Role of Social Networks in the help seeking experiences among Chinese suffering from severe mental illness in England: a qualitative study

© The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcr199The onset of mental illness can have a significant impact on individuals' lives and on the people who they come into contact with in their social networks. This paper presents the findings of the exploratory stage of a larger study that aims to examine the role of social networks in the help-seeking process of Chinese people suffering from severe mental illness in England. The study used a qualitative phenomenological approach in which in-depth interviews were conducted with three Chinese people suffering from severe mental illness and four network ties who were involved in the help-seeking process. The results of the study showed that family may not be involved in every stage of help-seeking. The size of social networks of Chinese people suffering from mental illness became bigger and the composition of social networks became more diverse after their first contact with mental health services. The implications of the study encourage social workers and mental health professionals to explore resources in the wider social networks to ensure that Chinese people suffering from mental illness receive ad- equate support to meet their mental health needs.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Ethical dilemmas are not simply black and white

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Ethics and Social Practice on 1 July 2008, available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17496530801948838.This article aims to highlight some of the ethical issues that arise when social work educators plan to involve service users and carers from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities in the teaching of social work students. Between 2005 and 2007, the authors carried out a two-part project that involved working with service users and carers from BME communities in the area around Liverpool in Britain. The article first discusses the background for this two-part project, highlighting two themes relating to the ethical dilemmas we experienced. The first of these themes concerned conducting a project in a political context based on short and intermittent funding and intransigent bureaucracy. Our second theme concerned how to reconcile bringing together a group of people because they were recognized as having a shared experience while at the same time there were a myriad differences within the group. We then discuss these issues in light of the ethical approach we adopted, based on being open and honest, flexible in a respectful and meaningful way, and on anti-oppressive ethics and shared responsibility.Peer reviewe

Engaging service users and carers in health and social care education: : challenges and opportunities in the Chinese Community

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Social Work Education on 25 June 2010, available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2010.491542.Service users' and carers' involvement in health and social care education has become a mainstream activity in Britain. However, members from black and minority ethnic communities (BME) remain under-represented in this area of participation. In this article, we will take the readers across the globe to explore the difficulties and opportunities of engaging such an under-represented group, the Chinese community. The journey will begin in Britain where barriers to engagement of service users and carers from the Chinese community will be discussed. We will then travel to Hong Kong, a cosmopolitan city, where successful engagement in work with Chinese service users and carers will be explored. Throughout the journey, we will highlight the importance of the consideration of cultural factors, particularly Confucian beliefs such as social harmony and collectivism, when working with Chinese people. We will also fully explore the issue of ‘trust’ as a culturally laden concept in Chinese societies and its significance for successful engagement in work with Chinese service users and carers in different parts of the world.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Deepening our understanding of reflective practice in a safeguarding child protection and welfare context

© 2022 British Association of Social Workers. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1080/09503153.2022.2038124This article aims to develop a deeper understanding of reflective practice (RP) in teams in the context of a systemic approach to child protection. It highlights the inherent dichotomy of reflective practice between the very private nature of reflection and its application to the public arena of professional practice. Six social workers in the London Borough of Ealing participated in semi-structured interviews based on their experience of the structures in place to facilitate team reflections, namely daily Morning Check-in (MC) and weekly Group Supervision (GS) meetings. Findings identified four key themes: first RP as a team learning activity; second, the challenge to provide emotional support through RP within the team third, the time commitment and last the importance of team stability. The impact on social workers’ ability to reflect in their teams is discussed using four dimensions of systemic practice; first, the use of ‘self’ in social work interventions; second, the ‘mentalisation’ of the child and their family; third, the ‘team around the worker’ support and fourth, practitioners’ reflective learning. Much more needs to be understood to effectively accommodate the private process of RP within the reality of public organisational life.Peer reviewe