Addressing the Needs of Lesbian Widows

Abstract

This qualitative research study identifies difficulties encountered by widowed lesbians, especially those difficulties unique to lesbians in their grief recovery process. It suggests the need for more support services for lesbian widows and outlines the kinds of information and skills needed by counseling professionals who work with this population.     

Liability and the Internet: Risks and Recommendations for Social Work Practice

SUMMARY

Use of the Internet for counseling and information services has increased dramatically in the last five years. Although the Internet may benefit consumers by helping them secure needed services and resources, social workers and social service agencies who provide counseling over the Internet need to be aware of the legal risks associated with its use. Among the most salient concerns that need to be addressed are client confidentiality and privacy of records, appropriateness of treatment services, and the duty to warn others of harm that a client might pose to them. This paper looks at these legal concerns in light of appropriate Social Work practice and recommends methods to abate the risks that might occur when Internet counseling and service is provided.     

The economics of gay and lesbian couples: Introduction to a special issue on gay and lesbian households

This article presents a simple conceptual framework integrating three couple-related outcomes analyzed in this volume: wage differentials in earnings related to couple formation, household formation (including cohabitation and registration as Registered Domestic Partnership), and intra-household allocation of income. It also discusses some of the articles’ main findings.

Lesbians Leaping Out of the Intergenerational Contract:

Changing demographics and economic models in modern industrial countries have led to changes in the nature of the intergenerational contract, repositioning of the family as the site for care, and increasing privatization of welfare, housing and health services for the aged. These shifts have important implications for access to services for lesbians and gays as they age and enter their third age, often in the absence of traditional family support. The needs and desires of some older lesbians in Australia in relation to housing and health care were explored via focus group interviews. The results are discussed in relation to the intergenerational contract, policy shifts and the social organization of aged care in Australia.     

The 'Pygmalion Syndrome': The Case of Mizrachi Lesbians in Israel

This article examines the mobilization of a lesbian identity in Israeli society by Mizrachi lesbians as a means to reach individual mobility through establishing social contacts with educated well-off professional Ashkenazi women. Based on interviews with ethnic lesbians living in steady relationships with educated professional women of the dominant group and with some of their partners, this study investigates how Mizrachi lesbians shoulder aside their distinctive features while mobilizing their lesbian identity as a means to establish connections, gain acceptance in the lesbian community, get better jobs, and succeed in schooling. Upon both professional and personal success, Mizrachi lesbians come to terms with their origins, redefine their identity components, and form a distinctive ethnic-lesbian identity to be supported with a strong ideology. While the obliteration of ethnic traits in favor of acceptance in the lesbian community allows mobility on a personal basis, it reinforces the invisibility of ethnic lesbians and reproduces the power relations between dominant and ethnic groups in Israel.     

Abstracts of the Scientific Programs of the American College Health Association Fifty-Seventh Annual Meeting May 22-25, 1979, Washington,D.C.

Abstract

This article focuses on a therapeutic approach to help women deal with the feelings of grief and guilt they may feel as a result of a voluntary termination of a pregnancy. Available medical and psychological literature indicates that, from a public health perspective, significant psychological problems related to an abortion are “minuscule.” Several women the author saw during the 1992/93 academic year who considered themselves to be extremely religious and prolife had undergone elective abortion. They experienced tremendous guilt and grief 4 to 6 months after the procedure. The author recommends that college health center medical and counseling providers who must deal with this issue help the woman validate her loss by revisiting the site of her abortion to reflect upon the experience and to hold a Gestalt dialogue with the fetus to end the relationship. The provider or someone else should accompany the woman to the site because of the increasing potentiality for violence on the part of prolife protesters.     

Death of a child: Perspective of Chinese mothers in Singapore

The grief of Chinese mothers is examined in a phenomenological exploratory study. Grieving for the deceased child is moderated by diverse Chinese religious beliefs intertwined with cultural practices. Five aspects of grieving include giving meaning to the child’s life and death, quality and assurance of the afterlife, the function of crying, and a continuing bond. Extrapolating from the mothers’ grieving are questions related to the implications of children’s death for other family members and the significance of the interconnectedness of the self, others, the environment and the universe in processing a crisis through religion and spirituality in multicultural social work.     

Time Does Not Heal All Wounds: Mortality Following the Death of a Parent

People linked through social ties are known to have interdependent health. Our aim was to investigate such collateral health effects in the context of offspring mortality after a parent's death in children aged 10–59 years. The data (N = 3,753,368) were from a linked‐registers database that contains the total Swedish population. In minor children, we found elevations in mortality risks associated with a parent's death. Adult offspring experienced a reduced mortality risk recently after a parent's death, which over time approached, and in some instances even exceeded, that of the general population. Mother's death tended to have a stronger influence than father's death, unnatural parental deaths had a stronger effect than natural ones, and male offspring were more vulnerable than female offspring.     

Gay Affirmative Practice: A Model for Social Work Practice with Gay,Lesbian, and Bisexual Youth

Gay affirmative practice has recently been introduced into the social work literature as a culturally sensitive model for working with gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) adults, however, this model has rarely been applied to practice with GLB youth. In this article, the authors review the literature to present the main tenets of gay affirmative practice, outline the challenges that GLB youth face, and delineate the environmental and individual strengths that can be enhanced to promote well-being. The authors then apply the gay affirmative practice model to GLB youth, offering concrete information about the specific knowledge, attitudes, and skills that social workers should acquire to better serve the unique, yet diverse, needs of GLB youth.     

Registered domestic partnerships among gay men and lesbians: the role of economic factors

In this paper, we predict the demand for a marriage-like status—registered domestic partnership–among same-sex couples. Domestic partnership in the state of California now comes with almost all of the rights and responsibilities of marriage that a state can provide. We use the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) Tobacco Use Survey conducted by the California Department of Health and the Field Research Corporation in 2003. From this telephone survey, we use a probability sample of 1,002 lesbian and gay individuals in California. Using multinomial probit models of partnership status (single, not cohabiting, cohabiting, or registered), we find limited evidence of economic motivations in the choice to register. Gay men’s likelihood of registration rises with income; lesbians’ probability of registration rises with age. Couples with longer duration are more likely to register, suggesting that registration and duration are complementary signals of commitment and possibly of the need for rights and benefits of registration.

Understanding Parental Grief as a Response to Mental Illness: Implications for Practice

ABSTRACT

Parents who are raising children with mental illness struggle with feelings of grief and loss. Kubler-Ross' (1969 Kubler-Ross , E. ( 1969 ). On death and dying . New York : Scribner . [Google Scholar]) stages of grieving (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) are examined as experienced by parents raising children with chronic mental illness. Practice implications for social workers who are working with children and their parents are discussed. Acknowledging and understanding parental grief, while providing emotional support, leads to a more effective working partnership. This collaboration of parents and social worker can result in more effective treatment for the child with mental illness. Examples from one of the co-author's personal experiences are included.     

A Therapeutic Summer Weekend Camp for Grieving Children: Supporting Clinical Practice Through Empirical Evaluation

Through collaborative action-oriented community research, agency-based clinicians, and university-based researchers engaged in a two-year theory-driven evaluation of a therapeutic summer camp for grieving children. The evaluation examined the camp practice model and children’s engagement in therapeutic camp activities and psychosocial functioning based on the camp staff and parental caregivers’ assessments. The first year findings led to a synergistic decision-making process that strengthened one of camp therapeutic activities. The overall results reveal a high consistency among staff on assessments of engagement and psychosocial functioning, and parental caregivers’ satisfaction with the camp. Limitations of research evaluation and implications for practice are considered.     

Electronic Technology for Social Work Education and Practice: The Application of Telephone Technology to Counseling

SUMMARY

The author in this article argues for the legitimization of the telephone in one-on-one and group professional practice in social work. She contrasts telephone hotline work and face-to-face counseling with her view of telephone counseling.     

A Survey of Online Practitioners: Implications for Education and Practice

In the last decade the helping professions have seen a growing interest in the provision of online counseling and therapeutic services for individuals. Like most fields of work, social work also has experienced a growth in the creative use of technology in various areas of professional work. Based on this growing interest and the need for such services and research on its efficacy, a study was conducted to learn from e-therapists across the United States on their experiences with this mode of service delivery. This paper elicits results from the online survey and provides recommendations to better serve our clients in the tech savvy world and future research endeavors. The main findings of this preliminary study include: (a) Many theoretical perspectives and models are being used to ground online practice, (b) e-therapists are beginning to use videoconferencing for online practice supplementing their face-to-face sessions, and (c) e-therapists believe that online interventions benefit their clients.     

The Psychology of Working in Practice: A Theory of Change for a New Era

This article advances the psychology of working theory by developing a parallel change‐based paradigm to guide interventions at the level of individuals (i.e., the psychology of working counseling) and systems (i.e., the psychology of working systemic intervention). The change paradigm presented in this article includes (a) a needs assessment encompassing survival, social connection/contribution, and self‐determination and (b) input on the mobilization of agentic action that includes critical reflection and action, proactive engagement, social support, and community engagement. The needs assessment and agentic action aspects of this approach can be used to foster change in individual counseling, advocacy, and systemic intervention. Case examples reflecting a systemic intervention and an individual counseling vignette are presented along with implications for research, such as explorations of the impact of these change models on client outcomes and systemic change efforts.     

Research Based Recommendations for Child Custody Evaluation Practices and Policies in Cases of Intimate Partner Violence

This article reviews recent research on child custody evaluations in intimate partner violence (IPV) cases. Specifically, it covers assessment methods, evaluator selection, evaluator education, guidelines, differential assessment, and state policies. Special attention is given to new methods of bias reduction, the need to focus on coercive and controlling abuse, and the need to interpret psychological tests within a trauma framework. Recommendations are made in each area reviewed.     

Grieving for the loss of the perfect child: Parents of children with handicaps

Family reaction to the diagnosis of a child with a handicap marks the occurrence of a family crisis. The losss experienced by the family at the birth of a handicapped child is explored within a framework for grieving. A wholistic model for the grieving process, which is based on a view that grieving has important biological, intellectual, emotional, behavioral and spiritual aspects is presented. Examples from clinical cases are offered to illustrate this process. Implications are provided for better understanding and facilitating of the grief process for both the family and the helping professional.