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As the social work field increasingly recognizes economic abuse within intimate partner relationships, the field has developed financial empowerment programs to empower survivors for their financial future. Although research has demonstrated the effectiveness of financial literacy programs, there are barriers to their implementation in the field. Studies have explored, from the perspective of advocates, best practices in incorporating financial literacy into services; however, no studies have explored implementation approaches from the perspective of survivors. This study explores, from the perspective of 34 survivors, approaches for implementing financial literacy programming. Participants described their understanding of financial empowerment as being in charge of finances, having financial power, and not having to endure the struggle. To counter financial disempowerment, participants identified the need for financial confidence, knowledge, and tools. Participants shared their strategies for saving money, though many participants reported barriers to using banks as savings tools. Almost all participants stressed the importance of financial literacy services for survivors, especially around banking, credit, and debt. Finally, participants shared recommendations for job readiness and training programming. Findings have implications for domestic violence and broader social work organizations implementing financial empowerment services. Social workers can support financial empowerment efforts through program development and research efforts. © 2019 National Association of Social Workers.

Importance: Transphobia and stigma remain barriers to seeking mental health care for gender-diverse adolescents. Objective: To examine the utility of brief social contact-based video interventions of transgender protagonists with depression to reduce transphobia and depression-related stigma and increase treatment-seeking intentions among adolescents in the general population. Design, Setting, and Participants: During August 2021, a total of 1437 participants were recruited and randomly assigned to 1 of 4 video-based conditions in a 2:2:1:1 ratio: (1) transgender adolescent girls, (2) transgender adolescent boys, (3) cisgender adolescent girls, or (4) cisgender adolescent boys. Interventions: In each of the approximately 110-second videos, an empowered presenter shared their personal story about coping with depression and reaching out for help. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was the score on the Attitudes Toward Transgender Men and Women (ATTMW) scale. Secondary outcomes were (1) a "gender thermometer" rating for warmth in transgender perception, (2) the Depression Stigma Scale (DSS) score, and (3) the General Health-Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ) score. Results: Of the 1437 randomized participants, 1098 (76%) completed the postintervention assessment and passed all the validity tests (mean [SD] age, 16.9 [1.2] years; 481 [44%] male; 640 [58%] White). A significant change in attitudes toward transgender youth was found within the intervention group only (mean [SD] ATTMW scores: intervention group, 34.6 [23.1] at baseline to 32.8 [24.2] after intervention; P ¡.001; control group, 33.5 [23.4] at baseline to 32.4 [24.1] after intervention; P =.01). The mean (SD) total DSS scores decreased significantly across study groups (intervention: 1.3 [3.3]; control: 1.7 [3.3]; P ¡.001). A significant increase in intention to seek help from a parent was found in the intervention (mean [SD] GHSQ score, 0.2 [1.1]) and control (mean [SD] GHSQ score, 0.3 [1.2]) groups (P ¡.001), as was a decrease in those not wanting to seek help from anyone (mean [SD] GHSQ score: intervention, 0.2 [1.6], P =.009; control, 0.3 [1.2], P ¡.001) Secondary analyses revealed significant differences in baseline ATTMW scores and intervention effects between transgender and gender-diverse and cisgender participants and between lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ) and straight participants (F = 36.7, P ¡.001) and heterosexual participants (F = 37.0, P ¡.001). A significant difference was also found in mean (SD) transgender warmth scores from baseline to after intervention between groups (2.6° [13.1°] in the intervention group vs 0.4° [8.3°] in the control group; P ¡.001). Conclusions and Relevance: In this randomized clinical trial, brief social contact-based videos proved efficacious in reducing transphobia and depression-related stigma and in increasing treatment-seeking intentions among adolescents in the general population. By personifying, individualizing, and providing face and voice to the experience of transgender youth, other adolescents, especially those who are cisgender and/or of a heterosexual orientation, can gain empathetic insights into the lives of their often marginalized and stigmatized fellow youth. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04969003. © 2022 Collabra: Psychology. All rights reserved.

This autoethnographic study highlights complex strategies for maintaining white supremacy used by “well-intentioned” heterocentric white female social workers that are enacted under the guise of practicing anti-racism in social work practice settings, classroom environments, policy initiatives, and advocacy work. Using autoethnography was both unplanned and deliberate. Unplanned, we needed a research method that allows us to explore the untouchable subject of heterocentric white female social workers and deliberate in that we could use our experiences to break ground and establish white supremacy among heterocentric white female social workers that espouse anti-racist values as an area of study. We draw on education, anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines to name some of the ongoing challenges to dismantling racism, colonialist, and reformer narratives in social work, and identify strategies used by all white folx, but particularly heterocentric white female social workers to neutralize the suggestion or accusation of their acts as racism. We name three challenges to dismantling racism among heterocentric white female social workers: hiding behind the data, anti-racist book clubs, and crying and comfort. We conclude with further questions for those who hold power in the field and a reflection upon our own continued intersecting struggles with these concepts. © 2021 Authors,.

Graduate students of multiple racial identities in predominantly White institutions enter social work programs with a wide range of knowledge about and experiences of White Supremacy, particularly the ways in which structural forms of racism continue to inflict harm, block opportunities, and perpetuate wealth inequities. In addition, White students are often challenged to grasp the ways they have been socialized to participate in perpetuating White Supremacy. This wide range of knowledge and experiences makes it likely that students will experience a range of emotions and defensive resistance necessitating skillful pedagogical design and facilitation of class interactions. Intentional use of theoretical frameworks with experiential activities can deepen self-awareness and understanding of the systemic nature of White Supremacy (Okun, 2010). In this manuscript, four students and two instructors discuss their learning experiences within a course addressing White Supremacy for students of multiple racial identities in a predominantly White institution. Post-course dialogue amongst these multiracial authors identified six core areas of learning when examining intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural racism, cultural wealth of BIPOC peoples, and anti-racism actions. Two primary implications for education are: Weave conceptual frameworks with interpersonal experiential activities throughout the course design, and attend to interactional power dynamics during class meetings. © 2021 Authors, Vol. 21 No. 2/3 (Summer 2021), 821-840,.

Background: While incarcerated people are known to experience trauma at higher rates than the general population, little is known about how the correctional health system contributes to trauma rates. Methods: We conducted 20 semi-structured qualitative interviews with men who were recently released from a correctional system to understand their experiences with healthcare systems and medical staff during incarceration. Using reflexive thematic analysis within a critical realist framework, we coded and analyzed the data iteratively to refine and unify emerging themes. Results: The unanticipated concept of healthcare-induced trauma emerged and was revealed in three overall themes: (1) healthcare leading to fear of serious illness or death, (2) healthcare leading to fear of people, including healthcare providers, correctional staff, and other incarcerated people, and (3) the correctional institutional, social, and physical environment leads to fear of place. Conclusions: Healthcare in correctional settings has the potential to induce trauma, even when the medical conditions addressed are not life-threatening. Future research should examine the factors contributing to the development of healthcare-induced trauma in correctional settings and develop interventions to prevent and address this phenomenon. © 2021, The Author(s).

The long-term effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic on individuals, families, and society are not yet known. For social workers, it is critical to consider how the pandemic is impacting families, and in particular, children and their development. This manuscript applies psychodynamic theory and research on neurobiology to explore some of the potential effects of COVID-19 on children and their developmental trajectories. The discussion of these psychodynamic concepts is also placed within the context of the heightened tensions around equity and social justice issues within the U.S. society. In addition, this article provides guidelines, strategies, and resources for social workers that can be used when working with families and caregivers to mitigate any potential negative effects that the pandemic is having on children and their families. A case presentation is included to further illustrate these issues. © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The studies reviewed here reflect many important aspects of the onset, course, and outcome of schizophrenia; that is, premorbid factors, childhood and late-life onset, the positive-negative syndrome dichotomy, co-occurring substance abuse, outcome research, and theoretical issues. Unsurprisingly, heterogeneity of course and outcome emerges as a major theme., (C) Lippincott-Raven Publishers.

Objective Alternative primary care structures such as group well-child care (GWCC) may enhance care for families, particularly those subject to structural vulnerabilities such as poverty or restrictive immigration policies. The purpose of this study was to characterize how group dynamics in GWCC impact the perceptions of low-income, immigrant, and/or Spanish-speaking parents of health services. Methods Using Spanish and English interview guides that were conceptually identical, we conducted semi-structured interviews with parents who elected to participate in GWCC at an urban academic center. We drew from directed content analysis, grounded theoretically in the Andersen model of health services utilization. Modeling a bilingual, multicultural analytic strategy, we preserved the narrative of participants in the source language through all stages of analysis. Results From March through August 2017, we interviewed 22 caregivers in their preferred language. Most (82%) were mothers and half spoke Spanish only. Three themes emerged: participants perceived that (1) GWCC facilitates their and their peers' discovery of inherent expertise, which moderates parents' use of health services, (2) GWCC encourages rearrangements of hierarchies of knowledge, professional roles and genders; and (3) in the context of structural vulnerabilities, relationships formed in GWCC facilitate collective efficacy. Conclusions for Practice By considering the self and peer as sources of health-related expertise, GWCC may extend current theoretical models of health services utilization. GWCC provides opportunities to impact health services utilization among families subject to structural vulnerabilities.

In this paper we review the impact of DSM-III and its successors on the field of autism—both in terms of clinical work and research. We summarize the events leading up to the inclusion of autism as a “new” official diagnostic category in DSM-III, the subsequent revisions of the DSM, and the impact of the official recognition of autism on research. We discuss the uses of categorical vs. dimensional approaches and the continuing tensions around broad vs. narrow views of autism. We also note some areas of current controversy and directions for the future.

Louis Lowy (1920 to 1991), the international social work educator, remembered surviving the Holocaust as a formative professional experience. After joining the faculty of Boston University School of Social Work, Lowy returned to Germany every summer for 20 years to help restore social work education. This SPARC project, “The Past and Future of Social Group Work in Germany: Contributions of Louis Lowy,” was proposed in collaboration with Klaus-Martin Ellerbrock and the German Chapter of IASWG at the height of the 2015 global refugee crisis, when Germany admitted more than one million refugees. The purposes of the project were to encourage ongoing international scholarship on the implications of Lowy’s teachings for social work with groups; to facilitate research and writing from an international perspective on group work with migrants and other disenfranchised populations; and to foster international collaborations among group workers in the spirit of Louis Lowy. © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Sexual minority women are disproportionately incarcerated and more likely to experience structural and interpersonal violence while incarcerated than heterosexual cisgender women. To build knowledge about this population and inform social work practice, theories of embodiment were used to conduct thematic analysis of five interviews with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer masculine-identified people who had been incarcerated in a women’s prison. This analysis explicates how participants used bodily practices to construct gender and communicate identity to themselves and others. Uniforms, prison regulations, and physical manifestations of female embodiment complicated these efforts. Participants described the ways in which they monitored and evaluated their own bodies while also managing the constant surveillance of their bodies by others. Taken together, these findings explicate the ways in which participants’ bodies were produced both through their actions and the external gaze of others. Implications for social work include exploration of language and masculinity in practice settings and suggestions for correctional policies. Findings encourage inclusion of non-binary frameworks and increased attention to the embodied self in order to expand understandings of human behaviour in the social environment. IMPLICATIONS Interpret with caution any information about gender identity surmised from intake forms and observation of clients’ bodily practices. Ask clients to describe their gender identity. Prioritise correctional policies that promote the health and safety of incarcerated people and staff over policies that enforce social norms related to gender and have no implications on security. Encourage re-entry service providers to collaborate with LGBTIQA+ organisations that provide social support to clients who identify as sexual minorities. © 2021 Australian Association of Social Workers.