Social Work in Health Care: A Guide to Professional Practice

Abstract

This article describes the evolution of a research program across 18 PhD dissertations over a period of eleven years. Included in this paper is a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of student and field participation in thematic experimental research. The essential steps in the development of a set of related dissertations also are described. The guidelines for constructing the true experiment as dissertation are outlined. Attention is paid to the resources required to carry out thematic research and the specific ways in which such dissertations have been funded. Characteristics of those students who can best avoid such an approach to a dissertation are examined. Finally the author looks at the product of these dissertations and dissertators in terms of contribution to knowledge, the creation of practitioner manuals for practice interventions, the formation of practice-research faculty, research productivity of these faculty, and the development of the dissertator's clinical skills.     

Defining Coparenting for Social Work Practice: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis

Coparenting, referred to as “an enterprise undertaken by two or more adults working together to raise a child for whom they share responsibility,” is responsive to intervention, associated with multiple indicators of individual and family well-being, and applicable to diverse family structures. Because of a lack of conceptual clarity, however, and absence from social work publications, coparenting has not yet entered the purview of social work. In this review, the authors attempt to synthesize existing coparenting definitions into one that is conceptually clear and clinically useful for social work practice with families. Implications for social work practice and research are discussed.     

A Critical Examination of CBT in Clinical Social Work Practice

The dominance of cognitive behavioral treatment in social work practice is acknowledged and challenged, not from the usual quarters of pointing out its limitations as a theoretical and conceptual model, but from a fundamental critique of its evidentiary basis and the methodology from which such claims of superiority are pronounced. Significant concerns are raised about the restrictive inclusion criteria, the lack of ethnic and racial diversity, inadequate control groups, and researcher bias in random controlled trials studies. Further concerns are raised from social/cultural/political/professional dynamics that are evident in the delivery of mental health services and function to limit client options for treatment.     

Integrating Critical Consciousness into Direct Social Work Practice: A Pedagogical View

An unnecessary and unfortunate divide has existed historically within social work both in the United States and also in the United Kingdom between social reform or anti-oppressive practice, and direct social work practice or social care. In this article, the limitations of such a dichotomy will be explored, and ways that social work educators may more effectively integrate critical reflection approaches into their pedagogical practices will be identified. Building upon Denzin's methodological elaboration of C. Wright Mills' concept of private troubles–public issues, this article will discuss the usefulness of applying methods from critical, interpretive qualitative research to help social workers achieve critical consciousness in social work education and practice. This article will also address ways to help social work students overcome impediments to achieving critical consciousness, including the anxiety attendant upon changing one's belief systems. Finally, this article will describe the development of a concentration-year MSW elective, Transformative Social Work Practice, which sought to assist social work students in becoming more critically reflexive in their clinical work.     

Assessing Depression in Childhood and Adolescence: A Guide for Social Work Practice

Depression is relatively common in children and adolescents, and if left undetected and untreated, can have long-term negative consequences. Social workers providing services to families, children and adolescents need to understand the characteristics, and conduct developmentally appropriate assessments, of depressive symptoms. This paper provides a review of current literature related to the definition, prevalence, co-occurrence, and measurement of depression in childhood and adolescence. It also highlights relevant gender, race, and ethnic influences.     

Applying Critical Consciousness and Evidence-Based Practice Decision-Making: A Framework for Clinical Social Work Practice

Social work education is increasingly driven by the established movement of evidence-based practice (EBP) that drives the delivery of mental health care with the promise of providing treatments that work and greater efficiency. This emphasis on EBP coexists with the profession’s expressed commitment to social justice. Social work literature rarely addresses the complexities of EBP decision-making in relation to social justice. Rather, separate conversations either explore the commitment to social justice through a reflective approach to practice decision-making or take a positivist approach to scientific inquiry. This article offers a framework to apply critical consciousness and EBP decision-making that integrates reflective and positivist approaches to facilitate processes and outcomes that amplify social justice aims in social work practice.     

Gender Dynamics in Social Work Practice and Education: A Critical Literature Review

This paper offers a critical analysis of existing literature on historical and contemporary gender dynamics in Australian social work education and practice. Analyses of gender dynamics and inequalities have the potential to illuminate pathways for inclusive social work education and practice, for both practitioners and people who access social work services. This critical review of the literature demonstrates that Australian social work education and practice have been shaped by gendered discourses, structures, and power dynamics since its inception. In a contemporary sense, women constitute the majority of social work educators and practitioners, while men disproportionately dominate positions of power and prestige, although rigorous Australian data on the roles and representation of men and women are not readily available. Our findings point to the need for further engagement with gender as a unit of analysis in Australian social work research, including further engagement with inclusive and intersectional feminisms.

IMPLICATIONS

• Enhanced knowledge of Australian social work history, particularly in relation to gender, allows for a greater understanding of current gendered power relations in social work education and practice.

• Gender dynamics are underresearched in contemporary Australian social work education and practice.

• Up-to-date data on the status and representation of men, women, and nonbinary people in social work are needed as the foundation for transformative and inclusive social work education and practice.

     

A Perspective on Critical Social Work

This paper articulates a perspective on critical social work that draws from poststructuralism and critical theory. Arguing that the critique of positivism, the unreliability of generalizations about humans, and the influence of new social movements have undermined the credibility of mainstream social work practice and theory, the author advocates the need for social work theory and practice that is predicated on social justice. The paper offers a critique of structuralist approaches to practice and then seeks to embed social work practice in epistemic responsibility and communicative responsibility.     

Evaluations of Social Work Education: A Critical Review

Since the introduction in England of the social work degree in 2002, there have been a number of significant changes to social work education culminating with the implementation of the Social Work Reform Board's innovations in 2013. This article critically explores the role of evaluations of changes in social work education and their implications for social work pedagogy. Evaluations can be linked to wider trends in society such as modernity, reflexive modernity, and the audit society. These wider influences affect the use of evaluations. A way forward for social work is proposed. Social work education needs to develop a critical pedagogy of hope to transform the profession's relationship not only to evaluations but to practise as well. The key message of this article is that evaluation studies of social work education mirror the underlying tensions of late modernity. Therefore, social work education needs to adopt a critical pedagogic approach to the use of evaluation research.