Whiting & Birch (E-Journals)
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Autoethnography for social workers: New approaches
No full textIn this paper the authors introduce readers to the field of autoethnography (AE). They provide an overview of the field, then describe several different forms of AE. These include positive autoethnography, collaborative AE, duoethnography, and digital autoethnographical psychobiography, in both national and international formats (DCAP and IDCAP). They point out how AE is distinguished from autobiography. They stress the application of AE as a way for social work academics, their students, and their service users to capture elements of their professional practice, and the nature of their working relationships and experiences. This approach enables social workers and their clients to participate as equal partners in a process which can be cathartic as well as being respectful of each other’s position
A Practitioners' Mutual Aid Group: Connection and Leadership During the Pandemic
Full text linkThis article focuses on group leadership during times of crisis, using an example of a social work practitioners’ mutual aid group formed during the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States. As the group learned, external crises change over time and this can impact group formation and the development of mutual aid, as well as leadership. We observed that group leadership supported group participants to and through Bolsinger’s (2020) adaptive phase of development during the pandemic and its associated personal stressors. This occurred during the storming – and into the norming – stages of the group (Tuckman, 1965; Bonebright, 2010). Ongoing participant reflection and group meta-reflection yielded broader understanding of interactions between stages of group development, and phases of crisis. In addition, it highlighted an associated need for flexible leadership that is sensitive to the changing external stressors during times of social or environmental crisis. Such leadership can also undergird the development of mutual aid among group participants, an important consideration at any time
Five levels and four filters: a personal reflection on the Pathways to Psychiatric Care
No full textIn this personal reflection on Goldberg and Huxley’s seminal Pathways to Care model, the author considers how it has provided a framework for research she has carried out during her career in primary care mental health. The levels described in the model are not only of epidemiological significance, but also represent the, quite different, ‘worlds’ encountered within mental health care. The filters are the sites at which negotiation is required to pass through (in either direction) and where quality of communication becomes paramount
Organization of school social work: Collaboration between a student health-team and a leisure center
Full text linkMany children in need of social support in various forms fall through the cracks and thus do not receive the support they would need. Children's support needs can either be identified by adults in the children's vicinity or alternatively by the children themselves. In the latter case, the support needs to be visible and accessible to the children, to enable the children to initiate support themselves.This article is based on a previous case-study and show, in summary, that the professionals do outreach and exploratory work with the aim of identifying the children in need of support, who do not seek the support themselves. The outreach and exploratory work may need to be adapted based on the situation and needs. The professionals use their judgement, sense perception and practical knowledge to be able to adapt the work based on children's needs. But to be able to adapt the work requires that the professionals have room for action and resources, as the situated work requires more time and knowledge. When the professionals use their full range of action and work in the border country, they can make a difference, say the professionals in the study. The professionals work to make it accessible and create agency so that children have the opportunity to seek support themselves if needed. In order to increase children's conditions for seeking support, they work on professional relationship building, this with the aim of children feeling trust and confidence when they need to seek support and thereby dare to talk about what can feel difficult. The relationship-building work is promotion and prevention, which can risk being held back when the remedial work takes too much time and resources. The professionals state that commitment is an important part of the relationship-building work, and that they use themselves as tools when creating relationships with children.In order for more children in need of support to be identified, the professionals may need more knowledge about specific children. By using a collaborative practice technology, the professionals can share their knowledge, so a larger overall picture of the children is created. By working cross-border, the person who has a relationship with the child can carry out the work, while the person with the greatest competence in the relevant area supervises the executor
“If there was one piece of advice I could give you as you go on placement it would be about ‘soft skills’”: Practice Teacher’s advice to Social Work students
Full text linkPractice teachers are the fulcrum of social work practice education: the point around which practice placement revolves and the principal point of support for students on placement. Given their experience, practice teachers are best placed to advise students about going on placement. This research sought to garner the principal advice that Irish social work practice teachers would offer to students as they set out on their placement. Contrary to expectation, the practice teachers largely chose to focus their advice on the, somewhat neglected area of soft skills, elevating this to similar status as the ‘hard skills’ of practice. Preliminary research findings from this research were shared in a social-media-friendly spoken-word-video in order to rapidly disseminate the advice to students (Flanagan & Wilson, 2023a) and this article further interrogates the advice, placing it in the context of academic literature on soft skills and their contribution to the development of a ‘professional self’. The article maps the key soft skills essential to placement and practice according to literature and operationalises these skills in the advice of practice teachers
No one is talking to Practice Educators about Generative Artificial Intelligence
Full text linkThis mixed methods research included 50 participants to explore Practice Educators experiences of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) in social work settings.
Survey and interview data illustrated a general lack of awareness about what Gen AI platforms may be used and how to use them safely. Although a small number of Practice Educators are experimenting with different AI tools, they appear to be doing this in isolation and often covertly. None of the participants in the empirical research reported here, were aware of their employer having an AI policy, nor had they received guidance from universities about student use of AI on placement.
The article concludes that it is timely for social work employers to develop a strategic approach to Gen AI which will include practice guidance, training and ongoing support to enable social workers to ethically and competently use Gen AI. There is also a role for universities and social work professional bodies to lead the way in this emerging technology and harness its capabilities within social work education and practice
Militancy and children’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Experiences from Nigeria
No full textArmed violence is significantly associated with mental stress among those who are affected by it. The experience tends to be extreme for children, who as soft targets are very prone to suffer a combination of physical harm and mental torture even beyond childhood. To provide more evidence about this, the current study investigated the effects of militancy on the experience and prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder among children in Imo State, Nigeria. In-depth interviews were used to obtain information from 16 respondents. A purposive sampling technique was employed to select children affected by militancy-related post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as adults, who helped with triangulating the responses of the children. Findings revealed that post-traumatic stress disorder among children included the experiences of anxiety, lack of concentration, violent nightmares, loss, displacement and disruption of daily life routine. Despite limited access to mental health services, traditional methods were commonly used to address post-traumatic stress disorder. Hence, the need to incorporate cultural perspectives into mental health interventions, emphasizing the need for culturally attuned approaches to address the mental well-being of affected children. Caregivers such as psychologists, guidance counselors, psychiatrists, school administrators, and social workers can link, advocate and collaborate with relevant authorities to establish accessible and culturally sensitive mental health services in the community
The Ecology of Social Integration. Practices and policies between social factors and subjectivity
No full textThe article emphasizes the importance of policies and practices contrasting social exclusion and promoting social integration in a new ‘ecological’ approach to mental healthcare. The relationship between the subjectivity of the person, their social capital, the services and institutions of our societies, the role of the social determinants of mental health are described. Inequities and inequalities arise from a number of parameters encompassed for instance by the Mental Health Integration Index developed by Peter Huxley and colleagues. At the same time, these parameters impact on individuals and their capabilities to use resources and opportunities, that is crucial in the field of mental health. The overall concept of citizenship is key for social integration. Citizenship rights are related to the power of individuals in the social domain and are regulated in psychiatry by the existing institutions and the level of social sanction they establish for ‘deviant behaviors’, condemning them to social exclusion. Thus, the need for a work of de-institutionalization and the shift of people and otherwise wasted resources to new community services. The example of Trieste, Italy is proposed for a possible action encompassing a set of levels that are required for this action. Merely ‘clinical’ services seem not to address the complex issue of comprehensive care. The main elements of a whole person, whole life and whole system approach, needed to enable individuals to be active member of their community, are finally summarized and outlined
Mental health reform in Russia: A multisectoral and multidisciplinary action research programme
No full textThis paper describes a project to facilitate mental health reform in one Russian oblast (region) using systematic approaches to policy design and implementation. The author led a multidisciplinary team which undertook a three-year action-research programme across three pilot sites, comprising a multifaceted set of interventions combining situation appraisal to inform planning, sustained policy dialogue at federal and regional levels to catalyse change, introduction of multidisciplinary and intersectoral-working at all levels, skills-based training for professionals, and support for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to develop new care models. Training programmes developed in this process have been adopted into routine curricula with measurable changes in staff skills. Approaches to care improved through multidisciplinary and multisectoral service delivery, with an increase in NGO activities, user involvement in care planning and delivery in all pilot sites. Hospital admissions at start and end of the study fell in two pilot sites, while the rate of readmissions in all three pilot sites by 2006 was below that for the region as a whole. Lessons learned have informed the development of regional and federal mental health policies. It is concluded that a multifaceted and comprehensive programme can be effective in overcoming organizational barriers to the introduction of evidence-based multisectoral interventions in one Russian region. This can help facilitate significant and sustainable changes in policy and reduce institutionalization
Trabajo social con grupos: Una experiencia colombiana de intervención con niñas emprendedoras: Social work with groups: A Colombian experience of intervention with young entrepreneurs
No full textThe Colombian experience of intervention with entrepreneurial girls and development agents in Ciudad Bolivar in Bogota-Colombia, made it possible from the systematization -as an approach- to reflect on the pedagogical practice developed by the Fundación Niñas de Luz from the individual and group mentoring with the girls, from an analytical viewpoint from Social Work with Groups. In this way, the article focuses on exposing the context and conditions of the territory from which the girls come -from a gender approach- and the institutional framework that accompanies them, the methodological horizon of the study, and the findings focused on: the linking of the girls to the Foundation from the viewpoint of Social Work with Groups, the individual-group mentoring as a social intervention device, the entrepreneurial girls as development agents, and the challenges of the experience in times of pandemic.
La experiencia colombiana de intervención con niñas emprendedoras y agentes de desarrollo en Ciudad Bolívar en Bogotá-Colombia, posibilitó desde la sistematización -como enfoque- reflexionar la práctica pedagógica que desarrolla la Fundación Niñas de Luz desde la mentoría individual y grupal con las niñas, a partir de una mirada analítica desde el Trabajo Social con Grupos. De esta manera, el artículo se centra en exponer el contexto y condiciones del territorio del cual provienen las niñas -desde un enfoque de género- y el marco institucional que les acompaña, el horizonte metodológico del estudio, y los hallazgos enfocados en: la vinculación de las niñas a la Fundación desde la mirada del Trabajo Social con Grupos, la mentoría individual-grupal como dispositivo de intervención social, las niñas emprendedoras como agentes de desarrollo, y los desafíos de la experiencia en tiempos de pandemia.