The effects of adapting their home on the meaning of home for families with a disabled child

This article describes part of a mixed-method study investigating family and professional perspectives on home adaptations for disabled children. The methods were an online survey of staff involved in adaptations processes (n =39), semi-structured interviews with families with disabled children (n = 48) and an online survey for families (n = 16). One of the wider study’s recommendations was that families need to be enabled to engage with processes proactively. This article focuses on families’ experiences of the meaning attributed to adapting the home and highlights that, although satisfied with the completed adaptation, families were dissatisfied with the process they had been through. Thus, despite the need for the meaning of home being central to the adaptation process, families felt excluded from the process as it progressed. This had a negative impact on the continuing use of the adaptation and affected the meaning of home for families with a disabled child.     

Science,reason and value

There is a relatively simple argument which shows that science is not, in any important sense, value free. Further, if science is not value free, it may be that the values involved in science rest upon moral considerations. In this paper the author examines one argument for the claim that science essentially involves value, and then looks at the types of values which may be an essential facet of scientific inquiry.     

Influence of Perceptions of Current and Future Community on Residential Aspirations of Rural Youth

Outmigration of youth has concerned rural communities and researchers for several decades. Yet not all communities experience extensive youth outmigration and some youth want to stay in their rural communities as adults. This article examines youth satisfaction with their current community and the importance of characteristics of the community in which they would like to live as an adult for youth preferences to leave or stay in their rural community. The data are for rural ninth‐grade youth in Pennsylvania from the Rural Youth Education Project. The results suggest that perceptions of available jobs and educational opportunities in both current and future community, parental and friend influences, and the quality of the natural environment and outdoor recreation are important in determining residential aspirations. In particular, identifying a clean natural environment and outdoor recreation as important in the adult community increases the likelihood that rural youth have residential aspirations to stay in their rural community. This research adds to our knowledge about factors important in determining youth residential aspirations by identifying attributes of community beyond jobs and educational opportunities that youth find attractive as they consider places to live as adults.     

‘You've Got to be a Saint to be a Social Worker’. The (Mis)operation of Fitness to Practise Processes for Students Already Registered onto English Social Work Training Programmes

This article seeks to promote a debate about the operation of fitness to practise procedures for students who have been registered onto social work training programmes in England. Information is provided about the General Social Care Council (GSCC) requirements, university procedures and five exemplars are used to tease out some of the key issues in relation to the operation of these processes. From this exploratory position major concerns are raised about the operation of the current process which promotes surveillance of students in all aspects of their lives, is secret, and lacks accountability. At present it is unknown whether these processes are being operated in a fair or just manner, whether they target particular student communities or whether they are being operated equitably across England. This is a highly unsatisfactory position and is in sharp contradiction to social work's avowed commitment to social justice.     

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.     

“I Wouldn't Wish It on My Worst Enemy”: Western Australian Fathers’ Perspectives on Their Marital Separation Experiences

Marital separation is a complex and emotionally painful life experience, especially in instances where children are involved. This exemplar study investigated the separation experiences of fathers. Its findings suggest that many separating fathers are at an emotional disadvantage during separation, not only grieving the loss of their former marital relationship, but also their simultaneous loss of contact with their child/ren, their fathering role, and their former family routine. It is posited that separated fathers’ late start in the grieving process may put them at a psychoemotional disadvantage at the very time they are dealing with the complexities of formalizing their child contact arrangements. If future studies support this premise, then these findings will have equity implications for contact arrangement hearings.