The Extent and Nature of Practitioners,Encounters with Alcohol and Other Drug Use in Social Work and Social Care Practice

This article considers the extent and nature of social work and social care practitioners' experience of working with service users whose lives are affected by the problematic use of alcohol or other drugs (AOD). It draws on the findings of a national study of ‘working with alcohol and drug use’ which was conducted in England in 2010–2011. The study reported here comprised an online survey of front-line practitioners (n = 597), complemented by 12 practitioner focus groups and interviews with 21 key informants from participating local authorities and substance use treatment services. This paper focuses primarily on data from one element of the survey. Findings indicate that the great majority of staff encountered service users who are affected by AOD problems at some level, although there were differences between groups of practitioners in the extent and nature of AOD problems for different groups of service users. The differential experiences of staff according to their client groups underlines the need for education and professional development not only to provide training on working with AOD but to ensure that training is contextualised and relevant to practitioners across the range of social work and social care services.     

Impoverished Clientele and Influential Institutions: Perspectives on Neighborhood Poverty near Harvard Yard

The role of institutions in the social reproduction of the economic status quo is not a new discovery in sociological literature. However, this literature rarely highlights how the catalysts of poverty are transparent in public institutions like schools, social services, police, or renowned universities such as Harvard. Drawing upon historical archival research, decennial census information, and ethnographic studies from the 1990s and early 2000s in Cambridge, Massachusetts we contribute to the discussions about urban poverty. We argue that there are structural factors other than the widely discussed spread of socio-geopolitical isolation or racial dynamics that prevent poor residents from bridging social distances and experiencing upward mobility. Those dynamics are specifically visible in cases such as Cambridge where the consequences of economic shifts and racial dynamics were not as dire as in other cities, but the exclusionary practices are still present. We implicate systematic ‘exclusionary closure,’ as defined by Max Weber and employed by Loïc Wacquant, operating in influential institutions. Following Wacquant’s lead, we argue that institutional practices and policies have played a large role in creating and maintaining urban marginality and pockets of poverty in Cambridge. Institutions like these, considered foundational to social and intellectual advancement, may be key players in the perpetuation of urban poverty.     

Attachment issues and the cocaine exposed dyad

Through the theoretical lens of attachment theory, the relationship between substance abusing parents and their children exposed prenatally to drugs is explored. Attachment theory, the quality of attachment, attachment classifications, internal working models of attachment, and correlates of attachment classifications are discussed. Case studies of two schoolaged children exposed prenatally to cocaine are presented and interpreted in light of attachment theory set within a social-ecological perspective. Implications for practice and the use of federal policy for this population are explored.     

Substance Use Training Experiences and Needs: Findings From a National Survey of Social Care Professionals in England

For more than 30 years there have been calls in the UK to improve training for social workers in relation to substance use. Yet very little research has explored what training practitioners have received or what their training needs are. This study sought to establish practitioners' experiences of previous training in substance use and identify their current training needs. An online survey was disseminated to 3,164 practitioners in adults' (AS) and children's (CS) social care and 12 vignette-based focus groups were also held. Of the final sample of 597, more than a third of social workers had not received any training and a further fifth only received between one and four hours. Other social care staff fared worse. Overwhelmingly, respondents said that substance use knowledge and skills were very important to their practice but their professional education had not prepared them well. They identified a number of training needs including ‘how to talk to people about substance use’ and ‘the types of intervention and treatment available’. Most social care professionals report not being adequately prepared for working with substance use, particularly basic knowledge and skills which would help them to conduct assessments and signpost people to specialist substance services.     

Preferentially rejected children and their development in permanent family placements

Several studies of family placements have indicated poorer outcomes for children who are placed singly in new families. In an effort to understand why this may be so, this paper explores differential outcome among a group of children who were placed singly with adoptive or long‐term foster families during middle childhood. A small number of these children were ‘only children’ at the time of placement but most had siblings living elsewhere. Particular attention is paid to preferential rejection by birth parents in the children's backgrounds. Preferential rejection indicates that one child has been rejected while siblings are accepted. This was found to be associated with poorer progress in placement. The methodological and statistical detail of the analyses are to be found in another paper. We focus here on describing the patterns which emerged and the ways in which the findings may assist practitioners in making and supporting permanent placements.     

Asymptotically Efficient Estimation of a Bivariate Gaussian–Weibull Distribution and an Introduction to the Associated Pseudo-truncated Weibull

Two important wood properties are stiffness (modulus of elasticity or MOE) and bending strength (modulus of rupture or MOR). In the past, MOE has often been modeled as a Gaussian and MOR as a lognormal or a two or three parameter Weibull. It is well known that MOE and MOR are positively correlated. To model the simultaneous behavior of MOE and MOR for the purposes of wood system reliability calculations, we introduce a bivariate Gaussian–Weibull distribution and the associated pseudo-truncated Weibull. We use asymptotically efficient likelihood methods to obtain an estimator of the parameter vector of the bivariate Gaussian–Weibull, and then obtain the asymptotic distribution of this estimator.     

Substance Use and Disabilities: Experiences of Adults' Social Care Professionals and the Implications for Education and Training

This paper draws on data from a national survey of social workers and social care practitioners in England undertaken in 2010–2011. It focuses on practitioners working in services for adults with either learning or physical disabilities and, in particular, their experiences of responding to alcohol and other drug use among their service users. Based on secondary analysis of survey and focus group data from the earlier study, the paper outlines the extent to which workers in these areas of practice encounter alcohol and drug problems and discusses the key challenges this poses for them. The findings show that between 4% and 10% of adults' practitioners' service users have alcohol and drug problems depending on the nature of the disability. Regardless of the type of disability, practitioners reported difficulties in talking about substance use with their service users as well as identifying tensions around life-style choice and risk management. They also reported the need for education and training in a number of areas. Social work education and subsequent training in working with substance use problems needs to be available to adults' practitioners and it needs to address the specific issues and needs in different areas of social work practice.     

Predictors of outcome for unrelated adoptive placements made during middle childhood

This paper reports on a follow‐up to adolescence of two longitudinal prospective studies of children placed from public care with non‐related adoptive families in the UK. Factors associated with outcome are presented for 99 children (one index child per adoptive family) who were between 5 and 11 years of age at placement. Information concerning the children's backgrounds and care histories was obtained shortly after placement (T1), from social workers. Adopters were interviewed at T1 and again at the end of the first year (T2). A further follow‐up was conducted an average of six years after placement (T3). Outcomes at T3 were classified as either disrupted, which was true for 23%, continuing and ‘positive’ (49%) or continuing but ‘difficult’ (28%). Bivariate analyses revealed a number of attributes, related to both the child and the adoptive parents, which were associated with differential outcomes. Logistic regression produced five predictors of placement disruption: age at placement, behavioural problems, preferential rejection, time in care and the child's degree of attachment to the new mother. Differences were found between ‘positive’ and ‘difficult’ outcomes in continuing placements as well as between continuing and disrupted placements. The analysis suggests that adoption should certainly be considered as an option for children over 5 years of age while recognizing the need for both preparation and post‐placement support. Evidence of differential outcome in continuing placements provides support for efforts to reduce the number of placements and returns home that a child at risk experiences.