Supporting Face-to-Face Birth Family Contact after Adoption from Care: Learning for Trauma-Sensitive Practice
This article draws on adopters ’ reports of face-to-face contact with birth relatives, and their evaluation of social work support to suggest an approach to practice informed by principles of trauma-informed care. Twenty-six adoptive parents participated in focus groups, and seventy-three completed a web-based questionnaire, al l from Northern Ireland where face-to-face post-adoption contact is expected. Findings are structured thematically around principles of trauma-informed care: trusting relationships; physical and emotional safety; choice and control; and narrative coherence. Most families had a social worker attend...
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 24, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
What Skills Do Older Self-Funders in England Need to Arrange and Manage Social Care? Findings from a Scoping Review of the Literature
This article reports findings from a sco ping review of published evidence from England, Scotland and Wales on the skills that older people need, and the help they get, to seek, arrange or manage use of social care, and how this help affects outcomes. Searches undertaken in October 2018 resulted in the inclusion of thirty-six empirical pap ers and seven reviews. Thematic analysis identified the importance of everyday life and specific business skills, and personal attributes including objectivity when evaluating options. The review identified two significant gaps in the evidence: first, how help in seeking and arranging ca...
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 23, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Factors Related to Organisational Commitment amongst Social Workers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
This study examined the contribution of social –demographic characteristics, employee attitudes and environmental factors in explaining levels of organisational commitment amongst public sector social workers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Using a cross-sectional design, data were collected in the summer of 2016 from employees at twe lve local directorates of the Ministry of Social Development (N = 237) in the West Bank. Palestinian social workers reported extremely high levels of overall organisational commitment. Results of multiple regressions revealed predictors of this outcome, including job stress, j...
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 23, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Bridge over Troubled Water —Closing the Research–Practice Gap in Social Work
AbstractSince starting over a hundred years ago social work has been occupied with the division into academic and practical knowledge. A common theme in scientific journals of social work is how this gap can be understood and resolved. The initial purpose of this article was to carry out a systematic review to find out if and how the gap could be bridged. Because few independent studies could be found, the study instead took the form of a scoping review with more included articles. The results show concrete suggestions as to how to bridge the gap, but also three discourses with dissimilar problem definitions and solutions....
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 23, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Social Worker Well-being: A Large Mixed-Methods Study
This study sought to further investigate working conditions in the UK social workers, as well as the reasons for these working conditions via a mixed-methods survey and interview study. A total of 3,421 responses were gained from the cross-sectional survey which looked at working conditions, perceived stress, job satisfaction and turnover intentions (both migration and attrition), with the semi-structured interview schedule (n = 15) based on survey findings and analysed via thematic analysis continuing through to saturation. Similar to 2018, results demonstrated poor working conditions, irrespective of job role, and re...
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 23, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Protecting the Public? An Analysis of Professional Regulation —Comparing Outcomes in Fitness to Practice Proceedings for Social Workers, Nurses and Doctors
This article examines the publicly av ailable data on fitness to practice cases from UK regulatory bodies relating to the professions of social workers, nurses, midwives and doctors. Examining nearly 1,000 cases, the authors run a statistical analysis of the data to establish whether any differences are found amongst and between these p rofessional groupings. We find there are several areas where significant differences arise, namely gender, attendance and representation. Most of these regulatory bodies are, in turn, regulated in the UK by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), and the article concludes by suggesting ...
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 21, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Transformative Learning in Field Education: Students Bridging the Theory/Practice Gap
This study extends ou r understanding of the role of TL theory within experiential learning contexts and the feasibility of its use in the social work field education experience. (Source: British Journal of Social Work)
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 20, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The Role of the Social Worker at the End of Life: Paving the Way in an Academic Hospital Quality Improvement Initiative
This article is the first phase towards gaining an understanding of the contributions of the social worker in supporting dying patients and their families within our organisation. (Source: British Journal of Social Work)
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 20, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Public Perceptions of Social Work in Nigeria: Does the Profession Has What It Takes to Address Nigeria ’s Social Problems?
This study examines the perceptions of a cross-section of Nigerians regarding their knowledge of the social work profession. Through a structured survey instrument, data were collected from a nationally representative sample of 350 Nigerians from the age of twenty years and above. Although the majority of the respondents were not familiar with the professional designation ‘social work’, they, however, demonstrated substantial knowledge about social workers’ roles, areas of practice and other measures. Since practitioners are actively involved in community organising and development practice across the country, more t...
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 20, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Risk-Managing Decision-Making: A Psycho-Social Rationality Model
This article presents and explores the potential of a ‘risk-managing decision model’, as an example of a model linking risk management with decision science. This is a psycho-social rationality model for choosing between options, such as possible care, support or intervention plans for a client or family. Rather than treating the options as ‘give n’ (i.e. unchangeable), as in most decision theories, this model proposes that the decision maker(s) look for ways to manage or reduce the risks inherent in the preferred option as part of the decision process. Like other psycho-social rationality models, this model incorp...
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 9, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Understanding out of Home Care Rates in Northern Ireland: A Thematic Analysis of Mixed Methods Case Studies
AbstractResearch exploring inequalities in UK child welfare interventions has produced counter-intuitive findings with respect to Northern Ireland (NI). Despite experiencing the highest levels of deprivation, NI also displays the lowest rates of children in care of all the UK nations. With reference to wider evidence in the field of child welfare inequalities, this article details the findings of two exploratory mixed methods case studies, located within NI Health and Social Care Trusts. Drawing on the narratives offered by child and family social workers, a series of possible explanations for NI ’s significantly lower o...
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 9, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Protection as a Human Fundamental Need: Re-Conceiving Signs of Safety for Social Work in the Republic of Ireland
AbstractLarge-scale reform of statutory child protective services in the Republic of Ireland is underway, prompted by adoption of the national strengths-based and safety-organised practice approach, known as ‘Signs of Safety’ (SoS). Despite the radical change it impels, critical commentary from the academy on the conventions of SoS remains conspicuous by its absence. One reading of the ecological systems approach is that to appreciate implications of SoS for children and families at risk, we must s urpass a sequestered concern with child protection and welfare alone. To substantiate this, and embed a reconceived Signs...
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 8, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Adverse Childhood Experiences: Developments in Trauma and Resilience Aware Services
AbstractResearch has demonstrated conclusively that the experience of adversities in childhood increases the risks for poor outcomes in the domains of physical and mental health and economic and social circumstances across the life course. This has produced a wave of interest in the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences internationally, with developments in policy across the UK nations reflective of this. The translation of such research and policy development has witnessed the growing dominance of the ‘toxic stress model’ as underpinning the early signalling of troubles in children. Such signals are further concept...
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 8, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Secondary Traumatization Among Social Work Students —The Contribution of Personal, Professional, and Environmental Factors
This study examined the rate of secondary traumatic stress (STS) among social work students and the contribution of background variables, personal resources (mastery and self-differentiation) and environmental resources (supervision satisfaction and peer support) to STS. The sample consisted of 259 social work students at three social work schools in Israel. The findings indicated that the mean level of STS was mild. Of the students, 36 per cent suffered STS to a mild extent, 19 per cent to a moderate extent and 18 per cent reported a ‘high to extreme extent’. A significant contribution was made by the student’s year...
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 8, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Editorial: Unprecedented Times? Social Work and Society post-COVID-19
As the sun sets on our editorship of this journal, we in the UK, like many parts of the world, are having to live with the ‘new normal’ of sharing our lives with the potentially deadly virus, COVID-19. Across the globe, countries are adopting variations on how to manage this threat, including serious restrictions on travel, social distancing and lockdowns. As the pendulum swings between severe measures and easing of measures, recording and accounting for death tolls, realising the longer-term health, economic and social consequences and grappling with plans for recovery, reviewing our five years as editors pale in sign...
Source: British Journal of Social Work - August 5, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
