The serene student: Evaluating a group-based mindfulness training program for MSW students

ABSTRACT

Social work educators are exploring the benefits of mindfulness training for social work pedagogy. The authors evaluate the outcomes of a mindfulness program for MSW students. The authors assessed changes in mindfulness, self-compassion, affect, mood, and impairment due to emotional distress before and after the program, and at 4-month follow-up. The authors examine how the group process may facilitate the development of mindfulness and consider how mindfulness practices can support group development and student learning. Results demonstrate that mindfulness training supports student self-regulation and well-being and suggest that the active ingredients of the group process may play a role in mindfulness training outcomes.     

Mindfulness in parenting adolescents:love breeds love,hate breeds hate

ABSTRACT

After several years of intensive parental skills training for parents of adolescents, extra topics were arising that were not covered in the program’s curriculum. Stress, uncertainness, and strong emotions in dealing with adolescents and how to make positive contact were important issues that parents were still concerned about when leaving the group. This article describes the experiences of how extramindful parenting group training was used after the formal parenting skills training group ended. Parents were then learning to listen to the child with full attention, emotional awareness of the self and child, self-regulation in the parenting relationship, and self-compassion.     

Mindfulness Training for Social Service Providers in Hawaii: Context and Considerations

Abstract

Few studies exploring outcomes for mindfulness training have specifically focused on social service providers such as case managers, juvenile justice (probation/parole) officers, family court liaisons, substance abuse and mental health counselors, and school behavioral health specialists, among others. This study examined whether social service professionals across various agencies in the state of Hawai‘i would be accepting of mindfulness-based training and practices, and explored their personal practice experiences. Participants (N?=?97) received mindfulness skills training including mindful breathing, mindful walking, and the body scan. Through post-evaluation surveys, practice logs of homework practices, and reflections, they were then asked to reflect on their experiences with the practice and identify potential changes that they would attribute to mindfulness. Interpretative phenomenological and content analyses revealed that participants generally reported a high level of acceptance of the mindfulness training and practices but progress, continuity, and sustainability were slow. Findings provided some indications of mindfulness resulting in salutary effects for social service professionals, but the training structure was problematic. Future research needs to examine how institutional, cultural milieu facilitate or hinder opportunities for social service professionals to embody and embed mindfulness in daily life; this would require multimodal and qualitative methodologies that seek to highlight and understand the live experiences of social service providers.     

Social work students and social change: on the link between views on poverty, social work goals and policy practice

This article seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the factors that are associated with social work students' willingness to engage in policy practice. It examines a model according to which the willingness to engage in policy practice is linked to the importance that students attribute to the goals of social work and to their views on poverty. The sample consisted of 138 social work students in one of Israel's leading universities. The measures consisted of four questionnaires developed specifically for this study. The findings revealed strong relationships between students' views regarding the causes of poverty and their attitudes towards the preferred ways to deal with poverty. In addition, strong relationships were found between the importance that students attributed to the goals of social work and their willingness to engage in policy practice. However, no significant relationships were found between students' views on poverty and their willingness to engage in policy practice. Different explanations for these findings are advanced in the article.     

Is there a field of social work?: Trainees evaluating social problems and social work

My aim was to study the experiences and priorities of two age groups of social work students practicing in client-centered social work. This article is based on the research on rationality and language games in social work. The target groups of the research project as a whole were the actors: the heads and social workers or activists in public social welfare and health care agencies and institutions and in voluntary associations and action groups, and finally, two subsequent classes of students from a school of social work, during their practicing periods. This article concentrates on the trainees. At first, the trainees wrote essays and kept diaries. Secondly, they marked their standings on graphs visualizing different types of information contents and social relation structures. Thirdly, they made their choices of reasons for and solutions to social problems on a problem wheel. The trainees' study, using different data gathering techniques, partly confirms the results of the research of the other actor groups, in which the data were derived using questionnaires and interviews. The trainees' study shows variation in the respondents' priorities within and between specified social problem categories. Qualitatively analyzed, however, the characterizations of social work, both those who currently act in and those aiming to enter this field, resemble one another.     

Interrogating social work: Philippine social work and human rights under martial law

This article examines Philippine social work under martial law. The article begins with an account of the assault on human rights under the Marcos regime. It then outlines the response of the mainstream professional community to the challenges under martial law and the implications for contemporary social work practice.     

Asylum, children's rights and social work

Although it is only a minority of displaced and persecuted people globally who seek refuge in ‘Western’ countries, they meet an increasingly hostile reception. This paper focuses on the situation facing children seeking asylum with or without their families in Britain and Australia, and the implications for children's rights and for social work. The policy background and its racist foundations in both countries are outlined. Despite geopolitical differences, there are unnerving parallels. Legislative changes and policy complexity signal increasingly punitive attitudes towards asylum seekers. The situation of children and families in the community is discussed in terms of the exclusion of asylum seekers from basic rights, and specific issues for separated children. Even more damaging is the incarceration of children and families in detention centres, and the emerging research is explored. In both countries there is widespread flouting of children's rights, and children also feature as pawns in ideological contests. However, they also act autonomously and illustrate an inclusive model of citizenship. The role of social workers in the statutory and voluntary sectors is considered, and the paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges for social work of avoiding collusion with repressive policies and actively promoting human rights.     

Discourses of community: challenges for social work

The ambiguity of community allows it to be a space for a vast range of imposed and 'organic' social reproduction functions, and an accessible site for meaningful collective action, but it also has the potential for disempowerment. The breadth of the concept of 'community' allows for it to be critiqued as ephemeral or as romantic fiction, but also used and exploited by government. It is because it retains such power to evoke reaction and contest that we need to understand the power that drives it, and the ideological purpose for which it may be used or misused. The notion of discourse immediately becomes useful. We can recognise competing discourses of community, and examine how they are used politically. We can recognise ways in which social work can engage with community discourses of empowerment rather than control. The article will explore a number of discourses and examine their usefulness for practice.     

Environmental shifts for social work: A principles approach

Miller SE, Hayward RA, Shaw TV. Environmental shifts for social work: A principles approach The social work profession is rooted in a history of addressing the needs of vulnerable populations. Generally, however, this history has not extended to issues relating to the natural environment. Building on a framework of environmental justice, this article proposes a shift from the artificial separation of the social and natural environments in its person‐in‐environment focus to an expanded holistic understanding of the dynamic interplay between human society and the natural environment. It examines issues surrounding environmental and ecological justice, and proposes a principles approach to move the profession towards a paradigm of environmental justice using as its template the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice adopted by the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in the USA in 1991. It discusses the value of these principles in enhancing social work's capacity to address issues of environmental concern. It proposes that, with greater awareness of the effects of environmental issues on high‐needs populations, the profession would be better able to balance environmental and human concerns.     

Action theory: a tool for understanding in social work

This article presents a theoretical framework that can be used not only for understanding the client but also one's own action as a practitioner. This framework, which has its roots mainly within philosophy and social psychology, uses terms of everyday language that are given a more precise meaning in the conceptual analysis of the Finnish philosopher G. H. von Wright. The application of action theory to social work practice is briefly described. The approach can be seen as an expansion of the problem-solving method developed by Helen Harris Perlman.     

Pacific epistemologies in professional social work practice,policy and research

Utilising traditional cultural perspectives is an important lens towards developing a platform to create effective social work practice, policy and research. Through this relevant and realistic cultural context, social work as a profession may strive to interface more appropriately with individuals, families and the community. This article examines Pacific epistemologies, and the experiences of eight Western Sydney University social work students who have completed a three-month placement within the islands of Fiji and Samoa; and their reflections on the differences between Western and Pacific epistemologies and respective methods of intervention.     

Theory and social work: A conceptual review of the literature

This article presents a conceptual review of the literature concerning social work and theory. Based on analysis of 93 research studies, drawn from literature in English published between 1968 and 2016, the review considers the many ways that theory is conceptualised in the literature, and asks meta‐theoretical questions about how and why different conceptualisations arise. The article examines definitional questions and ambiguities concerning the use of theory, extant research on the use of theory by social workers in practice, hostility expressed regarding theory in social work, the theory/practice divide and perspectives that emphasise theory's utility or functionality. The article points at some methodological and ethical limitations concerning current research, and summarises dominant, as well as less prominent, versions of what counts as theory within the social work discipline, before finally suggesting that further meta‐theoretical research is needed.     

Actors,legitimation and cultures of social work*

This article is based on my study of rationality and language games in social work. The study focuses on the actors of social welfare and health care. Included are the heads and social workers of public welfare and health care agencies and institutions, officials of voluntary organizations, and activists in social change-oriented action groups. The objects of this study also differ with respect of their official status, area of responsibility, and position at work. The study tries to increase the understanding of the basic rationalities which are guiding social work as part of the daily routines, and of how the actors articulate and legitimate themselves, one another and the others, i.e. clients etc. The empirical data were collected using questionnaries. The study shows that organizational affiliation and area of concern do not bring about a systematic variation in the views of the respondents. The results then indicate the existence of a specific culture, a code of social work. The actors legitimate themselves according to system rationality. The system is considered to be outside the immediate scene of social work practice, which is articulated according to life-world premises. In client-centered social work, the external controlling and administrating system rationality threatens life-world aspects by neglecting social work as a process based on involvement, dialogue and change.     

The environment and social work: An overview and introduction

Coates J, Gray M. The environment and social work: An overview and introduction This article provides an overview and analysis of social work's engagement with the modern environmental movement. Major trends and themes in environmental social work scholarship and the significance of interdisciplinarity are discussed. Attention is drawn to the importance of a broad knowledge base and of working in unison with other professions in order to respond effectively to the many dimensions of climate change and environmental degradation. Responding to the challenges of environmental destruction has opened opportunities for the profession to review its foundational knowledge and obligations to people and environments. The articles in this Special Issue are introduced and include theoretical frameworks, examples and case studies of what social workers are doing, or might do, in relation to environmental and educational initiatives.     

The relationship between social work and environmental sustainability: Implications for interdisciplinary practice

Schmitz CL, Matyók T, James C, Sloan LM. The relationship between social work and environmental sustainability: Implications for interdisciplinary practice The Brundtland Commission, formally the World Commission on Environment and Development, established by the United Nations in 1983, links peace, security, development and the environment claiming that war, poverty and structural violence result in the oppression and degradation of the human community as well as the physical environment. Likewise, human rights and social and environmental justice are intertwined, and social work, as a profession that collaborates across disciplines and within communities, is uniquely situated to provide leadership in the field of environmental studies. Its strong focus on human rights, social justice and community building creates a sound base from which to engage in the collaborative, creative, interactional processes required for environmental practice. This article seeks to discern a model for environmental social work within the context of interdisciplinary practice with peace and conflict workers and through the integration of inclusive models of economic development.     

Green social work and its implications for social development in China

Green social work has been significant in introducing new issues into environmental debates and increasing its centrality to social work practice. These have included: the mainstreaming of environmental considerations; a widening of the theoretical and practice base to ensure that social and environmental justice are considered integral to any environmental involvement by social workers; highlighting the need to think of innovative approaches to socio-economic development; and making disaster interventions core elements in the social work repertoire of knowledge, skills, capacity building and curriculum formulation. This paper considers the challenges of China’s rapid industrialisation and its implications for rural people migrating into cities, the urban populations that receive them and environmental degradation. It introduces the idea of green social work and discusses the implications of green social work for social development in China in the context of environmental crises precipitated by the country’s rapid economic development.     

Child and family social work: organizational context and identity

In the years since 1948, child and family social work has, to differing degrees at different times, sought to identify itself with a national centrally directed service, with the local service organization, with its clientele and with an independent source of professional regulation. Changes in the organizational context in which the work has been carried out over this period have affected the prospects for the development of a secure identity. The effects of the following are considered: national structures, particularly in relation to children's departments between 1948 and 1971; the corporate local authority; the managerial function in social services departments; social care; specialization; the detailed scrutiny of practice; care management and the Children Act 1989.     

Social work in the making: The state and social work development in China

The instrumental role of government in the development of social work in China has led to questions about its political function. So far, little has been reported on how the government has “made” social work in China. To fill this gap, we first provide a brief chronological review of major policies and activities of the Chinese government in its making of social work in China. The state's intervention has indeed been massive and crucial although, politically, it may limit the mandate of social work in China. Yet, we argue that the development of the social work profession in China is generating institutional space for the emerging civil society to take a more active role in welfare service delivery. Situated and mediating between the state and the emerging civil society, the social work profession in China will need to constantly negotiate its mandate to meet the needs of both sides.