ABSTRACT In this paper, we demonstrate how a new form of ethics work emerges in the area where social work and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies converge. The paper reports on an organisational ethnography of a Scandinavian NGO, specifically comprising the efforts of social workers and data engineers to establish a fair AI Counselling Assistant (AICA) for supporting volunteer staff in their online communications with children seeking help and support. The purpose of the AICA is to retrieve relevant information and advice for the volunteer social workers’ conversations with children written in real time. Drawing on science and technology studies, we analyse ethics work related to the AICA as a more-than-human endeavour. We highlight four ethical dimensions related to (1) distance, (2) agency, (3) time and (4) errors, which characterise what we term socio-technical work which continuously questions and addresses the ethicality of the AICA. We conclude that ethics work in the area where social work and AI converge requires social workers to possess a technological awareness that enables them to engage with both data ethics and the situated ethics of social work.

ABSTRACT Carceral social workers have to balance ambivalences between the interest of incarcerated people and the criminal justice system. The professional ethics of social work practice provide some answers to this challenge. Nevertheless, they are strongly based in a humanist understanding of our world. We therefore set out to explore how social work practice in carceral settings unfolds and how we could understand it, not only from the perspective of traditional social work ethics but from one of posthuman care ethics. We mobilise this perspective to go beyond a traditional professional and ethical view of social work practice to ask what would be required in a carceral setting to acknowledge (incarcerated) people fully in their entanglement with the world and how spaces could open up for potential to unfold and flourish. We base our analysis and thoughts on fieldwork conducted in an open prison in Switzerland.

ABSTRACT Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly used in social work practice, yet their ethical implications remain underexplored. This study addresses the gap by systematically reviewing literature on LLM-based tools in social service delivery. The review aims to identify the benefits, risks, and mitigation measures related to LLM use. Following PRISMA guidelines and employing a PICOC framework, we reviewed 34 studies published between 2019 and 2024 across multiple databases, including Web of Science, EBSCO, and Scopus. The results show that LLMs enhance efficiency in management, streamline frontline tasks, and support client needs. However, issues such as bias, lack of contextualization and explainability, and over-reliance pose ethical risks for both clients and professionals. We argue that Actor-Network Theory (ANT) helps reframe AI responsibility as distributed across human and non-human actors. It offers analytical tools to trace non-human agency and address ethical risks, highlighting the need for technical, organizational, and regulatory improvements.

Comparing Patient-Centered Approaches to Social Care in the Emergency Department: A Mixed-Method Randomized Controlled Trial.

While antitrafficking federal and state policies, service programs, and advocacy efforts have expanded significantly since the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, little is known about how social work research and practice engage with the distinct vulnerabilities of foreign-national minors subjected to labor trafficking. This scoping review examines existing social work scholarship on labor trafficking of immigrant children and youth. The authors' findings suggest that while human service professionals play a critical role in identifying and supporting trafficked youth-often through schools, healthcare settings, and social service agencies-research remains disproportionately focused on sex trafficking. Although the 12 studies partially addressed child labor trafficking, their primary focus was on domestic child trafficking more generally, often using aggregated data that combined sex and labor trafficking survivors under the broader category of human trafficking. The authors highlight key gaps in research and propose directions for strengthening social work's engagement with labor-trafficked immigrant youth, ensuring more informed and effective responses to their needs.

Poor job quality, particularly low wages, remains a persistent concern in the social work profession, contributing to high turnover and recruitment challenges. Although concerns over the quality of social work jobs may not be new, we know little about how the quality of social work jobs has evolved over time and for whom. Using four decades of Current Population Survey data, this article examines trends and variations by gender and race on multiple dimensions of job quality for social workers. The analyses reveal that although some dimensions, such as wages and full-time employment, have improved, other aspects of job quality have worsened, including increased risk of low pay and reduced access to employer-provided benefits. Limited progress has been made in reducing gender gaps in job quality, and racial disparities have worsened over time, with Black social workers facing a higher risk of low job quality than White social workers. The implications for the future of the social work profession are discussed, emphasizing the need to improve quality and equity in social work jobs.

The Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, resulted in approximately 1,400 civilian deaths and escalated into a war between Israel and its neighbors. This conflict had a profound impact on healthcare professionals, including social workers, who faced the dual burden of addressing the needs of others while managing their own trauma. This study examined the role of personal resources and professional mission in preserving the well-being of 116 Israeli social workers operating within a war-related shared reality. Participants were recruited from three regions with differing levels of exposure: Northern Israel (relocated due to rocket attacks), Southern Israel (directly affected by the massacre and ongoing rocket fire), and Central Israel (exposed to repeated rocket alarms). Self-report questionnaires assessing psychological distress, potency, professional mission, and work-to-family conflict were administered. Findings indicated that potency and professional mission emerged as key differentiating variables in the decision tree model, highlighting their central role in shaping psychological distress outcomes during wartime. In contrast, demographic variables and family-to-work conflict served as significant predictors of psychological distress. These findings underscore the importance of internal and professional resources in mitigating psychological distress among social workers facing a war-related shared reality.

Addressing financial hardship in cancer care: Multidisciplinary perspectives.

Practical Considerations for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy among Social Workers.

Interventions to assess social needs for children with medical complexity and their families: A scoping review.

Medical home (MH) is a financially viable, all-inclusive primary care model that can enhance communication, improve care coordination and support patients, families and healthcare providers. No standard screening tool exists for use by hospital-based healthcare providers to identify children with medical complexity (CMC), which can result in inconsistent MH referrals. The purpose of this research was to develop and validate a screening tool for use in identifying CMC who would benefit most from early MH referrals prior to hospital discharge home. This mixed-methods research utilized e-Delphi methodology and retrospective chart review to develop and validate a screening tool for MH referrals. Twenty-three nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians, social workers and case managers participated in four e-Delphi rounds to develop the Pediatric Medical Home Screening Tool (PMHST). The PMHST consists of four sections and 20 criteria. Reliability testing of the PMHST revealed 82% agreement with medical complexity categorization of infants and young children. The PMHST may enhance future care transitions, improve quality of care and reduce the risks of safety events. The PMHST was validated in a sample of infants and young children and will be tested with a broader sample of children in the future.

The evolving HIV landscape in Central and Eastern Europe: Progress, gaps, and future directions-part II.

Hard Seasons: Reflections on Growth and Change in Social Work.

Examining the extent professionals explore pornography use in cases of harmful sexual behaviour: A retrospective case file analysis.

To explore how nurse practitioners and physicians providing primary care for LGBTQ+ people experience and make sense of their practice. Qualitative study using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 clinicians (four nurse practitioners, eight physicians) working in LGBTQ+-focused primary care across diverse U.S. regions. Interviews were online, audio-recorded via Zoom, and lasted 50-90 min. Reflexive notes were maintained. Analysis followed Smith and Nizza's six-stage Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) process from close reading to experiential statements, clustering to personal experiential themes, development of group experiential themes, and synthesis, supported by memoing and peer debriefing. Four Group Experiential Themes: (1) Belonging, Affirmation, and the Power of LGBTQ+-Centred Spaces: clinicians practised as their full selves and modelled culturally safe care; (2) Personal Pain as Professional Purpose: personal histories of marginalisation informed a reparative ethic that fostered empathy, trust, and safety; (3) Expanding the Boundaries of Health Work: care routinely extended beyond clinic walls to advocacy, harm reduction, administrative support, and navigation of social determinants amid political precarity; (4) Resistance Within Broken Systems: persistent, invisible labour was required to navigate heteronormative and cisnormative infrastructures. LGBTQ+-focused primary care operates as clinical practice and social justice work. Clinicians translate lived experience into reparative, relational care while constantly negotiating systemic constraints and policy volatility. Embed LGBTQ+-affirming competencies and reflexivity in education; redesign digital/administrative systems for affirmed names/pronouns and streamlined access; resource and protect services and staff wellbeing in hostile policy climates. Problem: Persistent inequities and under-recognised experiential labour in LGBTQ+ primary care. Belonging and affirmation; reparative ethic; expanded health work; daily systemic workarounds. Impact Audience: Nurses, physicians, educators, leaders, and policymakers. Reporting Method: COREQ. No Patient or Public Contribution.

Species with diverse parental care systems exhibit flexibility in response to environmental changes. Such changes can influence parental care decisions by altering the trade-offs between current and future reproduction. While previous studies have revealed correlations between specific social and ecological factors and parental care systems, the joint effects of multiple factors could be complex and may result in different outcomes within and across populations and between sexes. In this study, we observed parental care systems and their seasonal variations across three geographic populations in a polygamous species, the Chinese penduline tits (Remiz consobrinus), by monitoring breeding events over 8 years. In this species, biparental care, female-only care, male-only care and biparental desertion coexist in one population. To investigate whether and how sex-specific parental care patterns correlate with local conditions, we compared breeding phenology, season length, mating opportunity and reproductive success and their associations with the frequency of parental care patterns observed within and across the populations. We found striking population differences in the parental care system: biparental care predominated in one population, whereas female-only care was more common in the other two. These divergent parental care systems were shaped by sex-specific responses to the interacting local conditions. In all three populations, females synchronised egg-laying and offered males a short but highly successful re-mating window. This resulted in rapidly decreased male mating opportunities due to male collective clutch desertion. Males were more likely to care when re-mating opportunities were low. In contrast, females consistently provided care, regardless of variations in female mating opportunities. Additionally, males deserted clutches more in populations where desertion resulted in no fitness cost to the current broods. We found that desertion costs on brood fitness matter more than achieving a high reproductive reward in driving uniparental care, contrary to the theory that uniparental care only occurs when single parents can raise young efficiently. Our study demonstrates that parental care system variance across populations could result from the combined influences of social and ecological conditions, and their interactions. We highlight the consistency of sex-specific responses to local conditions in parental care.

Stigma as social comorbidity in epilepsy.

Schizophrenia in migrants and natives: clinical presentation, treatment patterns, and outcomes in a Spanish acute inpatient unit.

Improving equity and fairness in the referral process for liver transplantation remains a critical unmet need. Multilevel barriers continue to limit timely and appropriate access to liver transplantation evaluation. This study aimed to identify key obstacles to liver transplantation referral and to explore potential strategies to overcome them. An online survey was sent to all centers participating in a Hub-and-Spoke liver transplantation referral network in Northern Italy. The survey addressed barriers related to patient, healthcare system, and practice setting-level factors. Healthcare providers (HCPs) were also asked to rate the perceived usefulness of six proposed actions designed to reduce or prevent referral barriers. A total of 58 responses were collected. Nonadherence, lack of a caregiver, and absence of motivation toward liver transplantation (85%, 82%, and 78%, respectively) were perceived as the most impactful patient-related barriers. Lack of real-time technological communication for data sharing and limited social worker availability were identified as major practice setting-related barrier by 77% and 44.5% HCPs. Lack of knowledge about liver transplantation and unclear indications for liver transplantation were perceived significant healthcare-related barriers by 25% and 21% of HCPs, respectively. All six proposed actions to improve the referral process were rated as clinically impactful by at least 60% of HCPs. Multilevel barriers may still hinder the referral of potential liver transplantation candidates. Implementation of structured psychosocial support and real-time data sharing between centers could significantly reduce inequities in referral to liver transplantation.

Clinical supervision is essential in promoting novice mental health providers' awareness of systemic and individual-level social injustices. Yet frameworks used by clinical supervisors often fall short of providing the needed skills to promote social justice. This is particularly problematic for the social work profession as it is set apart from sister professions by its primary commitment to promoting social change and empowering vulnerable populations. This integrative systematic review explores the extent to which social justice is addressed in clinical supervision and maps the approaches supervisors use to promote a social justice-informed practice paradigm across disciplines. The project included peer-reviewed cross-disciplinary literature published between 2010 and 2024 and followed the PRISMA guide. A SPIDER framework was used to determine the eligibility criteria of papers (N = 26) identified across four databases. Results indicate a scarcity of publications, particularly in social work-specific journals (N = 5), despite encouraging scholarship growth across disciplines. This review also shows that clinical supervision can provide the ideal space for the development of justice-informed praxis and identifies four main themes to guide supervisory approaches: (1) multicultural frames, (2) relational approaches, (3) structural oppression and injustices, and (4) critical/postmodern epistemologies. Recommendations for practice, research, and education are provided.