Blog by Peter Smith
Before retirement I worked as a registered social worker for over 40 years. On retiring I involved myself in Public Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) work due to having long term health conditions and a continuing interest in adult social care. One of my volunteering roles is to work with the social work team at Teesside University. We celebrate World Social Work Day annually and this year, on the 18th March 2025 we held a morning session at the university for MA and BA students, practitioners and PPIE representatives on the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Social Work.
My wife, Debbie and I (another PPIE representative and registered social worker) gave a 30-minute presentation on our involvement with AI in health and social care. I was able to draw on the research I had been involved with through AI MULTIPLY and other universities research, such as AIM-CISC at Edinburgh University. I talked about the definition of AI and its subset, Generative AI. I explained how researchers are using AI and large datasets to identify effective medical treatments using information obtained from our individual health records. I talked about how researchers, clinical specialists and public contributors are coming together to share findings and discuss how research should be developed further. I was able to explain how researchers are now able to identify commonalities between family members, how AI helps identify detailed correlations between conditions and outcomes and how two or more health conditions can interact and create issues for medication prescribing. We talked about the ethical considerations of using AI, how data is gathered, public perception and the concerns being expressed regarding where the use of AI may lead.
The remainder of the event focused on how AI is being introduced to local authority social care departments as a way of assisting with recording of assessments, supporting supervision sessions and identifying appropriate legislation. We concluded by considering how AI would influence our lives over the coming years in the same way computers did when introduced 60+ years ago.