Whiting & Birch (E-Journals)
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Strengthening the social work profession: Experiences from developing and implementing a master’s course in school social work
Full text linkAs one of few in Sweden, a School Social Work course was developed at master level at the Department of Social Work at the University of Gothenburg. It was offered as a part-time and 10-week course. The course´s main objective was to strengthen the school social workers professionalisation and fundament in social work as a discipline. The focus was consequently on organisation, cooperation and professionalisation. The second objective was to create a course of relevance and with an ‘academic product’ to take back to the colleagues. This might further strengthen the confidence and the position of School Social Work as research based as required by the new Social Services Act. The article describes and discusses, with the above-mentioned course as an example, the professionalisation of social work in general, and School Social Work in particular. Based on the discussion the authors formulate some recommendations targeting both practice and academia
Should we widen our restraint choices?
No full textRestraint is used in around 5% of psychiatric inpatients in the UK. Patients experience different types of restraints in widely different ways. This article argues that the UK restricts its services and psychiatric patients from making preferred choices about the types of restraint used by restricting the available restraint to seclusion and physical restraint
Opportunities to ‘reinvent the idea of social work’: using student SWOT analyses of school-based placements
Full text linkSocial work students undertaking their placements in non-traditional settings, such as schools, is not new. However, with the pandemic (Covid-19), and subsequent impact on placements, an innovative and creative approach was called for. This approach was the Social Workers in Schools (SWIS) project. This also correlated with the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care and the Family Safeguarding Model of social work practice. Following three successive, and successful years, an evaluation of the project was needed to capture the students’ experiences in addition to identifying what worked and what areas needed to be developed further. This paper draws on one element of the evaluation where students were invited into the university and participated in a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. The paper presents how the potential benefits outweigh the challenges and how the weaknesses and threats could, potentially, be reframed to strengths and opportunities. The paper provides an outline of the areas for further development and emphasises the importance of interprofessional and collaborative working for social workers and social work students. 
Ayni: An experience of collective occupations as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Santa Clara del Mar, Argentina in the year 2020
No full textThis article reflects on the contribution of collective occupations to social transformation processes in a small town in Buenos Aires Province: Santa Clara del Mar, Argentina. On March 20, 2020, imposed a lockdown which, among other things, required people to stay at home. In response, a group of residents came together to carry out community activities with the aim of providing assistance and support to the most vulnerable people in the community. This group of people called themselves ‘Ayni’, after some Andean communities, emphasizing reciprocity. This article describes the community organization that emerged among this group of residents. It explores the individual and collective transformations that arose, seeking to construct knowledge based on the logic of social actors. A qualitative research methodology used for data collection was structured, using the techniques of participant observation and in-depth interviews. Other data sources used included a WhatsApp group and written records of ‘Ayni’ meetings. As part of the main conclusions. This work highlights the value attributed to collective occupations as a possibility for building community networks in people’s daily lives
A journey, not a destination: Emerging professional identities of community work & youth work students
No full textAbstract: Community work and youth work are distinct but complimentary social professions which share a vision for a values-based practice, rooted in the application of justice, equality and human rights for social change. In Ireland, the professional endorsement of initial tertiary education in community work and youth work began almost two decades ago. Yet little is known about how exactly such programmes foster the professional formation of new practitioners, about how students experience the formation process or how they articulate their professional identity at the point of qualification. Addressing this gap, this article presents the findings of a study which explored students’ perspective (three cohorts, n=75) on their professional formation journey through a Bachelor of Social Science in Community Work and Youth Work in one Irish university. As collaborators in the research, final year students undertook and analysed a narrative style interview with a class peer exploring their learning journey across the programme. This was followed by a collective analysis by the authors which identified key themes in students’ articulation of their professional identity as well as the crucial elements supporting professional formation from students’ perspective. The findings reveal the centrality of critical consciousness raising to the development of professional identity of community workers and youth workers. The findings illustrate how a combination of classroom learning, fieldwork and supervision, theoretical reflection and a focus on ethics and values were key elements in generating students’ professional identity as community workers and youth workers. Furthermore, students articulated a view that their learning journey will continue into and throughout their professional life. This suggests that professional identity formation in community work and youth work is a journey, not a destination
Aftermath to Lattermath and the Iconomy of Psychiatry: Shifting from hospital-centric towards community-centric mental health-care ecosystems
Full text linkDrawing on Professor Emeritus Terry Smith’s work on Aftermath Architecture, we reflect on how the world’s purportedly ‘eternal’ architectural icons can be transformed in the public consciousness, by terrorism and political intrigue, into impermanent ‘soft targets’. In parallel we explore the grandiose ‘Iconomy’ of Psychiatry, and the decay of its grandiose institutional icons into stigmatizing stereotypes of dysfunctional mental health services. Professor Smith also invoked a related concept: the ‘Lattermath’, a late 15th century term for the new shoots of grass growing after harvest, to make the case that a renewal of hope is possible for architecture, prioritizing domestic and communal living. To achieve an enduring ‘Lattermath’ in psychiatry requires us to shift the centre of gravity of mental health services from being so hospital-centric towards community living. It also entails rebuilding mental health-care eco-systems which integrate clinical, lived experience, and carer expertise, while optimizing mental health and wellbeing outcomes., It also entails heeding First Nations caring for nature and community, their climate change activism and their resilience, and operationalizing human rights and an ‘invisible village’ or a co-designed local community of ongoing mental health care and support for individuals and families while ever they need it
Victimization of Physical and Sexual Violence and Perpetration of Rape among Adolescents: Comparative Analysis and associated Factors among High School Adolescents
No full textComparative studies of adolescent victimization and perpetration of physical and sexual violence and rape are limited but crucial for understanding global patterns and effective prevention strategies. This study examined the victimization by physical and sexual violence and the perpetration and threats of rape among a convenience sample of 1,969 adolescents from 43 high schools in Nigeria and South Africa. Despite some similarities and differences in prevalence of the examined victimization and perpetration, the findings reveal that adolescent boys were more likely than girls to report victimization, suggesting potential fear of retaliation and stigmatization affecting female disclosures. Rape victimization and threats were linked to the perpetration and threats of rape. Notably, adolescents in South Africa were more likely to report threatening and perpetrating rape compared to their Nigerian counterparts. This comparative approach provides valuable insights into the socio-cultural contexts that influence violence and cross-culturally sensitive strategies to protect adolescents from violenc