Doing It Well

Ryan, Mary Morgan; Healy, Bill; Renouf, Noel

doi:10.1300/j200v02n02_03

“…Aadam & Petrakis (2020) argue that the "focus of mental health services remains on the concept of risk" (p. 14). Generic administrative procedures and guiding policies embedded in mental health social work practice emphasize a multiplicity of "risks" associated with doing mental health social work --"risk assessments"; "high risk clients"; "risk and dangerousness in mental health social work"; "working on the edge of risk"; "risk taking" and "risk responsibility" (Flintoff, Speed & McPherson, 2019;Nolan & Quinn, 2012;Ryan, Healy & Renouf, 2004;Sweeney, Gillard, Wykes & Rose, 2014). This type of rhetoric is common and implies a certain type of heroic saviorism when we cross into "dangerous" terrain to support "high risk" clients.…”

Section: The Business Of Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Risk assessment criteria and other depersonalized, administrative materials can be understood as the tools by which "risk" is both constructed, measured and then managed (Flintoff, Speed & McPherson, 2019;Ryan, Healy & Renouf, 2004). Moreover, these assessment tools ensure worker safety and agency liability within the administrative bodies and other powerful institutions in which these documents circulate.…”

Section: The Business Of Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Flintoff, Speed & McPherson (2019) confirm this suspicion, noting the overemphasis on administrative tasks "demonstrates how recording information that could be utilized for decision-making processes" such as adhering to external reporting mandates, are "prioritized over other aspects, such as the client's perspective or experience" (p. 665). The literature distinctly revealed the way in which risk assessment tools are utilized by service providers in tandem with their clinical "expertise" to deny, limit or violently enforce mental health interventions onto or away from service users (Ryan, Healy & Renouf, 2004;Sweeney, Gillard, Wykes & Rose, 2014).…”

Section: The Business Of Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

White trauma: tracing trauma informed recovery and white supremacy in social work practice

Paxton¹

2021

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This qualitative research study examines how five prominent recovery oriented community based organizations talk out loud about themselves, their service population and recovery. Using a critical discourse analysis, pervasive discursive patterns were revealed through thematic analysis. This study details the way in which trauma-informed care quietly manifests alongside the same guiding principles as the recovery model, creating a compounded site of power whereby one lives both inside and outside the bounds of the other. The purpose of this study is to call attention to the illusive nature of these widely-celebrated models, disrupting the unchecked, institutionalized supremacy of the whiteness that prevails within. Applying the concept of creaming to social service provision in Toronto, this study makes the claim that white trauma is centred within recovery oriented service construction and provision given it causes the least structural disruption. This process ultimately sustains the feel-good culture that envelops recovery based and trauma-informed social work.

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“…Aadam & Petrakis (2020) argue that the "focus of mental health services remains on the concept of risk" (p. 14). Generic administrative procedures and guiding policies embedded in mental health social work practice emphasize a multiplicity of "risks" associated with doing mental health social work --"risk assessments"; "high risk clients"; "risk and dangerousness in mental health social work"; "working on the edge of risk"; "risk taking" and "risk responsibility" (Flintoff, Speed & McPherson, 2019;Nolan & Quinn, 2012;Ryan, Healy & Renouf, 2004;Sweeney, Gillard, Wykes & Rose, 2014). This type of rhetoric is common and implies a certain type of heroic saviorism when we cross into "dangerous" terrain to support "high risk" clients.…”

Section: The Business Of Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Risk assessment criteria and other depersonalized, administrative materials can be understood as the tools by which "risk" is both constructed, measured and then managed (Flintoff, Speed & McPherson, 2019;Ryan, Healy & Renouf, 2004). Moreover, these assessment tools ensure worker safety and agency liability within the administrative bodies and other powerful institutions in which these documents circulate.…”

Section: The Business Of Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

White trauma: tracing trauma informed recovery and white supremacy in social work practice

Paxton¹

2021

Preprint

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This qualitative research study examines how five prominent recovery oriented community based organizations talk out loud about themselves, their service population and recovery. Using a critical discourse analysis, pervasive discursive patterns were revealed through thematic analysis. This study details the way in which trauma-informed care quietly manifests alongside the same guiding principles as the recovery model, creating a compounded site of power whereby one lives both inside and outside the bounds of the other. The purpose of this study is to call attention to the illusive nature of these widely-celebrated models, disrupting the unchecked, institutionalized supremacy of the whiteness that prevails within. Applying the concept of creaming to social service provision in Toronto, this study makes the claim that white trauma is centred within recovery oriented service construction and provision given it causes the least structural disruption. This process ultimately sustains the feel-good culture that envelops recovery based and trauma-informed social work.

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Factors Influencing Social Work Identity in Mental Health Placements

Smith

¹

,

Harms

²

,

Brophy

³

2021

The British Journal of Social Work

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This article shares findings from a study that explored factors contributing to the development of a social work professional identity, with a particular focus on social work students undertaking field education placements in mental health settings. Social work identity is not well recognised or articulated by experienced practitioners, nor does it appear to be adequately emphasised in social work education and training programmes. There is limited research on social work identity in mental health settings and even less pertaining to students’ efforts to construct a professional identity in such paradigmatically unfamiliar environments. This qualitative study explored how students understand, experience and articulate their developing professional identity in mental health settings. Participants were interviewed towards the completion of seventy-day (500-hour) field placements. Findings highlight that students struggled to relate to the concept of a ‘social work identity’ and were unable to articulate what it might be or involve. Students were more at ease describing specific roles they performed during their placement. However, analysis of their reflections on what they observed, what they did during placement, and reflective or integrative opportunities, provided rich descriptions of a range of the factors contributing to and influencing their developing social work identity.

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Doing It Well

Cited by 6 publications

References 8 publications

White trauma: tracing trauma informed recovery and white supremacy in social work practice

White trauma: tracing trauma informed recovery and white supremacy in social work practice

White trauma: tracing trauma informed recovery and white supremacy in social work practice

Factors Influencing Social Work Identity in Mental Health Placements

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