Teaching Note—Asserting Social Work’s Role in Developing an Interprofessional Education Project

ABSTRACT

Interprofessional (IP) education is an essential component of today’s health care education. IP education has been recognized and supported for its potential to educate workforce-ready health care clinicians with the knowledge and skills, necessary to collaboratively deliver high-quality, client-centered care. While social work’s reflective, patient-centered, and holistic approach to care is invaluable in addressing healthcare challenges at all levels, social work’s lack of involvement in IP health care team practice is evident in the development of IP education curriculum with other health care disciplines. This article describes how one School of Social Work at a regional public university became part of a longitudinal IP education project in collaboration with a large R-1 research university, creating an IP opportunity for Master’s in Social Work (MSW) students. It also discusses the process taken for social work inclusion in the IP project, an experiential elective course designed to supplement the project, as well as Transformative Learning Theory, the conceptual framework used.     

The knowledge,skills and qualities needed for social work in a major paediatric teaching hospital

Abstract

The place of aged care in social work has long been ambiguous, if not marginal. Social work (as do other comparable professions) often displays a reluctance to place practice in this field within the core of the profession that embodies aspects of ageism in contemporary society. Working with older people is frequently characterised as ‘mundane’, ‘routine’ and even ‘not “real” social work’. This paper examines the practice implications of the current policy context. Forms of ‘indirect’ practice are identified as central to social work in aged care, and the implications of this for the standing of aged care social work in the wider profession are discussed. It is argued that ‘indirect’ practices are core to the development of the profession and so should be seen as ‘real’ social work. In conclusion, it is suggested that unless social work affirms practice with older people and their families we will fail to be congruent with our own values.     

Queering Canadian Social Work Accreditation standards and procedures: a content analysis

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews and critically analyzes the Canadian Association for Social Work Education—Association Canadienne Pour La Formation En Travail Social’s (CASWE-ACFTS’) Accreditation Standards and Procedures from a Sexual Orientation Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIESC) lens to examine how such are addressed in relevant documents. The CASWE-ACFTS Queer Caucus undertook a lead role in examining ‘diversity’ in the documents as it serves as an umbrella term for SOGIESC and other intersecting positionalities. This paper iterates an initial response in the CASWE-ACFTS Queer Caucus’ ongoing consultation with the CASWE-ACFTS’s Education Policy Committee’s work on Education Policy and Accreditation Standards 2019 (EPAS2019). The content analysis of the documents reveals that SOGIESC issues are not adequately addressed and this has implications for undergraduate and graduate social work curricula in Canada. The authors provide recommendations that address the integration of SOGIESC in CASWE-ACFTS’s Accreditation Standards and Procedures documents.     

Wounding Healers. Killing with kindness on the road to hell

A primary intention of those working in the caring professions is to make things better, rather than worse, for the people they encounter. Most are motivated by good intentions to help others. This article considers the shadow side of this ‘altruism’ and the unintended consequences that can sometimes result from the best of intentions. Drawing on works of Literature and Social Work Theory the desire to help, along with the exercise of power, is shown to be a ‘dangerous delight’ and to have the capacity to ‘bring about great ruin’. The concept of the wounded healer has been considered previously. Here, the possibility of would-be healers being wounding is examined. Those who set out to ‘help’ others are urged to carefully reflect on their motivation so as to increase the likelihood that they will follow an essential first principle of the therapeutic encounter and do no harm.     

Building on users' knowledge as a basis for professional expertise? An example from Swedish social care services

Implementing new occupations in social care services as a solution to social problems challenges the knowledge base for social care. This has been particularly evident in services for persons with disabilities. Social policy has emphasized influence over services for persons with disabilities and hence has implemented personal assistance and case management services. Using these as examples, this article explores the professional logic developed, and the ways it relate to existing social professions. The results are presented in a typology defining two occupations as examples of a professional logic based on users’ knowledge. This logic, here called ‘user-mandated professionalism’, is denoted by wide discretion, relationships with users built on trust, and legitimacy mainly stemming from user organizations. The analysis then raises the challenge for social professionals in social care occupations based on users’ knowledge to be explicit about the knowledge base they build on in their arguments and in decision-making.     

The integration of child care services in Scotland

This paper describes the development of integrated child care services in Scotland with a particular focus on the role of residential child care provision. It discusses changes in Social Work Department policies and the impact this has had on their relationship with the Children's Hearings system. Recent research shows the pattern of use of residential and foster care in three Social Work Departments and issues in the development of residential services are identified. Three particular examples of service integration are described: residential outreach work; a centre for young people under an integrated management; and multi-agency youth strategies. Social work and education services in Scotland are in the process of radical change. In the context of the integration of child care services, the paper discusses the impact of local government reorganisation and changes in child care legislation.     

The Dutch Client Databank in Public Social Work

ABSTRACT

The history of the Dutch National Databank for Public Social Work began in 1960 in the province of Limburg. Social workers in that province met at a seminar and decided to set up a registration system concerning client characteristics and the counselling process which all the institutes of public social work in Limburg could be required to register in a uniform way. Thirty-three years later Dutch Public Social Work agencies are registering data according to a national system which was wanted, designed and developed by the united local authorities and all the institutes of Public Social Work. As a result, the National Databank for Public Social Work administers the data of all of the 166 institutes in the Netherlands and consequently is privileged to deal with the client characteristics and other specific data of the 250,000 client units that are involved every year with Public Social Work.     

An Aging Workforce in an Increasingly Global World

Summary

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the diversity in delivery of long-term care at the provincial level, within a national legislative framework that provides universal health insurance and public administration. Not all provinces have legislated provision of long-term care, but mandates for provincial long-term care programs typically address the needs of those with chronic health needs and maintain them in the community for as long as possible. Eligibility is based on common criteria of residency, health need, facility, assessment, and consent. The three common components of the service delivery system are institutional care, community-based services, and home-based services; the kinds of services within each component and the mix among them vary from province to province. There are also five common features in provincial service delivery systems: single point of entry, assessment, client classification, case management, and single administration. Throughout the article, examples from different provinces show the varying ways in which these aspects of service delivery have been addressed, and recent innovations have furthered this diversity. A detailed account of quality management systems also shows that while all provinces have adopted a common set of principles, they use a range of methods to pursue quality of care and to promote good practice.     

Omniscience at the Edge of Chaos: complexity,defences and change in a Children and Families Social Work department

ABSTRACT

This paper will explore a period of organisational change in a Children and Families Social Work team, applying ideas from complexity theory and psychoanalysis to explore the changes that occurred. In doing so it will critique the Newtonian concept of cause-and-effect linear causality, instead positing a nonlinear model of an organisation as a complex adaptive system in flux as it interacts with its environment. The paper will go on to posit that Bion’s psychoanalytic concepts of Omniscience and K Activity are self-organising forces in social care organisations, and when anxiety is not managed effectively, reductionist technical-rationale approaches to Children and Families Social Work dominate practice. It will conclude by outlining how the organisation’s effective management of anxiety through the creation of containment, created a series of organisational changes. These changes better supported the management of the complexity and uncertainty inherent in the social work task, raising possibilities of improvements in social work practice beyond the organisation.     

From Philanthropy to Social Welfare,Philip Klein. San Francisco,Jossey-Bass Inc., 1968. 307 Pages. $8.50 Hardbound

Interdisciplinary collaboration of health care professionals is necessary if quality health care is to be assured. Social work's concern for the social functioning of human beings should be reflected in its organization of health-care services. To achieve this end, social work education should be structured to prepare students for collaborative activities. This paper describes the process and difficulties of planned change undertaken at the Wayne State University School of Social Work with other health-related schools, in the conception, design, and implementation of an interdisciplinary course and practicum for graduate social work and nursing students.     

Coming Events

Abstract

In Australian Social Work, June 1992, Cheers gives an overview of ‘Rural Social Work and Social Welfare in the Australian Context’. This is an important contribution to our understanding of working in rural and remote areas in Australia. Over the past five years Cheers, through his published articles, has been instrumental in increasing our knowledge base of the requirements for social workers to be effective in these areas. In giving an overview it is not possible to discuss some of the problems in implementing the ideas presented by Cheers. It is the purpose of this article to extend Cheers' article by discussing the difficulties faced by social work(ers) in rural and remote areas as well as making suggestions for the development of social work practice in rural and remote areas.     

Deprived of human rights

Abstract

In June 2018 the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities published a report on the educational system in Spain, in response to some complaints submitted by SOLCOM (Association for Community solidarity and social inclusion of people with functional diversity). The report has had a substantial impact. A few months earlier, in February 2018, people from all over Spain had taken part in a workshop held at the Universidad de Málaga, as part of a research project entitled ‘Emerging Narratives about Inclusive Schools Based on the Social Model of Disability: Resistance, Resilience and Social Change’. The project aims to gather accounts of activist experiences from families and professionals who determinedly struggle to make schools places where all children are recognised through presence, participation, learning and success in the pre-compulsory and post-compulsory education stages. Both the Committee’s report and the statements made by relatives and activists at the workshop illustrated and bore witness to a systematic violation of many children’s right to education solely due to their disability.     

Including At-Risk Adolescents in Their Own Health and Mental Health Care

Summary

As urban adolescents encounter serious health and mental health risks, they present the allied health professions with important opportunities for health promotion and risk reduction interventions. However, the prevailing emphasis on adolescents' risk behaviors rather than on their vulnerability has limited our capacity to understand and serve them. Further limiting are the widely held myths that adolescents as a whole have few health problems and that they are poor judges of their own needs. This article presents an overview of current theories of adolescent risk and vulnerability and suggests Youth Development as an overarching framework for understanding both. Experience within a comprehensive, adolescent health and mental health center demonstrates how to meaningfully engage adolescents in their own health care from the start.     

A therapeutic social work team in practice

In 1996, as a result of interagency collaboration between social services and health, Leeds Social Services Department brought together three groups of social workers undertaking therapeutic work into a centrally managed team. Continued inter-agency working together has ensured that the Therapeutic Social Work Team has become an established service for children and families. This paper describes the work of the team by focusing on four areas: the context of interagency collaboration, therapeutic work in the child protection process, managing different theoretical approaches in one team, and evaluating practice.     

Health care,social care or both? A qualitative explorative study of different focuses in long-term care of older people in France,Portugal and Sweden

Challenges with an ageing population are increasingly becoming a reality in the Western world. Since cognitive impairment increases with age, we can expect an increasing number of older people in need of care. The aim of this article is to describe, analyse and compare different focuses on care of older people with dementia, using examples from France, Portugal and Sweden. The questions are principally focused on the participants’ view about their tasks, the organisation of work, the professional role and cooperation with other professions. Everyday care was studied through observations and participant observations and the staff's opinion was explored by means of interviews. Twenty-two care settings for older people were included. The findings showed that France provided mainly ‘health care’, Sweden ‘social care’ and Portugal an integrated ‘health care and social care’. In a comparative perspective the Portuguese general care of older people, which focuses on integration of health care, social care and social work, also seems to provide care for older people suffering from dementia which best corresponds to the previously developed group living model.     

Nursebots to the rescue? Immigration,automation, and care

Abstract

This paper explores the rising cost of care services in affluent countries, with a particular focus on nursing. It suggests that competitive pressures lead to forms of ‘over-commodification’ that can both lower the quality of care and lead to deterioration of the work environment. While immigration and automation can help reduce costs, they can also pose threats to care quality. Care providers and care recipients need to collaborate in efforts to set and enforce high quality standards.     

Understanding Professional Projects in Welfare Service Work: Revival of Old Professionalism?

The professional terms for occupations that provide welfare services are changing, and here the introduction of new public management in the Nordic countries since the 1990s is indicative of wider developments. The article explores professional projects in welfare service work from both conceptual and empirical perspectives. The aim is to produce a gender‐sensitive analysis of the professional projects at the lower levels of the occupational hierarchies in health care. The first part reviews the literature conceptualizing the societal and institutional embeddedness of professional projects. The institutional matrix of welfare states emerges as a key context in shaping the welfare service work performed by women‐dominated professional groups. The second part examines the case of Finland and suggests that recent reforms have created new inequalities in the system of professions, in which occupational groups in welfare service work are becoming marginalized. This signals a move away from ‘democratic professionalism’ towards a revival of ‘old professionalism’.     

Interprofessional education: a curriculum response to work with children and young people

This paper charts the development of undergraduate teaching material produced at the Open University in the United Kingdom. The School of Health and Social Welfare at the University has a long history of providing open and distance learning and multiprofessionally focused education and training opportunities. In this instance two courses, entitled ‘Working with Young People’ and ‘Working with Children and Families’, were created to meet the needs of a diverse student audience working across the public, voluntary and private social care, health and education sectors. The materials produced were underpinned by the desire of their academic authors to challenge long‐established assumptions about the nature of children and young people's lives. Crucially though, both course developments reflected a requirement to demonstrate how policies and services for children and young people might be significantly improved. Accordingly, the paper offers some useful indications as to how interprofessional working with children and young people could be fostered. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Access to Mental Health Services: The Struggle of Poverty Affected Urban Children of Color

It is estimated that, in the United States, one in ten children and adolescents suffer from illness severe enough to cause some level of psychosocial dysfunction. Urban children, and in particular low-income children of color, are at greater risk of developing mental health problems, and are less likely to receive effective child mental health services. Prompt and effective access to mental health services by urban children of color is a critical direct practice and social policy concern. This article provides an overview of significant barriers to mental health care experienced by poverty affected urban children of color and their families. It also addresses a broad range of practice and policy issues that need to be raised in order to ensure competent delivery of mental health services for children living in urban environments. The role of social work in assisting poor urban children of color to access and benefit from mental health services is stressed. Manny John González, D.S.W., is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service.     

From local to global: Making social policy more effective for rural community capacity building

Abstract

In the context of a discussion of globalisation this paper examines developments in social policy aimed at building civil society and enhancing social capital. It notes that policy driven by a desire for minimal government intervention and market dominance has resulted in a clear disadvantage in rural Australia and growing inequities between urban and rural communities. Clearly poverty has a postcode and overwhelmingly the postcodes are rural. At the same time the demography of ‘rural’ Australia is changing as the inland empties and the coastal regions experience population overload with its accompanying environmental problems. This paper discusses the need for more effective targeted involvement of the state in rural policy development if we are to preserve quality of life, address inequities and overcome the divide between city and country. There is a strong role for social work in forging rural community development. However, the profession has to be much more politically astute in its dealings with governments and community groups if it is to carve out a central role. Strategies are discussed to develop such a role.

Margaret Alston is an Associate Professor in social work and is Director of the Centre for Rural Social Research at Charles Sturt University, New South Wales. She is a Director for the Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women, a member of the Advisory Board for the Social Sciences Unit, Bureau of Rural Sciences, a member of the Board of General Practice Education Australia and on the Editorial Committee for Australian Social Work