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There is recognition that teams act as a locus for the sensemaking activity that underpins social workers' judgement. Research has highlighted that teams also provide emotional support for practitioners. Although sensemaking involves emotional and social processes, there has been limited examination of how emotional support in teams interacts with sensemaking. This article uses the Team as Secure Base (TASB) model as a framework for presenting findings from an ethnographic study of four social work teams in England. Data comprise interviews with social workers and supervisors (n = 22) and fieldnotes from observations (n = 23). Teams exhibited behaviour consistent with the domains of TASB, creating a space for safe exploration of social workers' thoughts and feelings. However, while a strong sense of team membership contributed to participants' sense of safety and self-efficacy, this impacted on sensemaking in other ways, such as giving less weight to the views of those who were not team members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The criminalization of young women in care remains an important practice and policy issue in England despite 2018 national guidance and the subsequent development of local authority protocols to reduce the criminalization of care‐experienced young people. This paper contributes to the emerging research on young women whose behaviour challenges professionals, through secondary analysis of case file data and narrative interviews with 24 care‐experienced young women from a national project on care and offending. Analysis focused on young women's pathways through the care, justice and education systems and identified five domains within young women's lives where available risk or resilience factors were significant in directing young women towards prosocial opportunities, to new types of victimization or to criminalization and offending. These domains consisted of placements and caregiver relationships; partner relationships; pregnancy and motherhood; participation in education; and the transition to adulthood through leaving care. The paper concludes with implications for practice for professionals working with young women, in particular emphasizing that how the care, justice and education systems respond to young women can contribute to negative pathways or transform them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the UK's Third Work-Life Balance Employee Survey (2006) this paper explores whether long working hours, characteristic of British fathers, is best explained by men's career stage or [...]

Spatial neglect is a common and severe cognitive consequence of stroke, yet there is currently no effective rehabilitation tool. Virtual Reality (VR) telerehabilitation tools have the potential to provide multisensory and enjoyable therapies and remotely monitor adherence without the presence of a therapist at all times. Researchers and industry need to better understand end-user perspectives about these technologies to ensure these are acceptable and, ultimately, optimize adherence and efficacy. This study aims to explore end-user perspectives on the use of self-administered VR for spatial neglect in a university environment to identify barriers and facilitators prior to extending its use remotely as a telerehabilitation tool. We used a mixed-method design including focus groups, self-administered questionnaires and interviews with stroke survivors (N = 7), their carers (N = 3) and stroke clinicians (N = 6). End-user perspectives identified clarity of instructions, equipment (cost, available resources) and for some, level of experience with technology as barriers of use. Perceived facilitators were performance feedback, engagement and enjoyment, and psychological benefits associated with self-administered VR telerehabilitation. Overall, end-users were positive and interested in using VR telerehabilitation for spatial neglect. These perspectives enabled us to produce practical recommendations to inform development, enhance engagement and uptake of VR telerehabilitation and inform future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although the evidence for the associations among self-efficacy, secondary traumatic stress (STS) and secondary posttraumatic growth (SPTG) is mounting, there is a lack of the experimental evidence for the influence of self-efficacy on positive and negative mental health outcomes among professionals indirectly exposed to trauma. Purpose: This study investigated the effects of an internet-based self-efficacy intervention (the experimental condition), compared to an education (the active control condition) on STS and SPTG among workers exposed to traumatic events indirectly, through their clients. We hypothesized that the group assignment (experimental vs. control) would affect STS and SPTG indirectly, with a mediating role of self-efficacy beliefs. Methods: Participants were 168 health and human services professionals (78% women), exposed indirectly to a traumatic event at work. They were randomly assigned to either a 4-session internet-based self-efficacy intervention (n = 87) or an education control group (n = 81) which received information about coping resources and consequences of stressors at work or at home. STS, SPTG, and self-efficacy were measured at the baseline (Time 1), 1-month follow-up (Time 2) and 2-month follow-up (Time 3). Results: Analysis of covariance showed that the group assignment had a significant effect on STS (Time 2) and self-efficacy (Time 2), with lower STS and higher self-efficacy reported by the self-efficacy intervention participants. Compared to the experimental group, the active control (education) group participants reported higher SPTG at Time 2. Mediation analyses indicated that the group assignment had indirect effects on STS and SPTG at Time 3. Workers who experienced increases in self-efficacy (Time 2) through the intervention were more likely to report lower STS and higher SPTG at Time 3. Conclusion: Elucidating the mediating processes that explain why an intervention for secondary trauma works is essential in order to develop more effective support systems that promote improved mental health outcomes among health and human services professionals. Prevention programs for workers exposed indirectly to traumatic events may target self-efficacy enhancement and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents exploratory qualitative data from a pragmatic sample ( n== 11) of vulnerable young people (aged 13-18 years) in contact with youth services. Data were gathered during a substance-use services needs assessment project undertaken in a rural county in the United Kingdom. Semi-structured qualitative interviews explored engagement with services and narratives of episodes of substance-use information-seeking. A range of different information sources were reported, but consensus was expressed regarding source credibility. Parents, particularly mothers, and older siblings were perceived as the most credible. The range of information sources utilized by young people is discussed in terms of furthering research understanding of credibility of sources of information. Implications for services and for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically reviews recent research exploring risk and protective factors for the development of problematic substance use in populations of young people. Specific populations of young people who are most vulnerable to developing problematic patterns of use are identified, and alterations to methods of data collection which would improve the ability of local authorities to monitor these populations and more efficiently target them for early preventative interventions are highlighted. It is argued that social-psychological research techniques and approaches should be used to complement a risk and protection-focused approach in order to improve the design and evaluation of interventions, and provide decision-aids for practitioners when assessing the needs of vulnerable young people. Examples are provided to demonstrate the utility of social psychology in this regard, and the paper concludes with specific recommendations for future research and services. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]