An article in a recent issue of the journal Social Work Research seeks to fill in some of this gap in information. The purpose of the mixed-methods study detailed in the article was to examine the experiences of BIPOC MSW students in a predominantly white institution in the Northeast during the pandemic and how it affected their mental health.

The article:

• examines the experiences of BIPOC MSW students during the pandemic in the classroom, in their field placement, and their personal lives;
• illuminates how the pandemic impacted their mental health; and
• outlines resources that they accessed to cope with the effects of the pandemic.

Furthermore, the study highlighted and uplifted the voices of racially minoritized students as they navigate social work graduate education while trying to survive a global pandemic.

The findings presented in the article were drawn from 29 students who participated in online surveys and focus groups. About 69% of the sample experienced psychological distress, with higher proportions among those who identified as Latine/Latinx, womxn, straight, first-generation, full-time and part-time students, and clinical students.

Qualitative findings highlighted three main themes:

1. the experiences and needs of white MSW students were prioritized,
2. inconsistencies in the response to the pandemic forced students to advocate for themselves in their classes and field placements, and
3. virtual learning provided a reprieve for students from experiencing racism that helped improve their perceived well-being.

The findings indicate that MSW programs need to commit to acknowledging how systemic racism affects the learning experiences of BIPOC MSW students, work toward dismantling these oppressive structures, and allocate resources that center the health and well-being of BIPOC students and their lived experiences.

Authors:

Dale Dagar Maglalang, PhD, MA, MSW, MPH, assistant professor, Silver School of Social Work, New York University

Abril N. Harris, PhD, MSW, assistant professor, School of Social Work, University of Washington

Ty B. Tucker, MSW, PhD candidate, School of Social Work, Boston College

Tyrone M. Parchment, PhD, LCSW, assistant professor, School of Social Work, Boston College

About NASW Journals

NASW journals are co-published by NASW Press and Oxford University Press. The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print. Learn more about the journals and subscriptions.

NASW members can also access journal articles through the NASW Research Library.

Members who have questions about log-in information can contact Member Services at 800-742-4089, Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. ET, or at membership@socialworkers.org.

Consequently, SCD is frequently contested as a disability—opportunities to support people with SCD in everyday challenges escape many healthcare providers. These trends speak to the legacy of anti-Black racism in the Global North, which deeply entwines disability with racialized boundaries of citizenship and broader debates about “deservingness” of welfare.

To address these gaps, an article in a recent issue of the journal Health & Social Work delineates the medical and social models of disability as well as anti-Black racism to explore how social workers can embed human rights for people with SCD in everyday practice.

This article is contextualized in Ontario, Canada, a province that recently launched a quality standard, Sickle Cell Disease: Care for People of All Ages.

The author writes:

Social workers are one of the few healthcare workers with an explicit social justice mandate…. Along with our person-in-environment perspective, our commitment to social justice can rally human rights for people with SCD to facilitate accommodations and entitlements—essential tools that people with SCD can use to shape their lives while living with a serious and what is often an unpredictable condition…. Until structural change is made, social workers can work in alliance with people with SCD to strategically advance human rights amid disability contestation…. By championing our foundation in human rights, social workers can bring progressive policy documents, such as Ontario Health’s (2023) SCD Quality Standard, to life.

Study Author:

Sinthu Srikanthan, BA, BSW, MSW, RSW, social worker with Red Blood Cell Disorders Clinic, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, and research assistant, Youth Research and Evaluation eXchange, School of Social Work, York University.

NASW journals are co-published by NASW Press and Oxford University Press. The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social WorkSocial Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, online or in print.

Learn about NASW journals and subscriptions.

In recent years, social workers have paid increased attention to ethical issues. The profession’s literature has burgeoned on topics such as ethical dilemmas in social work practice, ethical decision making, boundary issues and dual relationships, ethics-related risk management, and moral injury. This noteworthy trend builds on social work’s rich and long-standing commitment to the development of core values and ethical standards evident throughout its history.

Yet, unlike allied human service and behavioral health professions, social work’s ethics-related literature has not focused on the critically important issue of moral disengagement. Moral disengagement is typically defined as the process whereby individuals convince themselves that ethical standards do not apply to them.

Moral disengagement develops in the form of six principal phenomena:

• moral justification;
• euphemistic labeling;
• advantageous comparison;
• displacing or diffusing responsibility;
• disregarding or misrepresenting injurious consequences; and
• dehumanizing the victim.

In social work, moral disengagement can lead to ethics violations and practitioner liability, particularly when social workers believe that they are not beholden to widely embraced ethical standards in the profession.

An article in the journal Social Work explores the nature of moral disengagement in social work, identify possible causes and consequences, and present meaningful strategies designed to prevent and respond to moral disengagement in the profession.

The author writes, “t is imperative that social workers understand the nature and causes of moral disengagement. Moral disengagement can be addressed by meaningful efforts on social workers’ part to engage in self-care, burnout and impairment prevention, organizational reform, and policy advocacy.”

He recommends that state licensing boards, NASW’s Ethics Committee, and social work programs at colleges and universities make moral disengagement a priority.

Author: Frederic G. Reamer, PhD, professor, School of Social Work, Rhode Island College

About NASW Journals

NASW journals are co-published by NASW Press and Oxford University Press. The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print. Learn more about NASW journals and subscriptions.

NASW members can also access journal articles through the NASW Research Library.

Members who have questions about log-in information can contact Member Services at 800-742-4089, Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. ET, or at membership@socialworkers.org.

An article in a recent issue of the Children & Schools journal sets the stage for further discussion on the lack of quality training, education, and professional development for teachers on poverty. To address this gap, the authors propose a training model for professional development aimed at increasing empathy and understanding among K–12 educators through experiential learning tools such as the Community Action Poverty Simulation.

The authors describe the program in this way:

The Community Action Poverty Simulation requires participation of between 20 and 85 individuals who will take on roles in various family profiles living in poverty. These profiles represent families that are unemployed, disabled, elderly, are single parent households, and recipients of some form of assistance such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or Social Security Disability. It is then the responsibility of the participants to meet the basic needs of their family profile such as providing food, shelter, and clothing by attempting to problem solve based on their family profile.

Along with the family profiles being represented, volunteers are present to represent resources available to those in poverty…. These include grocery stores, food pantries, department of social services, the police, educational institutions, employers, and various other businesses and services that may be present in a community.

Once the simulation is complete there is generally a discussion that occurs based on the experiences of the participants. Following this discussion, students often complete a post-survey that allows facilitators to measure the impact of the simulation on students’ perceptions and knowledge of poverty….

The article concludes with an in-depth discussion on implications for future practice and a call to action for school social workers to bring innovative solutions to their campuses that pull from their educational background in advocacy and social justice to enhance teacher training through an interdisciplinary approach.

Article authors

• Anna Maria T. Curry, DSW, adjunct assistant professor, University of Maryland Global Campus
• Stephen Monroe Tomczak, PhD, professor, Department of Social Work, Southern Connecticut State University

NASW journals are co-published by NASW Press and Oxford University Press. The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print. Learn about the journals and subscriptions.

Editorial: A Liminal Moment in Social Work

Liminal moments are times of transition, specifically the time when it is realized that the way things were are over, but the way things will be are not yet clear.

“Am I the Only One Who Feels Like This?”: Needs Expressed Online by Abortion Seekers

From this study, three interconnected needs emerged: (1) need for information, (2) need for emotional support, and (3) need for community around the abortion experience. This research suggests that social workers would be beneficial additions to the abortion care workforce.

From Colorblindness to Critical Investigations: Examining Structural Racism in Social Work Research

This study investigates the extent to which critical race frameworks are utilized in mainstream social work research. Findings demonstrate a dearth of critical investigation into issues of race and racism in mainstream social work research as well as the underutilization of critical race frameworks.

Counternarratives: An Antiracist Approach in Social Work Education, Practice, and Research

Given renewed attention to racial equity in the social work profession, the authors suggest the use of counternarratives, an established tool of critical race theory, as an accessible method to challenge racism and examine privilege in social work education, practice, and research.

Burned Out, Engaged, Both, or Neither? Exploring Engagement and Burnout Profiles among Social Workers in Spain

Few studies have analyzed the existence of homogeneous groups in burnout and engagement among professionals, and none in social workers. This study with 448 social workers from Spain mainly examined their profiles in burnout and engagement and the characteristics of each profile in relevant job-related variables.

Factors Associated with Chinese Migrant Children’s Social Engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study in Guangzhou City, China

This study aimed to examine whether social work services can improve migrant children’s social engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic in urban China. The research has implications for the practice of child social workers.

Ethical Practice in a Post-Roe World: A Guide for Social Workers

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the Dobbs decision; discuss compelling ethical issues facing social workers who work with people who seek reproductive health information and services; present guidelines to assist social workers who face ethical dilemmas related to reproductive health services; and highlight the critical importance of ethics-informed social work advocacy related to reproductive health.

What We Lose When We “Don’t Say Gay”: Generational Shifts in Sexual Identity and Gender

This commentary explores the expansion of identity labels through the lens of a study conducted across four leading LGBTQ+ agencies in New York and New Jersey with youth and staff. Authors review data that demonstrate the evolution of labels and argue that adopting these terms in practice and research will have fruitful and affirming effects on access to care, treatment attrition, and the design and quality of research in and for the LGBTQ+ community.

Reimagining Suicide Prevention as a Social Justice Issue: Getting Back to Social Work’s Roots

Suicide is a leading cause of death overall, and among people ages 10 to 34 it is the second leading cause of death. Furthermore, suicide disproportionately impacts such populations as American Indians/Alaska Natives, those who identify as LGBTQ+, military veterans, criminal justice system–involved people, and Black youth. These patterns underscore disturbing new trends that necessitate multifaceted and social justice–centered responses.

Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement: An Evidence-Based Social Work Intervention for Addiction, Stress, and Chronic Pain

The purpose of this commentary is to update social workers about the evolution of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) since the publication of the book Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement for Addiction, Stress, and Pain, and to provide a succinct overview of MORE’s clinical outcomes and mechanisms.

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This issue also contains practice updates, commentary, book reviews, and a letter to the editor. To sign in for the Journal on the web, please first go to the journal homepage. At the very top right, Click “Sign In.” At the top is “Oxford Academic account.” Instead, where it says NASW Press, click “Sign in via society site.” You will be taken to a sign-in page. Please enter your NASW username and password. Once signed in, click on the image of the journal Social Work, and then you can navigate to the issue and article of your choice.

The journal Social Work is a benefit of your membership. It is available online or, at your request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print. You can find a link to the subscriptions on the NASW Press website.

We appreciate our NASW members! If you have any questions, please call NASW Member Services at 1-800-742-4089 Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. ET.

Researchers published their findings on this topic in a recent issue of the journal Social Work Research, which is co-published by NASW and Oxford University Press, in an article titled Prevalence and Correlates of Police Contact Anxiety among Male and Female Black Emerging Adults in St. Louis, Missouri.

The researchers studied the prevalence and severity of anxiety in the study participants, broken down along lines of male vs. female, income, and seeing a video vs. directly witnessing or being a victim of police contact or police violence. They found higher levels of anxiety among males, among those experiencing police violence, and among those witnessing community violence. Work and income were also factors in anxiety levels reported to researchers.

Authors called for more research in this area. Also, they recommend that social workers working with Black young adults be aware of possible anxiety related to police contact in this population.

Study authors:

• Robert O. Motley, Jr., PhD, assistant professor, School of Social Work, Boston College
• Yu-Chih Chen, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Social Work & Social Administration, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
• Yasir Masood, MD, graduate research assistant, Race & Opportunity Lab
• Alyssa Finner, MSW, community engagement coordinator, Race & Opportunity Lab
• Sean Joe, PhD, professor, Center for Social Development, Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis

NASW journals are co-published by NASW Press and Oxford University Press. The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members.

Learn the journals and subscriptions at NASW Press.

Informal caregivers play a role in caring for older adults and it is important to understand the variables that may predict the burden that they experience due to caregiving.

A recent issue of the journal Health & Social Work, co-published by NASW and Oxford University Press, contains an article titled “Burden Predictors for Informal Caregivers of Older Adults in Spain: The Role of Cohabitation, Coping Strategies, Social Support, and Evaluation of Preexisting Relationships” which aims to examine the relationship between different variables and the caregiver’s subjective burden.

The authors examined the relationship between:

• caregivers’ sociodemographic characteristics (age and gender);
• the context in which the care is provided (cohabiting or not);
• duty as a reason for taking on the role of caregiver;
• the evaluation of the preexisting relationship between caregiver and care recipient; and
• coping strategies and social support as predictor variables of subjective burden.

For this study, 161 caregivers of older Spanish adults completed a questionnaire containing information on the corresponding variables. The results indicated that people cohabiting with care recipients experienced a greater subjective burden than those who lived apart. The caregiver’s evaluation of their preexisting relationship with the care recipient and perceived family support negatively predicted the subjective burden, while maladaptive coping strategies positively predicted it. These results underline the importance of considering these variables in caregiver support programs.

Authors

• Pilar Montañés, PhD, associate professor, Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences, University of La Rioja, Logroño, Spain.
• María Lacalle, MSW, social worker, Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences, University of La Rioja, Logroño, Spain.
• Domingo Carbonero, PhD, associate professor, Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences, University of La Rioja, Logroño, Spain.
• Guadalupe Manzano-García, PhD, associate professor, Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences, University of La Rioja, Logroño, Spain.

The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print.

Find out more about the journals and subscriptions at NASW Press.

In the October 2022 issue of the journal Social Work, co-published by NASW and Oxford University Press, an article titled “Social Work Licensure Portability: A Necessity in a Post-COVID-19 World”. This article, the first written on licensure portability in the social work scholarly literature, examines existing licensure portability models and supports the establishment of a social work interstate compact to overcome barriers to social work mobility and access to client care.

The author writes:

The pandemic created a new practice landscape characterized by telehealth and geographically dispersed clients. The social work profession must be able to operate efficiently and effectively in this environment. Change in social work regulation was already needed, and business as usual is no longer acceptable. Proceeding forward on the licensure portability continuum toward mutual recognition is no longer an option but a necessity for social work practice in a post–COVID-19 world.

Article author

Dawn Apgar, PhD, LSW, ACSW, assistant professor, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work, and Criminal Justice, Seton Hall University.

The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print.

Find out more about the journals and subscriptions at NASW Press.

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By Gary Pettengell, ECINS

If there were ever a time to truly appreciate the essential contributions to society made by social workers – it would be now. As we find ways to recognize, inspire, and equip social work professionals tackling a confluence of challenges in schools, families, and communities, the most important thing is to acknowledge the immense challenges they face every day across every sector of the service field.

They do not have an easy task.

According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than half of high school students report feeling “persistently sad or hopeless.” As The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson writes, “Almost every measure of mental health is getting worse, for every teenage demographic, and it’s happening all across the country.”

Many adults report similar sentiments. A 2021 employee survey found that “83 percent of respondents felt emotionally drained from work and 71 percent strongly agreed that the workplace affects their mental health.”

At the same time, communities are reeling from other, often-interrelated factors, including homelessness, drug addiction, and food insecurity. On any given night, more than 580,000 people are homeless in the United States, while drug addiction and overdoses impact people of all ages in all communities.

Each of these challenges is made more difficult by the persistent and ongoing pandemic and global crises impacting already stark economic challenges. These escalating effects accentuate and accelerate community needs while often hindering social workers’ capacity to respond.

Social workers are dedicated to serving their communities. Still, with exponential demands on all areas of their time – from schedule and bandwidth to the process of client intake information – new methods, processes and innovative approaches to the system must be considered if social workers are to successfully meet their clients’ needs.

Here are three digital-driven innovative best practices enhancing social workers in their careers and impact by harnessing data and facilitating collaboration to build alliances around clients to improve outcomes for people and communities.

No. 1: Develop a One Front Door Onboarding Practice

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Asking for help can be extremely difficult. People may not know where to seek support, and even when they know where to go, many are wary of looking weak, needy, and incompetent. As Garret Keizer, author of Help: The Original Human Dilemma, told The New York Times, “There is a tendency to act as if it’s a deficiency. There is an understandable fear that if you let your guard down, you’ll get hurt, or that this information you don’t know how to do will be used against you.”

That’s why social workers – and their agency, educational, and community partners – must develop a one front door intake policy that acknowledges people’s bravery and vulnerability by connecting them with a variety of different services while only requiring them to tell their story once.

Since people’s struggles are often interrelated, this approach can encourage holistic healing among communities. For example, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that one-third of people experiencing housing insecurity also experience mental health or substance abuse challenges.

Rather than requiring people to seek support for each of these issues, social workers increase their effectiveness by connecting people with as many support services as needed to improve people’s lives.

No. 2: Collaborate to Increase Impact

To be successful, social workers know that they can’t work alone. Collaborative case management software facilitates these valuable connections, increasing a social worker’s capacity and expanding their impact.

The results can be especially far-reaching. Research by Rutgers University found that one community’s initiatives that “pools social service providers together in an effort to offer improved support” created more stable social support and financial stability throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Ross Whiting, the associate director of the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs and principal investigator of the study, concludes, “Our data shows that, more than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, this collaboration has helped improve child well-being, financial stability and the relationship between children and their caregivers.”

In other words, when the social worker community has the technological resources to onboard people through a one front door policy, they can funnel referrals from multiple sources, diverting them to appropriate teams and organizations to maximize impact.

For instance, collaborative case management software can help social workers operate from a single record of truth, making it easier to support transient people or those who meet multiple support criteria.

No. 3: Empower People to Enact Change

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When social workers have comprehensive case records that reflect the whole person, they are positioned to empower people to enact change that improves lives, enhances communities, and promotes a flourishing future.

Simply put, change produces change, and many people want to achieve this valuable outcome.

For example, housing security is linked to improved health outcomes while supporting students’ mental health increases graduation rates, proving that just as multiple trials can have cascading consequences for people’s well-being, meeting these needs can reverse downward trends.

For the nearly 700,000 people working as social workers, the persistent pandemic has increased demand for their valuable services, presenting an opportunity to update their practices and procedures to meet the moment. Ultimately, their success is predicated on their impeccable skills and training, but data and collaboration can enhance these efforts.

Technology can support these initiatives, providing insights and facilitating connections that empower people to enact change. Social worker month has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean the imperative has diminished. Instead, now is the perfect time to equip social workers and their agency, educational, and community partners with the tools to build alliances around clients to improve outcomes for people and communities.

Family reunification following migration-related separations is often challenging for immigrant youth as they adjust to their new environment and reacquaint with their caregiver. Scant research has explored the experiences of family reunification specifically for unaccompanied immigrant youth.

A recent issue of the journal Social Work Research, co-published by NASW and Oxford University Press, showcases a study of family reunification experiences. This study was a secondary analysis to explore the complexities of family reunification through the lens of attachment theory and family systems. Data were collected from 30 youth, six parents, and four school administrators via focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Unaccompanied immigrant youth had arrived at the United States in the previous three years from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, or Mexico. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. (In theoretical thematic analysis, rather than imposing a preset coding schema, recurring topics that answer the research question are identified in the narratives and may be used to create a codebook. In this study, the team independently read through the transcripts in search of family-related challenges that unaccompanied immigrant youth face following reunification with a parent or guardian.)

The results showed that the youth struggled to reconnect with their parents due to prolonged separations, which contributed to loneliness and feelings of loss. Parent–child attachment disruptions contributed to problems related to relationships among family members, traditional family roles and hierarchies, and new family constellations (e.g., blended families). In addition, the results point to the importance of developing interventions to increase trust, empathy, and communication between unaccompanied immigrant youth and their parents.

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Study Authors:

• Liza Barros-Lane, PhD, LMSW, assistant professor of social work, University of Houston-Downtown
• Kalina Brabeck, PhD, professor, counseling, Rhode Island College
• Jodi Arden Berger Cardoso, PhD, MSSW, associate professor, Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston

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The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print.

Learn more about the NASW Press journals and subscriptions.