The needs and experiences of injured workers: a participatory research study

This paper reports on the findings of a participatory research study in which 290 injured workers in Ontario, Canada responded to a survey that was developed and administered by a group of university researchers in partnership with injured worker peer researchers. The objectives of the study were to gain a broad view of the needs and experiences of injured workers and to develop strategies for change. Findings indicated that many injured workers experience undue financial, emotional and physical hardship during the compensation, treatment and rehabilitation process. These hardships are experienced due to perceived lack of respect, insufficient information concerning rights and the return-to-work process, and limited opportunities for input into the medical or rehabilitation process. Recommendations for increasing the power of workers and creating a more supportive climate are included.     

An exploration of social support as a factor in the return-to-work process

Despite evidence that inter-personal relationships are important in human resource management, little is understood about the nature of workplace social support in a disability context, or what features of support are important to the success of return-to-work programs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore workplace disability support from worker and supervisory perspectives and to identify salient features for work re-entry. A total of 8 supervisors and 18 previously injured workers from a range of work units in a Canadian municipality were interviewed, and their views concerning supportive and unsupportive behaviours in work-re-entry situations were recorded and analyzed. A full range of social support dimensions were reported to be relevant, and were seen as arising from a variety of sources (e.g. supervisor, co-workers, disability manager, work unit, and outside of work). Respondents identified trust, communication and knowledge of disability as key precursors to a successful return-to-work process. Future research should explore the specific contributions of support to work rehabilitation outcomes as well as interventions to enhance available supports.     

Left behind in the return-to-work journey: consumer insights for policy change and practice strategies

This study examined system barriers that precluded injured workers from accessing services and supports in the return-to-work (RTW) process. A grounded theory approach was used to investigate injured worker experiences. Methods included in-depth telephone interviews and the constant comparative method to analyze the data. Findings revealed that consumers experienced tensions or a tug-of-war between the RTW system, the health care system, and in accessing and using knowledge. Over time consumers reflected upon these tensions and initiated strategies to enhance return to function and RTW. Insights from consumer-driven strategies that might inform future policy change and promote positive service delivery for injured workers are examined.     

Administration and application of the Worker Role Interview: looking beyond functional capacity

Assessing factors beyond the functional capacity of the injured worker is challenging, yet essential for deriving a more complete understanding of the worker. Insight into a worker's perceptions of abilities and limitations, commitment to the worker role, perception of the impact of the injury on non-work roles, ability to adjust habits and routines, and perception of the work environment allows the therapist to identify and address barriers to return-to-work. The Worker Role Interview (WRI), based on the Model of Human Occupation, is designed to assist the therapist in obtaining this information. The therapist's ratings on a four-point scale provide a picture of the factors which support and interfere with successful return-to-work. This paper describes the WRI and discusses its clinical application. A case example illustrates how the information gained from the WRI can be used for treatment planning.     

Reflective Practice Online—Exploring the Ways Social Workers Used an Online Blog for Reflection

Social workers are increasingly using social media for networking, peer support, reflection, and fun. Social media presents exciting opportunities for social work practice; however, social workers and employers of social workers need to understand the challenges and conflicts that can occur. This study explored the experiences of social workers who used an online blog for reflection, describing different levels of engagement with reflection and the development of an online community of practice to support isolated social workers. This study is significant because although there are many studies that describe the experiences of students using a blog for reflection, the author has been unable to identify another study that focuses on the ways social workers engaged with a blog for reflection.     

The mental health peer worker as informant: performing authenticity and the paradoxes of passing

The inclusion imperative in community care means that disabled people are now increasingly being employed as peer workers in the service systems that manage them. This article offers a timely inquiry into the role of the peer worker in mental health and homeless service sectors. Drawing on a four-year ethnography and in-depth qualitative interviews with fellow peer workers, I explore the paradoxical nature of new expectations for peer ‘authenticity,’ and the ways in which peer workers learn to manage the requirement to perform identity in our work roles. This analysis thus denaturalizes peer identity, and works to develop possibilities for doing disability identity-based work differently.     

Exploring emotional aspects of care and control in social work with children and families - a single case analysis of conversation

ABSTRACT

In this article, I explore how emotions are displayed and dealt with on a communicative level in face-to-face encounters between social workers and parents in a child welfare setting. The analysis draws upon detailed analysis of a whole encounter between a social worker and a parental couple who have recently had their new-born daughter placed in foster care. By examining the way emotional stances are expressed and responded to I discuss how orientations toward institutional tasks and goals create constraints for the display, recognition and validation of clients’ emotion displays. I consider the communicative challenges this poses for the parents and the social worker and the implications these may have for the client–worker relationship.     

Social work and pastoral counseling: Empowering each other

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the divergent outcomes which can result from counseling services offered pastorally versus clinically. As faith leaders often have greater direct access than social workers to supporting religious populations, it is important to explore the intersection between religious pastoral support and clinical social work. Presenting six scenarios from the author’s own experiences as both a rabbi and social worker, this article processes each scenario first through the pastoral lens of an Orthodox rabbi, followed by the clinical lens of a social worker or other mental health professional. The client outcomes which are produced from each modality are radically different. This contrast demonstrates the distinction between the goals, values, and training of each profession, and highlights importance for future work to be done in linking religious and pastoral training to mental health services, as well as broadening the scope of cultural competence for social workers and therapists who may engage with tight-knit religious populations.     

Use of functional capacity evaluations in workplaces and the compensation system: a report on workers' and report users' perceptions

Until recently, little was documented about how functional capacity evaluations (FCEs) are used by employers and workers' compensation organizations. Such information was one focus of a comprehensive research study on FCEs carried out in southern Ontario, Canada, which involved representatives from the full range of groups involved in FCEs: referral sources, assessors, return-to-work specialists, third party payers and injured workers [1]. This paper shares findings from a cohort of injured workers undergoing FCEs, and explored how their FCE results were perceived and utilized by those receiving the reports. Based on study findings, we provide recommendations as to how FCEs should be requested, undertaken, reported and particularly applied to reduce work disability among injured workers.     

Perceptions of a Child Who was Overweight or of Average Weight by African American Children

The current study examined African American children’s perceptions of a peer who was overweight or average weight and was called a name. Participants were 107 African American children who viewed same gender line-drawings of an overweight and average weight peer and selected one line drawing as being the child who was called “stupid” in a vignette. Next, participants rated their perceptions of (popularity, friendliness, etc.) for both line-drawings. The line-drawing of an overweight peer was selected as being called a name more often than the average weight one and this child was viewed as less popular. Girls provided higher sympathy and acceptance ratings of the child selected as a victim than boys. Findings provided support for the notion that children are aware that overweight children may be marginalized. Girls may be more accepting because they are more empathic or more likely to support a peer who is teased or called names. Further research will be needed to ascertain factors related to negative perceptions of overweight children to inform intervention efforts. Speaking with children about accepting others and conducting activities to improve acceptance are important roles for social workers and implications for social work practice are reviewed.     

Profession and Workplace Expectations of Social Workers: Implications for Social Worker Subjective Well-Being

The expectations people have of social workers, and those that social workers hold of themselves, can negatively affect social worker's perceived well-being, via work stress and strain and other negative workplace experiences. This qualitative research presents findings that help to better understand what aspects of these expectations have the greatest impact on the well-being of a sample (n = 19) of social workers with reported low levels of workplace and profession satisfaction. Our data support a conceptual framework of social worker's expectations that relate to outcomes of practice, social worker roles, the perceived functioning by other health-related professionals, conflict in direct practice with social worker identity and having to work in adverse situations, as all contributing to the well-being of social workers. Findings are discussed in relation to social work practice and the role and function of professional associations and educational programmes in addressing these issues that emerge in practice.     

The role of ‘workplace family’ support on worker health,exhaustion and pain

The goal of this study was to improve understanding of the potential health benefits of social support at work. We utilized 2002 GSS data to examine the relative influence of workplace support on self-reported health, exhaustion and experience of persistent pain in a sample of 1602 workers. Building on previous Demand-Control-Support models, we examined co-worker, supervisor, and organizational safety support (conceptualized as ‘workplace family’) in concert with job demands, job control and work-family conflict as predictors of worker health measures. We further tested the extent to which work-family conflict acted as a mediator between family and work characteristics and worker health outcomes. We found that increased co-worker support in the workplace was associated with better worker self-reported health, lower exhaustion and less pain. In addition, higher levels of perceived organizational safety support were associated with better self-reported health and lowered exhaustion. There is little evidence that work-family conflict mediates between work and family characteristics and worker health, and work-family conflict does not mediate the relationship between workplace family measures and worker health. We discuss results in light of workers’ changing and expanding definitions of family, with implications for changes in the organization of the workplace to improve workers’ health.     

Social work students’ professional and personal exposure to social work: an Australian experience

General career research suggests that many factors may influence how people select a career, including information about or exposure to the career. The focus of this paper is upon how exposure to a social worker personally (e.g. friend or family) or in a therapeutic capacity (e.g. received social work therapy) may influence the decision to become a social worker, when compared to other disciplines. The results showed that 63% of 64 social work students had personal and/or professional exposure to social work prior to making a career decision. When compared to other students (n?=?447) the social work students were significantly more likely to have accessed social work services (themselves or a family member). The influence of a friend who was a social worker and working with a social worker was noteworthy for mature-aged students. These results highlight that every interaction social workers have with the community provides valuable information about the profession and gives insight into social work as a career. Additionally, the results suggest that the increase in numbers of social workers and the influence of that exposure to a social worker have resulted in an increase in the use of social work services by students, and may continue to rise in the future.     

Social networks and support in social work

Following the recommendations of the Barclay Report for a move on the part of social work towards supporting helping networks in the community, it is necessary to look more closely at the components of ‘social support’ and to be clearer about which social networks social workers are being asked to support. It is suggested that sociology, although criticised for its remoteness from the daily experience of the social worker, could offer through social network analysis some useful measures of the support networks of social work clients.     

When Social Work and Psychoanalysis Meet

In this paper I share my personal journey from agency social worker to psychoanalyst. I show how I have brought to my psychoanalytic work the teachings of such well known social workers as Mary Richmond, Bertha Reynolds, Gordon Hamilton, and Florence Hollis as well those of such contemporary social workers as the late Gertrude and Rubin Blanck, Nancy Bridges, and Eda Goldstein, among others. In the presentation, I also consider how social work values, social work ethics and social work attitudes have influenced my approach to the practice of psychoanalysis. The attitudes which I refer to, include flexibility, beginning where the client is; an appreciation of the importance of understanding a patient’s cultural background and a recognition of the importance of the relationship in the therapeutic encounter. These were not standard for psychoanalysts at the time I began to practice. Today however psychoanalysis has largely caught up with social work, and this paper affirms how those of us who have had a social work background are well prepared for psychoanalysis in the 21st century.

An investigation of a workplace-based return-to-work program for shoulder injuries

The purpose of this study was to investigate and evaluate the current workplace management of rotator cuff injuries in a manufacturing plant. The secondary aims were to examine the impact of the company's return-to-work processes, compare outcomes to current industry standards for work (re)entry and to identify the components that characterized this workplace-based return-to-work (RTW) program. This investigation involved a case study approach comprised of an examination of the program context using interviews, onsite visits, a document review and a retrospective analysis of the RTW experiences of 184 workers with shoulder injuries. Findings revealed that the workplace-based RTW program was consistent with and shaped by the organizational culture of problem solving, knowledge exchange and equitable participation of workers, supervisors and health professionals. These components contributed to the program in achieving the following outcomes for workers with shoulder injuries. One-third of workers were placed on modified duties within three days, 56% of workers who engaged in an early RTW program returned to work within one month. Overall, 87.8% of workers with rotator cuff injuries successfully returned to pre-injury work. The implications of developing capacity for workplace-based programs to manage injuries at work are discussed.     

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.     

Who stays,who goes,who knows? A state-wide survey of child welfare workers

Child welfare workforce turnover remains a significant problem with dire consequences. Designed to assist in its retention efforts, an agency supported state-wide survey was employed to capture worker feedback and insight into turnover. This article examines the quantitative feedback from a Southern state's frontline child welfare workforce (N = 511), examining worker intent to leave as those who intend to stay employed at the agency (Stayers), those who are undecided (Undecided), and those who intend to leave (Leavers). A series of One-Way ANOVAs revealed a stratified pattern of worker dissatisfaction, with stayers reporting highest satisfaction levels, followed by undecided workers, and then leavers in all areas (e.g., salary, workload, recognition, professional development, accomplishment, peer support, and supervision). A Multinomial Logistic Regression model revealed significant (and shared) predictors among leavers and undecided workers in comparison to stayers with respect to dissatisfaction with workload and professional development, and working in an urban area. Additionally, child welfare workers who intend to leave the agency in the next 12 months expressed significant dissatisfaction with supervision and accomplishment, and tended to be younger and professionals of color.