Braving Human Suffering: Death Education and its Relationship to Empathy and Mindfulness

Social workers are likely to encounter clients dealing with traumatic grief and death in their practice. Though death education has gained in popularity and acceptance, few social work students receive coursework in this area and many are unprepared to deal with their clients' and their own emotions regarding death and grief. Though death-related content may evoke provider avoidance, mindfulness and empathy may help regulate provider emotions and responses. This United States-based study evaluates the effectiveness of experiential death education on mindfulness and empathy. Measures in three separate cohorts were given at the beginning and end of the course. Results show statistically significant increases on the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy, indicating that such a course may be effective in increasing both mindfulness and empathy in social work students and those in related fields.     

Enhancing Critical Reflection amongst Social Work Students: The Contribution of an Experiential Learning Group in Care Homes for Older People

As part of a Practice Learning Centre, representing a partnership between an English University social work department and a non-governmental organisation, 12 students were placed in care homes for older people for their first period of assessed practice. The aims of this initiative were to facilitate: development of critical reflection; deployment of social work skills in a care home setting; and opportunities for social work students to work with care home residents. The learning was captured via four Experiential Groups facilitated by the Practice Educator with responsibility for assessing the students' practice. On-site supervisors also participated. Key learning included understanding of: the importance of critical reflection as a key social work skill; the influence of organisational norms and care home culture on the quality of care practice; the complexity and emotion-rich nature of person-centred care; and the pivotal role of relationships in work with people with dementia. Links made in the Groups—between the experiential and theoretical, the emotional and cognitive, and the structural and personal—demonstrate their value as learning platforms. Placements in care homes have considerable potential to enrich practice education; this is especially important in the context of an ageing population.     

An Explorative Study of the Place of the Ethics of Care and Reflective Practice in Social Work Education and Practice

The moral development and identity of social work students have been shown to be enhanced by education in caring. Important aspects of this education are training in reflective practice and learning to have a perspective focused on professional loving care. In this study, we have explored how reflective processes can be implemented in both educational settings and working practice from an ethical point of view. Elaborating upon reflective practice from an ethical perspective focuses on reciprocity in relationships and relational capacity in institutional contexts. The study took the form of interviews with social work teachers and health care professionals. Interview and focus group data were analysed, three main topics were identified and statements were coded with relation to these topics. Use of both educators and practitioners in this study showed the importance of not neglecting the transition from education to practice. Responses also showed the value placed upon continuous education and development over the course of a health care professional's career.     

逍遥:庄子思想的旨归

《庄子》中的“逍遥”可以分为三个层面:物物而物于物是逍遥之最低层次,物物而不物于物乃可做到相对的逍遥,而无待才能达到真正的逍遥。庄子主张丧我、解悬、无用等养生之道,就是为了达到逍遥的人生境界。庄子热忱地爱慕着“逍遥”,以逍遥之笔去道说“逍遥”,从而使《庄子》具有了独特的文学魅力。     

Correlates of the Randolph Attachment Disorder Questionnaire (RADQ) in a Sample of Children in Foster Placement

This study examined mental health and attachment problems in children in foster care. This study also obtained data concerning the validity of the Randolph Attachment Disorder Questionnaire (RADQ). Children were selected according to length of time in placement and age and screened for mental health symptoms using the Child Behavior Checklist and the RADQ. The findings showed that children in foster care have reported symptoms within the range typical of children not involved in foster care. The conclusion is that the RADQ has limited usefulness due to its lack of specificity with implications for treatment of children in foster care.     

Moving the Boundaries of Feminist Social Work Education with Disabled People in the Neoliberal Era

Until recently social work education in Australia has either marginalised or neglected disability by omission. Given the increasing number of disabled people in the community, the teaching of social work within a disability studies emancipatory paradigm as an essential part of the curriculum is long overdue. As many social work educators have suggested, we are at a critical moment in Australia, where the policy environment in which social work is embedded has largely been reframed in line with neoliberal trends. For disabled people, this has meant an ongoing state campaign to diminish disability entitlements, from decreasing disability social security regimes through to the rationalisation of adult disability support and care schemes. Social workers are negotiating the competing demands of these policy constraints alongside the needs of the disabled people they work with. New moral dilemmas have emerged where they are actively faced with the question of ‘who to serve?’.     

阳光与烛光的映照，心灵与生灵的对话——解读新加坡女作家蓉子的“老人题材”作品

城市的老龄化,这一社会性问题正越来越带有"全球化"的倾向,东南亚各国自然也不能幸免.新加坡女作家蓉子以其创办并担任老人院院长十年的亲身经历,为华文文坛奉献了描述城市老人问题的"城事系列",向人们启开了一扇扇探视形形色色的老人及其儿孙们的心灵窗扉,让读者在感叹生活于当今城市的老人或悲或喜的结局之余,也引发了对这一社会问题的深深思考.本文从"爱心与人文精神"、"孝行与人性弱点"、"人道与自然生态"三个方面,对蓉子笔下有关描述城市老人众生相及其心态的作品进行解读.     

A Long-Term Family-Oriented Treatment for Adolescents with Substance-Related Disorders: An Outcome Study

Treatment programs for substance-disordered adolescents increasingly use family and Twelve-Step orientations. Pathway Family Center adds to that model a long term stay (9 to 15 months), a day treatment setting, and the unique feature of temporarily placing the client with the family of another client who has progressed further in the program. This outcome study surveyed the 100 clients and their parents from the first five years of the program, using mailed questionnaires and telephone interviews. Information was collected from 51% of clients and 61% of parents, and client-parent agreement was high. Ninety-eight percent of adolescents reported that they did not return to prior drug severity, 51% reported no use since discharge, 23% reported one or two relapses, 88.2% reported improved family relations, and 90.2% reported improved quality of life. In comparing those who remained completely abstinent with those who relapsed, the non-relapsers were twice as likely to have a diagnosis of uni-polar depression at admission. We hypothesize that the depression is associated with hitting bottom, an indication that the client may be motivated to commit to major change. These outcomes compare very favorably with those of other adolescent treatment programs.     

高翥《清明日对酒》诗新解

从古今《千家诗》选本对南宋诗人高翥《清明日对酒》一诗的不同态度出发 ,重新诠释了该诗的具体内容。主要是结合宋代的社会实际状况 ,将诗人描绘的社会现象放到历史的具体环境中加以考察。同时也抉发了蕴藏在诗句中的诗人对社会现实尤其是理学观念的反思和批判 ,并对该诗的思想价值做了新的评价。     

Accounting and the celebration of rationality in human service delivery organizations

Emerging perspectives of control in human service delivery organizations are facilitated by rational accountability formulations whose tenets and assumptions remain basically unquestioned in organizational and accounting literature. This paper critiques the underpinnings of rational accountability formulations and their appropriateness for human service delivery organizations. In turn, a non-rational metaphor of the role of management accounting information is proposed which recognizes uncertainty for what it is rather than assuming the very certainties that cannot be found in the delivery of human services.