Interventions In Social Work Practice Research Articles

Improving Emotional and Social Development in Preschool Children: Exploring the Effects of Mindfulness‐Based Mandala Intervention in Social Work Practice in Macao

Improving Emotional and Social Development in Preschool Children: Exploring the Effects of Mindfulness‐Based Mandala Intervention in Social Work Practice in Macao

Evidence and evidence gaps in assessments and interventions in areas related to social work research and practice – an overview of four evidence maps

ABSTRACT This overview of four evidence maps is based on systematic reviews of assessment and interventions in social work practice. The aim was to investigate the evidence and evidence gaps within four important areas for social work research and practice. Descriptive data on search strategies and domains were collected from four evidence maps, on Social Assistance, Substance Dependence, Care for older adults respectively for persons with disabilities. The scientific quality and scientific evidence were assessed. Key findings were summarised by analyzing and discussing common and specific elements in the evidence maps. The overview was undertaken in close collaboration between researchers with expertise in the field and a government agency. The overview identified both evidence and evidence gaps with respect to effects and experiences of interventions and assessment methods in four evidence maps. Evidence maps provide a comprehensive picture of the state of social services research and can thereby be of use to both researchers and practitioners, and in the production of evidence based social work.

Nature-based interventions in social work practice and education: Insights from six nations

This paper presents findings from an investigation of nature-based practices, from the perspectives of 10 academics/educators from six nations. Participants engaged in a focus group exploring the prevalence and inclusion of nature in social work practice and education. While the study focused on individual members’ experiences and perspectives, the findings highlight important context-specific factors for including nature within social work to reconnect humans with nature for health, well-being, healing, and justice. An Integrative Environmental Model for social work is proposed to assist future practice and education.

Methodological and Ethical Considerations in Research Involving Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse : A Reflection

The number of reported incidents of sexual violence continues to increase in Indonesia, giving rise to deep concerns and calls to prevent sexual violence from occurring in the future. Some experts call it “the Silent Epidemic” because it is estimated that the actual number of events is much higher than reported. Therefore, research on this issue needs to be continued to get input on the cause and effect, impact and prevention efforts. Researches on child sexual abuse and the impact throughout the lives of the survivors is highly important in providing scientific evidences for developing the interventions in social work practice. However, it also comes with very specific challenges when conducting a research on this issue. There are no specific guidelines regarding ethics and methodology in carrying out research on survivors of sexual violence. Therefore, in the future it is important to consider the methodological and ethical aspects before embarking on a research involving survivors of sexual violence. Based on the experience of carrying out this research, the aspects that potentially harm or put participants and researchers at risk can be minimized or even avoided. This experience can also provide reinforcement that research involving trauma survivors can benefit both the affected population as well as social work scientists and practitioners. This manuscript discusses the current thinking on these issues.

Developing holistic competence in cross-cultural social work practice: Simulation-based learning optimized by blended teaching approach

ABSTRACT Integrating anti-oppressive practice (AOP) into clinical interactions is critical for embodying social justice values and promoting equitable and socially just interventions in social work practice. Therefore, training social work students to perform this task is invaluable and pedagogically challenging. Social work education scholars note that students’ knowledge and attitudes are not automatically translated into well-demonstrated professional behaviors and thus encourage to develop the holistic competence inclusive of both meta- and procedural competencies in students. Toward this pedagogical goal, this paper elaborates the development of a cross-cultural social work practice course to foster students’ holistic competence. Following the Council of Social Work Education’s Education Policy and Accreditation Standards and AOP scholarship, we outline students’ learning outcomes and the expected competencies in embodying socially just and culturally competent practice (SJCCP). Using blended learning, this course maximizes both online and in-person interfaces to foster social work students’ competencies in SJCCP. We provide details of how we incorporated simulation-based learning into various teaching methods (i.e., intergroup dialogue, digital storytelling, and role plays) and present a case illustration that highlights cross-cultural social work encounters. We close with discussing challenges and new lessons learned from teaching AOP in clinical practice and future teaching recommendations.

Editorial

The articles in this issue of Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk cover topics related to the innovative utilisation of approaches and methodologies for teaching and learning in social work education and for intervention in social work practice. The first two articles examine the incorporation of technology-enhanced teaching and learning in social work education in the digital era. The first article provides insights into the emerging developments of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, especially for curriculum renewal to prepare prospective practitioners to operate in both online and offline environments. The second article describes how an authentic e-learning framework can provide a pedagogically improved method of course design for groupwork education.

Three-dimensional virtual reality: Applications to the 12 grand challenges of social work

The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW) identified 12 Grand Challenges of Social Work to unify the profession with focused research, practice and policy applications for the most pressing social issues. Virtual Reality (VR), specifically three-dimensional immersive computer-generated environments, has a history of research and applications to address social and behavioral problems. VR is becoming more readily available, as the technology is becoming more common in mainstream platforms such as mobile technology. While social work interventions are often tailored for vulnerable populations that may not have access to VR computing, it appears that virtual reality is gaining accessibility with these advances. Within the framework of the 12 Grand Challenges of Social Work, researchers from three social work virtual reality laboratories in the United States, Texas State University, the University of Houston, and the University of Alabama, review applications previously tested and currently in development to focus future research and intervention in social work practice.

The Impact of Self-Esteem Group Work Practice with Rural Elementary Male Students

ABSTRACTThe present pilot study examines the effect of a social work self-esteem group as a method for improving the self-esteem and classroom behavior of disruptive male students in an elementary school in rural Georgia. Teachers, educators, and administrators in school systems across the nation are continuously bombarded with a disproportionate number of students who fail to display acceptable standards for appropriate classroom behavior, particularly male students. Research efforts have been directed toward identifying effective social work practice interventions that will bring about meaningful proactive changes to elementary student populations who exhibit such behaviors. A validated outcome measure was included in an uncontrolled pretest–posttest design to determine quantifiable changes. Findings from this study show that after the social work group intervention, posttest scores tended to be lower than pretest scores, which would indicate that there was a notable improvement in elementary students’ self-esteem and class behavior between pretest and posttest assessments. Implications for social work practice are discussed.

Book groups in social work education: a method for modelling groupwork practice

The use of book groups as a learning medium in social work education has evolved rapidly over the last few years, with universities and practice settings across the UK and beyond adopting the approach to supplement traditional teaching methods (Taylor, 2014). Where employed, student social workers and practitioners have found book groups to be effective for consolidating understandings that support professional development. Thus far, however their use within modules of learning as a means to demonstrating groupwork practice has not been fully realised. The following account proposes a teaching approach which is twofold in nature. On the one hand it engages students, within their initial social work training, in a group experience and on the other, through the group, makes explicit the knowledge and skills essential to effective groupwork for practice. This paper offers book groups as medium through which students can develop groupwork knowledge and skills; and makes the point that groupwork remains a viable method of intervention in social work practice.

Communication Technology Integration into Social Work Practice

The uses for communication technology continue to grow in the United States. Technology is changing how people collect and share information and is reshaping how people interact with one another. As a result of this transformation, the use of technology has evolved in social work practice. Communication technology is being incorporated into traditional social work practice for administrative and therapeutic purposes. This article will examine a theoretically based direction for the future creation of technologically driven interventions in social work practice and address both the challenges and opportunities communication technology poses for social work practice.

Technology-Based Interventions in Social Work Practice: A Systematic Review of Mental Health Interventions

Despite concerns around the use of technology-based interventions, they are increasingly being employed by social workers as a direct practice methodology to address the mental health needs of vulnerable clients. Researchers have highlighted the importance of using innovative technologies within social work practice, yet little has been done to summarize the evidence and collectively assess findings. In this systematic review, we describe accounts of technology-based mental health interventions delivered by social workers over the past 10 years. Results highlight the impacts of these tools and summarize advantages and disadvantages to utilizing technologies as a method for delivering or facilitating interventions.

Implications of the Literature on Equine-Assisted Activities for Use as a Complementary Intervention in Social Work Practice with Children and Adolescents

This article reviews the literature investigating psychosocial benefits of equine-assisted activities (EAA) for children and adolescents with physical, mental, and family challenges. It further analyzes implications for clinical social work practice in the use of EAA as complementary or adjunct interventions with these populations, thus addressing a gap in the literature on population-specific outcomes of EAA. As a contribution to methodology in future research, the conceptual analysis suggests that concurrent examination of complementary interventions across categories of special needs could add to the knowledge base concerning these children’s psychosocial status. Cross-domain investigations could also assess the contribution of each challenge to the status of children with multiple conditions.

Advancing the Africentric Paradigm Shift Discourse: Building toward Evidence-Based Africentric Interventions in Social Work Practice with African Americans

For over a decade, a number of social work scholars have advocated for an Africentric paradigm shift in social work practice with African Americans; yet the paradigm shift has been slow in coming with respect to infusing Africentric theory and interventions into social work practice, education, and research. Interventions that infuse Africentric values (such as interdependence, collectivism, transformation, and spirituality) have been shown to create significant change across a number of areas important to social work practice with African Americans. However, a barrier to the full integration of Africentric models into social work practice is that Africentric programs lack cohesive documentation and replication and, thus, have limited potential to be established as evidence-based practices. The authors present an overview of various Africentric interventions, including their program components and methods of evaluation, with the aim of establishing guideposts or next steps in developing a discourse on Africentric interventions that are promising best practices or are emerging as evidence-based practices. The authors conclude with implications for social work practice, education, and research and a call for Africentric scholars to engage in increased discussion, dissemination of manualized treatments, and collaborative research to build the evidence-based Africentric knowledge base and foster replication of studies.

Ethical Issues in the Use of Spiritually Based Interventions in Social Work Practice: What Are We Doing and Why

This article provides a review of the literature regarding social workers' use of spiritually based interventions, factors predictive of such use, research on ethical issues, and findings related to educational preparation for spiritually sensitive practice. Results show that both social work practitioners and students are utilizing a substantial number of spiritually based interventions, that workers' personal spirituality is influential in intervention use, that there is no evidence of adherence to specific ethical guidelines, and that the majority of social workers receive little or no instruction on religion and spirituality in their professional programs. Recommendations for social work education, research, and practice are proposed for meeting the ethical challenges suggested by these findings.

Affective lexicons and indigenous responses: therapeutic interventions in social work practice with Chinese immigrant elders

This article discusses social work practice with a group of Chinese‐speaking immigrant elders in New York City who favour the use of traditional affective lexicons that communicate distress in oblique, metaphorical and somatic forms. It examines the therapeutic values of the social workers' indigenous responses, as shaped by their intuitive understanding of the latent emotional content of communication within the cultural context. The discussion affirms the importance of the emotional connection between worker and client, invariably shaped by language, cultural norms, and individual proclivity, as the universal substrate of cross‐cultural social work practice. 本文讨论关于针对一群移居纽约市但仍然喜欢以传统中文词汇， 隐喻等沟通的华语长者的社会工作实务。本文也探索了社会工作者的本土反应包括:通过理解语言背后的文化脉络， 从而认识当事人的潜在情绪等在治疗学上的价值。本文申明了社会工作者与当事人之间情感联系的重要性， 而这种联系往往是由跨文化社会工作底下的语言和文化规范等塑造而成的。

Social Work Students' Attitudes Concerning the Use of Religious and Spiritual Interventions in Social Work Practice

The importance of religion and spirituality for the social work profession is evident in many areas, including social work education. There is little empirical evidence that explores the importance of spirituality and religion for their students. This project surveyed three unique schools of social work in university settings in an attempt to provide information concerning the personal religious and spiritual beliefs of social work students as well as their attitudes toward religious and spiritual interventions in social work practice. Results indicate that religious and spiritual beliefs and regional culture are important for predicting attitudes toward use of religious and spiritual interventions.

Concurrent Interventions in Multiple Domains: The Essence of Social Work with Groups

ABSTRACT The paper examines intervention in social work practice with groups, as it has been conceptualized in the practice theory literature. Some unique features of social work intervention in groups are identified, which have received scant attention in the literature. The paper documents what constitutes the mainstream practice of intervention employed by social workers in adequately functioning groups, highlighting a methodology characterized by spontaneity, creativity, and social inventiveness, in the activation and use of group.

Predicting the Use of Spiritually-Derived Interventions in Social Work Practice

Although research has grown considerably on spirituality and social work practice in recent years, there has been little investigation of what practitioners actually do with their clients and what influences their practice behaviors. Current findings from a random sample of 204 licensed clinical social workers indicate considerable focus on religion and spirituality in both assessment and intervention, with over two-thirds of the sample reporting that they had utilized 14 different spiritually-derived techniques with clients. In addition, analyses reveal four factors most predictive of the use of such techniques including: practitioner attitudes, the percentage of clients presenting religious/spiritual issues, the percentage of clients for whom religion plays a detrimental role, and the level of practitioner participation in religious or spiritual services.

The Legal Clinic

The social environment for all is becoming increasingly legalized. This fact is evidenced in the extensive entitlement regulations and ethical decision-making processes surrounding health care consumers and professional providers. The authors of this paper describe a program designed to educate social workers in an acute care hospital to the legal issues and considerations that influence decision-making and interventions in social work practice. The purpose of the paper is two-fold: to highlight the program planning process in establishing and institutionalizing a Legal Clinic for social work, and secondly to stress the significance of legal content in the knowledge base of social workers in health care settings.

The Influence of Self-Concept on Change in Client Behaviors: A Review

Social workers are constantly seeking useful data regarding methods of behavior change. Changes in self-concept can mediate changes in overt behavior. Self-concept has been reawakened as a focus of empirical research. Several literatures (self-perception theory, cognitive dissonance theory, and the availability heuristic literature) suggest ways of changing the self-concept. This article reviews existing literature and discusses the guidelines for changing self-concept that derive from empirical research in the previously mentioned literatures. The manner in which these guidelines explain the success of particular intervention techniques is delineated. Suggestions for new social work practice interventions are proffered, as are examples from the authors'practice experience.