Research for social workers: An introduction to methods.

Alston, Margaert; Bowles, Wendy

doi:10.11157/anzswj-vol30iss3id549

Cited by 77 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Focus groups have been established as an effective method for qualitative data collection in social work research (Linhorst ). This methodology aimed to stimulate discussion between agency staff around the key issues, in order to generate responses that individual participants may not have previously considered (Alston & Bowles ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The complexities of cultural support planning for Indigenous children in and leaving out‐of‐home care: the views of service providers in Victoria, Australia

Baidawi

Mendes

Saunders

2016

Child & Family Social Work

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Indigenous children and young people are over-represented at all stages of the Australian child protection system. Policy and legislative initiatives exist in the state of Victoria, Australia aiming to support the connection between Indigenous children and young people in state care and their culture and community. This exploratory research involved focus group consultations with seven child and family welfare agencies to investigate the impacts, barriers, benefits and limitations of cultural support planning for Indigenous young people in, and leaving care in, Victoria. Findings indicated that cultural planning was of value when it could be completed. However, various shortcomings of current systems were identified including limited resourcing of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to generate plans and provide direct and secondary consultation services to implement plans, difficulty gathering information for plans and some Indigenous young people expressing disinterest in connecting to their culture and community. Complexities in the relationships between the Indigenous and nonIndigenous agencies that aimed to support Indigenous young people in care were also acknowledged. Participants identified a number of strategies to improve outcomes, such as facilitating better relationships between agencies, promoting opportunities for ongoing cultural training for staff in mainstream agencies and improving the resourcing of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to deliver planning and to support cultural connections.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The complexities of cultural support planning for Indigenous children in and leaving out‐of‐home care: the views of service providers in Victoria, Australia

Baidawi

Mendes

Saunders

2016

Child & Family Social Work

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“…The rationale for including these examples is that they use a range of different techniques to train algorithms and each, when analysed and considered alongside the others, provides insights into how DSS can be improved in the future. The examples may therefore be considered as a purposive sample (Alston and Bowles, , p. 97).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Predictive Algorithms Assist Decision‐Making in Social Work with Children and Families?

Gillingham

2019

Child Abuse Review

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Decision support systems (DSS) which incorporate algorithms trained using administrative data have been promoted as the next promising development in initiatives to improve and assist decision‐making in social work with children and families. In this article, research and grey literature about DSS designed, and in some cases implemented, in the USA, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand are analysed to assess the extent to which they are currently able to meet this promise. The challenges of developing DSS for social work are identified and ideas are suggested to overcome them. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Messages Decision support systems (DSS) are being developed for social work with children and families and they may transform how decisions are made with important consequences for both service users and the profession. Current DSS are mostly not very accurate in their predictions and further work is required in their development and on the data used to train the algorithms. The next stage in the development of DSS will require long‐term commitment by social workers to work in collaboration with data scientists and researchers. It will also be expensive. Social workers need to lead the debate about whether DSS are worth the investment.

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“…A nonprobability sampling technique was used comprising a purposive sampling method (Alston & Bowles, 2012). The sample frame was established according to specific service delivery features of NGO mental health services in Tasmania.…”

Section: Sample and Recruitmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trust and the Dilemmas of Suicide Risk Assessment in Non-government Mental Health Services

Lemon¹,

Stanford

Sawyer

2016

Australian Social Work

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Reducing suicide rates is a national mental health priority as over 2,200 people die from suicide each year in Australia. Increasingly, nongovernment organisations (NGOs) provide services to people experiencing severe and persistent mental illnesses-a significant cohort at risk of suicide. While clinical services are generally seen as the arbiters of risk, little is known of how suicide risk assessments are undertaken in NGOs. This article reports the findings of a survey-based pilot study of 44 frontline workers in mental health-focused NGOs in Tasmania, Australia, with the aim of sketching a preliminary picture of this under-studied terrain. We identified the assessment practices utilised by workers, and the challenges and dilemmas they experienced in navigating issues of trust in suicide risk assessment in contexts where they often felt vulnerable and under-prepared. We argue that these early findings demonstrate the need for organisations to foster cultures of trust to facilitate both the activities of relationship building between practitioners and clients, and those of monitoring risk. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Research for social workers: An introduction to methods.

Abstract: A book review by Sonya Hunt, Senior Lecturer, Social Work Programme, University of Waikato, New Zealand.

Cited by 77 publications

References 1 publication

The complexities of cultural support planning for Indigenous children in and leaving out‐of‐home care: the views of service providers in Victoria, Australia

The complexities of cultural support planning for Indigenous children in and leaving out‐of‐home care: the views of service providers in Victoria, Australia

Can Predictive Algorithms Assist Decision‐Making in Social Work with Children and Families?

Trust and the Dilemmas of Suicide Risk Assessment in Non-government Mental Health Services

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