1,720,983 research outputs found
The case of the missing perpetrator : a cross-national investigation of child welfare policy, practice and discourse in cases where men beat mothers
No full textEThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
'Undeserving' mothers? Practitioners' experiences working with young mothers in/from care
No full textEndangered children: experiencing and surviving the state as failed parent and grandparent
No full textThe state removes children from ‘failed’ parents to give them a better experience of parenting. This article examines the role that the state plays as parent to young mothers in care and grandparent to their children, drawing on a small-scale study undertaken in western Canada using grounded theory methodology. The findings were bleak: the state as parent and grandparent also fails these children. We consider why this is the case and make suggestions for ways forward by critiquing the ideology of familialism that underpins the state’s punitive approach to these young mothers and their children. We also call for policies and a practice that enable practitioners to address structural inequalities such as poverty and racism alongside the capacity to respond to the personal needs of the young women and their children as young people with dignity and rights
Hopework: health care providers caring for cancer patients facing end of life.
No full textA grounded theory study (Charmaz, 2006) explored health care providers' (HCPs) hope processes (hopework) caring for cancer patients facing end of life. A critical social work perspective was used to investigate experiences of nurses, doctors and social workers and counsellors in their work with psychosocial and emotional end of life issues.
Health care providers' engaged in a core process of hopework as they faced the ambiguous and uncertain terrain of end of life care. They searched for realistic hope by shifting their professional and personal hopes. This core process was achieved by meaning-based actions that enabled HCPs to tolerate tragic circumstances and to build emotional scaffolding to sustain themselves.
The findings indicate that HCPs engage in a parallel process of hopework with their patients to achieve `realistic hopes'. Although concepts of hopework are not easily defined, the processes of hope need to be addressed in the professional training of HCPs to optimize patient care and to prevent damage to patients' vulnerable hopes
Who are the men in 'Men who have sex with men'?
Get PDFThe term 'men who have sex with men' (MSM) as commonly used by HIV/AIDS researchers and policy makers is said to describe an obvious group of men. Or does it? While MSM disrupts the homosexual/heterosexual dichotomy through focusing on sexual practices rather than sexual identity, it remains entrenched in binary understandings of sex and gender. Influenced by queer and trans theories, a genderqueer methodology is employed to examine what discourses are deployed when MSM are categorized as a seemingly homogenous group. Who are the “men” in MSM and what are the material consequences of MSM discourse in HIV/AIDS work? Guided by feminist poststructural and Foucauldian theories, this study highlights how MSM discourse functions to exclude trans, intersex, and other non-normative sexed and gendered people while considering the potentially deadly effects of this discourse on those outside of MSM categorizations particularly focusing on its use in the Canadian Guidelines on STIs
Daily practice narratives of child protection social workers : the power of the frontline.
Get PDFThe notion of ‘absolute’ power underpins my own interest in power relations in Child
Welfare practice but I shift the focus to the perspective of frontline child protection social
workers. Missing in social work literature are the stories from workers in child protection
practice. How do workers conceptualize power? How is this grey space of practice –
which is not easily discussed – understood by practitioners themselves, the academy, and
the system in which they practice?
My completed master’s research draws on narrative methodology, adopted from Fraser’s
(2002) model. It is a collection of six narratives. By using this open-ended approach,
practice narratives were shared without limitation or parameters. From this rich data I
analysed workers’ experiences, drawing out examples of power relations. My conclusions
include; (a) the ways that frontline workers conceptualize power are strongly impacted by
dominant notions of power, (b) relational practice with clients is occurring – and does so
in isolation of the larger system of child welfare, and finally, (c) there is value in
examining the perspectives of frontline child protection social workers as they are the one
which have the greatest potential to initiate structural change from the bottom-up through
transformative practice, which is happening every day
A different understanding of ‘Professional’: social work students who have or continue to utilize self-harm. A workshop for University of Victoria School of Social Work Practicum Supervisors
Get PDFGraduat
The Frontline Workers' Perspective on Anti-Oppressive Child Welfare Practice
No full textThrough my research I explored the frontline worker’s perspective of anti-oppressive child welfare practice (AOP). Five frontline workers from the Children’s Aid Society of Brant, Ontario (Brant CAS) were interviewed to share how they view their practice, and the child welfare system, through an anti-oppressive lens. An Anti-oppressive theory perspective was the framework for my research, using a narrative methodology. It is through the stories of the participants that we learn there is a variance in the understanding and implementation of AOP that is affecting the practice of frontline workers, the families they work with and possibly placing children at further risk. An outcome of this research is to hopefully improve training, allowing the frontline worker to have a better understanding of the philosophy of AOP and how it applies to their practice.Graduat
From the "rising tide" to solidarity: disrupting dominant crisis discourses in dementia social policy in neoliberal times
Get PDFAs a social worker practising in long-term residential care for people living with dementia, I am alarmed by discourses in the media and health policy that construct persons living with dementia and their health care needs as a threatening “rising tide” or crisis. I am particularly concerned about the material effects such dominant discourses, and the values they uphold, might have on the collective provision of care and support for our elderly citizens in the present neoliberal economic and political context of health care. To better understand how dominant discourses about dementia work at this time when Canada’s population is aging and the number of persons living with dementia is anticipated to increase, I have rooted my thesis in poststructural methodology. My research method is a discourse analysis, which draws on Foucault’s archaeological and genealogical concepts, to examine two contemporary health policy documents related to dementia care – one national and one provincial. I also incorporate some poetic representation – or found poetry – to write up my findings. While deconstructing and disrupting taken for granted dominant crisis discourses on dementia in health policy, my research also makes space for alternative constructions to support discursive and health policy possibilities in solidarity with persons living with dementia so that they may [email protected]
Wounded healer or stigmatized healer? First-person experience with suicidality among helping professionals in suicide prevention and intervention
Get PDFThis study sought to explore the experiences of helping professionals who have first-hand lived experience with suicidal ideation or suicidal behaviour and who work with suicidal people.
The research is placed in the context of the wounded healer discourse. Within the helping professions, the term ‘wounded healer’ refers to the idea that a healer’s lived experience of being ‘wounded’, i.e., suffering harm or violence or facing psychological or addiction challenges, is inherently helpful to their healing abilities. While a growing body of literature about the wounded healer concept exists for helping professions with some experiences, such as mental health practitioners who experience mental health challenges, this research project focuses specifically on the under-researched area of suicide.
The study was conducted from an insider perspective. It utilized narrative methodology with a feminist and intersectional lens to analyze the stories gathered from semi-structured interviews with five helping professionals from a variety of professional backgrounds who work with suicidal people.
The findings of the study indicate that, while the wounded healers who were interviewed believe that their lived experience benefits their practice and the people with whom they work, lived experience with suicidality remains a taboo among professionals in suicide prevention and intervention. Certain features of the wounded healer discourse, namely that some wounded healers can become impaired professionals and put the healing process and thus the client at risk, have contributed to this taboo.
This study aims to contribute to the conversation about what it means to be a helping professional with lived experience with suicidality in the area of suicide prevention and intervention, and thus to lessening the stigma surrounding this experience.Graduat
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