Student Participation in Decision-Making in Schools of Social Work

This paper discusses the concept of sociatrogenic dysfunctions—negative consequences resulting from the efforts of the social healer. This concept is applicable to all levels of social work practice —individual, group, organizational, and societal. Instances of sociatrogenic dysfunctions in psychotherapy, corrections, mental hospitals, dropout campaigns, and urban renewal are cited The possible occurrence of sociatrogenic dysfunctions challenges the notion that doing something is always better than doing nothing and emphasizes the necessity of critically evaluating the role of the social worker in change efforts. The implications for social work education and the importance of educating students to evaluate approaches to treatment are discussed.     

Metaphors we experiment with in multimodal ethnography

In this paper, we argue for a view of analysis as an embodied practice and review others’ testimonies of carrying out multimodal ethnography. This review suggests that metaphors are key for communicating what happens to us in the course of the research and our subsequent sense-making practices. We identify four metaphors for communicating data collection and analytic practices: composing, meandering, plundering and time travel. We then turn to our own multimodal fieldwork with children in middle childhood, to think about the experiences and emergent metaphors that shaped our practice on an international study looking at the relationship between childhood and public life. Children’s play was instructive in our own formation as multimodal ethnographers. We provide examples of the ways in which children recruited us into their play, the ways in which play taught us about what matters to children, and finally, how we took play into our own analytical practices.     

Telling it like it was. Audio-taping stories told by mental health service users and carers

This paper begins by claiming that the telling and hearing of stories is intrinsic to the social work task. Examples of the value of hearing stories in a variety of social work roles are provided, as are examples of the theoretical underpinnings which substantiate the importance of enabling service users and carers to tell their stories. The main focus of the paper is on relating how audio-taping the experiences of service users and carers evolved as part of the author's work. With the permission of those interviewed, examples are quoted from accounts of three different family members attempting to deal with a relative's progressive deterioration into severe dementia. These accounts are followed by the memories of a woman who took an overdose and was subsequently ‘ectioned’ under The Mental Health Act 1983. An interview with two parents attempting to respond to the needs of their schizophrenic son is discussed. Some of the unexpected positive repercussions of recording interviews with these service users are described and some cautions are also highlighted. The paper concludes with suggestions of how audio-taping the stories of service users can be used to benefit social workers engaged in various aspects of social work today.     

“Listening Enables Me to Connect with Others”: Exploring College Students’ (Mediated) Listening Metaphors

Metaphors employ figurative expressions to capture similarities between otherwise separate and distinct objects, events, or processes. The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate what metaphors people use to describe listening and then explore if these metaphors apply to mediated settings. Students (N = 41) first generated listening metaphors and then evaluated and discussed 10 listening metaphors in class-based discussions of listening and mediated listening; these themes are summarized and discussed. Evaluations of listening metaphors in mediated contexts largely depended on the conceptualization of mediated listening presented. Limitations and future directions are discussed for listening metaphors.     

Educating for Practice in the Chicano Community

This paper conveys one perspective on the development and implementation of a training curriculum designed within a framework of knowledge, values, and skills essential for compatible and complementary social work practice in the Chicano community. It reflects the theoretical foundations upon which the Chicano Training Center is constructing a continuing education program for social service and mental health personnel. Curriculum content areas and emphases, as well as training modalities, are discussed and suggested as possible means for educating practitioners to better understand and serve Mexican Americans. The development of bicultural practice models in service delivery systems is also stressed.     

Mental health and the media: From illness to wellbeing

The media are a main source of information about mental health for many people, and an ever‐growing body of literature is evaluating their coverage of the topic. To help keep track of such research, several comprehensive but now dated literature reviews have been published. We assess more recent studies (2007–2017) and suggest future directions by integrating (a) the “circuit of mass communication” model from media and communication studies which posits that production, content, and reception need to be analysed for an in‐depth understanding of the media, (b) the holistic view of mental health as comprising both illness and wellbeing, and (3) the critical psychiatry literature questioning the assumptions underlying psychiatric knowledge and practice. We find that recent studies have focused on content and “the illness side” of mental health by examining the representation of particular mental disorders and events involving individuals with specific diagnoses. We identify as a promising development the growing interest in “the wellbeing side” of mental health whereby authors have started to analyse recovery messages. We invite more production and reception research and more critical content studies which use diagnostic labels cautiously and analyse the representation of people with mental health problems as the victims of violence.     

Challenges for Creating Community Career Partnerships: Perspectives From Practitioners

Community career partnerships can draw into working alignment the critical aspects of career development for students (K‐16) and the key social contexts that either promote or inhibit growth. The authors, using a qualitative research methodology, describe challenges faced by practitioners when attempting to create and implement a community career partnership. Implications for practice, theory, and public policies are discussed.     

Power,participation and post modernism: User and practitioner participation in mental health social work education

The focus of this paper is service user and social work practitioner participation in the teaching for the mental health social work course. A review of the programme seeks to illuminate the value and significance of participation. The obstacles exposed through interviews and a collective workshop suggest a blocking opposition between idealistic education and ‘the reality of practice’. However this opposition is challenged by user and black advocacy participation. The value of participation appears in terms of anti-discrimination and extended possibilities to bring about change. Theory and practice divides are also dissolved. Participation is connected to power and modern and post modern approaches to education provide the theoretical framework.     

Theoretical and Practical Imperatives for Reflective Social Work Organizations in Health and Mental Health

Summary

This article describes the common challenges to health and mental health organizations that require these agencies to become more “reflective” in their culture and structures. This necessitates integrating practice and research at all organizational levels. Schon's concept of reflective practice to health and mental health organizations is extended to develop the construct of a reflective organization, in which direct practitioners are integral to organizational learning through ongoing service evaluation and redesign. The theoretical and practical reasons why social work administrators and clinicians alike are obliged to integrate practice and research are discussed. University-based models of practice-research integration impede this process; Epstein's Practice-Based Research approach facilitates it.     

‘He is Quirky; He is the World's Greatest Psychologist’: On the Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common

In this article, we challenge the concept of the therapeutic relationship as an operationalisable entity. In contrast to this idea, we introduce Alphonso Lingis’ concept of community, and his distinction between the rational community and the community of those who have nothing in common. This is done through speculative analysis of a transcribed sequence from a research interview with a boy who speaks about his experiences of receiving mental health care. This boy and his family were helped through a network‐oriented, dialogical approach. In the sequence highlighted here, the boy speaks of the significance of a particular mental health practitioner. The boy expresses appreciation for the help he has received, yet it is difficult to translate the boy's utterances into meaningful professional jargon. Although the paper makes use of an actual sequence from a research interview, the argument is not empirical in nature. The purpose of the paper is to elaborate on theory, and to examine some possible consequences for future practice.     

Abstracts

This paper describes a design for a course which aims to develop advanced practice skills in supervision and consultation for qualified social workers. The course model is based on an understanding of reflective learning developed chiefly by Donald Schon and recently discussed in this journal by Nick Gould. Some of the processes, risks and dilemmas for course members, course tutors and seconding agencies that are inherent in the course are explored through examples of reflection-in-action drawn from recent courses. Implications for the use of this approach with social workers' managers operating within a hierarchical organisational structure are explored.

The experiential element of the course, based on course members' work as consultant and consultee with another course member, will be developed more fully in a subsequent paper.

The potential usefulness of the course is discussed in relation to developing advanced practice in professional supervision, accrediting experienced practice teachers and, in an adapted form, enabling social work practitioners to develop a range of advanced practice skills.     

Family Social Work Practice: Onward to Therapy and Policy

ABSTRACT

In a recent article published in the Journal of Family Social Work McNeece (1995) argued that family therapy has no interest in or relevance for social policy interventions. Through the presentation of several arguments he constructs an irreconcilable dichotomy between policy and practice, suggesting that therapeutic interventions are responsible for pulling resources away from the development of effective social policy interventions. This paper challenges the dichotomy between policy and practice and presents an alternative view concerning the relationship between social policy and family therapy. The increasing importance of family policy in family therapy is summarized and a new trend within marriage and family practice, policy as practice, is discussed. Current family practice literature and personal case examples are used to provide alternative viewpoints to three main points that were presented by McNeece concerning family therapy practice, and the therapy/policy interface. Finally, the current practice context of managed care is used to illustrate the interdependence of practice and policy, and the need for a new understanding concerning family practice.     

Bourdieu,Technique And Technology

This paper examines the place of technology in Pierre Bourdieu's social theory, and argues for the relevance of Bourdieu's thought to the study of technology. In moving from an examination of the status of technology in Bourdieu's work through to his broad approach to social practice and his widely cited concept of habitus, it is argued that technologies are crystalliz­ations of socially organized action. As such, they should be considered not as exceptional or special phenomena in a social theory, but rather as very much like other kinds of social practices that recur over time. Ultimately, through the use of Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, field, and capital, we are able to overcome the binary divisions such as technology/society and subject/object that have plagued technology studies.     

Engaging with a Mental Health Service: Perspectives of At-Risk Youth

Studies suggest that only a small number of young people with diagnosable mental health difficulties are referred for treatment. Of these a significant proportion fail to engage in treatment or terminate prematurely. This situation is exacerbated when the young people are homeless or at risk of homelessness, and considered to be at-risk. With this at-risk population the process of engagement is likely to be a critical aspect of successful interventions. Using qualitative methodology, at-risk clients of a mental health service (n = sixteen) were interviewed, and four primary themes crucial to the engagement process were identified. The data indicated the importance of considering the young person and their multifarious life-experiences; the attractiveness and accessibility of the service; and the follow-up offered by the service provider. The implications for mental health services that provide counseling for young people are discussed.     

Translating knowledge into practice: using simulation to enhance mental health competence through social work education

ABSTRACT

Simulation-based learning (SBL) is an innovative experiential teaching method where students and instructors interact with a simulated client to foster students’ holistic competence in practice. Considering the context of North America where social workers are the largest service provider in the field of mental health, it is critical for educators to enhance competencies in students during the social work program. Guided by competency- and simulation-based, adult learning frameworks, this paper illustrates the development and integration of a range of educational activities into a treatment-focused advanced mental health course in the social work curriculum. We conclude by discussing how SBL enhances students’ mental health competence and provide recommendations when developing SBL in the mental health curriculum in social work education.     

Unlocking Doors: Providing MSW Programs and Students with Educational “Keys” to Social Justice

ABSTRACT

How can social work educators identify what constitutes social justice as a practice, as a social work stance? How can we teach our students to recognize this stance, to work toward it, to practice it, and to live it? Symbolic interactionist Erving Goffman's concepts of keys and keying, as underscored in his work Frame Analysis, provide useful tools for helping students to recognize the value of social justice within social work educational encounters and to apply this value when they enter the field. The concepts of keys and keying can also help programs to assess and amplify their commitments to social justice.     

Mental Health Needs Assessment of a Major Urban University

Abstract

A questionnaire surveying mental health needs was administered in class to 1,412 Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) students, and a service utilization questionnaire was administered to 154 students applying for mental health services at four campus-based agencies. The nature of the specific problems of concern to students tended to remain stable over the course of a semester. Study habits and grades was the most frequently cited problem area on the needs survey, though help was sought most frequently for physically oriented concerns. Students lacking important sources of social support reported the most difficulties. Students who sought help had more problems and higher levels of concern than those not seeking help. A comparison of the two data sources indicated a slight but significant tendency for agencies to deal with the greatest areas of need at the severity levels indicated in the needs survey.     

Perceived Marital Support and Incident Mental Illness: Evidence from the National Comorbidity Survey

Social support in marriage may be associated with reduced risk for mental illness. Past studies are limited by short follow up and a focus on depression. A two‐wave nationally representative survey in the United States (n = 2,503) is used to examine whether social support in marriage is associated with the onset of each of four clusters of disorders—internalizing, externalizing, phobic, and bipolar—10 years later. Results indicate that higher levels of perceived marital support were protective against internalizing, fear, and bipolar disorders, and against incident externalizing disorders for women. Protective effects of social support in marriage against mental illness are long‐lasting, and sometimes differ by gender. Findings suggest the importance of mental health assessment in clinical practice.