Doha’s cultural armature on display: a response to Artifacts and Allegiances: How Museums put the Nation and the World on Display

After a brief discussion of the rapidly changing international museum world in Doha, this response piece engages with Peggy Levitt’s arguments around cultural armature and the role of museums in managing a city’s diversity, focusing on Doha, Qatar. Given the dominant migrant foreign population (88 per cent) and the careful protection of national citizenship in Qatar, the role of museums in managing diversity presents a situation that contrasts with older nation states: rather than encouraging inclusion, the museums in Qatar and the Arabian Peninsula states play a role in constructing and protecting a pure concept of national identity on behalf of a minority citizen population that deliberately fails to embrace any notion of diversity. This piece uses brief case studies to illustrate this process of exclusion, expanding Levitt’s original argument.     

Do different dimensions of ethnic identity reduce the risk of violence among Asian American and Pacific Islander adolescents in Hawai‘i?

This study examines whether different dimensions of ethnic identity are associated with reduced risk of violence among an understudied population: Asian American and Pacific Islander adolescents. Drawing from survey data of 298 Native Hawaiian, Samoan, Japanese, and Filipino adolescents in Hawai‘i, this study focuses on whether three dimensions of ethnic identity (“affirmation and belonging,” “ethnic identity achievement,” and “other-group orientation”) related to overall and different types of violence. Results of the multivariate analyses reveal that higher levels of ethnic identity achievement are associated with reduced risk of overall violence and family/partner violence, which suggests that this dimension is a beneficial social-psychological resource. Contrary to our expectations, higher levels of ethnic affirmation and belonging are associated with attacking someone. In addition, other-group orientation has no relationship with violence. Implications of our findings regarding distinct effects for different dimensions of ethnic identification are discussed pertaining to developmental research and violence prevention.     

The mobile Internet and digital citizenship in African-American and Latino communities

Smartphone use is transforming the meaning of being online, especially for African-Americans and Latinos. To what extent has this enabled these populations to become digital citizens, able to participate in society online? Internet use is increasingly important for the exercise of the political, economic and social rights that have often been associated with citizenship [Mossberger, K., Tolbert, C. J., &; McNeal, R. S. (2008). Digital citizenship: The Internet, society, and participation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press], and can be measured by the political and economic activities that individuals engage in online. Using unique survey data from a diverse city, we use multilevel analysis and interactions to examine relationships between forms of access and activities online in 2013, controlling for neighborhood context as well as individual characteristics. In contrast with prior work, we find that while broadband access is most strongly associated with political and economic activities online, that mobile is as well. The effects are strongest for African-Americans and Latinos, especially for Latinos who live in heavily Latino neighborhoods – who have lagged behind furthest in Internet use.     

Perceptions of emerging adults who accessed residential treatment and entered a parental role

Youth who accessed residential mental health treatment (RT) continue to experience challenges related to their emotional and behavioral disorders, and continue to struggle in several life domains. Some of these youth also become parents. The purpose for this report was to explore the perceptions of emerging adults who accessed RT as a child or youth, and who became parents, about their life domains. These participants (n = 12) reported continued challenges in several domains of living, and some reported that impending parenthood helped motivate them to improve their behaviors. Many reported continued reliance on previous social workers. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Habitat Maintenance and Local Economic Ethics in Rural Atlantic Canada

Inspired by Jane Jacobs's writing on “habitat maintenance,” this paper seeks to identify the ethics that sometimes compel rural residents to act in ways that preserve their communities in the long run, despite short‐term incentives to do otherwise. Data from focus groups in four rural Atlantic Canadian communities suggest shared ethics around entrepreneurship, market competition, buying local, and subsistence, some of which underlie the rural practices and perspectives that appear, to some outsiders, as irrational and “backwards.” Understanding these ethics and the practices they incite as components of habitat maintenance—and judging them by their situated pragmatism rather than their fit with the placeless ideologies of growth‐centric global capitalism and competitiveness—highlights their rationality and utility. Findings could help direct discussions of rural economic development toward notions of prosperity, sustainability, and economy that fit better with rural realities.     

Social Work Supervision of Staff: A Primer and Scoping Review (2013–2017)

Supervision of staff has a rich history within the social work profession, and is widely valued internationally for the support, knowledge, and skill it is perceived to provide. Moreover, quality supervision is championed for ensuring good client care. However, supervisors practicing within the social work profession have not typically had access to best practice information, nor accessed the parallel research related to the supervision of staff. A supervision primer provides an orientation to the supervision literature, including definitions and disciplinary perspectives. This sets the stage for a scoping review of social work supervision articles for the purpose of supporting supervisors in keeping current, locating, understanding, and applying literature to their practice. Seventy-nine conceptual and empirical articles first-authored by social workers were published in 36 journals between 2013 and 2017. The volume, location, context and nature of these articles are presented, pointing to an increased social work presence in the literature. Implications for supervisory practice, scholarship, and research are discussed.     

Alcohol Use Among Concerned Partners of Heavy Drinking Service Members and Veterans

Heavy drinking in relationships is complex and we focus on an understudied sample of concerned partners (CPs) worried about their U.S. service member/veteran partner's drinking. We evaluated the link between CP drinking and their own mental health, and how CP drinking moderated the efficacy of a web‐based intervention designed to address CPs' mental health and communication. CPs (N = 234) were randomly assigned to intervention or control and completed assessments at baseline and 5 months later. CP drinking was associated with greater CP depression, anxiety, and anger independent of partner drinking. Moreover, the intervention was more efficacious in reducing depression for heavy drinking CPs. CPs are often an overlooked population and resources to help support them are needed.     

The Family Experience of the Crisis of Involuntary Treatment in Mental Health

While policy and practice standards emphasise the importance of engaging and supporting families of people with mental health problems, many families have reported feeling unsupported and distanced from treatment and care planning in acute inpatient units. There has been little systematic interest in the changing role and experiences of families throughout the emergence of illness, crisis, seeking of treatment, and subsequent recovery. Nineteen in-depth interviews were conducted with the next of kin of 17 people who had been admitted under an Involuntary Treatment Order in a large metropolitan hospital in the Brisbane region. A general inductive approach was used to analyse the data. While hospital admission was described as a time where, ideally, families were able to let go of being responsible for their relative's behaviour and let the health care professionals take over, for many this did not occur. We suggest four critical elements for providing recovery-oriented support to families. These include: (a) ensuring that families feel that their relative is safe and receiving the care needed; (b) keeping the family informed about their relative's progress; (c) ensuring families have access to information about the mental health system, and (d) working in partnership with the families.

IMPLICATIONS

• Family wellbeing is improved when they feel part of a supportive team.

• Instituting an open policy where families can contact ward staff easily and access information about the person they care for may alleviate families’ anxieties and minimise stress.

• Family work is enhanced when health professionals acknowledge families’ relationships, expertise, and understanding of their family member.

     

Perceptions of Long-Term Community Adaptation of Delinquent Young Adults Who Graduated from Children’s Residential Mental Health Treatment

Purpose

This article presents results from one part of a longitudinal study into the post-discharge community adaptation of youth involved in residential mental health treatment. The focus is on young adults interviewed in Phase 3 of the research who have been identified as experiencing delinquent behaviour in their communities which brings them into contact with the law. This research is unique as young adult graduates of residential treatment were interviewed and they describe in detail how they are currently functioning in their lives.

Method

Qualitative interviews were completed with a convenience sample of 59 young adults between 18 and 25 years of age who had accessed children’s residential mental health treatment up to 10 years prior to data collection.

Results

The results demonstrate that delinquent behaviour post-discharge from residential treatment is a real concern and, for a sub-set of young adults, relates to negative outcomes in multiple domains of living, such as substance abuse, personal well-being, education and employment, and social networks and relationships.

Conclusions

The results indicate there is a need to improve long term community adaptation for this group, and that improving community living outcomes is much more a function of ongoing support and caring than short-term treatment and cure.