiences that they gathered during receiving the social services. As stated by Di Stefano et al. (2016) reflection is process in which individual can find out own strength and weaknesses by analysing past experiences and feelings. I was surprised to know that the service users who came here were far different from that I thought they would be. While talking with these service users I came to know that besides being services users they are also involved in social work, which was surprising to me as this was beyond my knowledge. It had changed my viewpoint towards the behaviour, activities and mental strength a services user. I was surprised to know that service users who are under the needs of social, physical and emotional support can be so strong that they can also be involved in social services to help others. This new thought was highly informative as well as impressive to me as it changed the conventional thoughts and perspectives towards social services. As I have worked with many rough sleepers, my thought regarding activities and behaviour of a service user was that services users seek strong social, physical, and emotional support from society and they have weak mental and physical condition that cannot permit them to work as social worker. This event in the workshop changed my viewpoint towards services users and it helped me a lot to expand my perspectives as well as my knowledge on service users.

While discussing satisfaction about the workshop I can say that, the overall content that was discussed in workshop was highly satisfactory, that helped me to develop my perception and thoughts regarding social work. The experiences shared by three service users were highly informative and helpful that had built a new viewpoint towards social work and services users. The overall topic was highly helpful and interesting to us, as it focused not only on how to meet needs of service users with providing best support, but also on maintaining own health and wellbeing while working in challenging environment. I was satisfied and impressed with overall topic and discussion in workshop as it taught me how much it is important for people involve in social work to maintain good health and wellbeing while working with different types of service users in adverse situation. Another satisfactory aspect of this discussion was that I had gathered positive and optimistic thoughts about social work, that assisted me to make every service user happy with meeting all his or her needs. Additionally, it also changed my perspectives about how deal with critical needs of service users in challenged situation by determining issues in terms of making them strong both mentally and physically.

While discussing the dissatisfaction regarding the workshop activities I would like to reflect on the fact that, I was dissatisfied when I try to compare the discussion of services users in this workshop with my own services users who came to setting. When I thought that I would also assist my own service users to share their experiences with social services, I was disappointed to know that people with complex needs are most of the times unable to share their viewpoint about social services. In this point I was confused that how I would reflect to my own experiences with service users and other colleagues. As mentioned by Lundgren et al. (2017), in terms of reflecting own experiences it is important to place oneself in the past situation and realise the limitations and advantages of that situation. In this context I can make clear interaction with my colleagues and service users to gather their opinion regrading my service delivery process and the way I worked in social service.

From this workshop, I have learnt lots of things that is helpful in my future career. The workshop experiences extended my perspectives and ideas regarding social service and service users. I have also learnt the importance of clear communication with service users to understand their viewpoint regarding effectiveness of the social service that is provided to them. Additionally, this reflection improved my viewpoint towards needs and interest of a service user that will assist me to make healthy and strong relation with service users in my future workplace.

RDP reflection 2:

This reflection has used the York model of Fourth RDP workshop, in which with assistance of practice educators we receive referrals over phone. The most surprising part of this workshop was attending phone calls from a referrer. It was surprising to me that how a person casn play dual character in different situation. During this phase I had gathered many experiences about calls and referrers over phone. Throughout the conversation over phone the referrer was very rude and arrogant that made me irritated as well as frustrated. On the other hand, after the end of the conversation, the referrer acted to be polite and decent which was surprising to me. I was ignorant about that how a person can change his or her actual behaviour and attitude in different time. Apart from this shocking event, the overall reflection was full of excitement, good experiences and disappointment that assisted me to learn new things. After ending of this module, we need to make a writing on Gallagher family by using these conversations that we recorded. I had gathered different experiences of difficult phone calls as well as of referrals, that assisted me to understand how to deal with different service users over phone.

I was satisfied with work in the workshop as it was interesting and existing for me to take phone calls as it brings new opportunities to me to understand the needs and interest of each services user throughout the process, I feel that I was confident and motivated to attend each call carefully and record each of the conversation accordingly. However, the disappointment is that. Sometimes I felt rushed that made me to hand-over the phone calls to my colleagues, that somehow impacted on my self-confidence level adversely. I was happy and satisfied with my team members who assisted me a lot in terms of dealing with difficult phone calls. My team leaders were highly supportive to advise me how to manage any difficult situation over phone. The entire process of conversation and recording the discussion were highly informative that assisted me to write the letter about needs, demand, situation and mental status of service users.

The dissatisfaction that I experienced throughout the second phase of workshop was that there was lack of proper coordination and intimacy among team members that interfere with integrity of work. As it was intended that more people would be involved in fourth phase of this workshop to attend phone calls, it enhanced the chances of conflict and opinion mismatches in the team. As mentioned by Justice et al. (2020), in reflection it is important to highlight the dissatisfaction and bad experiences along with good one, as it assists individual to make effective changes in behaviour and activities. Another dissatisfaction about the workshop was lack of clear information delivery system among team members that makes many of team members including me to miss out many important information. As the form on my computer was different from that of others it was difficult for me to gather the entire information regarding the conservation in systematic manner.

Despite the series of dissatisfaction, the overall workshop experiences were highly informative and satisfactory to me as it developed my understanding and knowledge about different service users. I have extended my knowledge how to communicate with service users as well as with referrers politely even in difficult situation to grab entire information from them. I have learnt that how much it is important to keep mind cool and hold patience while communicating with service users over phone in difficult situation rather than feeling rushed and irritated. Moreover, throughout the working in this workshop I have improved communication skill, interactive skill and patient-level that will assist me to provide better service on my future workplace.

Reference list:

Di Stefano, G., Gino, F., Pisano, G.P. and Staats, B.R., 2016. Making experience count: The role of reflection in individual learning. Harvard Business School NOM Unit Working Paper, (14-093), pp.14-093.

Geithner, S. and Menzel, D., 2016. Effectiveness of learning through experience and reflection in a project management simulation. Simulation & Gaming, 47(2), pp.228-256.

Hollway, W., 2016. Emotional experience plus reflection: Countertransference and reflexivity in research. The Psychotherapist, 62.

Justice, S.B., Bang, A., Lundgren, H., Marsick, V.J., Poell, R.F. and Yorks, L., 2020. Operationalizing reflection in experience-based workplace learning: A hybrid approach. Human Resource Development International, 23(1), pp.66-87.

Lundgren, H., Bang, A., Justice, S.B., Marsick, V.J., Poell, R.F., Yorks, L., Clark, M. and Sung, S., 2017. Conceptualizing reflection in experience-based workplace learning. Human Resource Development International, 20(4), pp.305-326.