What is it about?
The article is about why and how social workers can benefit from reflective practice and learning from their mistakes.
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Why is it important?
Mistakes is a shameful experience for any practitioner. The article demonstrates how powerful reflection on mistakes is to make any social worker a better reflective practitioner. Examples and case studies are offered to reinforce this conclusion.
Perspectives
The title of this article is ‘learning from mistakes in social work’ but, in the light of the arguments presented, hopefully it is clear that it could be turned into ‘The responsibility to learn from mistakes in social work’ because reflection and, above all, reflection on mistakes is not only technically possible but also ethically desirable. Saying that ‘mistakes happen’ does not encourage a surrender to the inevitable and running toward self-absolution. On the contrary, it should push social workers to stop, think, learn and act anytime something negative happens during their activity. If somehow service users have been harmed yesterday, they have to be healed today and other users can be helped more effectively tomorrow because of the learning coming from an honest and brave reflection on previous failures. Shame and victimisation coming from any form of ‘blame culture’ are just some of the main obstacles on building a culture of responsibility in health and social services.
Dr Alessandro Sicora
Universita degli Studi di Trento
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Learning from mistakes in social work, European Journal of Social Work, April 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/13691457.2017.1320980.
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