Social Work Practice Research Articles

Bridging the Gap Between Actual and Desired Quality of Life: A Study of Older Adults in Institutional Care Settings in India

ABSTRACT With an aging population, ensuring older adults’ well-being is crucial. This study examined actual and desired Quality of Life (QoL) among institutionalized older Indians in care homes and recreational centers. Using a mixed-method approach, it analyzed key QoL dimensions, forming a QoL index. Surveys (293 participants) and qualitative data revealed significant gaps between actual and desired QoL, highlighting diverse needs across institutional contexts. Findings underscore the need for continuous QoL advancements in policies and programs. Targeted interventions can enhance QoL, offering valuable insights for social work practice and policy development to better support older adults’ evolving needs.

Exploring Religion and Spirituality in Social Work Practice: A Wisconsin Case Study.

Research suggests spirituality is linked to positive health outcomes, but social workers report barriers to incorporating it into care planning. The literature suggests general interest in learning and executing social work practice involving religion/spirituality (R/S) intentionally. While some empirical study has been conducted, this work is largely superficial and undeveloped. Finally, a changing R/S landscape in the United States further establishes the need for deeper, more nuanced examination. This article explores the actual role that R/S have in social practice and who supports these practices. Wisconsin social workers were surveyed (n = 578) using the Religious/Spiritual Integrated Practice Assessment Scale and other items of original design. Results confirm interest among social workers to include R/S in practice, but formal training is lacking. The data reveal a profile of practitioners who incorporate R/S, correlated with religiosity, religious conservativism, age, and race. Implications include enhancing mentorship, internships, and education to increase efficacy in utilizing R/S in the field.

Continuing the Mission: Findings from a Needs Assessment Supporting the New Generation of Student Veterans

ABSTRACT For the better part of two decades, military personnel have deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With the drawdown in troops and the ending of most active operations in the Middle East, military members have transitioned out of the military back to their communities, to their civilian lives, and to search for their next mission. During this transition, reports indicate that up to 40% choose to pursue degrees in higher education institutions where they can access their educational benefits and follow new career paths. This article examines the current literature on student Veterans’ educational challenges and how one large higher education institution assessed the needs of its student Veterans (n = 221). Based on the empirical evidence, the research team proposes recommendations for program development to support student Veterans. The article also suggests implications for clinical social work practice and education.

Exposing social work students to environmental justice: A study in the United Arab Emirates

ABSTRACT This empirical study attempted to design and test an innovative curriculum integrating social, economic, and environmental issues into the curriculum of a Social Work Practice with Communities and Organizations course at United Arab Emirates University. A quasi-experimental study involving a sample of 56 students concluded that the designed curriculum and its contents effectively give students an in-depth understanding of the inherent complexities in shaping effective responses to social, economic, and environmental crises. The students recognize the professional roles of social work in addressing environmental justice issues.

Supervision on Country: Enhancing Culturally Safe Social Work Supervision Through First Nations Knowledges

ABSTRACT There has been limited scholarship on culturally responsive supervision in social work. This article provides a comprehensive review of literature and builds artefacts and conceptual maps encompassing key cultural elements in cultural-clinical supervision to inform social work practice. The visual artefacts present five key areas of Aboriginal ways of knowing, being, and doing, including identity, community, relationality, deep listening, and yarning. This project was Aboriginal-led and developed collaboratively between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal social workers and researchers. This article can assist both First Nations and non-First Nations supervisors to better understand the importance of culturally responsive supervision in all social work settings. IMPLICATIONS It is important for social workers to incorporate Aboriginal ways of knowing, being, and doing in their supervision practices, to create culturally safe supervision. Bringing the cultural-clinical interface together can enhance cultural supervision in all services.

Spirit and self: a holistic approach to Afro-Caribbean Canadian youth mental health care

ABSTRACT Black youth continually experience stressful environmental conditions that negatively impact their mental health and well-being. Some seek religious and spiritual support to cope with these daily environmental stressors. Although the practice of spirituality through religious activities has allowed Black people and their communities to find meaning and comfort during times of pain, cope with injustices, and find hope for a better tomorrow, most of what is known about the importance of religiosity and spirituality in Black communities originates from research conducted in the United States. Within the Canadian context, the religious and spiritual experiences of Black youth, especially those of Afro-Caribbean background, are rare within the field of social work education and practice. This article presents data from six Afro-Caribbean Canadian youth (ACCY) between the ages of 16 and 18, two parents, and three faith-based leaders drawn from a doctoral youth-centered phenomenological study in Canada. By sharing their perspectives, this article examines the impacts of religious and spiritual support on the lives of ACCY. Recommendations for the use of religiosity and spirituality in social work education and practice are discussed.

Enabling Child‐Centred Case Recording in Children's Social Work: The Voice of Practitioners

ABSTRACTMaintaining case records is an essential and necessary component of children's social work practice. Research and child abuse enquiries internationally have highlighted the need for child‐centred and participatory approaches to case recording, yet consistently highlight significant deficiencies in child‐centred case recording. This paper presents findings from a mixed‐method study that sought to explore practitioners' experiences of child‐centred case recording and identify new and innovative solutions to enabling this. Data were collected through focus groups and surveys with social work practitioners who worked in child protection and child looked after (CLA) contexts in two local authorities (LAs) in the north of England. The findings suggest practitioners have developed creative ways to help achieve child‐centred recording in challenging circumstances, which could be built upon and more consistently applied across organizations, based on the foundations of relationship‐based, ethical and humane practice.

Navigating the Labyrinth: Challenges Faced by Child Protection Officers in Polygamous Bedouin Families in Israel

ABSTRACTPolygamy is widespread in Israel's Bedouin population. Israeli law forbids polygamy, but Bedouin tradition and custom, as well as Islam—which conditions polygamy on just relations, physical and economic capability and maintenance of religious observance—allow a man to take more than one wife. This article presents the findings of an exploratory qualitative study of 18 child protection officers (CPOs) and social workers involved in parental custody allocation cases (GALs) employed by Israeli social affairs departments to work with the Bedouin minority. The study's aim is to describe the challenges they encounter in interventions regarding children at risk in polygamous families. These professionals encounter legal complexities, contend with minimal resources and lack tools suited to the unique needs of these children. The stigmatization of polygamous families by Israel's Jewish population and Arabs in the country's north adds another layer of complexity. All these obstacles delay efficient intervention strategies. The article emphasizes the importance of emotional treatment for these children who have grown up in polygamous families and the need for cultural sensitivity in interventions. It calls for a holistic approach that recognizes the various challenges and calls for a comprehensive reform to better protect and support children at risk in polygamous families. The findings are relevant to international social work practice because polygamy is practiced in many countries by members of some populations.

Integrating the National School Social Work Practice Model: The Chicken, not the Egg

Integrating the National School Social Work Practice Model: The Chicken, not the Egg

Workplace role conflict toward social workers: Evidence from China

Abstract Role conflict within the workplace is a persistent problem in social work practice, especially in China, where its unique practice environment contributes to the severity of the problem. However, few studies have discussed this issue in China. To address this gap, this study explored the experiences and coping strategies of Chinese social workers (CSWs) through semi-structured interviews (N = 28). Findings suggest that CSWs who interact with agencies (government and social work) experience not only some role–concept conflicts but also some role–behavior conflicts. Specifically, four manifestations of role conflict are identified: (1) Concept conflict between efficiency-driven and fairness-driven, (2) behavior conflict between doing professional services and doing administrative work, (3) concept conflict between vulnerable group service-oriented and bureaucratic elite service-oriented, and (4) behavior conflict between doing public welfare and doing business. These conflicts may risk social workers deviating from their professional mission and values. Regarding coping strategies, CSWs tended to adopt more positive coping strategies (i.e. self-exploration and support seeking) in the face of role conflict compared with negative strategies (i.e. retreat and yielding), while some CSWs also employed adjustment strategies, transforming negative coping into positive ones. Implications for policy improvement and social work practice are discussed.

Performance ethnography as a method for the critical investigation of direct social work practice

Norman Denzin was a major force in developing performance ethnography as a critical, social justice-oriented form of qualitative inquiry worldwide. In this article, I illustrate and conceptualize how performance ethnography, as Denzin developed it, is an excellent fit for research and teaching on direct social work practice. The article revolves around a performance ethnography titled “Yuval, You Decide” that presents both the evolution and utilization of the performance and the performance itself—a detailed script of a high-risk crisis intervention of which I was part as a social work practitioner at a child protection community center. Based on the performative text, I present four contributions that performance ethnography can offer to research on direct social work practice: highlighting and conceptualizing the complexity of practice, evoking and producing experiential and embodied knowledge, accessing the micropolitics of practice, and opening a space for the coproduction of knowledge.

State Certification Standards for School Social Workers: A Survey and Discussion in the Context of the National School Social Work Practice Model 2.0

State Certification Standards for School Social Workers: A Survey and Discussion in the Context of the National School Social Work Practice Model 2.0

The Nalanda Buddhist tradition: enriching social work theory and practice

ABSTRACT The Buddhist-derived practice of mindfulness has been popularized among helping professions, including social work, but often in a secularized fashion that does not acknowledge its roots in the Buddhist tradition. This paper looks to the Nalanda tradition in Buddhism to explore what teachings, principles, and practices might be of value to multilevel social work practice in diverse contexts. Focusing on six celebrated Buddhist Masters, five of whom were part of the Nalanda University before its demise, the following Buddhist concepts, which offer rich possibilities for advancing social work praxis, especially when adopted collectively, are discussed: emptiness, two truths, mind training, radical openness, compassion, altruism, gradual path, and embodied practice. After identifying some key contributions of each Buddhist Master, examples are provided illustrating how these ideas and understandings can be incorporated into contemporary social work practice. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the teachings and principles explored can help address contemporary societal issues as the first quarter of the twenty-first century comes to a close.

Check Your Privilege: The Dangers of Teaching a Critical Social Justice Understanding of Society in UK Social Work Education

ABSTRACT This paper uses a modest finding from a research study as a window into the world of social work education in Scotland. The study demonstrated that students believed by their classmates to be most dominant (white, straight men) were in fact the most reluctant to speak out. This finding is woven into an examination of a social work pedagogy underpinned by a critical social justice (CJS) understanding of society. The social work regulator in Scotland, the UK professional association of social workers and the wider UK university sector form a context which is dominated by CSJ ideology. We see the consequences of this in the students’ internalization of the CSJ “power and privilege hierarchy” as above, as well as in the evidence of student self-censorship, student belief that words and ideas cause harm to minorities, and fear of the opprobrium of classmates should they say the “wrong” thing. The above phenomenon is analyzed with reference to power/privilege, epistemology and the UK university context. The dominance of identity-based CSJ over the fundamental issue of material poverty is explored, and it is suggested that this contributes to a lack of ethical clarity in social work education and practice.

Factors and consequences of information and communication technologies in social work practice: a literature review

The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in social work has accelerated over the past few years, especially with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This development has had significant consequences for the field. As the use of ICTs has expanded, understanding the impact on social work practice has become crucial. This study’s aim is to synthesise the existing knowledge of ICT use in social work by presenting an overview of the current literature, including studies that have examined the use of ICTs and their identified consequences. A literature review of studies published from 2015 to 2024 was conducted within several databases. The initial search yielded 7,947 studies, 29 of which were included in the final review. The findings illustrate how the integration of ICTs into social work, shaped by organisational policies, client preferences, generational differences and external factors like the COVID-19 pandemic, offers such benefits as enhanced communication and improved time management. However, the incorporation of ICTs also introduces challenges related to professional boundaries, privacy and autonomy. We advocate carefully balancing the challenges of ICT use against core social work principles and conducting further research to bridge the gap between evolving technologies and ethical social work practices.

Applying creative research methods to develop understanding of empathy in social work: a relational practice gallery and relational practice poems

The growing application of creative methods as a humanistic craft in social work research reflects an appreciation of their methodological value. Creative methods can enhance democratisation and inclusion within the academic research process, yet challenges limit their potential. Although applied to develop understanding of social work practice more broadly, creative methods have not yet been included in research focused on empathy. This article aims to contribute to the flourishing of creative methods by outlining a visual and a poetic method applied to develop understanding of meanings and experiences of empathy by focusing on social workers’ perspectives. Situated within the English child protection system (2021–23), the constructionist research design was constrained by COVID-19. The article describes the visual method (relational practice gallery) and the poetic method (relational practice poems) and includes example representations. The application of creative methods enabled social workers’ previously relatively unheard voices to be included in new understandings of empathy and illuminated the nuances of their ascribed meanings and intricate, emotional and situated relational empathic practice experiences. Limitations and methodological considerations are discussed. The article contributes to building research capacity among researchers exploring relational social work practice, for whom creative methods might be novel or daunting, and to the flourishing of creative research methods more broadly.

Multidisciplinary clinician perceptions on utility of a machine learning tool (ALERT) to predict 6-month mortality and improve end-of-life outcomes for advanced cancer patients.

There are significant disparities in outcomes at the end-of-life (EOL) for minoritized patients with advanced cancer, with most dying without a documented serious illness conversation (SIC). This study aims to assess clinician perceptions of the utility and challenges of implementing a machine learning model (ALERT) to predict 6-month mortality among patients with advanced solid cancers to prompt timely SIC. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with oncology physicians, advanced practice providers, registered nurses, and social workers until knowledge saturation was reached (N = 19). Thematic analysis was conducted on the transcribed interviews, which were reviewed and coded by a team of interdisciplinary investigators. Clinician-perceived benefits were (1) guiding prognostication and the objectivity of the prediction easing clinician distress with EOL treatment planning; (2) standardizing prognosis discussions across specialties, limiting aggressive EOL procedures; (3) respecting patient values by providing them time to get affairs in order and plan for cultural EOL rituals; and (4) facilitating earlier SIC and palliative care referrals. Challenges identified were (1) integration of predictions with clinical expertise; (2) balancing the reliability and accuracy of the model with a rapidly evolving therapeutic landscape; and (3) concern about patient distress due to poor communication. Clinicians expressed widespread acceptability of ALERT and identified clear benefits, particularly in triggering earlier SIC and standardizing prognosis discussions across care teams to avoid aggressive hospital interventions at EOL. Challenges identified, including concerns regarding communication of the prediction and integration with clinical expertise and new research, will guide refinement of the ALERT model.

Artificial Intelligence Algorithms, Bias, and Innovation: Implications for Social Work

ABSTRACT Purpose Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are rapidly expanding across diverse contexts. As the reach of AI continues to grow, there is a need to examine student perspectives on the increasing prevalence of AI and AI-based practice approaches in social work. Materials and methods In this qualitative study, we conducted structured interviews with 15 students in bachelors and masters social work programs. We developed an interview guide with a list of questions to ask students and no prior knowledge of AI was required by the students. The study was framed based on an interpretive phenomenological analysis approach. Results Through thematic analysis, five key themes were developed, including 1) Risks associated with AI, 2) Ethical Concerns in AI and Technology Use, 3) Bias and Fairness in AI, 4) Applications and Possibilities of AI in Social Work, and 5) Training and Awareness of AI in Social Work. Discussion Social workers can help disadvantaged clients by ensuring access to the various AI technologies and facilitating social welfare interventions created using these technologies. There is a need to address the gap in the existing literature about the use of AI in social work practice and education. Social work researchers can explore and conduct future studies that utilize mixed methods methodologies that can evaluate the use of AI in social work domains. Conclusion This study highlights the need to increase awareness of AI in social work education and practice settings given the potential of these technologies to aid various aspects of social work practice.

Education Censorship and the Chilling Effect on School Social Work

Abstract Over the past few years, state legislators have proposed and enacted legislation that undermines youth rights and imposes education censorship. To discuss the impact on support-based mechanisms in schools, qualitative interviews (n = 11) and one focus group were conducted with school social workers. This study privileges practitioner wisdom to help understand the impact of education censorship and provide advocacy strategies in orientation to the National School Social Work Practice Model 2.0. Qualitative interviews were used to assess knowledge, impact, and advocacy efforts in the context of education censorship, with findings interpreted through thematic analytical techniques. Findings are categorized into three themes: impact of education censorship, preexisting challenges, and advocacy and resistance. The severity of education censorship was shaped by variations in policies enacted, geographic location, and school factors such as role, caseload, and orientations to advocacy. The discussion is aligned with the National Model to help prioritize equitable and holistic school-based practice. The article concludes by delineating recommendations for research, practice, and advocacy.

Supporting supervisors to support others: enabling social work through emotionally informed practice

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the design and delivery of a continuing professional development module for experienced social work practitioners with responsibilities for either the development, management or supervision of others—primarily early career social workers (those newly graduated with less than two years’ post qualification experience). The focus of the course was on enhancing the knowledge and skills relevant to developing the practice of others, whilst promoting their emotional wellbeing and emotional awareness, doing so by utilizing key elements of emotionally informed practice and strengths-based feedback. Informed by literature spanning emotion and vulnerability in social work to strengths-based feedback and supervision, an emotionally informed approach gives enhanced attention to practitioner histories, emotional challenges and potential wellbeing needs. Within this paper the rationale underpinning the module design is discussed and examples of learning tasks are outlined. It also considers the experiences of those on the course, providing examples of transformative learning stemming from their perspectives on the ‘use of the self’ and ‘self’ within social work practice which, post completion, appeared more integrated. The course was developed and provided by a university in England.