The clinical social worker as a member of the health team in a coronary care unit

In the course of developing a pattern of assistance to the patient about to be discharged from a coronary care unit, the professional health team at the University of California at Los Angeles Hospital anticipates and treats in advance the medical, social, and emotional problems of the patient which might tend to create a crisis at the time of his re-entry into his former world, possibly a new and much-changed world dictated by the nature of his illness. The professional appraisals at UCLA are continually reinforced by the practical and social approaches of the clinical social worker who, by the nature of her training, is able to see the patient's illness in its full social and psychological framework, rather than as an isolated phenomenon.     

High school after school: creating pathways to the future for adolescents

This article proposes a strategy for the use of out-of-school time for adolescents, illustrates this strategy in action in Chicago, and discusses the challenges it faces.     

The crisis intervention team: a revolutionary tool for law enforcement: the psychiatric-mental health nursing perspective

Effective management of people who are in mental health crisis in the community has gained national concern from the standpoint of law enforcement. This article addresses a revolutionary concept known as the Crisis Intervention Team, which teaches law enforcement personnel how to safely approach and de-escalate people who are experiencing a mental health crisis and get them safely to treatment.     

Designing a safety program for a college health service.

Although accidents are the leading cause of death among college students, literature about developing student health safety programs is limited. In this article, we present preliminary recommendations based on literature review, epidemiologic data, and Nominal Group Process (NGP) activities, for developing university student safety programs. Our recommendations include appointing a coordinator to oversee all on-campus safety activities, providing for university-wide education programs dealing with alcohol and drug use, promoting personal safety efforts in areas such as family violence and rape prevention, and encouraging students to use safe transportation alternatives.     

Styling the worker: Gender and the commodification of language in the globalized service economy

This paper discusses some sociolinguistic characteristics of the speech style prescribed to workers for interacting with customers in service contexts, focusing in particular on the linguistic and vocal 'styling' prescribed for operators in telephone call centres in the U.K. Attention is drawn to the similarities between the preferred style of speech and what is popularly thought of as 'women's language'. The intensive regulation of service workers' speech and the valorization of 'feminine' communication styles are analysed in relation to changes occurring as a consequence of economic globalization.     

Racial/ethnic disparities in prior mental health service use among incarcerated adolescents

Research on racial and ethnic disparities in mental health and substance abuse service use among incarcerated youth in the U.S. is inconclusive. This cross-sectional study adds to our understanding of racial and ethnic disparities by examining the prior use of mental health and substance abuse services among incarcerated juveniles. Guided by Andersen's behavioral model of health service utilization, a series of logistic regression analyses were conducted on a non-probability sample of 13–19 year-old youth in two residential facilities for juvenile offenders in Western Pennsylvania (N = 181). Black and Hispanic youth were less likely than White youth to have used mental health and substance abuse services, even when controlling for predisposing, enabling, and need factors. Additional analyses revealed that these differences did not hold across all service types, specifically with regards to outpatient service use. Significant differences did exist, however, in the prior use of inpatient mental health and substance abuse services. This suggests that White youth are often funneled into the mental health system, while youth of color enter the justice system. Implications for racial/ethnic disproportionality in service use and justice system involvement are discussed.     

The HIPP consultation and rehabilitation team: developing a streamlined service and its implications for work processes

This paper addresses the particular experience of negotiating, creating and operationalizing streamlined processes for a specialized consultation team, within a multi-site academic health science complex, for determining the rehabilitation needs and appropriate program for patients who had experienced surgery for a fractured hip. Background information concerning the main study is provided with the focus of analysis and discussion being upon the processes and outcomes of changing the way work had been undertaken over many years. It also addresses the complexity of attempting to encourage ongoing reflection related to roles and functions within a multi-disciplinary health care team.     

Towards a family support approach with drug‐using parents: the importance of social worker attitudes and knowledge

Social worker attitudes to drug‐using parents are considered in the context of developing a family support approach with this client group. A survey (ADUPS) is formulated and applied to social work staff in an Outer London Borough and this is complemented by semi‐structured interviews. The study finds that the vast majority of social workers wanted to support drug‐using parents, rejected negative stereotypes of them and were optimistic that supportive approaches could lead to positive outcomes. However, responses in certain areas suggest that for many workers there is some ambivalence or lack of confidence in their stated positions. A minority of social workers seem to hold attitudes that appear to be inconsistent with family support for drug‐using parents, and are likely to discriminate against them. The need for training in work with drug‐using parents is clearly indicated. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experiences of volunteering: A partnership between service users and a mental health service in the UK

The aim of the study was to investigate how people with serious mental illness perceived the experience of volunteering for the health care organisation in which they had received a service. The study took a qualitative approach and in phase one, eleven service user volunteers were purposefully sampled and interviewed. In depth interviews were analysed using grounded theory. This paper describes the findings from phase one, and highlights the following themes to represent the volunteering experience: 1) rehearsing for a new direction; 2) treading carefully at first; 3) discovering my new self; and, 4) using my experience and extending relationships. These themes further support a tentative theoretical framework that considers supported volunteering to enhance recovery because it fosters positive risk taking and gives individuals a valued identity that integrates their mental health experience. In phase two, this framework will be tested with service users in more diverse volunteer positions. The findings of my study suggest that mental health services are in a unique position to build partnerships with service users to support their recovery and journeys toward employment by providing opportunities for volunteering.     

Social worker and immigrant client experiences in multicultural service provision: Educational implications

Social work education, while committed to preparing students for anti-oppressive practice with immigrants and refugees, has not always been successful in achieving this goal. Student knowledge about and interest in cross-cultural practice, as evidenced in Canadian and US studies, often remains superficial and marginalized. This may in part be due to a lack of inclusion of practice wisdom and lived experiences of front-line practitioners and their clients. To remedy this deficit, 13 Canadian social workers of varied cultural backgrounds providing services in inner-city schools and 19 immigrant clients were interviewed in-depth to ascertain their perceptions of central elements of anti-oppressive practice with immigrant populations. Results yielded two major themes: Multifaceted Perception of Self and Other , which pertained to a recognition that culture was multifaceted, complex, and defined interactively; and Proactive Service Delivery , which pertained to active worker involvement in cultural bridging, brokering and advocacy. Implications for anti-oppressive social work education include a focus on multifaceted definition of culture, and admissions policies that promote multilingual, multicultural competencies.     

Legal capacity and the mental health social worker role: an international comparison

ABSTRACT

New capacity laws have been introduced to many jurisdictions over the last decade. These laws have substantially changed the way in which mental health social workers and other professionals approach decisions about, and for, clients. Most notably, there is now an expectation that mental health social workers engage more in supported decision-making to prevent the need for substitute decision-making. This article describes the legal and policy drivers that have led to these changes in practice, with a particular emphasis on the significance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the UNCRPD) and the importance of recovery approaches in mental health services. It then uses selected literature to explore the efficacy of the laws and decision-making in this area. The second part of the article identifies the role that mental health social workers can play in supporting legal capacity, drawing from the authors’ experience and knowledge of mental health social work and law in four jurisdictions: Victoria, Australia; Ontario, Canada; England and Wales; and Northern Ireland. It is concluded that mental health and other social workers need to refine skills, knowledge and values to accommodate this paradigm shift in law, policy and practice.     

The education of a clinical social worker: Finding a place for the humanities

The values of our professionalized culture have encouraged the defining of social work as an academic discipline. As social work has then taken its place, academically, within the social sciences, a whole way of knowing and being in the world associated with the humanities is being left out of the higher education for clinical social workers. The thesis of this essay is that both experience and intellectual concerns suggest some disciplined study of the historical, theoretical, and metaphorical ways of knowing linked with the humanities could be an important part of the higher education for the would-be clinician.