What can Social Psychologists Learn from Architecture? The Asylum as Example

In this paper I argue for a stronger consideration of the possible relationship between social psychology and architecture and architectural history. After a brief review of some of the ways in which other social psychologists have sought to develop links between social psychology and history, I consider the utility of architecture in more depth, especially to the social psychologist interested in the development of knowledge and understanding. I argue that, especially when knowledge is institutionalised, the design and use of buildings might have a particular contribution to make to the way we can understand how phenomena have been understood and approached in the past. Although many examples are relevant, I consider the case of the psychiatric hospital (or “asylum”) in more detail.     

Unmet mental health and substance abuse treatment needs of sexual minority elders

In a survey exploring the reliability and validity of a screening tool, we explored the substance abuse and mental health issues among 371 elders; 74 were sexual minorities. Analyses by age group indicated that elders 55-64 years had significantly more problems with substance abuse, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts compared to those 65 and older. Bisexuals reported significantly greater problems with depression, anxiety, and suicidality than either heterosexual or lesbian or gay elders. Mental health and substance abuse treatment utilization was low among all elders with problems. Implications for assessment, access to care, and group-specific services delivery are discussed.     

Getting back in the DeLorean: modernization vs. anti-modernization in contemporary British politics

ABSTRACT

This article highlights a growing clash between mainstream modernizing and populist anti-modernizing forces in the UK. Whilst scholarship on UK party politics has, for the past three decades, focussed on processes of party modernization, little attention has been paid to the countervailing processes of resistance towards modernization. This contrasts with comparative studies, which show that throughout much of Europe modernization processes have worked to produce populist backlashes from anti-modernizing forces seeking to reassert various types of traditional values and practices. Drawing on the comparative literature on modernization, our argument here is that a similar populist backlash against modernization is occurring across the political spectrum in the UK and has been a factor in: the rise of nationalism associated with UKIP and the SNP; the 2016 BREXIT vote and the efforts of both Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Conservative PM Theresa May to distance their parties from the legacies of their modernizing predecessors. Empirically, we show how this increasingly prevalent line of conflict is playing out in the UK, whilst theoretically we argue that a discourse theoretical approach can provide significant advantages over existing approaches for understanding the dynamic interplay between modernizing and anti-modernizing discourses.     

‘Keeping families and children in mind’: an evaluation of a web‐based workforce resource

This study outlines pilot evaluation data of the web‐based training resource ‘Keeping Families and Children in Mind’, designed for clinicians who work with families where a parent has a mental illness. The resource was developed from scoping existing workforce packages and in consultation with consumers, carers, researchers and mental‐health clinicians. Preliminary evaluation data were collected from an urban and a rural site in Australia via focus group interviews and pre‐ and post‐training questionnaires to ascertain the experiences of those who participated in the training. Additionally, training facilitators were invited to maintain journals in order to identify planning and implementation issues when using the resource. Post‐training, participants emphasized the need to work collaboratively with others, as well as the importance of acknowledging and working with the family members of consumers, especially children. Also, participants reported positive changes in knowledge, skill and confidence when working with families affected by parental mental illness. Facilitators highlighted technology issues and the need to work interactively with participants when using the resource. Recommendations regarding policy and future research conclude this paper.     

Pushing the Boundaries of the Social Work Practicum: Rethinking Sites and Supervision Toward Radical Practice

This article challenges the profession's accreditation requirement that social work field placements must have a social worker as supervisor. The author argues that the profession's stated commitment to social and economic justice can best be served if the profession broadens the definition of what constitutes good social work practicum supervision. With support from schools of social work, people in our communities from different disciplines and backgrounds engaged in progressive justice work, can provide social work students with valuable experiences and in turn enrich the social work curriculum.     

A Preliminary Comparison Study of Online and Face-to-Face Counseling: Client Perceptions of Three Factors

This preliminary study examined the similarities and differences between online and face-to-face counseling with regard to general mental health, working alliance, and social presence. Participants included 50 current counseling clients (37 face-to-face, 13 online) who all were recruited through online mediums. Results indicated that online counseling clients perceived a significantly stronger working alliance on the total Working Alliance Inventory-Short Form as well as the Goal subscale than did those who received face-to-face only counseling. No significant differences existed between the groups on general mental health or social presence. These results suggest that a more controlled study with a larger sample might find that a strong working alliance can be developed through online counseling.     

Child Welfare Workers' Adoption of Decision Support Technology

Child welfare workers must process complex information in deciding to refer clients to appropriate mental health services. Decision support systems have been demonstrated in other fields to be an important tool, yet little research has been done in child welfare. This study focused on the adoption of a specific decision support system into child welfare practice. Quantitative analysis was used to demonstrate the diffusion of innovation process among a sample of state child welfare workers, while qualitative analysis was used to explain the facilitators and barriers to decision support systems adoption. Results indicate that for decision support systems to be widely adopted in child welfare practice, they should be integrated into the referral system and include workers' knowledge and experiences with referral resources. For successful adoption, decision support systems need to respect the natural logic and flow of worker interaction as well as organizational constraints.     

Standing at the Door: Reflections on the Daughters of the Second Wave

Although there are many similarities between the young women Susie Orbach describes and their counterparts in the northeastern United States, there are also complexities and multiplicities in their behavior and expression of aggression, their experience of themselves and of each other, that require us to reach beyond a comfortable intergenerational grasp. These daughters of women who came of age in the feminist movement are members of their own quite globalized youth culture with its own construction of “girls” in an era when aggression is everywhere more explicit and relationships with parents have been shaped by economic and social changes. We do not really know how concepts, like merged attachment, that were so critical to our liberation and coming of age, are relevant to the experience of these young women. It is a question to explore in a cultural context that is more familiar to them than it is to us, their parents.     

An Evaluation of the Scholarly Productivity of Doctoral Graduates

Scholarly publication is becoming increasingly important in social work. Not only does publication reflect the knowledge development effort of the profession, but it apparently positively affects the careers of the authors. In the current study, the authors evaluated the scholarly productivity of 284 randomly selected doctoral graduates from 30 social work programs. The authors accumulated and aggregated for each program counts of publications appearing in the Source Index of the Social Sciences Citation Index.Findings indicated that the level of article productivity among doctoral graduates was normative. In addition, the productivity of doctoral program faculty was found to be related to the productivity of the program’s doctoral graduates. The authors suggest that perhaps productive faculty provide positive role models to their students; this mentoring relationship contributes to graduate productivity outcomes.     

Interdisciplinary Community Collaboration: Perspectives of Community Practitioners on Successful Strategies

ABSTRACT

Six focus groups were convened to collect data on successful interdisciplinary community collaboration (ICC) strategies. Participants came from a variety of disciplines but shared the common identification of having worked in similar communities. Participant assignment to one of six groups was designed to insure diversity by gender and race or ethnicity. They discussed four questions received in advance. Prior consented tape-recorded sessions were transcribed and reviewed by group facilitators using a process of member checking. Data analysis utilized the qualitative methodology known as grounded theory. Results indicate that organizers must have (1) a knowledge base of strategic planning, management, and administration, (2) an intra- or interpersonal skills set, and (3) well-defined values and attributes. The Practice implications are that further research is needed to more fully explore the complexity of ICC work.