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Making the difference together: guidance on gathering and using feedback about the experience of social work from people who use services and their carers
- Authors:
- ALLEN Ruth, et al
- Publisher:
- Great Britain. Department of Health
- Publication year:
- 2016
- Pagination:
- 48
- Place of publication:
- London
One of a suite of three resources published as part of the ‘Social Work for Better Mental Health’ initiative, this document provides guidance on practical ways to gather service user and carer feedback about their experiences of social work practice within mental health services. The guidance is based on research into what service users and carers value and find effective in social work practice; research literature on service user quality of life indicators and recovery measures; practice feedback tools from social work education and patient satisfaction surveys from general and mental health. It proposes two specific approaches to gathering feedback: implementing a tailored ‘experience of social work’ feedback questionnaire; and gathering feedback through collaborative conversations about practice between social workers and people using services or carers. The collaborative conversations approach includes good practice in using co-production as a framework, recording conversations and using observer, the role of peer support. The reasons for choosing these approaches and how they fit into existing regulatory requirements and good practice are discussed. Example questionnaires are included in the appendices.. (Edited publisher abstract)
The recovery framework as a way of understanding families' responses to mental illness: balancing different needs and recovery journeys
- Authors:
- WYDER Marianne, BLAND Robert
- Journal article citation:
- Australian Social Work, 67(2), 2014, pp.179-196.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Personal recovery is a guiding principle in mental health and suggests that consumers own and are responsible for their own recovery. An exclusive focus on the recovery of those living with mental illness challenges the relevance of recovery concepts to families’ experiences. This paper extends these recovery principles to consider if the recovery framework is helpful in understanding families’ experiences. We distinguished the family's recovery task by recovery-oriented support and the family's own recovery journey. By applying recovery frameworks developed by Davidson et al. and Leamy et al. to these two tasks, we were able to highlight similarities and points of tension between consumer and family recovery tasks. The tasks for families include: (1) maintaining hope; (2) reconnecting; (3) overcoming secondary trauma; and (4) journeying from carer to family. Family response to mental illness is a dynamic, multilayered process rather than a static and enduring role of caregiving. The recovery framework offers an alternative way to understand a family's response to mental illness and suggests possibilities for social work practice with families. (Edited publisher abstract)
Experiences of social work intervention among mothers with perinatal mental health needs
- Authors:
- TAYLOR Billie Lever, MOSSE Liberty, STANLEY Nicky
- Journal article citation:
- Health and Social Care in the Community, 27(6), 2019, pp.1586-1596.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Perinatal mental health difficulties are prevalent among women, and the vulnerability of young infants makes this a time when families experiencing multiple adversities may be particularly likely to attract state intervention. However, very little is known about how mothers experience social work intervention during the perinatal period. This study explored experiences of social work intervention among women with perinatal mental health difficulties. Qualitative semi‐structured interviews were carried out with 18 women with 6‐ to 9‐month‐old babies, who had been treated in England for a perinatal mental health difficulty and also had social services intervention. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings suggested that mothers had a predominantly negative view of children's social services, especially when social workers had significant child protection concerns. The fear of being judged an unfit mother and having their babies taken away overshadowed their encounters. Mothers felt that social workers would not accept they could be good mothers in spite of their difficulties and set them up to fail. Some felt that social workers focused exclusively on the risks to the baby and did not acknowledge the mother's own needs or understand perinatal mental health. In some cases, social work intervention was described as intensifying pressure on mothers’ mental health, leading to escalating difficulties and increased likelihood of care proceedings. At the same time, this study also included examples of mothers forming positive relationships with social workers, and of ‘turning points’ where initially negative interactions stabilised and child protection concerns lessened. Women's accounts highlighted the importance of feeling ‘known’ by social workers who understood and respected them. The findings also suggested there may be value in improving collaboration between social workers and mental health professionals to create more space for representation of women's needs as well as those of their babies. (Edited publisher abstract)
Looking again at troubled families: parents' perspectives on multiple adversities
- Authors:
- BUNTING Lisa, WEBB Mary Anne, SHANNON Rachel
- Journal article citation:
- Child and Family Social Work, 22(S3), 2017, pp.31-40.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The ‘Troubled Families’ policy and intervention agenda is based on a deficit approach that tends to ignore the role of structural disadvantage in the lives of the families it targets. In an effort to support this rhetoric, both quantitative and qualitative data have been used, and misused, to create a representation of these families, which emphasizes risk and individual blame and minimizes societal factors. This current paper presents findings from an in-depth qualitative study using a biographical narrative approach to explore parents' experiences of multiple adversities at different times over the life-course. Key themes relating to the pattern and nature of adversities experienced by participants provide a more nuanced understanding of the lives of families experiencing multiple and complex problems, highlighting how multiple interpretations are often possible within the context of professional intervention. The findings support the increasing call to move away from procedurally driven, risk averse child protection practice towards more relationally based practice, which addresses not only the needs of all family members but recognizes parents as individuals in their own right. (Publisher abstract)
Constructing parental problems: the function of mental illness discourses in a child welfare context
- Author:
- KEDDELL Emily
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 46(7), 2016, pp.2088-2103.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Understanding how social workers and parental service users construct the meanings of parental problems in the child protection context is important, as ultimately this affects decision making. Using qualitative methods, this study elicited social workers' and parental service users' perceptions of decision reasoning and analysed them from a discursive constructionist perspective. By completing secondary analysis of social worker–parental service user pairs, this article describes patterns in how the causes of family problems were constructed by social workers and parental service users. It was found that explanations of poor mental health and lack of supports for initial family problems were used to emphasise a lack of parental culpability by both parties, particularly through a narrative of separating one's ‘authentic self’ from the impacts of mental illness on parenting. This convergence of explanations helped to maintain fragile parental identities, assisted with relationship maintenance, and allowed both social workers and parents to acknowledge harm to children. However, an individualised view of problems promoted by mental illness discourses was unable to account for the impact of domestic violence and poverty on parental life experiences, and thus sometimes over-emphasised parental responsibility. (Publisher abstract)
Disclosing disability in the context of professional regulation: a qualitative UK study
- Authors:
- STANLEY Nicky, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 26(1), January 2011, pp.19-32.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
In the UK ‘Fitness to Practice’ has been used as a key screening criteria by regulatory bodies for entry into professions such as teaching, nursing and social work. Disclosure of disability is therefore a risky process for those aiming to practice or train in these professions. The research reported here was commissioned to inform the Disability Rights Commission’s Formal Investigation into fitness standards in the professions. In 2006-07 thirty eight practitioners and 22 students throughout England, Scotland and Wales, from the nursing, teaching and social work professions participated in semi-structured interviews to explore their experiences of disability disclosure. Of the participants, 47 were women. They had a range of disabilities, most of which were hidden; 30, including 17 students, had been disabled at entry to the profession, 28 had been disabled at a later stage and 2 were recently disabled. Participants from all three professional groups considered that disclosure of disability was likely to have the effect of excluding them from a professional training programme or post. Disclosing mental health needs was considered particularly likely to have this effect. However, most participants had disclosed their disabilities to some extent. Twenty three practitioners and 17 students reported receiving adjustments or accommodations following disclosure. Change in attitudes among colleagues was another key outcome. Participants varied in their knowledge and understanding of the fitness standards for their profession. The study concluded that abolishing health standards for the professions would increase disability disclosure and decrease the stigma associated with disability.
The changing role of the social worker in the mental health system
- Author:
- AVIRAM Uri
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work in Health Care, 35(1/2), 2002, pp.615-632.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
The purpose of this article is to discuss the role of the social work profession in the mental health service arena. It analyses the changing mental health environment and the challenges facing social work. It stresses that the profession must adapt to the dramatic changes that have been taking place since the advent of deinstitutionalisation and the need for community care for mentally ill persons. Historical analysis of the social work profession shows that its involvement in the mental health field has started during the early stages of the development of theprofession. Psychiatric social work has been considered a prestigious area of practicewithin the profession. Historically, social workers in the mental health field rarely challenged the dominance of the psychiatric profession. This position seems to have restrained social work from providing its full potential contribution to thisfield of practice and to the population it served. The article discusses factors that facilitate or hinder the profession from appropriatelyadapting to the current service needs of the mentally ill persons, their families andcommunities, providing quality mental health and social services to this population and society as well.
Social work and primary health care
- Editors:
- CLARE Anthony W., CORNEY Roslyn H.
- Publisher:
- Academic Press
- Publication year:
- 1982
- Pagination:
- 361p.,tables,bibliogs.
- Place of publication:
- London