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The aim of this article is to determine the effect of social work provided by social activation services to poor single mothers in the Czech Republic. Using the method of quasi-experimental research design, the study analyses the activities of the social activation service during the years 2017–2019. As defined by Delors, the pillars of social work with impoverished mothers in our study were conditioned by a cognitive-behavioral and a task-oriented approach. It was found that through long-term social work with poor single mothers, skills related to the pillars Learning to Be, Learning to Know, and Learning to Live Together could be developed. The finding of no statistically significant development of respondents' work skills associated with the Learning to Do pillar proved to be a noteworthy outcome. The research highlights the work of the social activation service in the Czech Republic, while it also outlines the significant challenges involved in working with poor single mothers. The paper proposes the development and institution of a new service dedicated to developing employment skills, by which the reduction of the negative impacts of the poverty on single mothers might be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obstetric fistula is a maternal health injury and disease affecting women in low-income resource countries of Africa including Nigeria. While there has been significant improvement in making treatment more accessible, the long-term needs of victims for social, emotional, psychological, and economic support after Obstetric fistula repairs have received little attention. In this study, we explored the social support networks of fistula survivors in South East Nigeria, in understanding how to strengthen their reintegration experiences. Using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, we extracted information from 56 participants comprising 34 fistula survivors/outpatients, 10 inpatients, and 12 caregivers at a National Obstetric Fistula Referral Facility in Southeast Nigeria. The generated data were analyzed thematically. Participants reported that support from families, church, and the government were drivers for their rehabilitation and reintegration; and social support was an important source of strength and hope in the health-seeking pathways of the women. Social support policy shift as well as community health promotion and grassroots awareness creation will help to accelerate the reintegration of women with OF into their communities after rehabilitation. Such policies will help strengthen Primary Health Centers (PHCs) and stimulate radical multidisciplinary interventions for the proper integration of fistula patients in Nigeria. To achieve the recommendations, there is a need for social work professional collaborations, hence, the study has practice implications for the social work service delivery in the Nigerian healthcare system. Future research may consider using a quantitative research design to have a general view of the respondents on strengthening social support networks on rehabilitation and reintegration of victims of obstetric fistula, this will create more room for better service provision, and also an advancement in social service research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The project "Youth Researching" consists of the development of training activities in which fundamental notions of social research are approached to be put into practice in a process of inquiry and knowledge production. Its particularity is that the young people integrate the research team together with adults who work in university teaching in Uruguay. It takes up precedents in the region linked to collaborative research with children and young people, especially works focused on educational processes and ethnography with children, adolescents and young people in the Latin American context. This article intends to go deeper into the experience in order to advance in some reflections linked to the theoretical-methodological challenge posed by this line of work as a modality of social research, as well as other considerations that arise from the proposal as a possible strategy that enriches the experience of the young people who participate in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through collaborative practice research with the goal of identifying alternative discourses that can challenge expert-led knowledge in parent education, this study examined a community-based home visiting programme conducted by a social work practitioner serving disadvantaged migrant families in Shenzhen. To obtain diverse information, data was collected by three major methods, including in-depth interviews, participant observations and document reviews. Findings of this study shed lights on the social work research-practice partnership through a reflexive knowledge co-construction approach which helped to produce alternative discourses that considered parents' experiential knowledge and emphasised a system-oriented perspective. By embracing the alternative subjectivities constituted by alternative discourses as collaborators and co-learners, the practitioner and researcher also demonstrated abilities to think about new possibilities for parent education practice and research. Implications for future empowerment-oriented social work practice and research in family and parent education fields were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents key concepts for collaboration, participation and co-production in practice research, based on a cross-analysis of three research cases. The article aims to explore questions such as: 1) Who should be involved? 2) What preconditions are necessary from all participants? 3) What nuances arise in the process of becoming a partner? The article investigates how partnerships, participation and knowledge production can be performed in social work practice research, and highlights that any collaborative process is complex, and the questions may thus be intertwined. Such processes require researchers to be aware of the communicative, power-relational, dialogical and democratic processes involved. One of the key takeaways from the cross-analysis is that successful collaboration demands conscious attention and effort towards effective communication, power-sharing and democratic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we (two researchers and three practitioners from Singapore) reflect on the challenges and opportunities of practice-research collaborations. While researchers and practitioners share a common goal to improve services, challenges can arise due to differing perspectives and priorities and power dynamics between team members. However, diversity of perspectives can enrich the research process when strengths of practitioners and researchers are utilised. Collaborative relationships can be optimised with careful selection of the appropriate team members, effective communication, and by practicing reflexivity. Our reflections highlight the benefits of practice-research collaborations and the importance of navigating partnerships to achieve shared outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve a growth in practice-focused research, social care requires a solid infrastructure including a skilled research workforce, funding and a framework of national, strategic priorities. This article concerns practitioner researchers and developing the skills and support to enable practitioners to become active researchers within social care practice. It reports on findings from a study to develop a better understanding of the challenges of building capacity to undertake social care research in the South of England and the opportunities for building research engagement and capacity within local authorities (LAs) to include practitioner-led research. A qualitative approach was undertaken. Participants were practitioners working in LA social service departments. Participants completed an online questionnaire (n  = 22), with a subsample (n  = 6) interviewed. A semi-structured interview schedule collected positive and negative views of research experiences and of using research evidence. Individual-level and organisational research barriers were extracted as themes from the data and are described. The authors then discuss areas where practical ground level initiatives could be focused that might assist in developing a more positive research environment within social care organisations employing social workers and other practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Research Assessment Exercise was introduced in 1986 to measure research quality and to determine the allocation of higher education funding. The renamed Research Excellence Framework (REF) has become an important barometer of research capacity and calibre across academic disciplines in UK universities. Based on the expert insights of REF sub-panel members for Unit of Assessment 20 (UOA20), Social Work and Social Policy, this article contributes to understanding of the current state of UK social work research. It documents the process of research quality assessment and reports on the current social work research landscape, including impact. Given its growing vigour, increased engagement with theory and conceptual frameworks, policy and practice and its methodological diversity, it is evident that social work research has achieved considerable consolidation and growth in its activity and knowledge base. Whilst Russell Group and older universities cluster at the top of the REF rankings, this cannot be taken for granted as some newer institutions performed well in REF2021. The article argues that the discipline's embeddedness in interdisciplinary research, its quest for social justice and its applied nature align well with the REF framework where interdisciplinarity, equality, diversity and inclusion and impact constitute core principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Bibliometric analysis has been widely adopted to measure individual productivity and discipline development. This study aims to advance the application of this method in the social work discipline. Method: Using the knowledge mapping technique in CiteSpace 5.8.R3, this study performed a co-word analysis of 1,007 first-authored articles published from 2000 to 2022 by 60 scholars who are listed among the top 2% most-cited scholars on social work and are holding doctoral degrees in the same field. Results: The cluster analysis identified seven main research hotspots and burst detection results revealed four groups of research frontiers, including spiritual and cultural needs, children's wellbeing, social work practices and development, and social work research, with bullying and peer victimization, particularly among African-American adolescents and youth in Chicago's southside, continuing to attract much research interest. Discussion: This study examines how individual works contribute to the conceptual structure and scientific evolution of social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 outbreak has left families with many adverse effects that can disrupt functioning. The aim of this study was to evaluate the associations between family functioning and community resilience during the COVID-19 lockdown. An online survey was conducted with community-dwelling adult people (n= 411) based on quantitative descriptive-correlational research. According to the results, families show dysfunctional trends during the COVID-19 outbreak (%56), especially in affective involvement, problem-solving, and behavior control categories. Community resilience was positively associated with family functioning. Also, income dissatisfaction, use of social services, and social trust were determined as predictors of family functioning in the COVID-19 lockdown. Further research and social work practices in public health to address the family system as a whole should be evaluated and interventions aiming at community resilience should be designed to increase families' functioning during the pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The independent review of children's social care (2022) has proposed a radical reset of England's children's services, shifting a remote, assessment heavy system towards one that works alongside communities to help prevent statutory interventions. However, notions around the harnessing of community resources to deliver Early Help are often underpinned by assumptions regarding the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector and the ease with which such organizations can be integrated into preventative strategies. This paper reports findings from embedded research within a unitary authority in Southwest England during remodelling of its Early Help service to work more collaboratively with local VCSE organizations. The study generated data from ethnographic observations, semi‐structured interviews and focus groups with 95 participants, including local parents, service providers, VCSE organizations and Council leaders. The findings illustrate that families value the compassionate, responsive and flexible support available within many VCSE settings. However, differences in practice cultures, regulatory pressures on statutory providers, the need to (re)build trust in communities and sensitivities around power‐sharing and resourcing meant negotiating VCSE sector integration was fraught with complexities. Few studies have gained such privileged access to a Local Authority's remodelling of Early Help services, and this paper has significant insights for the debates surrounding the independent review of children's social care (2022) and its recommendation to bring services 'closer to communities'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service systems for children and families have been shaped by standard approaches to knowledge‐building, which reflect a reductionist approach and assume linearity and/or that individuals and experiences are normally distributed. Yet, these approaches may be inadequate for clients most at‐risk, especially those who would be analytic 'outliers'. A complexity lens focuses on the whole system and seeks to identify patterns, including the dynamic interactions between components of the system. Social work scholars have begun to apply complexity theory to social work research efforts, demonstrating the conceptual potential of incorporating this theoretical approach into social work theories and models such as the person‐in‐environment framework and the ecosystems perspective. Yet, frameworks informed by complexity theory may require ontological and epistemological shifts in thinking and new methodological approaches in order to fully embody a complexity approach. Complexity theory offers the opportunity to consider social work clients who are most at‐risk, as it is better suited for power law distributions. We can, therefore, reconceptualize the most 'at‐risk' clients as being in a state of transition, which is also the space of most creativity and possibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work qualitative research and the work of Norman Denzin have much in common. Norman's work was values-based, built on notions of justice, care, dignity, worth, equality, and self-determination with the purpose of identifying and describing problematic social conditions and, in turn, taking action to bring about social change and transformation. This statement fits social work perfectly. In this article, I describe the work of Norman Denzin, show how he promoted qualitative social work research, and how his suggestions for social work researchers to incorporate critical perspectives in our work was calling us back to ourselves. Most of all, he affirmed what we were already doing and want to do better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on the reimagining of critical feminist social work, exploring the intersections of theory, research and practice, and education. Topics include building an intersectional queer praxis for critical feminist scholarship, centering relationships, community care, and collaboration, embracing complexity and disrupting binaries, and attention to embodiment and emotion in social work practices.

Academic research hinges on the role of epistemic peers in order to evaluate newly presented claims and evidence. As social work research is often focused on social problems and systems of oppressions, scholars from the margins most impacted are even better poised to conduct and evaluate said research. Throughout the past few decades, social work scholars have adjusted the ways we teach about and conduct research in order to be increasingly critical of the status quo and more culturally attuned. However, many of the adjustments that are recommended (e.g., community advisory boards) assume that the researcher is an outsider to the community being researched. Trans-focused research is an area where this impact is especially glaring, as an influx of out-trans researchers are able to join the field. This article provides an overview of the concepts of epistemic peers and standpoint theory before describing community-engaged research processes in order to illuminate how these practices (re)produce harm and/or are built on assumptions that the researchers themselves are not trans/nonbinary. In order for trans scholarship to continue to grow and produce the most culturally attuned results, social work academia must foster and prioritize trans epistemic peerhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Multiple fields including social work, public health, psychology, and education have been researching school safety issues for the past 40 years. Findings from research and intervention have been a driving force in school safety policy change. Likewise, policy and funding patterns created have dramatically altered how and what school safety researchers study. Yet school safety policy has not been the focus of empirical studies in social work or other research fields as either independent or dependent variables. Based on prior work and current school safety policy issues, the authors created a new theoretical ecological model to generate a conceptual policy-focused model of school safety. They identified thematic, conceptual, methodological, and analytic gaps in the school safety literature using the new model as a guide. Examples from policy and empirical work are given to elucidate the conceptual model. Suggestions are made for researchers and universities to close the gap between school safety research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights the journal impact factor and academic standing of the magazine. It discusses the reputation of the journal as a platform for school social work research dedicated to enhancing the well-being of children, families and communities. Focus is given on the commitment of the journal to research-social work practice scholarship and leadership in responding to social issues. The editor looks forward to the continuing progress and excellence in the journal's scholarly pursuit.

Aiming to explore how the ecosocial is imagined within social work research, this article engages with understandings of the relationship between the social and ecological realms when responding to the call for sustainability. A theoretical framework offering five possible imaginations of the ecosocial was developed: the holistic; the anthropocentric conflictual; the anthropocentric compatible; the 'ecocentric' conflictual; and the 'ecocentric' compatible. The material consists of international peer‐reviewed articles referring to the ecosocial. The result reveals that the imagination of the ecosocial is heterogeneous. However, the holistic and anthropocentric compatible imaginations are common, while 'ecocentric' and conflictual understandings are rare, which confirms that nurturing social and ecological sustainability does not entail conflicting interests or rivalry but rather the opposite. This implies not only an ongoing widening of the notion of sustainability, in which the idea of limitations is re‐installed, but also a possible re‐definition of 'the social' so as to include the non‐human. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the development of academic social work in Estonia by analysing 15 doctoral dissertations on social work undertaken by Estonian social work scientists between 1991 and 2018. The phenomenological approach to interpretive studies focuses on the question of how those doctorate studies perceive social work as a profession and field for practice-based research. Although many are not explicitly concerned with epistemological questions or with positioning social work as a profession in Estonian society as such, 10 out of the 15 studies are geared towards social work practice and all studies explain their research methodology. The nine practice-oriented studies are qualitative studies, lacking an outspoken, clear idea about the specific character or epistemology of social work research except for the last one, defended in 2018. PhD researchers witness the development of social work as it evolves from a helping profession into a more self-confident profession, with its own core values and tasks and positioned on the same level as other front-line professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces the journal publication awards which initially comprised The Norma Parker Award, The Norm Smith Publication in Social Work Research Award, and The Bruce Lord Award for Excellence in Research Methodology.

Historically, cancel culture has always existed the only variation is in its manifestation. Canceling an individual, group, or organization denotes to boycotting and publicly shaming them in response to a perceived or actual transgression, most often involving political viewpoints or social justice issues. The aim of this phenomenology qualitative research study was to investigate how cancel culture on social media sites leads to associated mental challenges. The study conducted In-depth interviews with 25 participants who were purposively selected graduates of University of Nigeria, Nsukka; and the data gotten was thematically analyzed. Findings show that social media sites have significantly contributed to cancel culture and the most indicated social media sites identified in this study were Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and most recently TikTok. Participants also noted that cancel culture has positive impacts but when taken to the extreme it negatively impacts the canceled and to a large extent their family leading to mental health issues such as isolation, loneliness, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and mental health problems. The study recommends that social workers who are part of social service providers should encourage zero tolerance against cancel culture. In conclusion, punitive measures and bans should also be issued to anyone promoting or instigating this act as its negative impact is more severe than its positive impact. Future research may use a quantitative research design to have a general view of the factors promoting cancel culture and the best methods in controlling canceling, this will create room for better social services and an advancement in social service research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including climate change, reproductive justice, and antiracism.

The Grand Challenges for Social Work were introduced by the American Academy for Social Work & Social Welfare in 2016, which are social problems that are interrelated and "exceedingly complex". We discuss the relevance of complexity theory, operationalized by complex adaptive systems (CAS), to the Grand Challenges. CAS moves beyond current ecological systems approaches and is more appropriate for studying nonlinear, dynamic phenomena such as the Grand Challenges. We explore ideas for incorporating CAS into the social work curriculum at all levels. Adopting CAS into social work practice and research via changes to the curriculum will complement current practices and can facilitate interdisciplinary research teams, and thus has tremendous promise for helping social workers address the Social Work Grand Challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conscientization is the process of learning to perceive sociocultural, economic, and political oppression to such extent one is moved to act against it. This transformative and liberatory pedagogy has momentous implications for social work education; as its outcome is an increased critical consciousness for both students and faculty. However, the process of conscientization and its foundational mechanisms are understudied. We therefore conducted a descriptive phenomenological study on professors whose teaching or research combat systems of oppression. We provide a composite structural definition of conscientization, and a composite textural-structural description of its catalysts. We discuss how our study builds on the current liberatory education empirical base, as well as the implications of our findings on education and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training social workers to provide competent professional practice is of utmost importance. However, there have been ongoing dilemmas in enhancing practice competence in clinical social work, such as the challenges of selecting treatment approaches among numerous empirically supported approaches. Increasingly, common factors and common elements approaches are incorporated into clinical social work practice to address these issues, yet there is still a gap in addressing how to foster skill building in clinical social work. Using theories of psychotherapy integration and corrective experiences as a transformative change mechanism, we propose a microchange process, Activation-Contract-Processing (ACP), within sessions across various treatment approaches. This common process was developed based on both literatures and widely circulated master-tapes of therapy sessions from four empirically supported treatment models--cognitive therapy, behavioral activation, emotion-focused therapy, and interpersonal therapy. To guide social work students and clinicians, we elaborate on each step in ACP with illustrative examples around therapeutic proceedings, while incorporating core aspects of clinical social work, including but not limited to: person-in-environment perspectives, relationship, social justice and diversity, and evidence-based practice. We conclude by sharing the implications of the proposed common process to clinical social work practice, training, and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the question of asymmetries in participatory research relationships in institutional contexts. The principle of ethical symmetry forms the theoretical framework for the investigation. It draws on experience from three (participatory) research projects in different settings, involving academics and people living in the settings as co-researchers. The central methodological tool is a research process model used to systematically dissect the research process and its progress over time. The three-step empirical analysis was structured as follows: First, building on Foucault's concept of the dispositif, we discuss the invocations experienced by the academic and co-researchers. Secondly, we investigate how the actors handled the invocations, adopting a relational understanding of agency. Finally, we integrate the two perspectives to explore the possibilities of achieving ethical symmetry. The article concludes with reflections – drawing on the findings from the three case studies – on the impact of the principle of ethical symmetry on social work practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Misophonia is a chronic condition that describes aversion to specific auditory stimuli. Misophonia is characterized by physiological responsivity and negative emotional reactivity. Specific sounds, commonly referred to as "triggers," are often commonplace and sometimes repetitive. They include chewing, coughing, slurping, keyboard tapping, and pen clicking. Common emotional responses include rage, disgust, anxiety, and panic while physical responses include muscle constriction and increased heart rate. This literature review identifies research priorities, limitations, and new directions, examining the implications of misophonia for the social work profession. Misophonia is largely absent from the social work literature. However, the profession is uniquely equipped to understand, screen for, and effectively treat misophonia in direct practice or within interprofessional treatment teams. By conceptualizing misophonia as idiosyncratic and contextual, social workers would enhance the existing body of research by applying an ecological perspective which captures the interaction of individuals and environments in producing human experience. Such an approach would assist clients and clinicians in developing treatment plans that consider the roles of social and physical environments in the development and course of misophonia. A discussion of current limitations within the misophonia literature further emphasizes the need for new perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: This article presents debates and controversies about counselling within abortion provision in Aotearoa New Zealand. Formal and informal counselling networks are described, where the role of social workers as providers of counselling services is precarious. Insights consider how service users may be more holistically supported when accessing abortion care. METHODS: Drawing on findings from a broader qualitative research project involving 52 participant interviews, formal and informal observation of practices, and analysis of service documentation, the concept of boundary objects by Star and Griesemer (1989) is taken up to account for diverse abortion counselling practices that occur in multiple but connected social worlds. Revisiting these findings in the context of current abortion legislation and developments, a Reproductive Justice (RJ) lens is used to inform the implications for service users and social work practice. FINDINGS: Past and present efforts within legislation, policy, and practice guidelines to standardise abortion counselling have not prevented different versions of counselling from being enacted by social workers, counsellors, nurses, medical practitioners, staff of community agencies, and crisis pregnancy services. This has resulted in the practice and the term counselling being contested. Participant accounts and observations revealed that multiple disciplines offer counselling practices while social work remains poorly integrated into service provision. CONCLUSION: This article employs the concept of boundary objects to account for how variations of counselling have been enacted and disputed. The addition of a reproductive justice (RJ) lens with its attention to social justice is used to appreciate recent advances in access to abortion services alongside arguing for enriched care practices and the value of social work in supporting the integrated well-being and agency of service users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This reflective article examines the claim that social work practitioner research is more likely to lead to impact. We reflect on the impact that we achieved as part of a social work practitioner research within an acute hospital in the South-East of England. First, we explore the literature on social work practitioner research and impact. Second, we outline our original research project. Third, we examine the individual, organisational and cultural impact we believe we achieved before reflecting on how our views and motivation towards impact changed throughout the research journey. Fourth, we discuss the barriers to achieve our original impact aspirations and reflect on the factors influencing our energy and motivation to achieve impact. Finally, we reflect on the factors that enabled us to achieve impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to articles published within the issue is presented, including one on the history of how social work in the United Kingdom has been changed by prevailing political ideology since the 1950s, particularly the shift towards neo-liberalism, another on the impact of the challenges of practitioner research on the role of social work practitioners, and another on the day-to-day social work practice that are considered as barriers to practitioner research.

Australia and the UK share many historic connections. These connections have influenced developments in welfare systems, and the bi-directional migration of social work practitioners between Australia and the UK has helped to support the sharing of knowledge in social work education, research and practice. However, developments in practice research in both countries has largely been influenced by local activity rather than cross-national collaboration, though there have been similar growth trajectories. This article uses a comparative case study methodology to analyse the development of practice research in Australia and the UK since the Salisbury Statement on social work practice research. Each case study explores and provides examples of the nature of the relationship between practitioners and academic researchers; how practice questions are generated; how methodologies are selected; how data are collected within social work practice and the impact of practice research on practice in both countries. The comparative analysis provides a unique insight into how local, and often small, projects provide a more significant narrative about the creation of knowledge in social work practice. These insights have the potential to inform and stimulate the development of practice research in other countries which are earlier in the journey towards practice-driven research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been renewed interest across social work in professional discourse into the conceptualisation of social work as an activist profession with upholding human rights as a centrally organising principle. Implementing social work practice which upholds human rights is not, however, without difficulties. The contextual and abstract nature of the expression of human rights poses challenges to conceptual and measurement work. Practitioner researchers have a key role here, translating abstract concepts into rights-related personal outcomes and ultimately into evidence and knowledge informed practice. This article presents a case study of a local activist research project, Promote the Vote. The international literature indicates discrimination through denial of the rights of people with learning disabilities regarding political participation. In writing our learning from this case study, the authors have set out to consider the following: how can social workers engage in practice based research?; does an activist project such as Promote the Vote act as a mechanism through which social workers can evidence allyship with disabled people's self-determined right to political participation? and how does a project which applies research methods support generation of practitioner-research evidence, which in turn contributes towards knowledge informed practice? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical-academics are well established and expanding in English health settings. However, despite growing evidence that research-active organisations improve service quality and outputs, research by social work practitioners remains relatively rare in social work practice in England other than as part of qualifying or post-qualifying study. In this context, the National Institute for Health and Care Research developed new funding streams to support the development of 'practitioner–academics', as an equivalent to clinical-academics in health settings. As early career practitioner–academics, who undertake research whilst remaining employed in our social work organisations, we present a case for practitioner–academic research, via two small research projects within our teams based on creative methods and focus groups. These projects illustrate the benefits of practitioner–academics in the knowledge production process, improving access to hard-to-reach research areas, developing swift rapport, which facilitates the production of rich and reliable data, and providing a novel means to navigate ethical issues including researcher positionality and research sensitivity. We also highlight challenges around informed consent, employee roles and researcher bias, including where practitioners are critical of practice within their service areas or are exposed to criticism themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author offers perspectives on the paradoxical truths of social work practice. It points out the inadequacy of social safety net programs for low-income individuals and families, racial inequities, discriminatory policies and lower investment in public services. It also refers to food insecurity and delayed Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program benefits as possible consequences of a government shutdown. Emphasis is given on the focus of social work on humanity and work toward peace.

While social work research in Australia is in reasonable shape, it requires a strong research culture promoting rigorous research to enhance its credibility and influence on social policy discourses. This study explored proposals to advance social work research, based on interviews with 20 experienced Australian social work researchers. Strategies identified include improving research culture and training, the development of research infrastructure to promote and stimulate research, and forming new partnerships both among researchers and between researchers and research end-users. Growing and strengthening the research foundations of the discipline is essential to its future relevance. IMPLICATIONS The Australian social work community would benefit from a more deliberate and strategic approach to increasing the quality and quantity of research to inform practice and policy. Opportunities for social work researchers to connect with each other to disseminate, discuss, and plan research could provide a hub for increasing research development and research collaboration. The responsibility and capacity to lead research development and advocate for social work research is shared between the academy, the human services sector, and representative professional associations. The Australian social work community would benefit from a more deliberate and strategic approach to increasing the quality and quantity of research to inform practice and policy.Opportunities for social work researchers to connect with each other to disseminate, discuss, and plan research could provide a hub for increasing research development and research collaboration.The responsibility and capacity to lead research development and advocate for social work research is shared between the academy, the human services sector, and representative professional associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Involving research users in collaborative research approaches may increase the relevance and utility of research findings. Our primary objectives were to (i) identify and describe characteristics of Canadian federally and provincially funded health research projects that included research users and were funded between 2011 and 2019; (ii) explore changes over time; and (iii) compare characteristics between funder required and optional partnerships. Methods: Retrospective analysis. Inclusion criteria were projects that included research users. We analyzed publicly available project variables, and coded field and type of research using established classification systems. We summarized data with descriptive statistics and compared variables across three funding year blocks and partnership requirement status. Results: We identified 1153 partnered health research projects, representing 137 fields of research and 37 types of research categories. Most projects included a required partnership (80%) and fell into health and social care services research (66%). Project length and funding amount increased from average of 24.8 months and $266 248 CAD in 2011–2013 to 31.6 months and $438 766 CAD in 2017–2019. There were significantly fewer required partnerships in 2017–2019. Conclusions: Between 2011 and 2019 Canadian federally and provincially funded partnered health research reflected primarily care services research across many fields. The observed breadth suggests that partnered health research approaches are applicable in many fields of research. Additional work to support partnered research across all types of health research (especially biomedical research) is warranted. The administration of larger grants that are funded for longer time periods may address previously identified concerns among research teams engaging in partnered research but may mean that fewer teams receive funding and risk delaying responding to time-sensitive data needs for users. Our process and findings can be used as a starting point for international comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic violence (DV) is a serious social problem that impacts significantly on communities globally. While dentists are uniquely positioned to identify patients who experience DV, there is limited content specifically addressing the issue in their undergraduate training. James Cook University (JCU) dental students revealed this gap, and, in response, an interprofessional collaboration between JCU Social Work, JCU Dentistry and the Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service was established to codesign and deliver the Dentists and Domestic Violence—Recognise, Respond and Refer program, evaluated through Participatory Action Research (PAR) cycles. The program is informed by critical and feminist social work theory with a gendered analysis of DV. The authors present the program’s evolution and examine the four elements identified as central to its success: interprofessional collaboration, critical and feminist theory and gendered analysis, scaffolded content, and skills-based activities. This article will provide a guide for others starting work in this space. IMPLICATIONS Designing and implementing an interprofessional domestic violence curriculum informed by critical theory and tailored for dental students’ can help meet their learning needs. Collaboratively educating dental students to recognise and respond to domestic violence cases will enable appropriate clinical interactions with patients who are victim-survivors of domestic violence and improve the quality of referrals and interactions with community support services. Undertaking evaluation research that guides effective domestic violence training for students across disciplines contributes to addressing domestic violence. Designing and implementing an interprofessional domestic violence curriculum informed by critical theory and tailored for dental students’ can help meet their learning needs.Collaboratively educating dental students to recognise and respond to domestic violence cases will enable appropriate clinical interactions with patients who are victim-survivors of domestic violence and improve the quality of referrals and interactions with community support services.Undertaking evaluation research that guides effective domestic violence training for students across disciplines contributes to addressing domestic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Authors of this theoretical article are questioning Hume's view on causality by arguing for Aristotle's pluralistic view as an alternative strategy for social work research and practice. Methods: Aristotle's notion of causality is applied to discuss its relevance, and then tested on a real case, thereby illustrating how it can contribute to explain why something works. Results: Different types of causes can reveal characteristics that are preconditional for professional's and service user's mutual roles in enhancing outcomes. They can further reveal the architecture of the intervention; the underlying processes for actions to reach a desired goal. Discussion: To deliver knowledge of relevance in social work, one needs to explain the results of an intervention through causal analysis as well as understanding the content and processes of it. Aristotle's forms of causality make it possible to take the contextual historicism of social phenomenon into consideration and give knowledge beyond effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Program theory reconstruction is an often-overlooked aspect of social intervention research. In this paper, we argue that intervention research benefits if the research design is informed by the specific intervention's program theory (i.e., the idea of how the intervention is supposed to lead to the intended outcomes). The purpose of this paper is to offer a comprehensive and accessible guide to program theory reconstruction in research on social interventions and to provide arguments as to how program theory reconstruction can be used to benefit intervention studies. First, we summarize what program theory is and its role in intervention research. Second, we provide a direct "how-to" for researchers, practitioners, and students who may be unfamiliar with the methods of program theory reconstruction but are interested in undertaking a program theory reconstruction. Finally, we conclude with how program theory reconstruction can benefit intervention research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a critical content analysis of multiracial content at the annual conference programs of the Society for Social Work and Research from 2009-2022. The analysis examined the use of multiracial keywords in accordance to the tenets of critical theory focused on the dynamics of power and cultural representation to challenge inequality and uncover racism. It identified frequently occurring concepts and themes such as Black, White, youth, students, care, services and experiences.

With the increased attention to the principles of evidence-based practice (EBP), social workers are challenged to adapt their daily interventions accordingly when treating clients. They usually work with individual clients, all with their own specificities. Single-Case Experimental Designs (SCEDs) can be used to inform a social worker about the effectiveness of an intervention at the individual client level. In everyday social work practice, however, it is difficult to meet methodological requirements of SCEDs to find causal explanations. A concern is that repeated measurements prior to an intervention are required in most situations. This study aims to provide researchers with alternatives to repeated measurement when using the logic of SCED to apply EBP in their everyday practice. In this study, we reviewed published single-case designs between January 1 and December 31, 2019, on types of SCEDs in the social domain, and how is dealt with baseline conditions. SCEDs and quasi-experimental alternatives are hardly published in situations when baseline data are not available. Four underused quasi-experimental strategies that can be employed when repeated measurement during baseline is not possible are as follows: retrospective baselines, theoretical inference, multiraters, and triangulation with qualitative data. The suggestions to work with single-case designs with quasi-experimental elements are meant to enable social workers to evaluate their interventions in a way that enhances mere narrative evaluations of the experiences of an intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the applied field of social work attempts to become more of a sciencebased profession, it is relying more on the findings from empirical research studies. Withinsocial work there is little discussion of the philosophy of science underlying conventional research inquiry. This paper introduces some major philosophical principles that undergird scientific investigations of the causes of societal and psychosocial problems and of the effectiveness of structured programs, policies and practices to ameliorate social ills. Among the principles introduced are the philosophical concepts of determinism, empiricism, realism, operationalism, scientific materialism, parsimony, logic, and positivism. Together these philosophical assumptions provide a pragmatic framework to design and conduct scientific research of value to the social work profession and other fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This article is a systematic review of the Spanish scientific production in social work hosted in the Web of Science. Findings: The article analyzes the current state of social work research in Spain. Since the creation of the European Higher Education Area, Spanish social work has had to meet university research requirements, including the publication of papers in journals indexed in the world's leading databases. Spanish scientific production is analyzed from its beginnings until 2020. The main findings were that most of such research that was published by Spanish social work academic was in Spanish, while other categories of authors, such as nonsocial work Spanish academic, publish more in English. Spanish-language journals were mostly indexed in Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), while those in English were in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) or Scopus, consistently receiving few citations. Women as main authors exceeded men in percentages of indexed articles. Bibliometric quality measures constructed with Scopus were slightly better than those with JCR. The most developed topics in the area were general and transversal issues such as immigration, social services, social intervention, and social policies. Applications: The study demonstrates to Spanish social work researchers that they have greater likelihood of obtaining better quality indexes if they publish in English in JCR- and Scopus-indexed journals, resulting in enhanced academic career visibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author's journey into the role of Associate Editor at Qualitative Social Work, highlighting their non-traditional academic background, part-time academic work, and private practice as a child and family therapist. They reflect on their transition from creative writing to qualitative research and recall their first research experience conducting an ethnography with male boarding school students, which ignited their desire to challenge established perspectives.

In this essay, I reflect on what I learned about human–animal relationships, families, and community through volunteering at an animal shelter, and how I translated these insights into founding a nonprofit community organization, Animal Advocates of Greater Lafayette (AAGL). I first discuss the increasing research and scholarship in the social work field that examines the role of pets in human lives. I describe my methodological frame, drawing on the fields of autoethnography and personal narrative in qualitative research. I then relate both animal and human stories from the field (in this case, an animal shelter), and tell the story of the founding and current activities of AAGL. In conclusion, I suggest that AAGL, as a community organization, models how to rethink families through a multispecies lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]