Social firms: Building cross-sectoral partnerships to create employment opportunity and supportive workplaces for people with mental illness

A major barrier to employment for people with mental illness is limited access to supportive and non-discriminatory workplaces. Social firms are businesses committed to employing up to 50% of people with a disability or other disadvantage and to providing supportive work environments that benefit workers. Little research has been conducted to understand the features and social processes that support the vocational experiences of employees with mental health issues in social firms. Objective: This ethnographic study sought to explore the experiences of nine employees at one Australian social firm. Participants: Nine employees of a social firm, with and without mental illness. Methods: Study methods used included participant observation, interviewing and document analysis. Results and conclusions: The study highlights the complexity of running a socially-invested business, and the importance of cross-sectoral partnerships to support their operational success. Natural workplace supports, adequate training and support infrastructure and enabling participation in the business, were identified as important to creating a supportive workplace. Partnerships within the workplace and in support of the workplace are discussed. Future growth and development of partnerships are recommended to support the establishment of social firms.     

Supporting foster and kinship carers to promote the mental health of children

The majority of children and young people removed from the care of their parents by the state of Victoria, Australia, reside in foster or kinship care. These children have experienced a broad range of adverse conditions and are up to 4 times more likely to experience problems with mental health than their mainstream peers. This paper draws on the perspectives of foster and kinship carers, describing the disconnection between their role as mental health advocates and their interest in early intervention in a field which is dominated by crisis and the historic marginalisation of foster and kinship carers. Thirty‐one foster and kinship carers across greater metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, contributed to this study through interviews and focus groups. Participants demonstrated a practical understanding of mental health and an ability to identify a range of conditions that have an adverse impact on the mental health of children and young people in their care. The paper concludes that there is a lack of systemic support and even a range of barriers that affect the capacity of foster and kinship carers to promote the mental health and well‐being of the children and young people in their care.     

Doin’ Meth or Doin’ Math: What Client Constructions of Social Class Mean for Social Work Practice

The voices of people experiencing poverty are underrepresented in social work research, public policy development, and practice interventions. This study explored the social class attributions of clients receiving poverty-related services through qualitative interviews. Findings reveal dynamic contributions of individual, environmental, and structural factors of social class positioning and significant stress and stigmatization associated with experiencing economic hardship. Participants indicate a sense of lived contradiction, viewing social class to be the result of fate while simultaneously endorsing individualistic attributions of poverty. Results have implications for social work research and practice, as well as poverty-related policy and program development.     

Communication in assisted living

This study of communication in an Assisted Living Facility (ALF) focuses on staff's interpretive frameworks and situational tactics for managing elderly residents. It is based on interviews with staff and residents in an ALF together with ethnographic fieldwork. As in other quasi-total institutions, staff members engage in control as well as care, monitoring residents for compliance with rules and directives. Residents, aware of the threat of being moved to a nursing home, also monitor their own behavior and cognition in comparison to other residents. Other communication issues include the infantilization of the elderly by staff, and the race, class, and ethnic prejudices of residents.     

‘Now I’d like to sleep with Rachael’ – researching sexuality support in a service agency group home

Many intellectually disabled people living in agency services require significant forms of support to live safe and satisfying sexual lives. Research reveals that despite support personnel working in service systems now holding largely positive attitudes towards sexuality assistance, proactive practice is rarely initiated. This article probes what might lie within this attitude/assistance gap. This investigation reveals a complex picture of practices that rely on intellectually disabled people showing conformation to a ‘couple doing normal’ ideal, so as to be judged capable of being supported. It examines how wider social locations of meaning related to ‘intellectual disability’ and ‘sexuality’ might substantiate these judgement calls. The degree to which it can be said that worker’s own attitudes and values underpin their reluctance to provide support is then explored. Finally, why researchers and practitioners might need to reappraise the complex interactions that shape worker’s practice in this area is discussed.     

Preparing the next generation of researchers

This paper examines the needs of new and future social work researchers in the light of the overall aims of this particular project. The author is an aspiring ‘new’ researcher and will examine her own personal experience, to date, of being part of a postgraduate research programme in order to clarify how we might best ensure that the next generation of researchers can contribute to the strategy which is being developed. The paper reviews the author's experience of research training to test its adequacy in preparing the next generation to meet the demands required and in consideration of current professional develop ments around social work and social care. The paper will also consider who will be the members of this next generation and how the future agenda for the profession might potentially contribute to the development of a sound professional knowledge base and also influence the wider social science debate. The conclusions of this paper will draw together a number of key issues that have been highlighted so far and give a perspective on these which links values, knowledge and skills in ways which might usefully promote further debate and constructive resolution.     

Staff & client perceptions of unit quality: a pilot study

This pilot study compared psychiatric health care team members' perceptions of unit quality with discharged clients' perceptions of quality of care received on the unit. The staff members were from four different service units in one acute care psychiatric facility. The study used the Perceptions of Unit Quality (PUQ) scale, a valid and reliable outcome measurement instrument, developed by Cronenwett. Most quality assurance instruments that exist have focused on individual caregivers' or service-specific views of quality, but the PUQ scale allows quality assurance data that represent team performance to be described through team perceptions of quality. Results of this pilot study suggest that use of the PUQ scale, in conjunction with clients' perceptions of unit quality, may be a legitimate approach in continuous quality improvement efforts in psychiatric-mental health care centers.     

Say Yes First: follow up of a five-year rural drug prevention program

Say Yes First--To Rural Youth and Family Alcohol/Drug Prevention (SYF) was a 5-year, federally-funded U.S.D.H.H.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) project that involved 859 children in the class of the year 2000. The children in four rural school districts were followed from Grade 4 to Grade 8 from 1991 to 1996. Initial results in a previous publication showed significant lower drug usage in this cohort than comparison students. A follow-up of 120 SYF participants and 136 comparison students in high schools using the National Youth Survey (Follow Up Questionnaire) indicated lower usage of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs for the program students and lower lifetime prevalence of marijuana use for program vs. comparison students. SYF students had higher course grades, lower school absenteeism, more positive attitudes toward school, less trouble in school and less negative self-appraisal. Program students also reported greater participation in sports, more family communication and fewer disagreements or arguments with their parents.