Hello Mary
Your comments are spot on.  Mind you I have to confess to being a Scorpio
and prone to periods of despair and foot stamping!  Oops that wasn't a very
psychoanalytic thing to say :-)  I will get in touch with you about the use
of teddy bears for regressed adolescents.  Teddy bears have been my co
therapists for many years.
Best
Gerald
-----Original Message-----
From: Mary R Keogh <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 14 June 2001 10:52
Subject: Re: Discontinuation of course


So you're 'down but not out', Gerald - that sounds fairly uncomfortable
albeit with the implication of still having some fight in you.  All your
frustrations seem to come from the bureaucracy which confounds your attempts
to deliver the sort of service that fits with your deeply held convictions.
The irony seems to be that (some of the time anyway) the bureacracy has
perhaps developed in order to ensure standards of service and protection of
the vulnerable, but the result feels frustrating and unsatisfactory.

I would love to hear more about your 'use of teddy bears for regressed
adolescents'

Best wishes

Mary

>>> [log in to unmask] 06/12/01 03:27pm >>>
Hello Mary
Yes, Paul's post really touched a nerve for me.   I have nightmares about
the sort of therapists and social workers that the current systems will
release on the world.  Every regulation and intervention is written and
spoken about in abbreviations.  Last week I received a letter from a local
authority asking if I would see a 17 year old lad, who is still in care.
Oops! I should have said is now a looked after child/young person.
Personally I would prefer the term cared for by X local authority, but I
digress.  The letter was three pages long and contained so many references
and abbreviations that I couldn't understand a word of it.  I telephoned the
boy's social worker, sorry care manager, and asked her if she would get the
boy to telephone me so that he could make arrangements to come and see me at
a time that would suit us both.  Well! that would have meant that he would
be entering into a contractual arrangement on behalf of the local authority
without the statutory instrument and without the prior knowledge and consent
of the ???????????? department.  This conversation made my heart sink to my
boots.  I was left wondering if this woman spoke to her clients in such a
bureaucratic and coded way.  My misery was compounded by receiving a
telephone call from a London college asking me if I could change my talk to
student social workers from 'The use of teddy bears for regressed
adolescents' to something more in line with  quick throughput, which is
essential to social work practise.  I declined.  So the old man is down but
not out.  I saw the boy who was referred to me ; we decided that we could
work together on an open ended basis, but perhaps looking at around two
years or so, give or take, also that when he enjoys an income that he could
contribute something towards his sessions.  The local authority grudgingly
agreed to the plan after saying that they only expected it to take a maximum
of six sessions.  So perhaps Mr X who is in charge of contractual
arrangements in department ??????????? isn't such a bad chap after all.  I
just wonder who will have to do without their chair lift or bath rail to
balance the books.
Kindest
Gerald
Gawd don't I go ON!!
-----Original Message-----
From: Mary R Keogh <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 11 June 2001 15:48
Subject: Re: Discontinuation of course


Wow!!  you certainly sound really fired up Gerald.  I salute your passion
and completely agree with you on Academia (and it seems to apply to so many
other areas of life too).  Whatever can't be audited simply doesn't exist.
It's much more important to have some sort of piece of paper evidence than
to have intangible qualities like commitment, caring or integrity.

Yes, I know these places have to account to mammon but in doing so they're
losing sight of what really counts in the courses they are providing and
eventually students will realise it and stop applying for them.

These are of course my own views and not those of the institution for whom I
work!

Mary


>>> [log in to unmask] 06/11/01 03:00pm >>>
Dear Paul
It sound like they waited until you could be pensioned off and let this
coincide with trashing the course you head.  The gits have done you and your
students up like a kipper.  Do you know Paul, I am on the point of getting
the hell out of anything to do with academia and therapy.  The bureaucrats
have ripped the heart from caring and freedom of thought.  When someone
asked me who I should like to win the General Election I replied that I
couldn't give a toss as no Government would support anything that I once
felt passionately about.  Indeed anyone who shows passion instead of moronic
obedience quickly has the spark of life extinguished from them.
Kindest
Gerald
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Carney <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 11 June 2001 09:18
Subject: Discontinuation of course


>Dear list
>
>On a personal note, I have been informed that the BSc (Hons)
>Counselling 'top-up' course, for which I am the admissions and course
>tutor, is to be discontinued after the September intake of this year.
>
>It seems that the university considers the size of groups on this sort of
>course to be not economical enough to continue supporting them and
>that, as I can retire in two years time, they can save money by not re-
>appointing.
>
>Mammon rules!
>
>
>Best wishes
>
>Paul Carney
>
>
>Paul Carney
>Senior Lecturer
>School of Health & Social Science
>Coventry University
>Priory St
>Coventry England CV1  5FB