Search results for ‘Subject term:"social work education"’ Sort:
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Social work and substance use: teaching the basics
- Authors:
- GALVANI Sarah, FORRESTER Donald
- Publisher:
- Higher Education Academy. Subject Centre for Social Policy and Social Work
- Publication year:
- 2010
- Pagination:
- 26p.
- Place of publication:
- Southampton
People use substances for a range of positive and negative reasons. Social workers are on the front line of responding to social harms and providing support and interventions to protect and safeguard children and adults. Evidence shows that social workers from a range of specialist areas of practice are increasingly encountering problematic alcohol and other drug use among their service users but they have rarely received the training to equip them to intervene. This guide to teaching and learning has been written for lecturers and tutors working within social work education. The guidance and activities can be used at both qualifying and post qualifying levels and across a range of modules and practice learning opportunities. It is not intended to be a prescriptive guide, simply a way to support social work educators seeking to increase or consolidate their current teaching and learning in relation to alcohol and other drugs. Contents include: values, beliefs and attitudes; reasons people use substances; basic awareness of alcohol and other drugs; raising the issue/asking the right questions; assessment and risk; substance use interventions: what there is and how to access them; and the family and substance use and misuse
Refusing to listen: are we failing the needs of people with alcohol and drug problems?
- Author:
- GALVANI Sarah
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work Education (The International Journal), 26(7), October 2007, pp.697-707.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This paper argues that social work education in the UK has persistently failed to equip its social workers with the knowledge to work effectively with people with alcohol and drug problems. In spite of continuing criticism of the profession's unwillingness or inability to engage with substance use issues, social work education has failed to respond to the calls for better training on this subject, even when specific guidance has been issued about course content. This results in a failure to meet the needs of our service users as well as social work staff who remain frustrated at their inability to intervene. The paper explores the historical and current debate about social work training in relation to alcohol and drugs and identifies the barriers to its inclusion in qualifying and post-qualifying (PQ) curricula. Finally it offers a strategy for improving social work training as well as an overview of programme content requirements.
Substance use training experiences and needs: findings from a national survey of social care professionals in England
- Authors:
- GALVANI Sarah, DANCE Cherilyn, HUTCHINSON Aisha
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work Education (The International Journal), 32(7), 2013, pp.888-905.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
For more than 30 years there have been calls in the UK to improve training for social workers in relation to substance use. Yet very little research has explored what training practitioners have received or what their training needs are. This study sought to establish practitioners' experiences of previous training in substance use and identify their current training needs. An online survey was disseminated to 3,164 practitioners in adults' (AS) and children's (CS) social care and 12 vignette-based focus groups were also held. Of the final sample of 597, more than a third of social workers had not received any training and a further fifth only received between one and four hours. Other social care staff fared worse. Overwhelmingly, respondents said that substance use knowledge and skills were very important to their practice but their professional education had not prepared them well. They identified a number of training needs including ‘how to talk to people about substance use’ and ‘the types of intervention and treatment available’. Most social care professionals report not being adequately prepared for working with substance use, particularly basic knowledge and skills which would help them to conduct assessments and signpost people to specialist substance services. (Publisher abstract)
Working with alcohol and drug use: exploring the knowledge and attitudes of social work students
- Authors:
- GALVANI Sarah, HUGHES Nathan
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 40(3), April 2010, pp.946-962.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Many social workers in the UK work daily with the social harms linked to problematic substance use. Historically, however, their drug and alcohol training needs have been overlooked. This article describes a pilot study that explored social work students’ knowledge and attitudes towards substance use and working with people who use substances. A 4-part self-completion questionnaire was developed and administered to 156 social work students, and completed data was returned for 121 students. The focus of this article is the results of the part of the questionnaire looking at the students' attitudes towards and knowledge of substance use. Ninety-six per cent of the participants stated that training on alcohol or drugs was very or extremely relevant to social work practice, but 69% had not received training. Exploratory factor analysis of the findings was carried out in order to group individual survey questions into stronger, explanatory or summary factors. This identified 3 concepts emerging as the key explanatory factors: knowledge; support from colleagues; and legitimacy of role. The article concludes that social work training needs to recognise the need for alcohol and drug education within social work qualifying programmes in order that future social workers will feel equipped with the knowledge and legitimacy to do their job and meet the needs of people who have problems with alcohol and drugs.
Developing education on problematic substance use in Norwegian social work bachelor’s degree
- Authors:
- SVENDSEN Thomas Solgard, SELSENG Lillian Bruland, GALVANI Sarah
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work Education (The International Journal), 38(4), 2019, pp.544-551.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This commentary article is based on a mapping of education on problematic substance use (PSU) in the Norwegian social work bachelor’s degree (SWBD). The results show that national discussions are necessary to ensure that Norwegian SWBD students are provided with consistent and adequate education in preparation for work with PSU issues in social work practice. A practical starting point for development is presented. A discussion concerning social work’s role in future theoretical, practical, and research developments in the field of PSU is paramount. (Edited publisher abstract)
Building capacity and bridging the gaps: Strand 2: Alcohol and other drugs in qualifying social work practice: final report
- Authors:
- GALVANI Sarah, ALLNOCK Debbie
- Publisher:
- University of Bedfordshire. Tilda Goldberg Centre for Social Work and Social Care
- Publication year:
- 2013
- Pagination:
- 60
- Place of publication:
- Luton
This report presents findings of one part of a three strand project examining the current state of training to work with alcohol and other drug problems (AOD) in social work and social care in England. This strand examines the nature and extent of AOD use education within qualifying social work programmes in England. Of the 40% of social work programmes responding, nearly all stated that AOD use education featured within their programmes. However, few of these ran specialist modules or units in AOD use: the majority integrated AOD use education into other teaching modules, or ran a combination of specialist teaching sessions and integrated teaching. Further analysis showed that topic coverage is extremely limited on the integrated teaching route; and the depth and quality of the AOD use content is called into question. There was very little formal assessment, and the majority of respondents felt that AOD education was currently too limited. Importantly, many respondents (programme leaders) had little knowledge of exactly what was being covered and by whom. On a wider level, this raises concerns about an education system that is unable to monitor what is actually being taught within its programmes. Current social work education and reform offers the opportunity for change, although mandating course content has been ruled out by the College of Social Work (CSW). As the College has identified AOD use as an area of educational need for all social workers, it is hoped that in future social work education may prepare its practitioners appropriately for working with the AOD use issues their service users present with. Furthermore, as Health and Wellbeing Boards bring health and social care closer together structurally, there is an opportunity for in-house and post qualifying social work education to pick up where qualifying education leaves off, and to support its social workers to provide the informed service its service users deserve. The project was funded by Alcohol Research UK. (Edited publisher abstract)
Building capacity and bridging the gaps: alcohol and other drugs in social care practice, education and employment-based training: summary report: strands 1-3
- Authors:
- GALVANI Sarah, et al
- Publisher:
- University of Bedfordshire. Tilda Goldberg Centre for Social Work and Social Care
- Publication year:
- 2013
- Pagination:
- 22
- Place of publication:
- Luton
In 2010, the research team undertook a national survey of social work and social care practitioners in England, focussing on their experiences of working with people who use, and have problems with, alcohol and other drugs (AOD). The survey found that more than one third received no AOD education, many other received minimal AOD education, and that post-qualification, such training ranged from none to 5-15 hours of training. Those involved in Children’s Services fared slightly better, given the link between AOD use and child safeguarding issues. The research project aimed to: establish the challenges faced by practitioners working with older people, people with learning disabilities and physically disabled people; to determine the nature and extent of education on alcohol and other drugs on social work qualifying programmes in England; and to explore the nature and extent of training on alcohol and other drugs provided by employers for those working in children’s and adults’ services in England. This summary report outlines the findings of the three strands of research: existing dataset analysis; qualifying social work education survey; and local authority workforce learning and development (WLD) survey. There are a number of qualifying social work programmes and Local Authority WLDs that have engaged with alcohol and other drug use as an important issue for their social work and social care professionals. Their models of AOD training could be disseminated more widely. The project was funded by Alcohol Research UK. (Edited publisher abstract)