Developing an effective IPE learning activity for midwifery and medical students: Use of a quality improvement model and researcher-teacher partnership methodology’

Background: There is little guidance available about how to develop effective interprofessional learning activities for midwifery and medical students to prepare them for future collaboration in the workplace. Purpose: This paper aims to describe how the use of a quality improvement methodology and researcher-teacher partnership approach improved an interprofessional education learning activity developed for pre-registration midwifery and medical students. Method: Employing a collaborative researcher-teacher approach, two iterations of the learning activity refined over two quality improvement cycles were undertaken. Mixed methods of data collection were used to assess each iteration. Modifications were made to the second iteration of the interprofessional education learning activity based on feedback from the first iteration. Discussion/Conclusions: Analysis of the second interprofessional learning activity modified according to feedback from the first iteration indicated improved learning outcomes. The study demonstrates the value of using a quality improvement methodology coupled with a researcher-teacher partnership to develop an effective interprofessional education learning activity for midwifery and medical students which has potential to increase workplace collaboration. &nbsp

Five levels and four filters: a personal reflection on the Pathways to Psychiatric Care

In this personal reflection on Goldberg and Huxley’s seminal Pathways to Care model, the author considers how it has provided a framework for research she has carried out during her career in primary care mental health. The levels described in the model are not only of epidemiological significance, but also represent the, quite different, ‘worlds’ encountered within mental health care. The filters are the sites at which negotiation is required to pass through (in either direction) and where quality of communication becomes paramount

Organization of school social work: Collaboration between a student health-team and a leisure center

Many children in need of social support in various forms fall through the cracks and thus do not receive the support they would need. Children's support needs can either be identified by adults in the children's vicinity or alternatively by the children themselves. In the latter case, the support needs to be visible and accessible to the children, to enable the children to initiate support themselves.This article is based on a previous case-study and show, in summary, that the professionals do outreach and exploratory work with the aim of identifying the children in need of support, who do not seek the support themselves. The outreach and exploratory work may need to be adapted based on the situation and needs. The professionals use their judgement, sense perception and practical knowledge to be able to adapt the work based on children's needs. But to be able to adapt the work requires that the professionals have room for action and resources, as the situated work requires more time and knowledge. When the professionals use their full range of action and work in the border country, they can make a difference, say the professionals in the study. The professionals work to make it accessible and create agency so that children have the opportunity to seek support themselves if needed. In order to increase children's conditions for seeking support, they work on professional relationship building, this with the aim of children feeling trust and confidence when they need to seek support and thereby dare to talk about what can feel difficult. The relationship-building work is promotion and prevention, which can risk being held back when the remedial work takes too much time and resources. The professionals state that commitment is an important part of the relationship-building work, and that they use themselves as tools when creating relationships with children.In order for more children in need of support to be identified, the professionals may need more knowledge about specific children. By using a collaborative practice technology, the professionals can share their knowledge, so a larger overall picture of the children is created. By working cross-border, the person who has a relationship with the child can carry out the work, while the person with the greatest competence in the relevant area supervises the executor

Counselling children experiencing mental ill-health and their parents: : School social workers´ experiences from a family systems approach

This paper examines school social workers’ (SSWs) experiences of counselling children experiencing mental ill-health and their parents. Eight SSWs from elementary schools in a large Swedish city were interviewed online. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.   As a theoretical frame, the study uses Minuchin’s structural family approach. The results indicated that SSWs schedule counselling together with children and parents depending on the degree of mental ill-health, wishes, and consent. The SSWs emphasised structure, role, information, and passing forward. They also took account of the family system as a whole, its parts and its broader context.   This study contributes to the development of future initiatives for school social work counselling with children and their parents. It addresses a gap in the literature, as Swedish SSWs’ work of counselling children experiencing mental ill-health and their parents has not previously been studied or reported in peer-reviewed publications. This paper meets an identified need and demonstrates how social work counselling can be conducted in schools.   &nbsp

Becoming socially included

Professor Peter Huxley has made a considerable contribution to Social and Community Psychiatry. In this paper, I reflect on some aspects of social psychiatry including its importance, scope and current status, as well as contemporary thinking on the social exclusion and employment of people with mental health conditions. Central to much of the thinking in these areas are health inequalities, the social determinants of ill-health and the bidirectional relationship between social factors and mental ill-health. I leave the final words to Peter Huxley: “Psychiatry and social science both work to understand and address the consequences of social adversity and injustice, even if psychiatry is sometimes reluctant to acknowledge thi

La grupalidad en sectores populares Argentinos: Género, economía y participación política. Análisis de una experiencia jujeña en la casa de atención y acompañamiento comunitario ‘ángel con amor’ (2017-2021): Groupality in popular sectors of Argentina: Gender, economy and political participation. Analysis of an experience in Jujuy at the ‘Angel with Love’ community care and support centre (2017-2021)

At the end of the 1990s, due to the impact of neoliberal policies, a politicised popular world began to take shape in Argentina, based on the inscription of organised unemployed workers in the public space. Two decades later, it is still in force, although it has undergone reconfigurations. In this article, we aim to understand the groupness that emerges from processes of participation and popular organisation in north-western Argentina. In order to do so, we address three axes of analysis: 1) The economic-labour issue and its relationship with groupality; 2) Women as protagonists in community organisation processes; and 3) Popular politicity. We believe that these perspectives are relevant to study the processes that make possible and are made possible by the emergence of groupality. The methodological design is qualitative, and focuses on a particular initiative that helps us to understand the characteristics of popular participation and its impact on subjectivities: Casa de Atención y Acompañamiento Comunitario ‘Ángel con Amor’, located in the city of San Salvador de Jujuy. What we present here is the result of the analysis of information obtained from different techniques: semi-structured interviews, documentary analysis, participant observation and participatory feedback. A fines de la década de 1990, por el impacto de políticas neoliberales, fue configurándose en Argentina un mundo popular politizado, a partir de la inscripción en el espacio público de trabajadores desocupados organizados. Pasadas dos décadas, aún se encuentra vigente, aunque atravesó reconfiguraciones. En el artículo nos proponemos comprender la grupalidad que emerge a partir de procesos de participación y organización popular, en el noroeste argentino. Para ello abordamos tres ejes de análisis:1) Lo económico-laboral y su relación con la grupalidad; 2) Las mujeres como protagonistas en procesos de organización comunitaria; y 3) La politicidad popular. Creemos que estas perspectivas son pertinentes para estudiar, con un anclaje de realidad, los procesos que posibilitan y son posibilitados por la emergencia de la grupalidad. El diseño metodológico es cualitativo, y pone foco en el recorte de un fenómeno particular que nos ayuda a comprender las características de la participación popular y el impacto en las subjetividades: Casa de Atención y Acompañamiento Comunitario ‘Ángel con Amor’, situada en la ciudad de San Salvador de Jujuy. Lo que presentamos es producto del análisis de información obtenida a partir de diferentes técnicas: entrevistas semi-estructuradas, análisis documental, observación participante e instancias participativas de retroalimentación

Street groupwork in Kolkata

The authors use the term ‘street groupwork’ to present the practices of Bharat Bhavna (literal translation: India thinking), a community-based movement in the Maniktala district of Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal. Notions of time and place are used to contrast street groupwork with more formalised groupwork, referencing the Gandhian notion of swadeshi, a commitment to immediate surroundings. This is not a parochial devotion, and the chapter explores how street groupworkers build alliances with other groups, linking groupwork with community organisation. Street groupwork is fluid, inventive and improvisational, and the group leaders live the lives of the community with whom they work. The style of their work is best described as immersive and the range of activities is enormous, from small group Indian dance classes to large-scale environmental and social justice campaigning. An explicit social and political philosophy lies at the heart of street groupwork – the Maniktala manifestation is environmental and socialist – with a mission to educate ‘the street’ to develop political awareness through group activities. The authors make the case that it is important to recognise the groupwork in street groupwork, and its significance for the wider family of group practice

Trabajo social con grupos: Una experiencia colombiana de intervención con niñas emprendedoras: Social work with groups: A Colombian experience of intervention with young entrepreneurs

The Colombian experience of intervention with entrepreneurial girls and development agents in Ciudad Bolivar in Bogota-Colombia, made it possible from the systematization -as an approach- to reflect on the pedagogical practice developed by the Fundación Niñas de Luz from the individual and group mentoring with the girls, from an analytical viewpoint from Social Work with Groups. In this way, the article focuses on exposing the context and conditions of the territory from which the girls come -from a gender approach- and the institutional framework that accompanies them, the methodological horizon of the study, and the findings focused on: the linking of the girls to the Foundation from the viewpoint of Social Work with Groups, the individual-group mentoring as a social intervention device, the entrepreneurial girls as development agents, and the challenges of the experience in times of pandemic. La experiencia colombiana de intervención con niñas emprendedoras y agentes de desarrollo en Ciudad Bolívar en Bogotá-Colombia, posibilitó desde la sistematización -como enfoque- reflexionar la práctica pedagógica que desarrolla la Fundación Niñas de Luz desde la mentoría individual y grupal con las niñas, a partir de una mirada analítica desde el Trabajo Social con Grupos. De esta manera, el artículo se centra en exponer el contexto y condiciones del territorio del cual provienen las niñas -desde un enfoque de género- y el marco institucional que les acompaña, el horizonte metodológico del estudio, y los hallazgos enfocados en: la vinculación de las niñas a la Fundación desde la mirada del Trabajo Social con Grupos, la mentoría individual-grupal como dispositivo de intervención social, las niñas emprendedoras como agentes de desarrollo, y los desafíos de la experiencia en tiempos de pandemia.

No one is talking to Practice Educators about Generative Artificial Intelligence

This mixed methods research included 50 participants to explore Practice Educators experiences of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) in social work settings. Survey and interview data illustrated a general lack of awareness about what Gen AI platforms may be used and how to use them safely. Although a small number of Practice Educators are experimenting with different AI tools, they appear to be doing this in isolation and often covertly. None of the participants in the empirical research reported here, were aware of their employer having an AI policy, nor had they received guidance from universities about student use of AI on placement. The article concludes that it is timely for social work employers to develop a strategic approach to Gen AI which will include practice guidance, training and ongoing support to enable social workers to ethically and competently use Gen AI. There is also a role for universities and social work professional bodies to lead the way in this emerging technology and harness its capabilities within social work education and practice

Compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction among NeuroAffective Relational Model Therapists: How NARM serves as a protective factor for trauma therapists

The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) is a therapeutic model created to address Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) integrating both top-down cognitive and bottom-up somatic approaches. With the addition of C-PTSD in the ICD-11, treatment models are needed that address the specific needs of clients with C-PTSD. Working with clients with complex trauma exposes therapists to secondary trauma which can lead to secondary traumatic stress and burnout, the elements of compassion fatigue. Trauma therapists also experience compassion satisfaction, which are positive feelings about making a difference in their work. Training is identified as a protective factor against compassion fatigue. This mixed methods analysis examined the compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction of NARM Therapists. The study found that NARM Therapists (n=53) experienced lower compassion fatigue and higher compassion satisfaction than other trauma workers. Using the ProQOL5 measure (Stamm, 2024), 84.9% of NARM Therapists scored low in burnout, 83% of NARM Therapists scored low in secondary traumatic stress, and 67.9% of NARM Therapists scored high in compassion satisfaction. The study revealed four themes that represent the phenomenon of the impact of NARM on compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue from the perspective of NARM Therapists: expending less effort, improved boundaries, increased energy, and enhanced confidence. How NARM serves a protective factor for trauma therapists is discussed