Advocacy Work Research Articles

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Health.

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Health.

Personal Psychotherapy Prepares Trainees to Be Better Psychiatrists, Educators Say

Personal Psychotherapy Prepares Trainees to Be Better Psychiatrists, Educators Say

Supporting Youth With A Parent Who Is Living Younger-Onset Alzheimer's: A Crucial Component In Integrated Care.

Supporting Youth With A Parent Who Is Living Younger-Onset Alzheimer's: A Crucial Component In Integrated Care Lorenzo's House, a nonprofit in Chicago, focuses on a transformative approach that supports children and young adults who are living with a parent with younger-onset Alzheimer's. Youth are often affected by a parent's diagnosis at a neurobiologically vulnerable time in their lives. Youth frequently don't know how to explain their experience as a care partner with their peers, leaving them isolated and managing the ongoing change by themselves. By creating spaces specifically catered towards these young care partners, we are radically shifting the journey of what younger-onset Alzheimer's looks like for children and young adults. We focus on the relationship between the parent diagnosed and their children, what children need as care partners, and what issues and struggles they face at a variety of ages in this journey. Our three youth programs focus on innovation to support youth living with a parent with younger-onset Alzheimer's: Lorenzo's Camp, a camp designed by youth care partners, therapists, medical professionals - intended to share common stories and build an alliance; the Light Club, a virtual youth care partner group injected with team building and relationship development; and lastly youth-led advocacy work. Our model shifts the narrative for how youth experience being a member of a family that is navigating a younger-onset Alzheimer's diagnosis.

In her own words: a phenomenological analysis of stories told by female service members and veterans after traumatic brain injury

Purpose Given the majority of Service Members and Veterans (SMV) who have sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) are male, the female experience with TBI has not been captured in the general understanding of TBI. To improve understanding of the experience of female SMV after TBI utilizing a qualitative phenomenological approach on stories as told by female SMV. Materials and methods Ten female SMV participated in storytelling workshops and created video stories documenting their personal experience with TBI. Workshops were hosted by the VA Palo Alto Health Care System Polytrauma System of Care (VAPAHCS PSC). A grounded thematic analysis was conducted on the video stories. Results Three common content themes emerged from all the stories: (1) negative psychological and emotional impacts of TBI, (2) acceptance and healing process associated with recovery, and (3) military contexts. Negative psychological and emotional impacts included intrapersonal impacts such as negative emotions, suicidal ideation, and dealing with cognitive and physical challenges, and interpersonal impacts in relationships and loss of independence. Notably, all the stories acknowledged an acceptance and healing process, characterized by several subthemes including motivational factors, TBI education, spirituality, and advocacy work. Lastly, each story mentioned military context, highlighting the unique experience within this population. Conclusions This phenomenological examination adds evidence-based understanding to the experience after TBI among female SMV. Each story uncovered nuanced and multifaceted issues that women experience in their TBI recovery. Our findings provide context to guide future intervention on the care, support, and TBI recovery for the female SMV population.

Reproductive coercion as a form of family violence against immigrant and refugee women in Australia.

Reproductive coercion (RC), generally considered a form of intimate partner violence (IPV), refers to perpetrator behaviours and actions that are intended to interfere with and control the autonomous decision-making of a person regarding their reproductive health. To date there are few studies that document RC as experienced by immigrant and refugee women. In this article, we explore cases of RC as described by women who were part of a larger qualitative study investigating violence against immigrant and refugee women in southern Australia. The study aimed to identify the types of RC detailed in immigrant and refugee women's narratives, and to illustrate the contexts in which these experiences occurred. Analysis followed Baxter and Jack's (2008) case study methodology; whereby particular "cases" are used to describe a phenomenon in context. Thirteen women from seven countries described experiences that fit definitions of RC. The cases describe various types of RC including violence during pregnancy with the intent of causing miscarriage, forced abortion, contraception sabotage and forced pregnancy. As well as intimate partners, some women described multiple perpetrators being complicit in their experience of RC, especially in regard to controlling women's access to, and interactions with health services. More information is needed about immigrant and refugee women's experiences of RC, and how vulnerability to multi-perpetrator violence affects health service access. In particular knowledge about how multi-perpetrator RC can affect consent processes for women who already face barriers to health care requires attention. Further research is required to address knowledge gaps about appropriate prevention and advocacy work about RC in refugee and migrant communities, and what training is needed for professionals in the family violence sector, women's health services, women's organisations, multicultural and ethno-specific services.

Pharmacists as Health Care Providers: Where Are We Now?

The pharmacy profession is an outlier in the ranks of health care professionals because they are not considered health care providers under the rules of the Medicare program. Other professions, including physical and occupational therapists and dieticians can be directly reimbursed for their services-but not pharmacists. The author discusses the policy and advocacy work that ASCP has been undertaking on the 1135 waiver.

Review: Ces enfants oubliés: Grandir dans une communauté sectaire (These Forgotten Children: Growing Up in a Sectarian Community), by Lorraine Derocher

These Forgotten Children is both a recovery guide aimed at those who have grown up in sectarian communities, and an instruction manual for people wishing to assist those individuals. Directed at parents, grandparents, educators, service providers, law enforcement, and other leaders, the book features advice from ten adult survivors of secte membership interviewed by the author—seven intensively—as well as reflections from dozens more with whom she was in contact, and insights from former cult members gleaned from books and articles.A member of McGill University’s Centre for Research on Children and Families, Lorraine Derocher has published extensively on the subject of cult membership, with a special focus on its effects on children. In contrast to her other publications, These Forgotten Children is clearly written for a general, rather than scholarly, audience. Call-outs, text boxes, lists, and other graphic elements break up the text and allow casual readers to dip into and out of the book.Chapter 3, however, addresses scholarly definitions of religion, new religious movements, and sectes (knowns as cults in English). Derocher debunks a list of common negative cult stereotypes, asserting, for example, that a guru is simply a spiritual master, not the head of a dangerous or criminal cult, and emphasizing that brainwashing is not a theory recognized by the scientific community. Nevertheless, she wishes to retain the word secte to describe a certain type of religious group, which she defines as an ideological movement, religious or not, closed in upon itself and that is opposed, in varying degrees, to the values of modern society (49). According to Derocher, a potentially dangerous secte does not merely separate itself from society, but rather effects a complete rupture by embracing a totalistic way of life at odds with the wider culture.Although the book advises parents and secte members, former and current, throughout, its concluding chapters present specific recommendations to those in the therapeutic community, government officials, and other leaders. In this way, it extends the research, and child advocacy work, of its author.

Psychology, politics, and female empowerment: An interview with Dr. Bobbie Celeste.

In the following interview, Bobbie Celeste, PhD, reflects on her experiences as a counseling psychologist, longtime social justice advocate, and founder and codirector of the Women's Political Leadership Circles. She provides specific details regarding her path to her current position, the nature of her work (i.e., setting, duties, challenges), and her hopes for the future. She also reflects on what she has learned over the years and provides guidance for mental health professionals interested in pursuing political advocacy work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The Future is Public! The Global Reclaiming and Democratization of Public Ownership Beyond the Market.

Faced with the convergence of economic, social, political and environmental crises, the importance of the public sector has been rediscovered on a global scale. The article offers a review of the evolution of political and academic debates on public ownership in general and public services provision in particular over the last decades, with emphasis on the energy sector. Taking as a temporal and analytical reference the research and advocacy work developed by the authors and other scholar-activists based at the Transnational Institute from 2006 to the present, the article summarizes the main issues currently in the spotlight and highlights gaps in knowledge and points of contention. It also suggests elements for future research and campaign agendas around public ownership in different regions of the world.

Identifying factors that contribute to burnout and resilience among hospital-based addiction medicine providers: A qualitative study

IntroductionInpatient Addiction Consultation Services (ACS) fill an important need by connecting hospitalized patients with substance use disorders with resources for treatment; however, providers of these services may be at risk for burnout. In this qualitative study, we aimed to identify factors associated with burnout and, conversely, resilience among multidisciplinary providers working on ACS. MethodsWe completed 26 semi-structured interviews with clinicians working on ACS, including physicians, social workers, and advanced practice providers. Twelve institutions across the country were represented. The study recruited participants via email solicitation to ACS directors and then via snowball sampling. We used an inductive, grounded theory approach to analyze data. ResultsProviders described factors contributing to burnout and strategies for promoting resilience, and three main themes arose: (1) Systemic barriers contributed to provider burnout, (2) Engaging in meaningful work increased resilience, and (3) Team dynamics influenced perceptions of burnout and resilience. ConclusionOur results suggest that hospital-based addiction medicine work is intrinsically rewarding for many providers and that engaging with other addiction providers to debrief challenging encounters or engage in advocacy work can be protective against burnout. However, administrative and systemic factors are frequent sources of frustration for providers of ACS. Structured debriefings may help to mitigate burnout. Furthermore, training to enhance providers' ability to engage effectively in advocacy work within and between hospital systems has the potential to promote resilience and protect against burnout among ACS providers.

“How about Asylum Seekers who are Homeless?” The Racialised Logics Behind State Designed Strategies of Containment and Control During Covid-19 and Anti-Racist Alternatives: A Glasgow Case Study

This paper asks two questions: How has the Covid-19 pandemic been experienced by people seeking asylum who are subjected to United Kingdom (UK) State designed-in destitution? And what might be the alternatives to State produced destitution? To answer these questions, we draw on two case studies from Glasgow, a city unique in the UK for its long history of asylum dispersal and its deeply embedded ecology of third-sector support and asylum advocacy work. We argue that to understand the segregatory power of dispersal and tiered welfare provision as forms of violent migration governance, centring the racialised logics at play is imperative. This provides the framework for developing anti-racist approaches to supporting people made homeless through destitution by design. Using case studies, we explore how the UK Government’s use of ‘emergency hotel accommodation’ for people seeking asylum who are already homeless or are at risk of homelessness, are becoming normalised strategies of containment for racialised others and an extension of the distributed violence of dispersal accommodation that long pre-dates the pandemic. We offer an alternative advocacy-led and rights-based approach to secure refuge for people made homeless by the State.

Facing colonial Canada through pedagogies of equity for First Nations: An advocacy education project

Education systems in “Canada” are increasingly highlighting the structural and material inequities faced by First Nations’ peoples. However, most practices within formal education tend to focus on awareness campaigns and/or examining injustice as a historical event, as opposed to challenging the structural and systemic forces that continue to perpetuate injustice toward First Nations’ peoples. Drawing on a year-long educational project with students in grades 7-9 from various schools Canada-wide, this paper applies a case study approach to explore educating for advocacy through ethical relationality and solidarity with those experiencing injustice. The study highlights a transformation in how educators and students think about advocacy, while also drawing attention to the challenges to carrying out advocacy work within school systems with deep colonial roots.

Pregnant Migrant Latinas at the US Border: A Reproductive Justice Informed Analysis of ICE Health Service Policy During "Zero-Tolerance".

During the Trump Administration, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Directive (11032.3) revoked the automatic release of pregnant women detained by ICE. This paper presents a policy analysis of the impact of this directive on pregnant Latina migrants. The directive is contextualized as part of the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy that directed U.S. attorney’s offices along the southwest border in April of 2018 to criminally prosecute all cases involving illegal entry with no exceptions. Under this policy, Latin American migrants seeking asylum in the USA faced criminalization, family separation, and detention. Reproductive justice (R.J.) is the guiding conceptual framework for analyzing this policy's impact. Three case studies demonstrate the reproductive and human rights violations impacting pregnant, migrant Latinas seeking to enter the U.S. under “zero-tolerance.” This policy did not deter migration from Central and South America and created avoidable harm. Although “zero-tolerance” was rescinded in 2021, the long-term impacts remain unknown. Implications and recommendations for social work practice, policy advocacy, and social work education are provided.

Wendy Spearman: tackling liver disease in sub-Saharan Africa

As Head of the Division of Hepatology at the University of Cape Town and Head of Liver Transplantation at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa—positions she has held since 1998—Wendy Spearman's work has spanned both basic science and translational and clinical research, covering the fields of liver transplantation, drug-induced liver injury, metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease, viral hepatitis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. She has become increasingly involved in policy and advocacy work in recent years, aiming to improve access to point-of-care diagnostics and antivirals as well as birth dose hepatitis B vaccines, including acting as Lead Consultant to develop national guidelines for the management of viral hepatitis in South Africa.

Engaging Stakeholders in Social Determinants of Health Quality Improvement Efforts.

Background Social determinants of health (SDOH) affect around 70% of health outcomes. However, it is not clear how to integrate SDOH into clinical practice and health care policy. This quality improvement project engaged stakeholders to identify SDOH factors relevant in an Alaska Native/American Indian health system and how to integrate SDOH data into electronic health records (EHRs). Methods The authors utilized an internal steering committee of clinical leadership; conducted focus groups with patients, practitioners, administrative staff, and clinical leaders; developed programmatic workgroups to engage with the health system; and coordinated with allied health systems. Results The Steering Committee members prioritized uses of SDOH data. Focus groups grounded work in local community values and refined SDOH subdomains. Workgroups developed data visualizations, such as EHR dashboards, to automate data collection for reporting and assess performance metrics. External stakeholders helped innovate ways to utilize SDOH data through community partnerships and advocacy work. Stakeholders liked how the holistic approach of SDOH looks at whole-person wellness and how it can improve patient-practitioner relationships and reduce health disparities. They were concerned about outdated SDOH data and how some sensitive SDOH could lead to unanticipated harms. Leaders emphasized developing an actionable, strengths-based SDOH framework. Conclusions Many initiatives call for integrating SDOH into health care and EHRs. Engaging diverse audiences helps guide the work. This engagement may be particularly helpful for minority-serving health systems. SDOH data collection can be stigmatizing for patients. Stakeholder engagement can mitigate that by identifying which SDOH data elements to prioritize, and how to utilize them.

Transnational fishers’ movements: emergence, evolution, and contestation

Global transformations in fisheries have contributed to the expansion of transnational movements, as they continuously seek out new ways to strengthen their global linkages and find spaces and platforms for engagement. As more platforms emerge for addressing international concerns, intergovernmental bodies have become increasingly implicated in navigating the political integration of diverse global actors, such as transnational fishers’ movements. Focusing on the World Forum of Fisher Peoples and the World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fish Workers, this article tracks their engagement in the politics of global fisheries. It explores the history of these movements, beginning with the first steps that were taken toward building an international fishers’ network between 1984 and 1997, and follows their evolution into the movements they are today. It also examines their political agendas and strategies, and their representation of small-scale fishers in international spaces over the last two decades. The article argues that three pivotal developments offer important insights into the politics of transnational fishers’ movements. First, they are internalizing overlapping fisheries, food and climate crises, and are aligning their activities and demands accordingly. Second, fishers’ and agrarian movements and platforms are increasingly converging around common struggles. Third, international intergovernmental bodies have broadened their attention to fisheries issues in their analysis and activities. These developments have been crucial in shaping the movements’ political agendas, and for building alliances in order to scale up and strengthen their advocacy work.

Recommendations for Integrating a Social Justice Framework into Clinical Practice: A qualitative analysis with implications for psychology training programs

Social justice is a frequently used buzz word yet an abstract concept in clinical training. As a result, there is minimal guidance on how to implement social justice in clinical practice, which leads to training gaps, uncertainty, and discomfort among clinicians serving historically oppressed populations. This study examined how to integrate the social justice principles of community psychology into clinical psychology practice among doctoral students. The integration of the following social justice principles were analyzed: addressing oppression and social context, utilizing strength-based approaches, facilitating empowerment, acknowledging and managing privilege, and effective advocacy. We utilized qualitative methods to complete 26 one-on-one interviews and a focus group with 5 participants to understand student experiences and explore how they applied the above social justice principles to their clinical practice. Through an iterative process, doctoral student responses were synthesized into a list of recommendations on how to integrate a social justice framework into clinical work. The primary results from this study suggest that students in clinical-community psychology doctoral programs try to use client-centered strategies to understand their clients’ experiences of oppression and incorporate social context and a strengths-based approach into multiple aspects of practice, such as treatment planning and advocacy to connect clients to resources. Students also reported managing their privilege through internal self-reflection and occasional self-disclosure during therapy with clients. However, despite the desire to use socially just practices, several training gaps and needs emerged. These gaps included the need to identify methods of measuring and confirming client empowerment as well as supervisory and institutional support for effective advocacy work. Thus, implications for integrating social justice principles into clinical-community psychology programs, clinical psychology, and related disciplines are discussed.

Playing Chess When You Only Have a Couple of Pawns: Policy Advocacy in Teacher Education

Background:In recent years, intermediary organizations have increasingly influenced educational policy. Among other proposals, they have promoted teacher education redesign based on technocratic values and stringent accountability measures. In response to these policy changes and the intensifying crisis in the teaching profession, teacher educators have been called to engage in policy debates. Yet, to date, few studies have explored how teacher educators participate in policy advocacy.Purpose/Research Question:The purpose of this study is to examine variations in teacher educators’ efforts to influence policymaking decisions. Using the conceptual framework of policy advocacy, the study addresses the following research question: How do teacher educators engage in policy advocacy?Research Design:The study utilizes multiple case study methodology and incorporates four cases. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews, policy artifacts, policy documents, and videos of official policymaking and legislative meetings, we document how teacher educators seek to influence the direction of teacher education reforms by engaging with policymakers, the public, and other policy actors. We compare advocacy activities of different teacher educators and note the varying outcomes these activities produce.Findings:Our study shows that teacher educators engaged in information campaigning through research briefs, policy reports, letter writing, and sharing personal stories. Although some attempted to engage the public, most focused their efforts on building relationships with decision-makers. Despite those efforts, study participants were rarely consulted when new policies were conceptualized. Our study also points to a contrast between groups that worked to disrupt policy agendas of intermediary organizations and those that aligned their advocacy work with them. Those who attempted to advocate against the measures promoted by intermediary organizations faced more challenges than those who formed coalitions with intermediary organizations.Conclusions:Our study sheds light on the paradox teacher educators faced when they engaged in policy advocacy. Resisting the agendas of intermediary organizations (IOs) made policy advocacy more challenging for teacher educators. But coalitions with IOs could co-opt teacher educators’ voices toward technocratic agendas of teacher education reform.

Online Semen Donors — Why Not?

Increasing numbers of single women and couples are looking to online semen donors to help create their families. While on-line platforms may appear to provide a quicker and easier pathway to parenthood, this choice carries significant medical and legal risks. As part of our advocacy work in patient centred care, the fertility counsellors in ANZICA believe it is important to identify and bring to attention any significant concerns that might have serious implications for individuals and couples trying to conceive. In doing this however, we also have a duty to seek out new ways to provide more accessible forms to treatment for those who may not come with an infertility problem. This session will introduce a new patient centred resource that highlights some of the risks and pitfalls of using an online semen donor. It also offers guidance and support for those looking to create their family using home insemination and explores some new ideas on how we might better meet the needs of these women and couples. The resource aims to empower all involved to make fully informed choices, based on thorough consideration of their needs and health, and the safety and legal rights of everyone involved. Importantly the focus will include the long-term outcomes for children born through donation.

Gestão da sustentabilidade em cidades: uma perspectiva considerando a atuação de redes da sociedade civil no processo de análise de políticas públicas

Abstract Alongside the consolidation of the multicentric model of public management, new forms of organization have been structured to act in the public policy process, seeking to contribute to the development of the policies’ contexts and to direct this development toward a more sustainable trajectory. This research analyzes the relationship between civil society and the state, investigating how civil society networks aimed at sustainable development in cities act in the public policy analysis process. We studied four cases through an interpretative data analysis, researching how they act in the stages of problem identification, agenda setting, and formulation of alternatives. We concluded that the networks act in the three stages, and their contributions are represented by diagnoses about the city, events to debate themes, and explicit advocacy work with public managers. We assess that the systematized approach and the technical bias adopted by these networks contribute to them being considered an instance of support for local management by providing useful information to direct cities toward a more sustainable development trajectory.