Teaching Behaviour Therapy Skills to Social Work Students

Summary Twenty social work students who were in the final term of atwo year non-graduate CQSW course were divided into two groupswhich met weekly for four sessions. The purpose of these sessions was to teach the students, throughexperiential methods, the use of behaviour modification techniquesin the hope that they would transfer this competence to theirwork with clients individually or in groups. Each student selecteda target behaviour for change, and with group supervision, defined,monitored and set goals for the target behaviour and finallyimplemented therapeutic procedures.     

The Use of TGroups in Training Social Workers

Summary It is suggested that T groups might be of value in Social Worktraining as a means of encouraging Social Workers to make greateruse of group techniques. T groups have been criticized on ethicalgrounds and for their tendency to produce psychological disturbancein predisposed individuals. In he context of Social Work trainingT groups have a dual function, promoting self awareness in theparticipants and increasing their knowledge of group dynamics.A procedure is described which emphasizes the necessity of focusingon group behaviour as opposed to individual psychopathology.It is believed that by doing so the psychological hazards arereduced. A brief outline is given of the manner in which materialproduced in the group sessions may illustrate theoretical materialintroduced elsewhere on the course     

Behavioural Social Work with Schizophrenic Patients in the Community

Summary A preliminary project on the application of behaviour modificationprocedures in the home setting is reported together with commentson the social needs of schizophrenic patients and their families.The article includes suggestions about social work with thisclient group based on the project experience.     

A Danger to Themselves and to Others

Summary Some account is given of a small group of offender/patientsdefined as dangerous or potentially dangerous. Reasons are putforward in an attempt to explain an apparent reluctance to workwith such clients and the unease that often occurs when so doing.It is suggested that an approach may be required to such offender/patientswhich differs in some respects from more traditional modes oftreatment. Emphasis is placed upon the need for careful observationof material facts and events in the lives of such clients inaddition to the careful observation of the manifestations offeelings and attitudes which may give premonition of dangerousor potentially dangerous behaviour     

A Cognitive Approach to the Treatment of Offenders

Summary This is an initial attempt to apply the principles of cognitivetherapy to the treatment of adult offenders. The paper includesa brief presentation of the basic theory of cognitive therapyand a discussion of its relevance to criminal behaviour. Itthen describes a group of treatment techniques, with examplesof their application. The interventions fall into three generalcategories: cognitive restructing and impulse control, problem-solvingand social-skills training, and cognitive stimulation. Someof the techniques are borrowed, with adaptations. from the literatureof cognitive therapy and some are presented here for the firsttime.     

A Combined Approach to Parental Coping

Summary The development of coping strategies by a combination of behaviourmodification, casework and milieu therapy is discussed withreference to the case of a nine-year-old boy admitted to a childpsychiatric in-patient unit. Admission had been precipitatedby his violent and uncontrollable behaviour at home. The plannedreturn of the child to his family is stressed as an importantpart of the treatment.     

Social Policy and the Prevention of Suicidal Behaviour

Summary This paper is an attempt to answer the following questions.Can we, and should we, try to prevent suicidal behaviour; howsuccessful are the efforts at suicide prevention of lay andmedical agencies; and what social policies could be employedto prevent suicidal behaviour?     

Do Nothing but Do Something: the Effect of Human Contact with the Parent on Abusive Behaviour

Summary This study examines whether a mere human contact, which is notaccompanied with any definite treatment goal or technique, canbring about a change in the behaviour of abusing mothers. Resultsindicated that after three months of social contact betweenthe layman, intervening woman and 40 abusive mothers, significantchange could be seen in the abusive behaviour. This change didnot last when the contact with the mother was terminated. Threeelements inherent in the contact were mentioned by the mothersas an explanation; social control, attention, and easing theburden. The paper ends with a discussion of the use of humancontact as a method of treatment, its advantages and disadvantages.     

The Educational Progress of Children In and Out of Care

Dr Jane Aldgate, Department of Social and Administrative Studies, University of Oxford, Barnett House, Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2ER. Summary Results are reported from the first of three rounds of testingassociated with a longitudinal study comparing the educationalprogress and behaviour of a group of foster children with thatof a ‘control’ group. The latter comprised youngsterswho have never been in care but whose families have receivedsocial work help. The educational attainment of both groups was generally foundto fall below the national average. Both groups also manifestedrelatively high levels of behavioural problems, although suchproblems appeared more in evidence among the social servicesgroup. Data which describe the current home environments of the twogroups, and which may subsequently help to account for theirrespective levels of educational progress, are also presented.     

Race, Self-identity and Social Work

Correspondence to Dr J. Owusu-Bempah, School of Social Work, University of Leicester, 107 Princess Road East, Leicester LE1 71, A. Summary Many people seem to accept, as self-evident, the notion thatblack children harbour unfavourable cognitions about themselvesand their racial group, and that they would rather be white.The present study investigated the prevalence of this notionamongst social work students, and also the extent of the influenceof this view on professional practice. The study involved 102postgraduate social work students at two British Universitiesin separate regions of the country. The respondents respondedindividually to three randomly distributed vignettes, whichwere identical except for the racial/ethnic origin of the principalcharacters: a white child, a child of ‘mixed-race’parentage and a black child. The respondents were required toassess the causes of the children's behaviour, as well as theirsocial and psychological needs. The results were analysed accordingto the number of respondents who mentioned particular causesof the children's behaviour and particular courses of actionto meet their needs. The analyses revealed significant differencesbetween the respondents' perception and interpretations of thechildren's behaviour. The analyses also revealed that the childrenwere differentially treated according to their race or ethnicorigin. The results are discussed in the light of assumptionsabout black self-concept, mainly derived from the social scienceliterature. The implications of the findings for the socialwork profession, individual practitioners, and their black clientsare also highlighted.     

Compulsory Persuasion: A Problem for Correctional Social Work

Summary Social work risks being misused as a technique for controllingundesirable behaviour, regardless of clients' expectations orchoices. This approach to social work involves certain underlyingassumptions about human nature which raise considerable ethicaland practical difficulties. Recent trends in the probation andafter care service are considered, together with some researchstudies of the effectiveness of social work in reducing offendingbehaviour. From these it is argued that social work servicesfor offenders are more likely to be effective when the emphasisis on helping with perceived problems and difficulties ratherthan on crime prevention.     

Group Work in Intermediate Treatment

Summary This article is concerned with the development of group workin a specialist intermediate treatment project. Using the techniqueof participant observation the author describes the use madeof groups over a six-month period with young people, all ofwhom presented problems of disturbance and/or delinquency. Thepractice portrayed is not ‘model’ but illustrativeof the dilemmas of practitioners beginning to work with groupsof young people for the first time. The evidence of the studypoints to the difficulties that an over-simplified view of participationand democracy can create, and indicates the need for group workersto define their purpose and objectives and to establish a contractor working agreement with group members. In relation to thedebate about ‘talking’ and ‘doing’ inintermediate treatment, it is suggested that a model of groupwork practice that distinguishes between ‘activity asan end in itself’, ‘activity as a means to an end’,and ‘focussed discussion’ may be helpful to groupworkers in conceptualizing the totality of their task. Socialwork with groups is still more talked about than practised.This article describes the attempts of a newly established teamof intermediate treatment workers to practise group work withyoung adolescents whose behaviour and social circumstances wereregarded as problematic. As a part-time researcher attachedto the project team, the author had access through participantobservation to groups over a six-month period and he also hadthe opportunity of listening to group workers discussing theirwork at review meetings.     

Social Work Students' Perceptions of Child Abuse: An International Comparison and Postmodern Interpretation of its Findings

Correspondence to R. James Christopherson, School of Social Studies, University of Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. Summary The decision about whether behaviour with children is acceptablehas far-reaching consequences for those involved. Social workersmust decide what behaviour leads people into the child protectionsystem. This study aims to identify how far social work studentsachieve a consensus on the acceptability of behaviour, and whethersimilar items achieve agreement between groups in Sweden andEngland. Forty-four vignettes of behaviour with children whichmight be seen as unacceptable were administered to 52 first-yearsocial work students in Ume, Sweden, and 50 English students.They were asked to rank the behaviour on a 5-point scale, where‘1’ represented ‘Fine’ and ‘5’‘Totally unacceptable'. Key findings were that there is little consensus within societiesabout what is acceptable behaviour towards children, and significantdifferences between them. It is argued that this is the resultof the many different discourses operating in the field. Theauthor points out the difficulties this can cause, and arguesfor the acceptance of a postmodern approach, which though stressingthe importance of consensus in decision making, ultimately positsthat effective and ethical practice must be based on relationship.Such an approach would resolve paradoxes which have challengeda more modernist understanding of social work.     

Identifying the Extent of Challenging Behaviour in Adult Learning Disability Services

Correspondence to Carol Hayden, ICJS, St. George’s Building, 141 High Street, Portsmouth PO1 2HY, UK. E-mail: carol.hayden{at}port.ac.uk Summary This article presents one part of the findings of an ongoingstudy that set out to investigate and explain the extent ofchallenging behaviour in twenty-one social service run day andresidential services in one large county authority in England.This part of the study reports on staff perceptions of problematicbehaviour from service users. It uses staff reports of levelsof problematic behaviour as indicative of potentially challengingbehaviour. The study uses an adapted version of an establishedinstrument, the BPI (Behaviour Problems Inventory), as a surveytool completed by staff for all service users in a one-monthperiod (January 2000). The findings of this exercise are basedon 1,390 service users, near to a census at the time of thesurvey. The study shows ‘non-compliance’ to be themost problematic and prevalent behaviour from the point of viewof staff. Overall the research illustrates a split between themajority of service users who present staff with problematicbehaviour in a relatively minor to moderate way and a smallgroup of individuals (less than 2 per cent) who present muchmore extreme behaviour. Brief reference is made to other datacollected in the study when it helps in the interpretation ofthe behaviour patterns identified by the BPI.     

An Attempt to Assess a New Design in Residential Homes for the Elderly

Summary A comparison of the residents of three county council homesfor the elderly is undertaken. The three homes differ both intheir architectural design, and in the role of the staff. Themeasures used are mainly concerned with the residents' dailyactivities, and information is collected both by questionnaireand by personal observation. The results show significant differencesin the three groups and tend to support the authors' predictionsconcerning the residents' behaviour, based on the differencesin the physical design and staff role in the homes     

Organization Development: a Group Centred Approach to Improving the Effectiveness of After-care Hostels

Summary This paper describes an approach to improving the effectivenessof voluntary hostels in which (a) the target for change is theentire management group of the hostel, (b) the content of therelationship between the management group and the consultantis real work problems and (c) the method of achieving changeactively involves members of the management group in the identificationand diagnosis of problem areas and in the development of strategiesto improve the situation. The aim of this approach is to encouragethe management group to take the initiative and manage ratherthan drift along and react to new circumstances as they arise.     

Family Structure as a Factor in the Adjustment of Adopted Children

Summary An analysis of the relationship between five types of adoptivefamily structure and the adjustment of adopted children, whenseven to seven and a half years of age, indicates that the presenceof a natural child born after adoption to a previously childlesscouple is associated with serious behavioural dysfunction inthe adopted child. In this type of family the proportion ofboys so maladjusted is 10 times greater than in the modal familytype comprising adopted children only. In terms of specificmanifestations, a greater proportion show habit and sleep disturbance,and problems of behaviour and eating. The findings are discussedcritically, and potential fertility is suggested as a criterionfor the selection of applicant couples who should be counselledto defer their adoption.     

Childcare with gloves on: protecting children and young people in residential care

Summary Abuse of young people in out-of-home care has caused internationalpublic and professional concern over the last fifteen years.Although research has been undertaken to identify factors thatare likely to contribute to a safer environment for young people,little consideration has been given to the impact of abuse scandalson workers' perceptions of what constitutes abusive behaviour.This paper presents the findings of a study undertaken in threeresidential children's units in one local authority which soughtto explore this area and considers two key findings which raiseissues for the social work profession. These are, first, thatthe perception of abusive behaviour was in the main determinedin terms of the workforce's own vulnerability to allegations.Secondly, staff found it difficult to conceive of a colleagueas a potential perpetrator of abuse. The paper concludes byevaluating recent government policy documents in the light ofthe study findings.     

The Effects of Group Living in a Residential Home for the Elderly

Summary The group-living system of care is becoming increasingly popularin residential homes for the elderly. This study examined purposefulactivity, as measured by engagement, in one such home beforeand after changeover to group living. It was found that engagementwas significantly increased after the changeover. In addition,life satisfaction was increased and orientation unchanged bythe changeover in a small sample of residents. These resultsare interpreted as supportive for the effectiveness of groupliving.     

The Cognitive-Behavioural Approach with Depressed Clients

Correspondence to Dr Michael Seott, Liverpool Personal Service Society, 34, Stanley Street, Liverpool L1 6AN Summary The recent cognitive revolution in psychology has meant thatan individual's behaviour is now rarely viewed in simple behaviouristterms as solely a product of rewards and punishments, but isseen as influenced by the individual's own, often idiosyncratic,view of their situation. This new paradigm has enabled the developmentof highly structured and usually brief interventions in manyareas of individual emotional problems. This paper describes Individual and Group Cognitive Therapywith depressed clients and cites two recent outcome studies.The contribution of Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT) to thisarea of emotional distress is noted with the caveat that itseffectiveness has been more thoroughly studied in this areathan in others.