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Special Issue "Second Edition of International Perspectives on Mental Health Social Work"

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Mental Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2023 | Viewed by 2408

Special Issue Editors

School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland
Interests: mental health social work; mental health social work and the law; social work and political conflict
Department of Social Work & Social Policy, La Trobe University, Melbourne 3086, Australia
Interests: mental health social work; psychiatry and the law; reducing coercive interventions and restrictive practise; social inclusion and recovery-oriented practice
School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
Interests: mental health social work; social determinants of mental health; human rights; mental health law; mental capacity law

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This is the second Special Issue that we will be editing, following the success of the first: International Perspectives on Mental Health and Mental Health Social Work (Campbell, J., Brophy, L., & Davidson, G. (2022). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health19(12), 7387; https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7387/htm.)

We wish to build upon the first Special Issue by focusing particularly on the mental health social work role, social work policies and social work education in local, national and international contexts. There are many forms of mental health services across the world, and within these services mental health social workers carry out a range of functions. Conventional approaches to understanding these roles tend to be informed by role domains that have evolved in Western models of delivery over the last hundred years. For example, in some jurisdictions, mental health social workers carry out prescribed legal duties in assessing risk and capacity. In other contexts, the role is more likely to be defined by types of therapeutic intervention or community-based approaches to assessing need. Increasingly, mental health social workers, as with other professions in this field, are expected to redress traditional imbalances of power with service users and their families. These conventional ways of describing the role are now being challenged by new paradigms, for example in terms of engagement with new social movements and green politics, and the opportunities that social media and technological advances create for policy, practice and education. Another imperative is to move beyond Eurocentric approaches to mental health social work, and to consider how professional ideologies and educational process can be decolonialised in response to the consequences of Black Lives Matter. We are also interested in contributions that can lead to our understanding of, and respecting, the contribution of First Nations knowledge to social work including these First Nations perspectives. Contributions can be in the form of original research, policy analysis and critical commentaries.

Prof. Dr. Jim Campbell
Prof. Dr. Lisa Brophy
Prof. Dr. Gavin Davidson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mental health social work
  • mental health law
  • therapeutic interventions
  • recovery approaches
  • assessing and managing risk
  • anti-oppressive practice
  • service evaluation
  • community based interventions

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
The Professional Identity of Social Workers in Mental Health Services: A Scoping Review
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(11), 5947; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20115947 - 25 May 2023
Viewed by 862
Abstract
Recent research into the role of mental health social work has identified a need for increased critical engagement with accounts of professional role and identity. Notably, a number of studies have found that social workers struggle to articulate their role within mental health [...] Read more.
Recent research into the role of mental health social work has identified a need for increased critical engagement with accounts of professional role and identity. Notably, a number of studies have found that social workers struggle to articulate their role within mental health teams and services. This study aimed to identify the ways in which social workers in mental health settings defined their professional identity and role. An international scoping review utilizing Arksey and O’Malley’s method was conducted, identifying 35 papers published between 1997 and 2022. A thematic analysis grouped the findings into three predominant themes: (i) distinct social work approaches to mental health, (ii) organizational negotiations for mental health social workers, and (iii) professional negotiations for mental health social workers. These thematic findings are discussed in relation to existing research and critical perspectives, with particular emphasis on accounts of the bureaucratic and ideological functioning of professionalism in mental health services, as well as the global direction of mental health policy. This review finds that mental health social work embodies a coherent identity that aligns with international mental health policy agendas but faces significant challenges in developing and expressing this identity within mental health services. Full article
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Article
Towards a “New Mothering” Practice? The Life Experiences of Mothers Raising a Child with Autism in Urban Ethiopia
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(7), 5333; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075333 - 30 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1153
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurological and developmental disorder that has seen an increase in prevalence over the past two decades, particularly in low and middle-income countries. The purpose of the current paper is to examine the experiences of mothers in [...] Read more.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurological and developmental disorder that has seen an increase in prevalence over the past two decades, particularly in low and middle-income countries. The purpose of the current paper is to examine the experiences of mothers in Ethiopia raising a child with ASD through employing a qualitative research design involving semi-structured interviews with twenty mothers. The experiences of mothers in this study fell into three thematic areas: (1) grieving and experiencing other emotions arising from the diagnosis of their child; (2) developing, understanding and defining autism; and (3) accepting the diagnosis and developing coping strategies for raising their child. The findings revealed that raising a child with autism introduced a new lifelong experience to mothers’ everyday lives, profoundly changing their parenting role and transforming their view of mothering. Recognition of the experience of “new mothering” and mothers’ meaning-making process, stress, coping mechanisms and resilience is critical to informing policies, programs, counseling and other therapeutic efforts to assist children with autism and their families for social workers in Ethiopia and those working with the Ethiopian diaspora in other regions of the world. Full article
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