Reflections on Designing and Teaching a Social Work Research Course for Distance and On-Campus Students

Social work educators are increasingly challenged to train future social workers who can both value research and believe in themselves as capable researchers. One way to achieve this is the teaching of a specific social work research course at a basic qualification level. At Otago University, such a course was introduced in late 2005, and early 2006, for both on-campus and distance (off-campus) students. This Ideas in Action piece reveals the thinking behind and strategies used to help future social workers overcome their reluctance about social work research and enable them to take practice-related research skills into their future work.     

Adventure-Based Group Therapy to Promote Social Skills in Adolescents

This article presents adventure-based group therapy as one type of activity-based group treatment that can be used to promote social skills in adolescents. Adventure-based therapy groups are a blend of experiential education, outdoor education, and group therapy. Key components of adventure-based therapy groups include activities that provide immediate and concrete consequences of behaviors, reliance on problem solving, their use of novel and unfamiliar environments, and the use of physical trust. The article includes practice examples of how these factors can be used to promote social skills and discusses limitations and implications for social work group practice.     

Providing nursing leadership in a community residential mental health setting

The worldwide burden of mental illness is increasing. Strong leadership is increasingly emerging as a core component of good mental health nursing. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the ways in which nurses can provide strong and consistent leadership in a values-based practice environment that embodies respect for individuals' dignity and self-determination within a community residential mental health service, which provides a structural foundation for effective action. This is accomplished through the presentation of two vignettes, which highlight how the seemingly impossible becomes possible when an economic paradigm such as agency theory is exchanged for a sociological and psychological paradigm found in leadership as stewardship at the point of service. It is through stronger nursing leadership in mental health that stigma and discrimination can be reduced and better access to treatments and services can be gained by those with mental illness. Nurse leadership in mental health services is not new, but it is still relatively uncommon to see residential services for "high needs" individuals being led by nurses. How nurses meet the challenges faced by mental health services are often at the heart of effective leadership skills and strategies.     

The Effectiveness of Management‐By‐Walking‐Around: A Randomized Field Study

Management‐by‐walking‐around (MBWA) is a widely adopted technique in hospitals that involves senior managers directly observing frontline work. However, few studies have rigorously examined its impact on organizational outcomes. This study examines an improvement program based on MBWA in which senior managers observe frontline employees, solicit ideas about improvement opportunities, and work with staff to resolve the issues. We randomly selected hospitals to implement the 18‐month‐long, MBWA‐based improvement program; 56 work areas participated. We find that the program, on average, had a negative impact on performance. To explain this surprising finding, we use mixed methods to examine the impact of the work area's problem‐solving approach. Results suggest that prioritizing easy‐to‐solve problems was associated with improved performance. We believe this was because it resulted in greater action‐taking. A different approach was characterized by prioritizing high‐value problems, which was not successful in our study. We also find that assigning to senior managers responsibility for ensuring that identified problems get resolved resulted in better performance. Overall, our study suggests that senior managers' physical presence in their organizations' front lines was not helpful unless it enabled active problem solving.     

A Scenario‐Based Evaluation of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus and the Hajj

Between April 2012 and June 2014, 820 laboratory‐confirmed cases of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS‐CoV) have been reported in the Arabian Peninsula, Europe, North Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the United States. The observed epidemiology is different to SARS, which showed a classic epidemic curve and was over in eight months. The much longer persistence of MERS‐CoV in the population, with a lower reproductive number, some evidence of human‐to‐human transmission but an otherwise sporadic pattern, is difficult to explain. Using available epidemiological data, we implemented mathematical models to explore the transmission dynamics of MERS‐CoV in the context of mass gatherings such as the Hajj pilgrimage, and found a discrepancy between the observed and expected epidemiology. The fact that no epidemic occurred in returning Hajj pilgrims in either 2012 or 2013 contradicts the long persistence of the virus in human populations. The explanations for this discrepancy include an ongoing, repeated nonhuman/sporadic source, a large proportion of undetected or unreported human‐to‐human cases, or a combination of the two. Furthermore, MERS‐CoV is occurring in a region that is a major global transport hub and hosts significant mass gatherings, making it imperative to understand the source and means of the yet unexplained and puzzling ongoing persistence of the virus in the human population.     

Towards improved measurement of cognitive and behavioural work demands

Determination of the cognitive and behavioural demands of work is an important part of holistic workplace intervention. Attention to these factors is especially important when developing return-to-work programs for persons with reduced cognitive, behavioural or psycho-emotional capacity, and when designing risk management programs in organizations. Occupational therapists have the background knowledge and skills to assess these components of work, but often lack valid and reliable measurement tools. This paper reports on three field studies that assessed the reliability and validity of ratings made by novice users of the City of Toronto Job Demands Analysis, which includes a measure of cognitive and behavioural work demands. Numerous challenges to accuracy and reliability that are common to empirical measurement were disclosed, including the necessity for clear and strong definitions, and the importance of thorough rater training. Implications for therapist training and mentorship are discussed.     

Inside the Black Box: what constitutes a day in a residential treatment centre?

Residential Treatment Centres (RTCs) provide 24-hour care and mental health services to young people, many of whom are referred from county departments that oversee services to young people involved with child welfare services, mental health services and corrections. While RTCs are required to provide mental health services to young people, the regulations governing these programmes have few specific requirements about the process, content or duration of treatment. Therefore, many questions have arisen about what a typical RTC day looks like and whether it differs among providers or differs based on the severity or type of the young person's mental-health related behaviours and symptoms. This study conducted interviews with RTC providers in the State of Colorado on this topic. Most RTC services were relatively uniform across case types within each RTC. It appears that with a few exceptions, a similar set of services is provided to all young people, regardless of their problems.