Deafness, Disability and Social Work Training

In this episode of Surviving Social Work Training, the conversation explores what inclusion really means within social work education and practice. Through Christina’s reflections as a deaf social work apprentice, the episode considers the social model of disability, reasonable adjustments, communication barriers, self-advocacy, assistive technology, and the importance of creating learning and placement environments where disabled students and practitioners can thrive rather than simply cope.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello and welcome back to Surviving Social Work Training, the podcast where we talk honestly about what social work training is really like. The good bits, the difficult bits, the confusing bits, and the bits that feel a little messy too. Because let's be honest, training is not always neat and polished, and sometimes just hearing someone say that out loud can be a bit of a relief. Before we get into today's topic, I just want to pause for a second and do a quick check-in. How are you doing, really? Not the automatic, yeah, I'm fine answer we all tend to give, but actually, how are you? You might be listening to this on your way to placement. You might have just finished writing something you really did not want to write, or maybe your brain is completely full and you just needed half an hour or so to listen to something that feels grounding. Wherever you are, whatever kind of day you've had, just take a breath for a moment. You've made it this far, you're still here, and that matters more than you probably give yourself credit for. So today's episode is about something that really does not get talked about enough in social work trading. We spend a lot of time talking about inclusion. We talk about anti-oppressive practice, social justice, equality, empowerment, all of those really important ideas that are supposed to sit right at the heart of social work. But what we don't always talk about is whether social work itself actually feels inclusive from the inside. What's it like to move through training or practice when the system around you is not built with your needs in mind? So today I'm focusing on the experience of social workers or social work students who live with sight or hearing impairment. And this matters because if we're serious about inclusion as a profession, then we have to be willing to look at ourselves too, not just the systems around service users, but the systems inside social work education and practice. The centre of social work is the social model of disability. And if you've been in training for any length of time, you've probably heard that phrase more than once. But it's worth slowing down and really sitting with what that means. The social model tells us that people are not disabled simply because of an impairment. They're disabled by the barriers that exist around them: physical barriers, communication barriers, institutional barriers, attitudinal barriers. In other words, the problem is not the person, the problem is the environment that has not been designed to include them. And if we genuinely believe that, then we have to turn that same lens back onto social work itself. Because when lecture theatres are not accessible, when captions are poor or missing, when placements are rigid, when assessments are set up in ways that assume one normal way of communicating or working, then it's the system that's creating the disability experience, not the person. And that's where the contradiction starts to feel quite uncomfortable, doesn't it? Some research describes disabled students as carrying an extra, often invisible layer of work throughout their training. While everyone else is managing the demands of the course, they may also be navigating systems, negotiating adjustments, dealing with misunderstandings, or working around barriers that should not be there in the first place. And that can feel isolating. It can make you feel like you're doing the course and also doing something else on top, something that other people don't necessarily notice. And when we look through that with a social work lens, it brings us to power. Who gets to define what professional looks like? Who decides what competence sounds like, looks like, or feels like? And are we making enough room for different ways of communicating, processing, adapting, and practicing? Because if our standards only really work for one type of body, one type of communication style, or one type of learner, then those standards are not neutral, they're shaped by power. If we think about this from a critical or anti-oppressive practice perspective, it becomes even clearer. Social work teaches us to question structures that marginalise people. We're supposed to notice where systems exclude, where power sits, and who pays the price when institutions fail to adapt. So if a student has to keep fighting for adjustments and feel awkward asking for support or feel they're worried that they're going to be seen as difficult, that's not inclusive. That's structural inequality. And I think it's really important to say this clearly because sometimes these experiences get dismissed as misunderstandings or one-off issues. When patterns keep happening, they stop being individual problems and start looking like systemic ones. Under the Equality Act 2010, there is a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people are not placed at a substantial disadvantage. That duty applies to universities, placement settings, and to employees as well. So on paper, there's a framework there. There is law, there is responsibility, there is a clear expectation that people should not be excluded because systems have failed to adapt. But, and this is an important but having a legal duty in place does not automatically mean people experience fairness in reality. Adjustments can still be delayed, they can be inconsistent, they can depend too heavily on who your lecturer is, who your practice educator is, or whether the organization you're in really understands what accessibility means beyond ticking a box. And so, more often than not, the burden still falls on that individual to raise the issue, explain the issue, follow up the issue, and keep speaking up, even when they're sick to death of saying it. So the law matters, but lived experience matters too, and the two are not always aligned. Once people move into practice, many of these challenges don't simply disappear. In fact, some continue in really familiar ways. Communication is a big part of that. Social work, of course, relies heavily on communication, meetings, home visits, phone calls, case discussions, multi-agency work, recordings, presentations, yada yada yada. And too often those places are still organized around the assumption that there is one straightforward standard way to communicate. There's no single normal way to communicate. People process information differently, people express themselves differently, people access conversation and meaning in different ways. This isn't limited to somebody with a hearing impairment or a sight impairment. This can also act with somebody who is neurodivergent. So when workplaces stay fixed in a one-size-fits-all model, they create barriers for people who communicate differently. Not because those practitioners are less capable, but because the environment has not flexed to include them. And again, takes us straight back to the social model of disability. If the barriers are what disable people, then it is on the profession to remove those barriers where we can. It's not enough to admire resilience, it's not enough to expect people to just manage. Accessibility cannot be something people have to endlessly learn through effort and explanation. So why does this matter for you if it doesn't affect your own experience? Because inclusion is not just about service users, it's also about your colleagues, classmates, peers, and future professionals. It's about what kind of culture are we creating in social work and what kind of profession do we want to be part of? If social work is serious about anti-oppressive practice, and I really hope it is, then that commitment has to show up internally as well as externally. It has to mean creating spaces where disabled practitioners can train, qualify, contribute, and thrive without constantly being worn down by avoidable barriers. And honestly, that's not some extra add-on to good practice. That is good practice. That is what living your values looks like. It's about making sure inclusion is not just something we talk about in essays or policies, but something people can actually feel in the environments where they learn and work. I think this is where it's really important that we don't just talk about these experiences in theory. We actually hear from people who are living this in real time. Because while we can reflect on policy, theory, and research, there's something much more powerful about hearing directly from someone who's navigating these spaces every day. So today I'm really pleased to be joined by Christina, who is a social work apprentice and has been sharing some really thoughtful reflections on her placement experiences. And I just want to say before we start, Christina, I've already been really inspired by what you've shared with me so far, particularly around how you've navigated communication and practice on placement. So some of the questions I'm going to ask you today are not necessarily coming from me, they're coming from the people who may be listening, who might be thinking similar things, or who might not even realise what they don't yet understand. So thank you for being here and for being open to this conversation. To start us off, Christina, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your journey into social work?

SPEAKER_00 9:59

So I'm Christina. I used to be a teacher, so I was a teacher for 10 years, typically a maths teacher, and then I've moved into social work as an apprentice. I have two cats, I love my cats, and that's very important to note. Um, but I'm also profoundly deaf. So I can't hear anything without my hearing aids, and I use Roger Mike's, which has been complicated to navigate a world of social work, particularly when it's conversation based. Quite a lot of what we do is talking to people and understanding what they are saying. Um so maybe I kind of came into social work thinking that it was going to be a challenge. And why do I always choose things that I find really difficult? But at the same time, I'm really interested in people and really interested in getting those experiences. So it was a gamble, but it's been a journey, shall I say?

SPEAKER_02 11:12

So thinking about what you've already shared about your placement experience, how would you describe your hearing impairment in whatever way feels right or okay for you, and how that shapes your day-to-day experience in training or in practice?

SPEAKER_00 11:29

So my my hearing will always be part of my body and part of who I am, and I think my I went into placement very much focused on my hearing needs, focused on what I needed practically and what I felt that I needed to be put in place. But actually, throughout placement, I've actually come to realize that my hearing doesn't limit me, it actually gives me an insight into things in a different way from other people. So I kind of probably gone off on a tangent, but feel that my hearing hasn't I started my placement journey with my hearing navigating that, and now it's such a small part of what I do because I've realized that I do do things in a slightly different way, but that's perfectly fine.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

And yeah, so I I guess with people listening, um, they might not have actually thought about this before or thought about how someone could work or practice if they've got hearing impairment. So would you say that people could often misunderstand about your hearing impairment and how that could be managed within a social work setting?

SPEAKER_00 13:06

I think so. I think when you meet me, you wouldn't initially recognize that I can't hear. You wouldn't, it wouldn't be like, oh, this is really obvious. Um, and I think the comment that many people say to me is you don't look deaf, and deaf is something that you don't look or you don't sound. Um, in my case, because I acquired my hearing loss, you can't hear it in my speech in the same way as someone who was born deaf. Um, so I feel like the barriers that I might have are around communication not being clear and my reluctance to say, actually, I didn't quite hear that. You need to say that clearer, you need to face me when you're speaking. It might be around someone saying, Do you want a tea or a coffee in the office? which is a very practical thing, but they've said it to the back of my head and I don't realise. And so I just think I ignore them. Um, which if they didn't understand as to why I was ignoring them, and that I'm not being rude, does actually look like something quite rude. Um, and I think because I'm so open and I think it's a social work thing that you want to be accommodating to everyone else, and you don't want to be rude, and you don't want to put those barriers in place for people that um I'm so conscious of not wanting to appear that that I tell everyone a million times what I need, but actually, what I need is quite minimal, I just need to be open and honest, and then people are accommodating. So, um, shall we call him Scott? My first direct observation. I wasn't open and honest with my service user that I couldn't hear because I felt that was me sharing too much of me in my head. I felt that, oh, it would be a really negative thing to share. And he made the comment to you afterwards. Well, it would have been really good if you'd have told me that. And that has stayed with me all the way through my placement. And when I think, should I tell a service user? I go back to that comment and I'm like, yes, I should. That is the reason that I need to be open and honest because it's them really understanding when I say, I'm really sorry I didn't hear that. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

So I uh around your kind of experience of your training and your placement, um, what has that experience been for you as someone who's hearing impaired? Have there been kind of moments where you've felt really supported? Have there been m moments where you've felt actually that the system in place hasn't kind of met you where you needed it to?

SPEAKER_00 16:29

So if we start with the times, sometimes the system has kind of let me down. I think starting, I was really conscious to get my access to work implemented beforehand, and because I put that in before you started the apprenticeship, that all comes through remarkably quickly. So I put it in and I got a call the next day, which I was shocked by. Um, but then there was a delay getting the technology, and so the first couple of weeks at uni, I made do with various bits that I'd already had. Um, so that was really challenging, and then some lecturers would show a video and it wouldn't have captions, and they would go, Oh, do you really need them? And I I don't know how to explain it. It's like sound over a video that's not screened directly to my hearing aids, just sounds like muffled noise. So I can't distinguish, you can't lip read a video because it doesn't work in the same way. Um, so I can't access the content. I can see the pictures and I can put together my brain what I would think the sound was saying, but if it wasn't connected, that was really challenging. Um, and I felt at points I wasn't heard, but then there are points of absolute happiness in my lecturing, like one lecturer. I I always introduce myself at the start. I go, I'm Christina, here's my Roger Mike. So Roger Mike is like a portable microphone, which essentially takes a lecturer's voice and streams it directly into my hearing aids so I don't get background noise, I'm not affected by distance so much. Um, it does mean anything your lecturer is saying, you can hear. So there has been points that I have like run after them because they've walked off to have a private conversation with my Roger Mike. Um, but lecturers have really adapted to that, and that system really worked. And then we did a mental health lecturer, and the lecturer for that was so good and was like, uh, I've printed out my notes for you because I thought that might be helpful, and I hadn't even asked that, and so it's like moments of thoughtfulness, but it's all like in a bundle of noise, and I think I get really tired of constantly having to advocate for myself. Can you put the captions on? And yeah, okay, I'm only saying it four times a day, but I'm saying it four times a day for three months. Um, and you're saying it four times a day for three months in front of the same people the whole time, and so you feel like I think that I got to a point that I did have caption fatigue that the actual act of asking again seemed like it was really hard. And then coming on placement, I wasn't really sure what to expect and what to do. And I felt like the moment that I was like, yes, I can trust, I guess, trust you and trust my on-site supervisor was when you named that actually, Christina, you can't lip read, note-take, follow a conversation all at the same time. Because to lip read, you need to be looking at the person. To note-take, you need to be looking at your notes. Like you're not superhuman. Um this isn't a deficit on you, you're trying to do so much that actually your disability is holding you back. We've just got to find another way to deal with it. And it's that conversation that for me was a real turning point that you did notice that actually I was finding things really tough because of my disability, but went a step further that it wasn't my problem, it was our problem to solve. And really working with me to solve that problem meant that all of a sudden I didn't have to hide my challenges, I didn't have to like keep them invisible. I could share them and they weren't going to be written down as the deficits of everything. But then that long my placement journey. Made me start to think about the communication of others and how we communicate so with individuals with learning disability who are not typically verbal, like they might use accoladic phrases, they may use communication aids, they might use different things. Um so yeah, my journey with communication across my placem has been quite long.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

I'm glad you explained about the Roger Mics because that was something I was actually going to ask you to talk about, the the tech that you have to support you. So you obviously have the Roger Mics that feed straight into your hearing aids. The telephone system, your your phone links straight into your hearing aids, doesn't it? Does that work the same with your laptop?

SPEAKER_00 23:01

So for my laptop, I simply plug my Roger Mic into my laptop, which is also massively beneficial because it charges the Roger Mic. So then I don't have to remember to plug it into charge. Um, but I also use a connected system of table mics, which are slightly more powerful than Roger Mics, but they just pick up sound in a vaster area. Um and I think the tech along the way has been a learning curve for me. Um it's something I'm genuinely really interested in, is how do I use the tech to make my life easier? Um, and what was commented on, which I didn't even realize the UEA systems D, is that if you use the mics and it connects to the university systems, it um picks up on their overall system. So when they record a lecture, the sound is so much clearer for everyone. Um, which is very clever. I'm not sure how it works, but it's one of those moments that um for me the tech allows me to be my best self. Um and I will say that it's not easy to find um access to work, I'm really good, but you have to learn how it works. And I learnt it through experimenting and through Google um because it it is quite a unique system. It's taken me quite a few years to work out how things work together and what you can do and what you can't do, but everyone's been really patient with that. I also use a captioning program. So when I spoke about not being able to lip read and note-take, well, I was always going to have to understand what someone is saying to me. So I can't take away the lip reading part of that, but note-taking, I can really openly uh skip family. Would I be able to use an electronic note-taker, which note-takes for me? Um, and you do end up with a lot of pages because it's simply a transcription. But for me, that meant I didn't have any pressure on the quality of my own notes, so that I could write things down to go back to them in a conversation, or I could write something down because actually that's really important, it can't get missed in that transcription. Um, but if I missed a name, because I find names incredibly difficult, because most of what I hear is a combination of sounds and predictable sounds. Names are just random sounds, and I can't predict what the words are going to be. So I find them incredibly difficult, but they're so important in social work. I can't say to that someone eight times what's your dog's name, or what's your brother's name, or who was that person. They're so important. So the transcription picks it up for me, and I can also go back to the audio at that specific point in that transcription. So even if I think actually I'm not sure that was right, I can then use the colleague, I can use other things, so I'm not relying on my own hearing, but I'm getting the details that I need. Um and yeah, so tech is really important, but it's using tech really openly. I think a Roger Mike looks like it records everything, it looks like a dictaphone. So if you just put it on the table, I I would say if someone put it on the table and I didn't know what it was, what's that? Not because I'm challenging someone using it, because it's a genuine question. What are you just putting on the table? It looks a bit weird. Um, so it goes back to that open and honest part. Nobody has said, no, you can't use a broadger mic, no, you can't use an electronic note taker. And before I asked, I thought people would.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Are there any particular uh kind of situations that feel more challenging, like meetings or being in a group or people talking fast? I know we've talked before about people putting their hand in front of their mouth without thinking and how that can cause confusion and can be a frustration at times. Where else do you do you feel that is the most challenging?

SPEAKER_00 28:40

I getting used to the office environment was very challenging to start with. I think because I was so anxious about what sound is happening where, um I found that really complicated. But I developed strategies and everyone in the team was really understanding of me being really anxious about it, so would ask me three times if I ignored them for a coffee and then give up and go into my eyeline and ask me for do you want a coffee? They wouldn't just ignore me completely. Um, I also find meetings really hard, um, and in-person meetings. So online meetings, I'm very much in control. I can put captions on and nobody can see that. I can people are very much more disciplined online about not talking over each other, whereas in person I have to understand who is talking, which when you don't have any directional sense of sound, is a challenge in itself. Um, and then I also need to be able to lip read them. So our meeting room that we typically meet in as a team is actually quite small, and so we sit all around the outside, but it kind of means that I end up in lines um and I can't lip read through people because people are quite opaque. Um, and so when you're trying to lip read and someone's head is in the way, you end up like moving back and forth. But again, people are understanding, and I think it's that confidence to go, actually, I didn't hear that, I didn't get that. What did you say? Can you repeat it? Um, I think like the meeting that I've come from today was in a quite a chaotic household, and people were talking over each other, um one individual consumed quite a lot of alcohol, and that's quite complicated to understand the conversation, but I think I'm also really understanding that that's complicated for anyone to understand. I pick it up and I go, Oh, is that because you can't hear? And I I actually think that the conversations that were happening today, there was about three happening simultaneously all at the same time, despite there only being two individuals there, um, would have been quite confusing for anyone to understand. So it moves it away from what I find complicated, and I think everyone finds different meetings and different scenarios complicated in their own way, and everyone develops their own strategies which will be different for absolutely everyone.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Um yeah, so I think you're you're starting to touch on this a little bit, and I want to make sure I do focus on this around your kind of strengths because I think when you came onto placement, I think it's fair to say that you came in very deficit focused. I can't hear, therefore, I don't know how I'm gonna do this, pretty much. So, what you've learned during the course of your placement, what do you think that that lived experience has kind of brought to your practice?

SPEAKER_00 32:57

I think when someone says the system is annoying or the reasonable adjustment hasn't been provided, I know what that feels like. I know what it feels like to be judged, I know what it feels like to feel like the world is against you for needing something in a different way. Um, and I also feel like I went to see a service user who didn't really communicate verbally. Um, and we had a big, and I was like, he was really anxious. And he had autism, he likes his routine, and he changed his routine when he came home from his day service um because he wanted to talk to me. Um, and that was how I knew that he was really anxious. Admittedly, the words and verbal conversation wasn't clear, wasn't there, but I think I was really looking at his non-verbal communication and really understanding that I'm not a great verbal communicator, I don't like relying on just words because I you talk about lip reading, but it's like situation reading. I have to understand people's body language far more because that's where I get that information. But I think for my lived experience, what is really, really valid is that really understanding when a family might go to you and go, I'm really struggling with this system, this system doesn't work for this. Like my mum is also deaf, and we've had numerous challenges that systems phone you up as the first thing. Now, my mum doesn't have the tech that I have to hear on a phone and can't hear on a phone at all. Um so we've asked people not to call, but they still do. Um we've and it really understanding that actually if someone says I need this, I understand what it's then like for that to be ignored. Um rightfully or wrongfully ignored, but I feel that I do bring a lot of understanding about how life can be hard at times.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

I mean, obviously, social work is a career where we talk a lot about kind of um inclusion and working anti-oppressively. Um I do wonder whether certain career paths like social work don't always necessarily welcome with open arms people who do have an impairment, be that sight or hearing impairment. You don't find many social workers. I've not come across any social workers, to be honest, who are sight or hearing impaired previously. Um, as you're aware, we have someone else on our team who sort of sits under a different umbrella who also is hearing impaired, but hadn't ever actually worked with a hearing impaired student before. And let me just be very clear, I'm not considering you or calling you now the hearing impaired student. You know, you are Christina first and foremost, you happen to have a hearing impairment. What kind of advice would you give to someone? Be they think, you know, be they a student now, or you know, that they're kind of looking at their next possible career change, you know, someone with a hearing impairment, what advice would you give to them if they were looking to come into social work?

SPEAKER_00 37:11

I I've loved my placement and I've really loved my experience. And for all the barriers, it has been worth every single one. Um because it is challenging. You do need a bit of resilience, you do need to, I think, be in a place where you are ready to accept your disability as part of you, but uh also ready to use that disability in a way to help other people. Um I do feel like the first uh thing that part of paperwork that they give you for the apprenticeship is all about disabilities and all about um any medical conditions that you've got because you have to be fit to practice as a social worker. Um that that did make me go, am I going to not get this apprenticeship? But I was really open and honest from the second I got my interview that actually I did need adjustments, that what these adjustments were. Um, and for me, being open and honest from the second that I got that meant that I felt feel like I haven't received any negative discrimination. I haven't had to keep my disability hidden. Um it is very hidden because you can't, you don't look at me and go you're deaf. Um but it's not hidden at all. And people have had those conversations. So I would say be really open and honest from the start. Um you will never, it's not like something you can hide and get over. Um a sight or a hearing impairment will always be that. Um, you might be able to use tech, you might get a cochlear implant, but ultimately if your tech fails or your hearing aids die, or you lose your glasses, you've got that impairment as part of you. And I feel for me, being really open that this is this is me. Um if you don't like it, there's not anything that I can really change about that. I can't make myself be hearing, I I can't. I can adapt things, but I think for me, where I would say is just be open and honest and say when you find things hard.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

No, I completely what I would say is in the conversations that we've had, um it's it's been really clear to me in the fact that you know you have been forced to take ownership of your hearing impairment since I've known you publicly, which I think is something that you know you are very able to hide effectively the fact that you are hearing impaired. However, I think from the off, I you know, I actively encouraged you to put it out there and just to kind of address the elephant in the room from the start. And I think as soon as you were able to do that, and that was that's a really, really tough thing to do, it's far very easy for me to say, you know, you gotta own it, very easy for me to say that, but from your position, especially with an acquired hearing loss, it must have been incredibly difficult for you. And I and and that's part of why I really wanted us to do today because I felt it was important that if there's other students or apprentices out there, or if there's other teams or practice educators who are perhaps fearful of uh you know having a student or an apprentice join their team who have a hearing impairment, you know, that actually you've smashed it. It's it's not been a barrier for you because you've worked and you've found your ways to manage it. And we've always kind of highlighted the fact that much as you know, you don't you're not able to hear everything, you have the ability to rely on your other senses, and you're probably more aware of your other senses than somebody who does have their hearing, because I think we can become too reliant on what we hear, and we're not taking as much note of our other senses. And we know that in social work you need to do that, you can't just take things at face value or take them from what the spoken word from what you're told. Um, so if we were looking at kind of placements or practice educators or employers, is there anything that you feel as somebody who's hearing impaired going through the process you're going through? Is there anything that you feel that they would need to understand about how best to support somebody who's hearing or sight impaired? Appreciate you can't speak from the perspective of a sight impairment, other than the fact we're both sat here wearing glasses. Um, but is there anything that you you know you think would be really important for them to understand or that they could do differently?

SPEAKER_00 43:00

I think for me, the part of my hearing impairment that people don't see is the tiredness that lip reading all day makes you incredibly fatigued. Um and I just deal with it. Um it's something that I know, and it's something that I find really easy to do, but I think it's also that it's something that's really overlooked, and I imagine it's probably the same for someone who's sight impaired, that actually navigating a new environment with new sounds, with new people, with new accents, with new background noises is really challenging and that can be really tiring. But I'd also point out things like um I really struggle to identify sounds. So if you notice someone all of a sudden always looking up every time the printer goes off, it might just be worth going, that's the printer. And once someone's named a sound to me, that's like I can then ignore that sound. That's that's just noise. Um, but I think it's the case of being really open with someone. Um experience at times like people saying, Oh, you don't look deaf. It's not that hard, you can just work, like you can just manage. And I think it's actually that learning that you did that's saying, actually, your disability is hindering you here, it is holding you back. But what can we do to make that help going forward? Um, it's really hard to identify where someone's disability is holding them back for anyone, because nobody wants to be that person to say, actually, I think your disability is holding you back here. But changing the emphasis from being on the person to being as a team, I felt was really powerful and really interesting. Um, but also getting people's lived experience that changed my view on my hearing. So I think my placement has has gone well, but there's been ups and downs, and I think every interaction I've taken something from.

SPEAKER_01 45:59

Have you got anything else that you would like to say to the listeners out there, Christina?

SPEAKER_00 46:07

I'd say just take every experience, and you can do everything that you want to put your mind to, even if you have to do it in a slightly different way.

SPEAKER_02 46:22

So that's excellent. I'd really like to thank you for talking to me today, Christina. Um, and you know, all the very best for your future placement. Um, I know you're going to be moving on from us quite shortly. Um, and all the best for your future career.

SPEAKER_01 46:40

Thank you for joining us. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 46:47

I'd like to thank Christina again for joining me in the podcast today. And I think that what really stays with me after that conversation is this social work asks us to notice barriers in people's lives. We're trained to question systems, to challenge inequality, to recognize where power sits and who it benefits. But sometimes the hardest and most important thing to do is to turn that same lens back onto our own profession and our own practice. Because inclusion isn't just about what we say, it's about what people actually experience. And if someone has to repeatedly adapt themselves to fit into a system, then maybe it's the system that needs to change. That's it for me this month, and I will be back with you next month where we're going to be talking about transitions and how you transition from a student into placement. And I've got two more students coming in to have a little chat with me about that. So thanks very much. Keep doing what you're doing, keep the faith.

SPEAKER_01 47:51

You've got this. Bye for now.