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An Estonian saying holds that everyone has a unique song in their heart. This profound theme resonates throughout the pages of Song of my Soul. This work is not merely a memoir but a visceral journey through the heart of a besieged nation and a family’s unwavering struggle for survival. Rakfeldt’s narrative immerses the reader in the turbulent twentieth century, when Estonia became a pawn in Stalin and Hitler’s brutal power plays, marked by the devastating impact of three successive occupations. The author recounts his family’s harrowing escape to Sweden, their flight through Europe, and the process of building a new life in the West. He weaves together poignant episodes from his parents’ lives in Estonia, which were shattered by the Soviet invasion, forcing them to flee into forests and marshes and live as partisans hunted by Russian death squads. Beyond the historical account, Song of my Soul is a deeply personal journey. Rakfeldt begins to reclaim his ancestral heritage and fill the void left by displacement and loss. He grapples with questions of identity and belonging. This book serves as a testament to the resilience of refugee families and chronicles the suffering of the Baltic people. It resonates with anyone who has faced immigration challenges and with those seeking to understand the lasting strength of the human spirit.

This research project was an exploratory mixed method study that explored risk and protective factors associated with Black women’s experiences with perinatal suicidal ideations. The sample included adult women who identified as Black and had experienced suicidal thoughts during pregnancy or postpartum (n = 9). Participants completed an electronic survey consisting of 54 total questions and the 30-item Racial Trauma Scale (RTS). Through their responses, most respondents reported being worried about a loved one’s safety and feeling that the world is unsafe. The respondents also felt that healthcare neglects the needs of Black women. The implications of these findings for clinical social work are that racism and discrimination create chronic stress upon Black pregnant women and their providers, resulting in poor health outcomes and stressful service delivery interactions. Therefore, improved screening and communication between providers and patients will have a positive impact on perinatal mental health in the Black community. © W. Montague Cobb-NMA Health Institute 2025.

Persons with disabilities must be afforded a voice in constructing a system of inclusion in education to which they truly belong. Laws governing special education have increasingly adopted the concept of including individuals with disabilities in mainstream classrooms, often believing doing so counters the inherent othering of exclusion. Identity is not a singular dimension, and disability is only part of one's identity. But special education tacitly continues a mission of assimilating students with disabilities while simultaneously labeling them as disabled, revealing an ableist bias and perpetuating othering attitudes toward those on its rolls. This phenomenological qualitative study (N = 8) explored the lived experience of students enrolled in special education to gain greater understanding of the impact special education has on their sense of belonging in school. The study found enrollment in a school where all students had disabilities helped reveal to students nondisabled aspects of their identity, enabling them to feel more accepted by peers and staff, and enhancing their sense of belonging within the school. © 2025 2025 National Association of Social Workers.

In the spring of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the remote delivery of health and human services, few social workers were prepared to facilitate online groups. Research on virtual group work was limited, and the IASWG Standards for Social Work Practice with Groups offered minimal guidance for online practice. Charles Garvin encouraged the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG) to enhance the Standards with “online considerations” that would support effective group work in virtual environments. Serving as a mentor and active member of the Task Force on Online Considerations, Charles Garvin inspired a systematic, collaborative, and internationally inclusive process that exemplified principles of socially just research. This paper describes the research and development of the online considerations and the limitations and possibilities of defining international guidelines for social work with groups. © 2025 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Sexual minority women (SMW) are a resilient yet vulnerable population who may experience poor psychosocial outcomes due to minority stress associated with their marginalized status and traumatic experiences resulting from interpersonal and structural violence. When SMW are incarcerated, the trauma of this experience can exacerbate existing mental health challenges. Self-concept is a key measure of mental health that is associated with increased self-efficacy and positive psychosocial outcomes. This analysis explores the ways in which incarceration impacts the self-concept of SMW. Secondary data analysis of three qualitative interviews with formerly incarcerated SMW was conducted. Specifically, Gilligan’s Listening Guide was used to create “I poems” that articulate the participants’ narratives and contrapuntal voices. These poems were then analyzed to build knowledge about participants’ self-concept. This analysis informs our understandings of self-concept among SMW, violence against women, the vulnerability of binary constructs, and the ways in which people negotiate past, present and future selves. The findings can inform interventions that seek to mitigate the psychosocial risks faced by SMW and formerly incarcerated people and improve outcomes for these populations.

Objective: We aim to determine the association between insomnia symptoms and mental health in females and males and compare mental health care utilization and perceived barriers between females and males with insomnia symptoms. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study using the National Health Interview Survey. Insomnia symptoms included self-reported “trouble falling asleep”, ‘trouble staying asleep”, and “waking up feeling not well rested”. Mental health included self-reported anxiety and depression. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association between insomnia symptoms and mental health in females and males. Results: A total of 26,691 adults were included. The mean age was 48.2 years; 51.4% were females, and 48.6% were males. Insomnia symptoms were associated with anxiety and depression for both females and males. These associations were stronger in younger adults (<50 years) than older adults (≥50 years). Females with insomnia symptoms were more likely to receive mental health care (OR = 1.7; 95% CI = 1.53, 1.87) but also to delay mental health care because of its cost (OR = 1.96; 95% CI: 1.67, 2.30) or needed mental health care but did not get it because of the cost (OR = 2.14; 95% CI: 1.82, 2.50) than their males counterpart. Conclusions: Insomnia symptoms were associated with mental health in females and males, being stronger in younger adults than older adults, with gender differences in mental health care utilization and financial barriers to mental health care. Holistic approaches involving prevention and better access to mental health care are warranted.

As the U.S. population continues to age, increasing the prevalence of persons impacted by dementia in the community, faith communities are challenged to address the growing needs of their members. However, research has not looked specifically at the effects of religious social support on caregivers for persons living with dementia experiencing burden. This study aimed to address this gap by utilizing an exploratory, cross-sectional design to survey U.S. caregivers of persons living with dementia who expressed faith to be an important aspect of their life (n = 158). This study found that religious social support is a significant predictor of reducing burden among caregivers.