Artistry and disability – Doing art for real? Affordances at a day activity centre with an artistic profile

Taking our point of departure from critical disability studies, this study explores affordances of a day activity centre with an artistic profile. The analysis reveals that this centre has two fundamental meanings to the participants; it is a place to create art, and it is a ‘safe haven’. Our conclusion is that the desire to belong, to be in a community and to do artwork, entails a future need for flexible institutional environments, where the social milieu is characterized by increased influence and with an engaging focus, such as that which is offered in cultural work.     

Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Social Workers for Integrated Health Practice: Evidence From Two MSW Cohorts

ABSTRACT

Changes in health care policy have led to an expansion of integrated care models that rely on collaboration among interprofessional health teams. Recent federal funding has encouraged the development of innovative training models to prepare social workers for integrated health practice. This article presents evidence from the first two MSW cohorts of the Integrated Mental and Behavioral Health Training Program funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Twelve students completing the program in 2014 (n = 5) and 2015 (n = 7) participated in evaluation activities at the time of program completion and at 1-year postgraduation. Findings highlight key components of the training program instrumental in student attainment of program goals and competencies. Implications for MSW education and training for practice in integrated care environments are discussed.     

Sacred time: Ensuring the provision of excellent supervision

In this study, the authors explore the beliefs and attitudes regarding what constitutes “excellent supervision” from the perspectives of frontline workers and supervisors employed by one voluntary services organization in Northern Ireland. Several themes emerged from focus group narratives, regardless of participants’ agency position, and a concept map provides an understanding of the relationships of the identified themes. This study reflects the important role of organizational context and culture in relation to staff’s ability to provide excellent supervision, as well as in sustaining organizational change efforts regardless of organizational setting. The potential of peer and/or group supervision to address improving staff support with limited resources is also suggested.     

Decade Review of Research on Lesbian Romantic Relationship Satisfaction

There has been a steady increase of research dedicated to understanding the quality and satisfaction of same-sex romantic relationships, but studies explicitly focused on lesbian relationships have been particularly limited due to the tendencies of researchers to combine this female subgroup with other sexual orientations (e.g., men who are gay and individuals who are bisexual). Thus researchers and practitioners trying to understand and promote healthy romantic relationships in the lesbian community struggle in aggregating what is known about the resilience and risk factors that are associated with relationship satisfaction. This review organized existing empirical knowledge by synthesizing articles that have been written on the satisfaction of self-identified, lesbian romantic relationships over the past decade. Results are presented with an emphasis on what has been found about relationship quality and satisfaction among couples who are lesbian and what should be considered in future scientific, educational, or clinical work focused on couples who are lesbian.     

Mobile (in)security? Exploring the realities of mobile phone use in conflict areas

Across disciplines, scholars extol the revolutionary potential of mobile technologies in developing nations. Mobile phones in particular may facilitate economic and social development. However, our understanding of mobile phone’s interaction with a developing country’s society is limited by two factors: first, development is often accompanied by social and political conflict; and second, scholars often provide a broad overview on the use of these technologies. We address these limitations through the use of data collected from ethnographic interviews conducted in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. We highlight the everyday use of mobile technologies in developing nations that experience political conflict. We conclude that while mobile technologies have some potential of mitigating social inequality, political conflict, and safety concerns, these opportunities for meaningful use are hampered by limitations associated with daily life in developing countries such as irregular access to electricity and network coverage boundaries.     

A prickly problem: developing a volunteer-friendly tool for monitoring populations of a terrestrial urban mammal,the West European hedgehog (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Erinaceus europaeus</Emphasis>)

Across Europe, hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) appear to be in decline in both urban and rural landscapes. Current methods used to monitor urban populations are, however, associated with several potential limitations. In this study, we conducted hedgehog footprint-tunnel surveys in 219 residential gardens across Reading, UK between May–September in 2013 and/or 2014; gardens were surveyed for five continuous days. Single-species occupancy models were used to investigate factors influencing hedgehog occupancy and two-species occupancy models were used to estimate a species interaction factor (SIF) between hedgehogs and (a) badgers (Meles meles), (b) foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and (c) dogs (Canis familiaris). The five-day survey protocol was associated with a false-absence error rate of 0.1–0.4%, indicating that it was a reliable method for determining hedgehog presence; conversely, 34.7% of householders were not able to correctly predict hedgehog presence or absence. Hedgehogs were widely distributed across Reading, but detected in only 32–40% of gardens. None of the within-garden or outside-garden factors investigated significantly affected hedgehog occupancy in the single-species models, but the two-species models indicated that badgers (SIF?=?0.471?±?0.188), but not foxes (SIF?=?0.954?±?0.048) or dogs (SIF?=?0.780?±?0.228), negatively affected the presence of hedgehogs in gardens, although not significantly. Overall, footprint-tunnels represent a viable field method for monitoring urban hedgehog populations, however, other approaches are required to identify factors that make gardens “hedgehog friendly”.     

Between Enforcement and Precarity: Externalization and Migrant Deaths at Sea

Much scholarship on border enforcement and loss of life asserts the relationship between enforcement and precarity. Little research attempts to correlate the two: enforcement operations and loss of life. In this article, we statistically analyse the relationship between increased border enforcement operations at sea and migrant losses of life around the EU between 2006 and 2015, and find them to be significantly and positively correlated. We also find evidence that increased enforcement leads to rerouting of migrant journeys to ‘weak spots’ in relation to borders. These findings bring empirical support to the commonly‐asserted claim by social scientists that externalization creates greater loss of life. We argue that, although discourse about interception and externalization has shifted to humanitarian rescue narratives, offshore enforcement by any other name continues to be highly correlated with migrant deaths. We then construct two datasets documenting migrant boats lost at sea and state interdiction operations since 1980. These data serve as the basis of our statistical analysis.     

Testing Satisfaction with a Group-based Social Work Field Liaison Model: A Controlled Mixed Methods Study

Social work field education programs rely on the liaison process to oversee and support students during their placement and to assist them to integrate theory and practice. However, the role and importance of liaison has been threatened as social work programs seek alternative and cost-effective ways to undertake these functions. This paper presents findings from a pilot study investigating levels of satisfaction among students and field educators with an innovative group liaison model compared to a control group who experienced the standard liaison practice. Fifty-three students and 47 field educators completed the survey. Twenty-one of the students and 10 of the educators received the intervention (the group liaison); the remaining 32 students and 37 educators received the standard liaison process (the control group). Students in the intervention group reported significantly higher levels of satisfaction with all aspects of the liaison experience than students who received the standard liaison process. Field educators were more positive about liaison than students. This study reaffirms the contribution of face-to-face liaison contact to the student learning experience on placement and suggests that strengthening, rather than devaluing, the liaison role could be a useful strategy to encourage the field’s ongoing commitment to provision of quality placement-based learning opportunities.

IMPLICATIONS

• Highlights the importance of face-to-face liaison contact to the student learning experience on placement.

• Examines social work student and field educator perceptions of and satisfaction with the liaison process and content.

• Describes a group liaison model that potentially offers a cost effective way to undertake the role.

     

Australian midwives views and experiences of practice and politics related to water immersion for labour and birth: A web based survey

Background

There is little published research that has examined practitioners’ views and experiences of pain relieving measures commonly used during labour and birth, particularly for non-pharmacological measures such as water immersion. Furthermore, there is minimal published research examining the process of policy and guideline development, that is, the translation of published research to usable practice guidance.