Mrs Madeline Forward1, Ms Marta Mlot2
1Madeline Forward, Daw Park, Australia, 2Marta Mlot, Daw Park, Australia
Biography:
Madeline Forward is a Senior Social Worker working in the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network Mental Health Services Division. She has been working in Mental Health Services for over 10 years and alongside her clinical role, she has a strong passion for service improvement initiatives, particularly those that strengthen the social work role and consumer voice.
Abstract:
There is significant variation in social risk screening tools across Southern Adelaide Local Health Network (SALHN) Mental Health Division, resulting in a lack of uniformity in social work assessment and formulation. There is no identified gold standard psychosocial assessment utilised, nor feedback sought from consumers regarding their experience of social work assessment. This project sought to develop a new tool that identifies and addresses social risks utilising the strengths-based approach.
The assessment tool gathers information about a consumer from their ecosystem via strengths-based questioning across six biopsychosocial domains to identify the person’s strengths within their environment, their values, and what motivates them. This assessment aims to simultaneously identify care goals, social risk vulnerability factors, barriers to discharge, and interventions for the social worker. A social work formulation is then co-created with the consumer capturing the individual’s unique recovery journey and goals of care that bolster strengths within each system and complements the broader multidisciplinary team’s care and discharge planning.
Informed by a literature review and audit of current social work practice, we developed and piloted the tool across two mental health service settings (Community Rehabilitation and Inpatient). Pre and post surveys were conducted with consumers and social workers to understand their experiences. The project aims to support social workers to provide evidence-based best practice, support consumer outcomes and promote person-centred care, with a secondary aim to improve social work practice and professional identity.
The presentation will present the assessment tool, its theoretical underpinnings, and preliminary feedback from consumers and staff.