The Involvement of Young People Leaving Care in Social Work Education and Practice

This work-based doctorate focuses on care leavers’ experiences of transitions to independent living. An interpretative research methodology was used alongside a model of participatory action research. The research design and epistemology were informed by social work practice issues and by my interest in phenomenological, subjectivist approaches to research. The doctoral project was undertaken across two organisations; one a local authority child and family social work service and the other a university which delivers social work education. The doctoral study details the policy and legislative context for young people who are care leavers in England and also includes data on statistical trends in England for looked after children and care leavers. The research is underpinned by social work practice literature and by professional guiding frameworks. This includes drawing on theoretical ideas relevant to understanding the position of care leavers and their journeys to adulthood; including, psycho-social theory in relation to transitions and liminality. Links are made to social work research focused on the socioeconomic, health, well-being and identity needs of care leavers. The main underpinning theoretical framework; Bourdieu’s theory of social capital- is used as an analytic device to theorise and explore the unique experiences of care leavers. Pedagogic literature is also examined in relation to the role of service user participation in social work education and is linked to Foucauldian critical theory regarding issues of power and identity categorisations and the notion of being a “service user”. Connections are made to transformational learning and how through adult learning, new social networks can be created which enhance social capital paving the way for new opportunities. The research project had four stages in relation to project activity and data gathering. The first stage was a questionnaire to all the young people from the local authority receiving a leaving care service. The second stage involved two focus groups with a self-selecting sample of young people who had completed a questionnaire. The third stage of the project involved some care leavers who had taken part in the focus groups attending ‘Total Respect’ training (for trainers). Following this, and in preparation for the fourth stage, I worked with the young people to plan and deliver training to social work students, social workers and managers about care leavers’ views of social work practice and services. The fourth stage involved semi-structured interviews with a sample of social workers, students and the young people. The findings showed these young people are resilient and self-reliant but need access to the right support at the right time. They wanted to be listened to, allowed to make mistakes and have the opportunity to try again to achieve independent living. Through using the vehicle of training workshops, the young people communicated their often challenging experiences of transitions to adulthood. Findings showed that using this approach in social work education and in local authorities can influence positive changes to individual and organisational social work practice. Following the training it was identified that everyone learnt something new: social workers, students and the young people, and that the power of direct testimony from the young people created a transformative learning experience for students and social workers

Mechanics of collective unfolding

Mechanically induced unfolding of passive crosslinkers is a fundamental biological phenomenon encountered across the scales from individual macro-molecules to cytoskeletal actin networks. In this paper we study a conceptual model of athermal load-induced unfolding and use a minimalistic setting allowing one to emphasize the role of long-range interactions while maintaining full analytical transparency. Our model can be viewed as a description of a parallel bundle of N bistable units confined between two shared rigid backbones that are loaded through a series spring. We show that the ground states in this model correspond to synchronized, single phase configurations where all individual units are either folded or unfolded. We then study the fine structure of the wiggly energy landscape along the reaction coordinate linking the two coherent states and describing the optimal mechanism of cooperative unfolding. Quite remarkably, our study shows the fundamental difference in the size and structure of the folding-unfolding energy barriers in the hard (fixed displacements) and soft (fixed forces) loading devices which persists in the continuum limit. We argue that both, the synchronization and the non-equivalence of the mechanical responses in hard and soft devices, have their origin in the dominance of long-range interactions. We then apply our minimal model to skeletal muscles where the power-stroke in acto-myosin crossbridges can be interpreted as passive folding. A quantitative analysis of the muscle model shows that the relative rigidity of myosin backbone provides the long-range interaction mechanism allowing the system to effectively synchronize the power-stroke in individual crossbridges even in the presence of thermal fluctuations. In view of the prototypical nature of the proposed model, our general conclusions pertain to a variety of other biological systems where elastic interactions are mediated by effective backbones

‘Back to our Roots?’ Re-visiting psychoanalytically-informed baby and young child observation in the education of student social workers

While there is a well-established literature on psychoanalytically-informed baby and young child observation in social work education, little has been published recently. This paper reviews the rationale for its use, evaluating its impact on students’ learning in the light of contemporary policy and practice contexts facing social work education. Analysis of feedback gained from a recent cohort, identifies three ways in which learning through baby and young child observation contributes: firstly, students encounter and learn about the complexity of child development from the direct experience of observing and secondly, observing facilitates the development of important skills for practice; students’ ‘use of self’. Thirdly, through observing, students describe how they develop the capacity to take-up and sustain a professional role. Well-structured teaching and learning through observation is therefore shown to provide a rigorous, theoretically- grounded contribution to the training of university-based social work students entering this complex and challenging professional field

Directed forgetting of source memory in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Using the source directed forgetting method, the present paper investigated whether older adults and Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) patients were able to inhibit source information. METHODS: Younger adults, older adults and AD participants were presented with two sets of six items each: Set1 and Set2. Each item was presented by one of two sources: an experimenter black- or white-gloved hand. After the presentation of the Set1 items, participants were instructed either to forget or to continue remembering the source of the items. Afterward, all participants were presented with the Set2 items, and were asked to remember their source. Finally, subjects were exposed to the Set1 and Set2 items, and were asked to recall, for each item, its original source presentation (i.e., the experimenter black- or white-gloved hand). RESULTS: In comparison with younger adults, older adults and AD participants showed no differences in remembering the source of the Set1 and Set2 items. In other words, they failed to inhibit the source information. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our outcomes are discussed in terms of retrieval inhibition deficits and changes in adaptive nature of memory in normal aging and AD

Directed forgetting of source memory in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Using the source directed forgetting method, the present paper investigated whether older adults and Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) patients were able to inhibit source information. METHODS: Younger adults, older adults and AD participants were presented with two sets of six items each: Set1 and Set2. Each item was presented by one of two sources: an experimenter black- or white-gloved hand. After the presentation of the Set1 items, participants were instructed either to forget or to continue remembering the source of the items. Afterward, all participants were presented with the Set2 items, and were asked to remember their source. Finally, subjects were exposed to the Set1 and Set2 items, and were asked to recall, for each item, its original source presentation (i.e., the experimenter black- or white-gloved hand). RESULTS: In comparison with younger adults, older adults and AD participants showed no differences in remembering the source of the Set1 and Set2 items. In other words, they failed to inhibit the source information. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our outcomes are discussed in terms of retrieval inhibition deficits and changes in adaptive nature of memory in normal aging and AD

Destination memory for emotional information in older adults

Background/Study Context: Destination memory, remembering the destination of the information that one tells, shows significant age-related decline. In the present paper, the authors sought to determine whether destination memory can be improved in older adults using emotional stimuli. This aim was motivated by findings showing better context memory for emotional than for neutral information in older adults. Methods: Younger and older adults were asked to tell neutral facts to three types of faces: a neutral one, an emotionally positive one, and an emotionally negative one. On a later recognition test, participants were asked to associate each previously told fact with the face to whom it was told. Results: Destination memory performance was better for facts told to negative than to positive faces, and the latter memory was better than for neutral faces in older adults. Conclusion: Older adults seem to place higher emphasis on emotional material relative to neutral faces, showing better memory for the association between statements and emotional faces

Inactivation of Plasmodium falciparum in whole blood by riboflavin plus irradiation.

BACKGROUND: Malaria parasites are frequently transmitted by unscreened blood transfusions in Africa. Pathogen reduction methods in whole blood would thus greatly improve blood safety. We aimed to determine the efficacy of riboflavin plus irradiation for treatment of whole blood infected with Plasmodium falciparum. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Blood was inoculated with 10(4) or 10(5) parasites/mL and riboflavin treated with or without ultraviolet (UV) irradiation (40-160 J/mL red blood cells [mL(RBCs)]). Parasite genome integrity was assessed by quantitative amplification inhibition assays, and P. falciparum viability was monitored in vitro. RESULTS: Riboflavin alone did not affect parasite genome integrity or parasite viability. Application of UV after riboflavin treatment disrupted parasite genome integrity, reducing polymerase-dependent amplification by up to 2 logs (99%). At 80 J/mL(RBCs), riboflavin plus irradiation prevented recovery of viable parasites in vitro for 2 weeks, whereas untreated controls typically recovered to approximately 2% parasitemia after 4 days of in vitro culture. Exposure of blood to 160 J/mL(RBCs) was not associated with significant hemolysis. CONCLUSIONS: Riboflavin plus irradiation treatment of whole blood damages parasite genomes and drastically reduces P. falciparum viability in vitro. In the absence of suitable malaria screening assays, parasite inactivation should be investigated for prevention of transfusion-transmitted malaria in highly endemic areas

Management à distance et santé au travail : Quels sont les impacts de l’éloignement et de la méconnaissance du travail réel ?

Cette recherche explore deux cas d’entreprises développant un management à distance. On montrera que ce management focalisé essentiellement sur un contrôle formel de l’activité créé des distorsions entre les représentations du management et celles des salariés. Or, les salariés étant confrontés à une forte incertitude lors de périodes de mutations exigeantes en termes de management des ressources humaines, ces distorsions génèrent chez eux perte de confiance, désengagement, stress et désespoir, qui peuvent avoir un impact important sur leur santé

"Roll back the years": A study of grandparent special guardians' experiences and implications for social work policy and practice in England

Growing numbers of grandparent special guardians (GSGs) are assuming responsibility for increasing numbers of children in the care system in England. Special guardianship arrangements are increasingly used as a permanency option as they allow children to remain in their kinship networks, rather than in local authority care or be adopted; yet there is a scarcity of research on GSG carers’ experiences. This article reports a small qualitative research study where ten sets of grandparents were interviewed to explore their journey to becoming GSGs and to theorise their subsequent experiences. Two themes emerge. Firstly, experiences of the assessment process are elaborated, decisions often being made at a time of family crisis, impacting on GSGs: financial, employment, relational. Secondly, GSGs’ experiences of managing often-challenging relationships and contact arrangements between the grandchildren and the parents reveal three main relationship management approaches emerging: containing-flexible; containing-controlled and; uncontained/defeated approaches. Anthropological concepts of affinity help theorise the GSGs’ ambivalent responses to becoming carers in later life, enabling reconfigured kinship relationships in new family forms. Family policy and social work practice is critiqued as GSGs appear often left alone to ‘roll back the years’, to heal previous harms done to the grandchildren who end-up in their care