II. Patients of the department of psychological medicine,guy's hospital,london 1

Abstract

Harvey Dean (1998) rejects my (Wakefield, 1988a; 1988b) argument that minimal distributive justice is the essential mission of social work and that treatment of mental disorder is not part of the profession's essential mission but rather a derived task. He argues that social work has broader ethical aims that encompass both pursuit of justice and treatment of mental disorder. In this article, 1 review my earlier position and respond to Dean's objections. I argue that Dean's narrativist account of the profession's ethical aims is overly broad and that he confuses non‐disordered psychological problems with mental disorders. I conclude that neither my “minimal distributive justice” view of social work's mission nor my exclusion of treatment of mental disorder from the profession's essential mission are disconfirmed by Dean's arguments.     

Attention to Rural Populations in Social Work's Scholarly Journals

ABSTRACT

Rural populations should be considered a vulnerable group within social work's social justice framework. However, the degree to which social work research and scholarship engage with questions of significance to underserved rural populations remains unknown. This study sought to determine how many articles in highly ranked social work journals give prominent attention to rural populations and issues. A search of the highly ranked social work journals selected from the Journal Citation Reports for the Social Sciences found only 71 articles that explicitly focus on rural populations among a total of 3,004 peer-reviewed articles in 14 top social work journals during the years 2004 through 2008. Possible reasons for the paucity of rural-focused articles within social work journals are posited. We discuss the relative contributions of these journals to development of a comprehensive and useful knowledge base within social work for addressing the needs of rural issues. Future recommendations are made for expanding attention to scholarship in this area.     

Exploring Social Justice for Clinical Social Work Practice

This article explores social work practitioners' understanding of social justice and how understanding facilitates or impedes the pursuit of social justice within the practice field of mental health. Existing confusion and ambiguity regarding what social justice is poses a barrier to social justice pursuits. Analysis of qualitative interview data from practitioners resulted in a multidimensional conceptualization of social justice as social systems, resources, and transformative respect. Clinical social workers in the field of mental health with an enhanced understanding of social justice may be better prepared to meet the profession's social justice aims.     

Retrospective Book Review: Teaching a Methods Course in Social Work with Groups

SUMMARY

Eight years after its publication, Teaching a Methods Course in Social Work with Groups serves as a reminder to social workers of group work's historic roots and its value as a method of practice with diverse populations. The author shares her experiences in utilizing the teaching text in her work with MSW students and students of the arts who facilitate activity-based groups in community settings. Citing examples of students' experiences in group work facilitation, the author touches on the constraints emerging group workers face in translating social work skills and values to practice. The author's retrospective review of the teaching text underscores its continued importance in the field of social group work instruction.     

Moving Toward Spiritual Competency

Abstract

In spite of growing interest in spirituality and religion, and the prominent position given to religion in social work's educational policies and ethical standards, no studies have explored the profession's level of spiritual sensitivity. Accordingly, we examined the visibility of faith groups and their characterizations in 71 influential social work textbooks. This study found that faith groups, in contrast to a number of comparison groups, were essentially invisible as populations worthy of students' direct attention. Further, when faith groups were discussed, they tended to be characterized in a biased, spiritually insensitive manner. To move toward spiritual competency, social work must increase the amount of material devoted to faith groups and ensure that they are depicted in a manner that is consistent with their worldviews.     

The Essential Power of Group Work

SUMMARY

For almost two decades, leaders in the field of social group work have been warning that the foundational principles and practice of group work as a modality are in danger of being absorbed into generalist social work practice. This paper expands upon the appeal of leaders in the social group work field to generate an environment in which group work is recognized as an integral method in social work practice and education. This paper examines group work as a powerful methodology in social work practice with a specific theoretical framework and skill base that is fundamental to the social work profession. The characteristics of group work's strengths are explored with a comprehensive overview that inspires renewed commitment to preserving, practicing and promoting social group work as a viable and integral part of social work practice.     

Madness and gender in the long eighteenth century

The article uses a wide range of archival and literary sources to examine perceptions of mental incapacity. It looks first at what quantifiable measures may and may not tell us about the nature of madness in eighteenth-century Scotland and about the relationship between pathologies and the 'normal' structures of society. It seeks to test a common assumption or assertion that 'madness is a female malady because it is experienced by more women than men' (Showalter). It further questions whether those with mental problems were really just the victims of an oppressive (professional and male) form of discourse by offering a nuanced analysis of the social context in which mental disability was identified. The second half of the article explores certain qualitative aspects of how insanity was construed by the sane, in order to assess the extent of gendering in the day-to-day understanding of mental problems. These aspects include the connections between madness and issues such as emotion, language, class, suicide, alcohol and 'work'.     

All Aboard

Abstract

Social workers in all practice areas have the potential to contribute to the National Agenda for Social Work Research in Palliative and End-of-Life Care. The purpose of this article is to invite social work practitioners and researchers to identify research needs and work with others to address them. We offer a conceptualization of the broad scope of social work's involvement in end-of-life issues, and articulate the difference between end-of-life care and end-of-life issues in social work. Suggestions are offered to advance the national research agenda.     

Putting the parity into service‐user participation: An integrated model of social justice

Models of service‐user participation have derived from citizenship or consumerist agendas, neither of which has achieved the structural reforms important for the most marginalised social work clients. This article proposes Fraser's model of ‘parity of participation’ as an appropriately multifaceted frame for capturing the social justice aspirations of service‐user participation. A qualitative case study compared the experiences and expectations of people who had used Australian mental health services with a sample who had used Australian homelessness services to examine their expectations of participation at individual and representative levels. The findings reinforce concerns from Fraser's research about the tendency for identity‐based consumerist notions of participation to reify group identity. This leads to tokenistic service‐user involvement strategies that have little impact on participation at a structural level. Fraser's parity of participation is shown to have untested potential to reshape service‐user participation to meet the social justice aspirations of social work clients. Key Practitioner Message: ● Innovative, service‐user driven strategies for collaboration will be those which challenge existing power structures; ● Service users want their contributions to decision making to generate identifiable change in the system of social services; ● The success of service‐user participation strategies might be the extent to which political, economic and cultural opportunities are enhanced.     

Deep Ecology's contributions to social work: A ten‐year retrospective

Besthorn FH. Deep Ecology's contributions to social work: A ten‐year retrospective In the last decade, a new generation of social workers have made great strides incorporating environmental awareness into their theoretical formulations and practice modalities. This is a welcome development for a profession often conspicuously absent in the emerging international consensus that Earth's capacity to support life is in deep trouble. Beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, a few intrepid North American social workers began to raise the alarm concerning the scope and extent of environmental decline. Several social work scholars implored the profession to play a more active role in raising ecological awareness and take a seat at policy and practice forums debating environmental issues. Deep Ecology, founded by the late Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess, offers a comprehensive philosophical framework upon which social work might draw in the development of its conceptual orientations. This article examines the current manifestations of Deep Ecology as a philosophy and socio‐political movement. It briefly assesses the evolution of social work's nascent interest in the natural environmental, examines historical precursors influencing Deep Ecology, reviews several key concepts of Deep Ecology, discusses ongoing applications of deep ecological ideas to several disciplines and suggests how deep ecological ideas might help inform social work's understanding of social justice.     

The Person-in-Environment Perspective in Social Work Journals

Abstract

Disagreement over the meaning, utility, and implementation of the person-in-environment (p-i-e) perspective represents social work's efforts to continually redefine itself in a dynamic world. The choice of a guiding perspective is significant, particularly in this era in which concern about the interdependence of global social, economic, and environmental systems is growing. Much of the debate about the p-i-e has taken place in social work journals. This article provides an empirical assessment of how social work scholars have interpreted and applied p-i-e related concepts in social work journals, through the use of a computer-assisted content analysis of all article abstracts in core journals reviewed in Social Work Abstracts (SWA) from 1987 to 1996.     

Professional Dissonance

Abstract

Social workers in mental health face a complex climate where they encounter value-laden intervention choices daily. Examples of these choices may include deciding to initiate treatment in spite of a client's wishes to the contrary, making a decision to break confidentiality, feeling pressured to diagnose a client with a reimbursable condition despite a treatment philosophy that may be to the contrary, or feeling the need to “pick and choose” therapy topics in light of severe shortages in benefit coverage. These and other scenarios put social work clinicians at risk for professional dissonance or what has been called a feeling of discomfort arising from the conflict between professional values and expected or required job tasks. The current article explores professional dissonance as a pertinent concept for social work in general, and mental health social work in particular. The theory base of the concept is explored as well as its utility for understanding burn-out in a deeper way.     

Disaster Research in Social Work

SUMMARY

Disaster research in social work has deep roots in the profession'S history of disaster relief, social work'S mission to create resources and make them accessible to people, and the profession'S service to vulnerable populations. Social workers have important and unique contributions to make to disaster research through their expertise in ecological approaches, prevention, stress and coping, and promoting change in micro and macro systems. Disaster research in social work borrows primarily from psychology and sociology, and is conducted in clinical, organizational, and community contexts. Further social work research on disaster promises improved theory, measurement, and practice in situations of collective Stress.     

Rethinking social work ethics: what is the real question? Responding to Stephen Webb's ‘Against difference and diversity in social work’

Jose J. Rethinking social work ethics: what is the real question? Responding to Stephen Webb's ‘Against difference and diversity in social work’ Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 246–252 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. In his recent article, Stephen Webb argued that the real question for social work ethics concerns ‘recognising the Same and of restoring the principles of equality and social justice’. This argument also included raising questions about what should be considered an appropriate philosophical basis for progressive social work ethics. In his view, social work's emancipatory potential has been blunted by overstated and philosophically ill‐informed human rights claims about difference and diversity. He suggested that French philosopher Alain Badiou offers social workers a ‘set of conceptual devices for rethinking social work ethics’. I argue that pressing his points into Badiou's philosophical mould is unlikely to lead to a progressive social work practice, let alone solve the issues identified by Webb. Badiou's philosophical pronouncements about ethics are of questionable value and offer little or no assistance to social workers seeking to establish an ethical grounding for their professional practice.     

Conversations at the End of Life

Abstract

Oregon's Death with Dignity Act (ODWDA) has been in effect for eight years. The United States Supreme Court recently decided that Oregon's law did not violate the Controlled Substances Act. Other states may consider a law similar to Oregon's through legislative process or ballot measures. Although social work is not mentioned in the law, our profession interfaces with the terminally ill, particularly in hospice. Eighty-seven percent of those who have used the law were enrolled in a hospice program. As a pilot project, this article explores conversations that the authors have had with patients, families, team members and health systems in hospices and oncology settings under Oregon's unique environment. The following four themes emerged from these conversations: (1) mental health, education, choice; (2) team concerns; (3) family issues; and (4) values, ethics, restricted conversations and professional struggles.     

Social work and the environment: An ecosocial approach

Norton CL. Social work and the environment: An ecosocial approach This article draws on insights from social work, ecopsychology and ecofeminism to inform an ecosocial approach honouring humans' interconnectedness with nature. It re‐examines social work's ecosystems perspective and redefines its central ‘person‐in‐environment’ configuration to embrace a broadened emphasis on the natural world. It identifies insights from ecofeminism on the parallels between the oppression of women and domination of nature, and presents feminist ways of relating that may enhance connection with the planet as a whole. It introduces the concepts of empathy and empowerment from relational cultural theory as important ideas to integrate with social work's ecosystems perspective to promote deeper awareness of this connection. Finally, the ecosocial approach thus derived is examined as a means of promoting environmental sustainability at all levels of social work practice.     

Today's Studies,Tomorrow's Meta-Analyses: Implications for Evidence Informed Decision–Making in Social Work

ABSTRACT

Meta-analyses play an important role in understanding aspects of human functioning and program effectiveness. Meta-analyses also inform practice and policy decision making in areas of interest to social work. This study examined the degree to which recent quantitative reports in top social work journals are eligible for inclusion in future meta-analytic studies based on method rigor. The results suggest a mixed picture. Articles in top social work journals typically present sufficient information on participant characteristics, p values, and Mean values, yet they often fail to present sufficient information on variance indicators or the precise numbers of participants, which limits the ability to calculate effect sizes. Furthermore, less than 10% of the reports utilized randomized experimental designs or tested for group equivalence. To enhance social work's ability to make evidence-based decisions by producing more meta-analyses, researchers should provide more detail in study reports and use stronger research designs.     

Social Workers and Policy- Practice: The Role of Social and Professional Values

ABSTRACT

Although policy practice is regarded as an essential component of social work, the actual involvement of social workers in policy practice is apparently very limited. This article presents the findings of a study that seeks to explore the role of social and professional values in support by social workers in Israel for engagement in policy practice and their actual involvement in this type of practice. The findings indicate that socioeconomic orientations and professional values have an impact on social worker's perception of policy practice and the degree to which they are actually involved in the social welfare policy process. In particular, it was found that attitudes toward social justice played a major role in the social worker's perceptions of, and involvement in, policy practice.     

Shame and recognition: Social work practice with vulnerable young people

Drawing on the findings from a longitudinal study of vulnerable young people's transitions to adulthood, this paper explores the ideas of shame and recognition. The young people, aged between 12 and 17 years at the first interview, had experienced chronic exposure to adversity from an early age (abuse, violence, mental health issues, addictions, and expulsion from school). They were clients of statutory and non‐governmental services: child welfare, juvenile justice, remedial education, and mental health services. This paper draws on the qualitative phase of the study (n = 107); young people and a trusted other, nominated by the young person, participated in three annual qualitative interviews. Interviews focused on young people's experiences of services, key transitions, their relationships, and the strategies they used to locate support and resources. Experiences of shame, misrecognition, and seeking recognition emerged as dominant themes in the young people's accounts, and these are explored in this paper. The paper concludes with a discussion on responsive social work interventions that generate a deeper understanding of young people's experiences of shame and misrecognition. Central to this practice are critical and relational social work practices that actively support young people to achieve recognition.     

The Social Construction of Reality in the Realm of Children's Mental Health Services

ABSTRACT

Across the United States, systems of care have emerged to provide mental health care to children and their families; fragmentation inhibiting the success of collaboration by stakeholders is common and compromises these systems of care. Survey data were collected from 1,428 respondents in a Midwestern state to examine problems that exist within systems of care from the perspective of the different stakeholder groups. Stakeholder group membership was based upon the respondent's employment or involvement within various child-serving systems and included those in child welfare, juvenile justice, and education, mental health providers, and consumers (i.e., caregivers/parents). Group differences revealed patterns of “finger pointing” by the stakeholder groups on where specific problems exist within systems of care. The findings provide insight into how the social construction of service delivery and practice emerges as stakeholder groups describe, understand, and evaluate problems within the system of care as a function of their own practice location within the system of care. Future research should consider exploring methods that might minimize the competitive nature of disparate child-serving systems and its potentially negative impact upon system performance and treatment outcomes.