“Celebrating social work in any field is essential,” explains South Eastern Trust’s Emma Edgar who has been an Over 65s Community Mental Health Social Worker for several years.
Based at Lisburn’s Lagan Valley Hospital, Emma shared how her role is offering assessment, review and therapeutic interventions to those aged over 65 and who are in mental health crisis.
“The team is always offering support, we are always reviewing and working with people who are experiencing difficulties with their mental health. This can be tasked work such as working towards their own goal and it can be improving that service users’ social setting and getting out into the community.”
Emma continued, “We work to promote a better routine together. The everyday things such as getting up, getting out of bed and getting dressed, we can take that for granted but when you have challenges with your mental health, it can be even harder to get out the door and start your day. I think that the role of a social workers in any discipline is a role to celebrate.”
As well as working with her patients, Emma also promotes her role and that of social work in schools and colleges, “As it’s a great way for young people to look at social work as a future career with brilliant progression.”
When asked what she takes away from her profession Emma said, “I love the fact that I get to meet people, when you are going through a mental health intervention with a service user, when you see that really excellent change start to happen, being part of that can be pretty powerful.”