Social Work Spotlight - Episode 64: Cassandra

Episode Date: August 19, 2022

In this episode I speak with Cassandra, a community palliative care social worker and private practice therapist. Cassandra has worked in the UK and across a range of roles in Australia and is passionate about the growth of the social work profession and identity within Australia.Links to resources mentioned in this week’s episode:ACT Made Simple by Russ Harris - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7219947-act-made-simpleWhen Life Hits Hard by Russ Harris - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56684925AASW Social Work Online Training (SWOT) platform - https://www.aasw.asn.au/professional-development/swot-social-work-online-trainingPsychwire online courses - https://psychwire.com/coursesSafe & Together Institute - https://safeandtogetherinstitute.com/Palliative Care Australia - https://palliativecare.org.au/A Good Death, Four Corners documentary - https://mediasite.tafeqld.edu.au/Mediasite/Play/436c6f8851f74694a020136e61b553501dThis episode's transcript can be viewed here:https://docs.google.com/document/d/11IcqQqcM6IQ_QkCNxsx3bKiIPCA34ZazgGwszpaqmjA/edit?usp=sharingThanks to Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com for our theme music.

Hi and welcome to social work spotlight where I showcase different areas of the profession each episode. I'm your host, Yasmin McKee Wright, and today's guest is Cassandra, a community palli of care social worker and private practice therapist. Cassandra has worked in the UK and across a range of roles in Australia and is passionate about the growth of the social work profession and identity within Australia. Thank you so much, Cassandra, for coming on to the podcast. Really, really happy that you could come and talk to me. about your journey in social work so far. Yeah, it's no problem. It's my pleasure, actually. I would love to hear firstly when you started as a social worker

and what brought you to the profession. Yeah, absolutely. So I actually completed my degree in 2014. And so I started working at the end of 2014. And I started working in a private, non-for-profit domestic violence support service, which was incredible and I had a real passion for it. And I suppose what led me to the profession was actually life experience, really. So I have a close family member, actually my father, who is schizal effective and went in and out of the mental health system as I grew up.

And so I was really exposed to that from a very young age and came into contact with a lot of various professions. and some of which were really, really great advocates for us as a family and others that were not so great. And so as I kind of got older and started thinking about what I wanted to do as a career path, I suppose just the social justice aspect of things and the advocacy of family members and clients was something that really aligned with me and ignited a passion. And so that was definitely how I decided to go down the path of social work. Yeah. And what kind of led to the point where you are now in your career? So the point where I'm at now, I had always envisioned doing therapy. I'd always had an interest in the mental health side of social work,

really enjoyed counselling. And so for many years, I spent time just trying to work out what my career path looked like and what I envisioned as bigger picture for my life. And I would always land upon having my own private practice and being a therapist. And so I decided along the way that, you know, I wanted to make sure that was actually what I wanted and not just something that I thought sounded great. Yeah. And so I stepped into a few different roles. I had the pleasure of working overseas in the UK as well.

I worked in case management over there for the care system and worked with young people. I worked for the federal government here in Australia. I've worked in domestic violence services. And I've also worked in therapeutic rehabilitation and palliative care. And of course, psychiatric ward and men. mental health. And I suppose along my journey, each step that I took was really around what do I need to do to reach my end goal and what skills do I need to have and what experience should I have and what learning should I take on to do the best possible job by my clients and by the patients

that I work with. That's incredible that you had that foresight at such a young age and you were so driven towards that goal. When you were living in the UK, did you notice much in terms of those systems internationally, either the training or differences in approaches? Absolutely. So the training is very different. And so over in the UK, a social work degree is actually three years. And so as Australians with a four-year degree and two placements under our about, we were kind of seen as, I suppose, more qualified in a way. Sure. And so that was really interesting for me.

It's not something I'd ever given thought to before. It was also, in terms of the profession in itself, there was also, I suppose, still a very real stigma around the title of social worker. And I certainly saw a lot of people in the profession choose to refer to themselves as someone that worked for the government rather than someone who identified as a social worker. Interesting. And I thought that was incredibly interesting. In terms of the training as well, there was certainly not the same level of commitment to professional

development as there is here in Australia. And there wasn't as much focus on things like domestic violence or family support or even community centres as what there is here. The focus was mainly either hospital social work or child safety. And really that's what you had to choose from. So certainly when I moved over there, I definitely found big challenges in being able to communicate my transferable skills. It's interesting you say that because so many people I've spoken to in the Australian context

say that there's a struggle with them in terms of professional identity and acknowledgement of skills in our context, but it sounds like it was even more challenging in the UK setting. Yeah, certainly. I kind of felt that there was a strong alignment to the US as well in that if someone was to mention being a social worker in a social setting, they would automatically kind of relate that to a social worker that turns up and takes kids away,

rather than having a full comprehensive understanding of exactly what skill sets that social workers have. And the different, I suppose, ways that they can benefit families and be used across lots of different networks and lots of different agencies. Yeah. And I can imagine as a young social worker, the positionality might have been quite challenging

with your own personal experience, working in mental health settings, perhaps things could have been a bit too close to heart. How did you deal with that? It was very important. and I understood very early on that I really needed to separate the two and really have a very clear understanding of what my personal and my professional values were. And just really having a very clear grasp on what my triggers were

and being able to step back and really maintain that self-care and self-reflection around what was my burden to bear and what wasn't. So yes, I was an advocate. Yes, I was a strong support person and I was fighting for social justice and fighting for the best possible outcomes for my clients. But I didn't need to take that home with me because that wasn't my story. And my story was one that was very separate to that. Yeah. And at what point did you then move into private practice and take that big leap and what support did you need in order to be able to do that? Hmm. So that was actually very new. And it was a,

in my long-term plan. However, at the beginning of this year, actually, I was presented with a fantastic opportunity to be able to start the practice, and it was one that I just couldn't say no to. So that started in April, actually, this year. So all very new. In terms of support, I really tapped into all my network. So talking to various allied health, speaking with clinicians that had their own private practices and really drawing from other people's experiences of setting up, I utilize the ASW's trainings on private practice. And this is something that I've had in my professional development plans for the past six years. So it was always something I was working towards. What I did was I put together a very clear business plan, what I wanted to achieve and what were my goals

in opening this practice. And really, what values did I want to uphold? And what did it look like? And then from then on, I needed to find my niche. So I suppose the value of having a private practice is that you start to be able to move into a specialisation and you start to be able to really focus on what interests you and what you're passionate about. So I really found that a bit challenging in the beginning because as a social worker, we're so used to moving between so many areas. And so I really had to step back and check in with myself again and find out, well, what is important within myself and what am I passionate about?

And so, yeah, once I did that, it was really around taking that leap of faith, making sure I had a really good supervisor in place and making sure I had a plan for my professional development and then just doing it. Yeah. And you're so right. Diversity can definitely be a strength in the social work profession. How did you work out what your strength was, what your niche was and what you were passionate about working within? I think it's interesting because I actually belong to a professional hub, which consists of clinical psychologists, counselors, psychotherapists, mental health, accredited social workers and psychiatrists. And I had to understand first what that meant to me because what I realized was for a lot of, a lot of professions like, for example,

psychology, that meant working directly with someone with just OCD or directly treating anxiety. Whereas for me, I realized that my niche was actually being diverse and being able to respond to more critical clients, I suppose, that did display comorbidities and being able to approach that confidently and work with it, not just one individual, but in a family setting and with couples and really looking at a more holistic approach to their treatment. And I can imagine having worked in the mental health space, especially acute mental health settings, report writing would have been so integral to your everyday work. Absolutely.

And that kind of translated then to the work you're doing now because you're doing a lot of reports for, say, guardianship and family law courts. Has it been an easy transition from a clinical perspective or have you still kind of struggled with how that all works? Yeah, look, in many ways. I think skills are always transferable. I think the hard part is not having the templates and having to figure everything out from scratch. I think a lot of the time it has been around weighing up, well, what is the time that I'm actually allocating myself to do this? And understanding that in the beginning, it's not always going to look how I imagine it because I'm creating my own template.

I'm figuring out what information should and shouldn't be in there. I'm having to cover my off legally, making sure that the appropriate forms are signed and developed. I'm developing those forms, making sure that legally, you know, I'm looking after myself. I'm looking after my clients. And so, yes, it has been challenging, but not overwhelming. I really strongly feel that my experience within government has equipped me with the skills. It's just around the development of that and making it look how I would like it to look. Yeah. And what's the most common concern that people come to you with? I have a lot of young people that come through with high levels of anxiety.

I'm seeing an increase in diagnosis of ADHD, depression and suicidality. Okay. So pretty heavy stuff. Very heavy stuff. And I think a lot of the time as well, the challenge is that family is really, integral to their treatment. And so it's really challenging for people to access mental health services. At the moment, there are very long wait lists for clinical psychologists. And then I suppose social work is probably still in the background to many people's minds.

And again, we have the skills, we have the knowledge, and we're probably really well placed to work with families and integrating them into individual treatments. but not enough people know that. Yeah. So it's a work in progress and that is starting to change. I am starting to see changes out there, but it is still a slow burn. And what do you think it is specifically about our training or experience as social workers

that allow us to do that role to be able to support those families as well as the clients? I think we don't have a natural instinct. to label and diagnose. Our natural instinct is around empowerment and really working with individuals and families towards self-sufficiency into the future. So I remember many years ago reading a quote about social work, about social work being the only profession

that works towards putting themselves out of a job. And I can't remember where that's, quote came from or who said it, but it just stuck with me. And I think that's really the key difference that allows us to work in these spaces, our ability to have that holistic view and not necessarily want to fix, but to promote understanding and education. And if you're working with a lot of younger people who are early in their point of diagnosis, it gives you, I guess, an opportunity to work with some of the other services that they might need to come in contact with over the course of their treatment.

So obviously family come into it, but then using your networks and your other diverse professional contacts to be able to provide a well-rounded service. Absolutely, those coordination skills as well. And just being able to facilitate those challenging conversations as well. For example, at the moment, I'm working quite closely with a few schools and making sure that young people are safe to return to school and they do have safety plans in place and they are engaged in regular support, regular treatment holistically. So whether that looks medical, you know, educational, social and then also therapeutically. And can you tell me about

your other role that you're doing outside of the private practice and how you do actually make all that work as well as being a mum and, you know, being all these other things that you need to be. Yeah, absolutely. So my other role is for the New South Wales Health Organization and I work in community palliative care. So my title is a specialist community palliative care therapist. Yeah. Or social worker. Yeah. So what that looks like is I work in community health and I work in the home for community palliative care. My role is a little bit different to what an inpatient hospital role would look like in that I have a lot more autonomy. I also do coordinate services and I look at, you know, really holistically how to future plan and have those end-of-life

care discussions as well. But a large portion of my work is therapy. So that might be looking at anticipatory grief for the family and supporting them emotionally, or it might be looking at adjustment therapy for the clients and really supporting their pain management around anxiety linked with their symptoms or it might be existential issues that they're really finding challenging to deal with and really utilizing acceptance commitment therapy in those sessions to try and address that. Yeah, and I can imagine this population are people that have potentially already been an impatient in a palliative care unit. They've gotten things stabilized.

They're well enough to come home and be managed in the community. But they could also be people waiting for an impatient bed or they have sort of some time to formulate a plan and some advanced care directives and a bit more of an understanding around what does this end of life mean for me and how do I make sure that the people that are around me feel like they understand the process. So it's quite a big responsibility, I think. Yeah, it's huge. And I think one of the main things that I really value in this role is I get to be alongside on this journey, not just with the client, but with their feelings. family as well and it's really around empowering them to have control and have safe in what that

journey looks like. That's really, really nice and we have a bit of a different outlook in palliative care towards death and I know in general society find it quite challenging to discuss death and it is generally quite an uncomfortable conversation to have in families and I think once you work in palliative care, you start to embrace it and normalize it. And you can start viewing death as something that can be quite beautiful and as a very natural part of life. And I think once you're able to work closely with a family and start to normalize that for them and start to address that anxiety surrounding that topic, then it can be such a

rewarding and fulfilling role to have. Yeah. And I know that sometimes the person themselves, with life limiting illness. A lot of the times they've kind of come to accept what's happening and they've worked out in their head how this is all going to happen and they feel comfortable with the plan. And often it's the people around them that are really struggling

to come to terms with that. Do you sometimes find yourself stuck between needing to support the client, the patient, but also the family are the ones that need the most help? Yes, absolutely. And it's quite interesting. I have a student at the moment, a social work student, and we talk about this quite a lot. And it kind of comes back to that ageal, ethical question of who is Michael Lynch? And what do I need to do to make sure that they are at the focus of the treatment or off the support? But then also weighing up the fact that a lot of the time our client's main focus is their family. Yeah.

And all of their concerns and all of their anxiety is around how will they cope once I'm gone. Or how will they be able to get along and work out the best way forward? And so there is an element of bereavement support that I do provide in my role as well. but it's a bit of a tricky navigation around what is specifically a palliative care issue. And because a lot of the time when you're dealing with death and bereavement, it exacerbates any underlying challenges or issues that might already be there. So for example, if someone is naturally quite an anxious person or naturally can be more inclined to feel depressed, then when they are experiencing grief and loss,

that's a very natural emotion that's very human. It exacerbates these other underlying diagnosis. And so it's around really trying to weigh up what is actually a palliative care, support need, and what's not. And part of the role I imagine would also be developing and maintaining really good relationships with the inpatient palliative care teams in your area where you know those people are then going to be supported if they do need the acute admission. Absolutely. Yeah. Is there a sort of a time frame?

Obviously, a lot of the people that you support are going to pass away, but sometimes it's not imminent. Sometimes they might be around for years with their diagnosis. Is there a point where you kind of have to say this is the length of time that I can support you and after that I have to move on to someone else. Yeah, so I'm quite lucky in this role. I work in a multidisciplinary team so we actually consult to the multidisciplinary team. So the case managers are actually nurses. So social workers don't have to actually discharge. It's the nurse's call around the medical need. And then if we still feel that there are palliative care needs. And if the person is still engaged with palliative care inpatient or clinic teams,

then we can stay involved. And so it is really, you know, we have that opportunity to do more of that longer term and meaningful, ongoing work and really build those relationships with the client. Yeah, great. So that's really, really nice. In terms of staying connected in with the surrounding inpatient team, We do attend multidisciplinary meetings. We also attend business meetings for palliative care in the hospital, so the inpatient,

and we also work with the inpatient team as well. So sometimes if we find that it's in the best interest of the client, if we're working with a client in the community and they happen to be admitted to our hospital, then we will continue working with them. We will negotiate that with that particular ward social worker and we'll continue working with them to really focus on that continuation of support and really do what's best for that family and that patient at that point in time. Yeah, so it's a very collaborative approach.

It sounds like. Absolutely. That's really good. How do you separate everything, though? You've got your professional and your personal life. you've got a lot of really difficult concepts of grief and end-of-life care. What support do you require in order to sustain yourself in these roles? Consistent supervision.

I have an ongoing commitment to supervision and really that self-care as well, just being able to check in with myself. And for example, I work in a team of three social workers. and we really monitor our cases. So if we do have a very heavy case, for example, if we're working with a younger person that might resemble similarities to our own personal lives, might have young children and really impact us

because we are human and we do get impacted, then it's really about having that open communication with our team about this, has impacted me and maybe I don't have capacity to take another case like this for a little while. Yeah. And really, you know, being supportive and open and honest with ourselves as well. It's certainly not, you know, over time I've realized that it's not a weakness to be able to say, I don't have capacity to take this on.

It's just a really smart way of working. But it is also about having that support from, your team and your supervisors to acknowledge once you say, you know, I'm at capacity, being able to have that listened to and responded in a good way because I can imagine there are other people out there that build up the confidence to communicate that and it's unfortunately not met in the way it needs to be. Absolutely. And I think we do have a strong focus on our clients and sometimes as a profession, our downfall is actually, you know, not being able to put into practice that self-care that we preach so well. And it is so important.

And of course, having a really strong personal network as well, you know, having a family that understands that if it has been a hard day, maybe I might not be as talkative when I get home. Maybe I need an hour to myself where I go for a walk. Maybe I schedule in my version of self-care and really having that commitment to myself and knowing that if I don't make time for it, then I'm not going to be my best possible self in my professional life or in my personal life. Yeah. Have you seen many changes in social work in these fields over time, be it private practice and palliative care in terms of maybe the hospital roles that we play

or responses to mental health concerns or even just stigma around death and dying? So interestingly enough, yes. And in regards to the stigma around death and dying, I think probably very apt timing is that there's been an ongoing debate around voluntary assisted dying, which has just been legalised in New South Wales. And so working in palliative care, it's certainly a topic that comes up quite often. And, you know, one that we've had to be really vigilant around the legalities and the discussions that we're having. with people as well. And again, that's going to be a process and it's going to be an ongoing learning experience for us as this new legislation is implemented in New South Wales as well. I suppose around the social work role, it's certainly come leaps and bounds, in my opinion.

The profession itself, I think, particularly throughout COVID, has really strengthened and found some really strong roots in the hospital system. We're certainly not just being seen as the bottom of the ladder in terms of allied health. Our value is really starting to be, you know, seen and utilized in multidisciplinary teams. So that's been really amazing. I think often as well, just even having that title, something as little as a title of therapist rather than just a social worker that focuses solely on service coordination and completing Centrelink documents.

It's really around, well, this person has therapeutic needs, counseling needs, and thinking, oh, yeah, we can refer to social work because they have the skills to do that. And I think that's fantastic. Yeah. If I had one huge goal within the profession itself, it's to see more and more. social workers recognized as specialists in their fields and having more social workers accredited as mental health social workers and able to provide Medicare benefits. Have you gone through that process of obtaining that accreditation yourself? I'm actually in the process at the moment.

It's a long process and it's one that has certainly changed a lot over the years. And so, yes, I'm still going through the process at the moment, and I have a brilliant mentor helping me in that. Perfect. Given that you are part-time in the hospital role, do you get much of an opportunity for attending conferences or professional development opportunities? Absolutely. I actually sit on the continued professional development portfolio group. So I actually, yeah, so I get the opportunity to actually plan and sometimes source a lot

of the professional development that we have access to, which is at minimum an hour and a half monthly. And so the invite is sent hospital-wide to the social workers, and the expectation is that we do attend. So it's really nice and we're encouraged as busy as our workloads are just to always schedule that in. And are those opportunities opening up a little bit more to attend, or are they still very much virtual?

They're still very much virtual. Yeah. And so quite recently as well, a colleague and I were asked to do a bit of a workshop in regards to voluntary assisted dying. And so there is an opportunity there as well to not just receive professional development, but also be a part of delivering and sharing our knowledge as well, which I think is always important. Yeah, absolutely. Given that The position you're in sounds to me like what you've been working for for so long. Like you've found it, you've gotten that sort of balance that you were after. Are there any other areas of social work that do interest you if you weren't doing what you do now? Absolutely.

I really, really enjoyed working in age care. I had a role in the therapeutic rehabilitation for over 65. And so I think the acronym used, the program is TACP. Yeah. Transitional age care program. And so really at that point in time, I had worked for many years for the federal government and really assessment, crisis intervention work. And I could feel myself extremely burnt out.

And I needed a change. And so I wanted to get into hospital work and community health specifically. So I applied for the job thinking, okay, it's community health. Great. It's a different experience. Why not? Let me just jump in and see how it goes. And I absolutely fell in love with aged care work.

And really, I would have loved to have stayed in it for a bit longer, but we can't do everything, can we? That's it. I really enjoyed it. Yeah. I also found a huge amount of fulfillment in the work that I did in the acute psychiatric ward. With that being said, it is really, really important to have strong supports in place

and frequent supervision. There is very high burnout and it's always important just to be aware. And again, just that reflective practice checking in with yourself, are you your best practitioner self and if not, what changes need to be made? Yeah. You mentioned earlier that you're working with schools and specifically kids returning to on-site learning. Are there any other programs or projects that you're able to be a part of at the moment? I have recently been asked to speak at a family law conference,

specifically providing a little bit of basic education around the impacts of domestic violence in family law. and what that might look like in the space of places like Centrelink or even the emotional development of young children who've been exposed to that. Yeah, that's exciting. So when's that coming up? I haven't got a date set yet. It's still early discussions, but it's certainly something I'm very excited about.

As I said, I think as a profession, we're really well placed to be able to educate around these kinds of and matters and if it makes a difference in how, you know, custody reports are written, then I think that's fantastic for the future generations. Yeah, and I've spoken to so many people who have a bit of a crossover between social work and legal and even people who have studied both. So it's really interesting to see that, A, there's a lot of crossover, but B, there are a lot of concepts around that social justice and supporting people that are common

across the areas. Yeah, absolutely. I'm also at the moment completing a course for something called family-based treatment for eating disorders. And it's, you know, an incredible piece of work that's quite specialised and there's a huge demand for clinicians all across Australia. The weight lists are huge. It's an increasing problem, particularly in young people. And, you know, social work. is lead the charge with this particular piece of work because it's family-based. Yeah. So that's something really interesting that I'm doing at the moment and eventually my practice will move towards offering that as a specialist program.

Amazing. And if anyone was interested in knowing more about the particular approaches you use, you mentioned Act earlier. There's probably a lot of mindfulness and trauma-informed and grief and loss in what you're doing. Do you have any good resources? anything they should be having a look at. Specifically to act, I cannot get enough of Russ Harris.

He's got some incredible books. Two books in particular I refer to quite a bit in regards to act. And this is specific to grief and loss. However, incredibly transferable skills, I use a lot of these skills when I'm working with younger people as well. So this one is act made simple. Lovely. And this one is actually.

actually the American version. I do believe that the Australian version has a different name, but this is when life hits hard. Brilliant. I can put those in the show notes as well so people can go off and do some reading. Yeah, fantastic. And in terms of resources, any new clinicians looking to just get an introduction to more of your psychologically focused strategies, really ASW have some incredible introductory courses, which gives you that foundational basis to start putting some of these skills into place. For someone who's a little bit more experienced and looking to really build on their foundational knowledge, psych wire have really, really great courses on not just

apt, but advanced CBT, motivational interviewing and emotionally focused therapy as well. Really great. I have worked a lot in the domestic violence space and there's an incredible model called Safe and Together, which is a American model. And a lot of other states actually, Queensland in particular, who generally take the lead on domestic violence legislation, they're implementing it and using it in their safety planning as well. So there is a course that you can do and there are partners in Australia that deliver that. course as well. So I highly recommend people working in that space to look at that. Yeah. Yeah. Is there any good viewing? I'm thinking there was a fantastic documentary that came out through St. Vincent's Hospital where I used to work called A Good Death. And that was a fantastic series on looking at palliative care from both inpatient and outpatient perspective. Have you seen anything good that you would recommend that's easy to kind of, it's very excessive. or that really gets it right in terms of representing the field?

No, not in particular, but there is a few associations. So there's an Australian palliative care association that you can actually go to and there's a lot of education and a lot of resources listed there for people who are interested in it. Yeah. I've probably not had a lot of time to watch anything, I suppose. Maybe there's something interesting I can go off and find out. out. Yeah, yeah. And before we finish up, is there anything else about your work or your journey specifically that you want people to know about? Just that if you are thinking about career planning,

do it early on and think about what steps you need to put in place to get there. Get yourself a good mentor. A lot of the times social work are mandated for supervision and we end up being supervised by our, you know, line supervisor, which isn't always the best arrangement. Do pay and get the external supervision if it's going to benefit you professionally. And yeah, really just networking is everything. Try and build strong networks and take on board what knowledge people have to give. Yeah. Yeah. I really love that you've had the capacity to build on your life experience and your exposure to supports at a young age and really keeping close to your heart those concepts of social justice. You've been so focused on progression towards that career and those goals. I think that's incredibly admirable.

And you've really worked on building your interdisciplinary networks and mentors in the field in order to have that support around you to do the work that you're doing. And you said before, developing our natural instincts for empowering people and families. We get into social work because we love this kind of work, but it's so important to make sure that we have the right amount of knowledge and skills and support. And it's not just jumping in and doing it. We have to be able to have enough time to build our capacity and maintain it. Yeah, it's not enough just to be able to do it. Yeah, the learning never stops. And I mean, also it's really important. that you value your profession, you know, we are important and we have really, really important

skills that a lot of other professions rely on as well to support people. Yeah. You've also facilitated some really challenging conversations when people are in crisis or they're at a crossroads in life. And I think what I'm hearing is that you're one of the fantastic social workers who are doing private practice but also clinical work and contributing to social work being seen of value within the health settings. So please keep doing what you're doing. It sounds amazing and I look forward to seeing where it takes you next. Thank you. Thanks, Yes, Yes,am. Yeah, thanks for doing this. I really appreciate your time and yeah, I'd love for other people to hear all about it. Yeah, it's been my absolute pleasure. What a great experience.

Thanks for joining me this week. If you would like to continue this discussion or ask anything of either myself or Cassandra, please visit my anchor page at anchor.fm slash social work spotlight. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or you can email SW Spotlightpodcast at gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you. Please also let me know if there is a particular topic you'd like discussed, or if you or another person you know would like to be featured on the show.

Next episode's guest is Nicoletta. who in addition to having studied social work holds a Bachelor of Psychology and a certificate for in mental health. She is passionate about social action and working with vulnerable communities and is a recovery caseworker in a community support living program. In her role, Nicoletta provides mental health recovery services and psychosocial supports to people experiencing severe and persistent mental health illnesses. I release a new episode every two weeks.

Please subscribe to my podcast so you'll notify when this next episode is available. See you next time.