Rational for the observations
The rational for using these observations retrospectively is to make sense of the whole person Amy’s life history, looking over her notes, why had she not engaged historically? Why the resistance? I wanted to understand how and why this was happening not just respond to the immediate crisis, rehouse and decontaminate her home for the behavioural pattern to be repeated. This method allowed me to explore theories of human growth and development and evaluate them with criticality (Monette et. 2014).
The application of observation methods informs social work processes and provided a reflective learning tool to my own SW values, ethics and anti-oppressive practice. Moreover, it provided ‘in action’ and ‘on action’ reflections from watching others and allowed for greater scope for reflections whilst observing. This method made me aware and observe the behaviours in others and how those behaviours are incongruent SW values and AOP. As an observer, you see things in others, things in yourself that you may not be aware of if
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Another advantage to been an observer was that I aware of the physical environment, I could observe in detail my surrounding and take mental images and notes in my head of true nature of the hoarding environment. I was also acutely aware not to express any oppressive, discriminatory non-verbal cues (shock at what I observed; feeling like I wanted to cover my mouth and nose to elevate my nausea) and aware of my internal dialogue (nobody should live like this; placing my own judgments and personal values). Reflections involved the careful assessment of my own values and whether this biased my observations. This method therefore allowed me to base my conclusions with a level of impartiality and objectivity (Towell and Miles,