Schizotypal Personality Disorder: A Clinical Social Work Perspective

Schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is considered to be a “schizophrenia spectrum disorder” as evidenced in part by its cross-listing in that chapter of the DSM-5. SPD is considered to be a condition with limited potential for positive change because one of its major features is the presence of a biologically based cognitive deficit. This assumption, however, is an example of the medical model’s creating a bias against psychosocial features that are always involved in character development. The social work profession’s bio-psycho-social perspectives focus more comprehensively on all features of the condition and promote a more optimistic view of clients’ change potentials. The purposes of this paper are to examine SPD from a social work perspective and to demonstrate, with a case example, how effective intervention can be organized and delivered.     

KNOWING THE CHILD: AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TREATMENT OF CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE

Social workers in agencies and school settings often deal with high risk, multi problem children such as those in foster care. Increasingly, there is widespread recognition that a coordinated, multifaceted approach is required to address the range of cognitive, social, and mental health problems with which they present. This article recommends utilization of an ecological treatment intervention that is specifically tailored to the needs of the child based on a formulation of the child’s experience and developmental deficits. A case example comprising the treatment of an eight-year-old boy in foster care with comorbid diagnoses of alcohol related neurodevelpomental disorder, failure to thrive, and attachment disorder, illustrates this approach. The article concludes with implications for social work practice.     

Old battles,new frontiers: A study of television violence and social work with children

This article describes the place of television violence in social work practice with children. It is based on interviews with twenty-one social workers who work primarily with children in schools, in community mental health agencies and in private practices. Although the influence of television violence on children has been well documented by other disciplines, there has been a general lack of attention by social work. Because television is so much a part of children's social environment and because the social environment is so much a part of social work practice this study seeks to address that lack. Grounded theory methodology was utilized to analyze the interviews.This paper is adapted from her dissertation in partial fulfillment of a doctorate at Simmons College School of Social Work, Boston, Massachusetts. The author wishes to thank the dissertation committee members, carol Swenson (Chairperson), Deanna Brooks and Margaret Rhodes for their contributions.     

Young Children of Parents with Substance Use Disorders (SUD): A Review of the Literature and Implications for Social Work Practice

SUMMARY

This article reviews the scientific literature that focuses on school-age children of parents with substance use disorder (SUD). The review examined the subjects, instruments, and results of 10 scientific studies published from 1985 to the present (2006). Generally, school-age children of parents with SUD demonstrated a variety of emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and social problems. Specifically, (a) children of drug users (CODs) were at higher risk than children of alcoholics (COAs) for psychopathology and functional impairments, and (b) Children of parents diagnosed as having SUDs (particularly alcohol), along with anti-social personality disorder (ASPD) showed more negative psychosocial outcomes than children whose parents did not have ASPD. Recommendations for future research and implications for social work practice are discussed.     

The Lull of Tradition: A Grounded Theory Study of Television Violence, Children and Social Work

This article results from a study of television violence and social work practice with children. Twenty-one social workers who work primarily with children in schools, in community mental health agencies and in private practice were interviewed. A qualitative analysis using grounded theory indicates that social workers do little to elicit television content or information about children's television viewing. They do not believe that television experiences are central to their work. Although social workers express concern about the influence of television violence on children, their traditional beliefs in cause and effect, values neutrality, and gender lead many to minimize its importance.     

Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Social Work Practice and Education,Edited by Marta Sotomayor. Graduate School of Social Work,University of Houston,Houston, Texas, 1976. Price Unavailable. 177 Pp.

There is a growing imperative to prepare MSW social work students for trauma-informed evidence-based practice. Given strong recommendations and promising developments within social work education and practice in this regard, a clinical elective for the advanced-year MSW student that combines the guiding principles of trauma theory and problem-based learning was created. This article describes the course objectives, structure, and format and reports on an evaluation based on 7 (total) offerings of the course by 4 different schools of social work. The course methodology was found to be effective in all schools in significantly increasing students’ self-confidence in working with traumatized children, adolescents, and their families. Implications for social work education are discussed.     

Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Its Significance to Social Work

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a relatively common and often severe psychiatric disorder in which an individual has an excessive preoccupation with an imagined or slight defect in his or her appearance (American Psychiatric Association in Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. American Psychiatric Association, Washington, 2000). Despite its prevalence in the United States and worldwide, many health care and mental health professionals, including social workers, are unfamiliar with BDD. In fact, BDD is virtually absent from the social work literature and no authors or researchers have considered BDD from a social work perspective. The purpose of this article is to inform social workers about the seriousness, prevalence and treatment challenges of BDD, and to highlight its significance to social work practice and research. A clinical case presentation illustrates an example of how BDD may present in practice and the value of addressing it from a biopsychosocial perspective.     

Oppositional Defiant Disorder: The Psy Apparatuses and Youth Resistance

This article, situated in Foucauldian, anti-psychiatry, and mad studies literature, provides a theoretical intervention into the practice complexities and complicities of working with young people marked with the diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder. Using a composite vignette as a proxy for social work practice, I map the particular harms of the deployment of the oppositional defiant disorder diagnosis, using Foucault and others to provide insight, in order to reorder and rethink work with young people marked as disorderly. Scholars effectively trace the manifold harms of the psychiatrization of young people; this article knits together the ways in which these harms operate, with the expressed intention of psychiatrizing youth resistance through multiple targets. The article concludes with tentative formulations for reconceptualizing youth resistance, in particular, using contributions from Sara Ahmed’s work on willfulness and Eve Tuck’s work on dangerous dignities. My aim is to use these emerging formulations to position our work with young people in alignment with their own resistance to injustice, rather than in concert with the efforts to psychiatrize their actions.     

Integrating a family-centered approach into social work practice with families of children and adolescents with disabilities

This article identifies a family-centered practice construct for working with children and adolescents with disabilities and their families. The experiences of these families have shifted considerably over the past 30 years. A legislative and historical context provides the basis for an understanding of present policies and practices that influence current approaches to service delivery. Though family-centered practice is emphasized in various practice settings, there is still a need to integrate this philosophy into social work practice with children and adolescents with disabilities and their families. In order to enhance the ability of the social worker to integrate this construct into practice, a framework for exploring the experiences of children, adolescents and families is provided. This framework provides an overview of factors related to the individual child, the family and siblings for the social worker to consider when working with these families. The social worker's role as collaborator, advocate, team member and family resource is highlighted.     

The rights of the child enabling community development to contribute to a valid social work practice with children at risk

This paper presents a way of thinking about and doing child protection work using community development (CD) principles to guide practice. It suggests that a useful addition to CD can be found within the rights of the child provisions in Human Rights conventions. Using examples from the authors' three countries to illustrate the work that practitioners do in their work with children at risk, we argue that social work practice can be enhanced by the inclusion of these principles and practices which are essentially core generic social work practice. However, much of social work with the protection of children is bound by ‘risk’ perceptions which result in investigatory approaches being used as a first action, often to the exclusion of preventive approaches. This article demonstrates that in very different situations from different environments, CD in concert with the principles of the rights of the child can assist good outcomes with children at risk. A model is presented for unifying the worldview of human/children's rights with social work's core concern, the protection of children, using generic social work skills.     

Ascertaining the Perspectives of Young Children in Care: Case Studies in the Use of Reality Boxes

This article describes the use of an innovative method, reality boxes, to elicit the perspectives of children, ages four to seven years, in state care. Using examples from a broader research project based on children in Northern Ireland, which was concerned with their participation rights, the article considers how the children used the boxes to express their views. Informed by a child rights‐based approach, the article highlights the processes and practices involved and concludes by stressing the potential importance of this method, used in the context of this framework, in social work practice with young children.     

Integrating a Family-Centered Approach into Social Work Practice with Families of Children and Adolescents with Disabilities

Abstract

This article identifies a family-centered practice construct for working with children and adolescents with disabilities and their families. The experiences of these families have shifted considerably over the past 30 years. A legislative and historical context provides the basis for an understanding of present policies and practices that influence current approaches to service delivery. Though family-centered practice is emphasized in various practice settings, there is still a need to integrate this philosophy into social work practice with children and adolescents with disabilities and their families. In order to enhance the ability of the social worker to integrate this construct into practice, a framework for exploring the experiences of children, adolescents and families is provided. This framework provides an overview of factors related to the individual child, the family and siblings for the social worker to consider when working with these families. The social worker's role as collaborator, advocate, team member and family resource is highlighted.     

Perpetrators of sexual crime: What every social work student should know

This article argues that teaching concerning the perpetrators of sexual crimes against children should form an essential part of every diploma in social work course. Input which focuses only on the victims of such crime condones an essentially reactive response to one of the major concerns of our society. Social workers need to understand the modus operandi of perpetrators if they are able to recognise potentially abusive situations and work in a preventative way. Additionally, the methods of intervention currently being employed by the various treatment programmes can inform other areas of theory and practice, and consequently form links with a number of the broader aims and objectives of social work training. Thus in this article preventative work, adolescent perpetrators, the relationship between theory and practice, the transferability of knowledge and skills, and anti-oppressive practice are all considered.     

Introducing a Research Project into Social Work Practice—A Model for the Future?

In this article the author, a social work practitioner, suggests that the knowledge and experience of practitioners and researchers need to be harnessed so that innovative practice can be developed within local authority Social Services. The views of children and young people were sought as a way of enhancing service delivery. Young people were consulted through a Focus Group about the policy and practice of Child Protection Conferences. Interviews were also undertaken with 11 young people who had been the subject of a Child Protection Conference to find out what they thought about the preparation stage, the conference itself and the follow up they received after the conference.

The author concludes that young people can make a valuable contribution to the development of universal services and managers and social work practitioners need to find ways to routinely incorporate consultation with children and young people into social work practice. This has implications for social work education, not only in ensuring that consultation skills with service users are built into the curriculum, but in encouraging innovative practice in the workplace.     

Between love and behaviour management: the psychodynamic reflective milieu at the Mulberry Bush School

ABSTRACT

This article presents findings from a qualitative research study of the Mulberry Bush School (MBS), a therapeutic residential primary school caring for children with severe social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The article notes the challenges of working with children who have experienced traumatic relationship breakdown, and reviews ideas and practices developed at MBS to support the children’s development. There is a discussion of the research study’s methodology and main findings. The researchers argue that the therapeutic milieu at MBS maintains a creative tension between a secure, playful context and one where emotional disorder and disturbance are not suppressed. The study describes how a particular psychodynamic model of reflective practice has been successfully instituted at MBS to create a ‘staff therapeutic milieu’ supporting the group living and group learning through which therapy principally occurs. The article closes with comments on the applicability of this model to residential child care practice generally.     

Teaching the Child Perspective in Social Work Education: Ethical Principles and Classroom Strategies

Aimed at graduate and undergraduate social work instructors, this article identifies the problem of inadequate attention to children in social work education in the US. The authors argue that social work ethics require social work educators to address children as a vulnerable population. They argue that children will be more central in social work education if instructors adopt a child perspective defined by three knowledge categories, development, well‐being and hope, that serve as reference points in teaching. A triangular strategy of position, attitude and action is provided to guide the day‐to‐day use of a child perspective in the classroom. The authors examine sources of the problem, describe its effects on students' education and future practice and provide classroom examples and teaching techniques.     

Social Work Supervision and its Role in Enabling a Community Visitor Program that Promotes and Protects the Rights of Children

Abstract

This article explores the characteristics of traditional social work supervision, comparing it with supervision in the counselling/clinical field and in industry. The contention is that while social work supervision has learned from advances in other supervisory fields, the traditional social work supervision functions of administration, education, support, and mediation lead to a more holistic practice within child protection work than is possible using other narrower frameworks. A discussion of supervision within a community visitor program that promotes and protects the rights and interests of children and young people who are in state care is used to support this contention.     

Vocal and Facial Emotion Decoding Difficulties Relating to Social and Thought Problems: Highlighting Schizotypal Personality Disorder

Successful social interaction depends on the ability to decode emotion in the nonverbal behaviors of others. Because relationship difficulties are paramount in adolescents with schizotypal personality disorder (SPD), we predicted that adolescents with SPD would (1) make more emotion decoding errors than adolescents with other personality disorders (OPD) or non-psychiatric controls (NPC); and (2) exhibit more social and thought problems than OPD or NPC adolescents. Further, we predicted greater emotion decoding errors for all adolescents would relate to concurrent and future social problems, thought problems, and social reasoning deficits. SPD adolescents made more errors than OPD and NPC adolescents in decoding voices but not faces (except in specific emotion categories). For all adolescents, vocal errors correlated with greater social problems, and facial and vocal errors correlated with greater thought difficulties concurrently and a year later.     

Preface

Four children from three families in which the mother had a bipolar disorder were interviewed to understand their perspectives on their mothers' parenting. Children identified strengths in their mother's parenting, such as helping them with homework and moods and providing for their wants. They also identified challenges, such as mothers sleeping well into the day and displaying anger. Two children were worried over the possibility of having a bipolar disorder themselves. Implications of these findings for social work practice include acknowledging and supporting mothers' strengths in parenting, providing appropriate services to manage mothers' sleep and anger, and psychoeducation for children.     

Place,power, and possibility: Remaking social work with children and youth

This article introduces the work of an interdisciplinary group of scholars and activists who critically examine the nature and boundaries of social work with children and youth. Their works explore the institutional and social spaces shaping young people's lives; deconstruct discourses, policies, and practices that shape meanings and experiences of childhood; and consider challenges for social work and possibilities for transformative action. In this essay the editors address the social construction of childhood; outline a framework for analysis informed by an understanding of the cultural politics of childhood; consider the relationship between neoliberal globalization and contemporary thought and practice regarding children and youth; and introduce cutting-edge scholarship addressing place, power, and possibility and the remaking of social work with children and youth.