15/09/03 - Social Services TV First

On Thursday 18 September, Cumbria County Council's Social Services take part in a Border TV documentary called `Nightlife' The programme is a six part series showing what different people do at night. On Thursday the programme covers Cuedoc services and follows Social Worker Helen Gilmore as she deals with vulnerable people around the county. Helen says,   

"I think that social workers get a bit of a raw deal from the media generally. It was nice to work with Border TV and experience a different approach. Although the way I work as a social worker in the `Out of Hours' team is slightly different from most of my social work colleagues, the commitment and desire to help people is something we all share. We are here to help people in crisis and that's what we do, day and night. "   

Helen works in the `Out of Hours' Social Services Team. The means that she works nights, weekends and bank holidays when the normal social care services are unavailable. Out of Hours Social Workers are skilled in all areas of social care, as they have to deal with children, the elderly and people with mental health problems. County Councillor John Mallinson, Cabinet spokesman for Care and Social Services says,   

"This is a first for Cumbria Social Services. Social Workers have a difficult job to do and are often criticised for their actions. Unfortunately as the job involves helping the most vulnerable people in society those people, quite understandably sometimes, are not willing or able to tell the media about how they have been helped. I am delighted that Border TV has taken this on board with this programme and followed Helen as she went about her duties on a fairly typical night for the Out of Hours Team. I'm looking forward to watching the programme and hope this initiative from Border TV will encourage others to cover social work and social care workers in a more realistic and positive way." 

Neil Robinson, Executive Producer, Border Television says,   

"There's lots going on in Cumbria during the hours of darkness, in both work and leisure, and we've captured several of these in our Nightlife programmes. But our look at what Social Services do after normal office hours is fascinating. We've had a rare glimpse of the nature of social work in Cumbria and I think many people will be interested to see what happens. " The first Nightlife programme looked behind the scenes at some of Cumbria's nightspots and in contrast this programme looks at the work of the doctor emergency service Cuedoc as well as social services."