{"title":"Toward a creative and imaginative research approach: Collage as a method of inquiry in social work","authors":"Mostafa Hosseini","doi":"10.1177/14733250241268734","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250241268734","url":null,"abstract":"Qualitative research in social work employs various scientific approaches to explore the diversity and depth of human life, with interviews and observations being commonly used. Situated within an arts-based research (ABR) framework, this study explores participants’ experiences of collage-making, and how collage can be used as a methodological approach for collecting empirical data. Four themes emerged from the analysis: (1) Collage: a dynamic visual language in art and communication; (2) Collage: a method for reflecting, sharing, and bonding; (3) Collage: the ethics of associative creation; (4) Collage: the prerequisites of time, space, and place. Working with collage can be highly participatory and exploratory, developing meaningfulness, imagination, and new insights for both researcher and participant. It promotes an egalitarian and holistic approach to listening to people, enabling them to convey their experiences using visual, verbal, and metaphorical language. Nevertheless, the process is time-consuming given that collage-making lacks a distinct endpoint or limitation. Using this method requires time, participant commitment, researcher involvement, and a trustworthy workgroup. Moreover, the free and associative nature of creating collage, alongside the act of cutting pieces from one’s life and assembling them into a new whole, raises ethical questions. In conclusion, collage as a method of inquiry for collecting empirical data creates promising conditions for capturing stories of people’s lives, aspirations, struggles, and experiences of social processes and political concepts. With appropriate conditions in place, the process can be a meaningful experience for all involved.","PeriodicalId":47677,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Social Work","volume":"64 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142216473","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In this issue…","authors":"Lisa Morriss","doi":"10.1177/14733250241275813","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250241275813","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47677,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Social Work","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142216475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How conversations can empower and involve: Building the evidence for Approved Mental Health Professionals’ communicative practices","authors":"Jill Hemmington","doi":"10.1177/14733250241268731","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250241268731","url":null,"abstract":"Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs) undertake Mental Health Act (MHA) interviews and they make the ultimate decision, based on doctors’ medical recommendations, to detain an individual in hospital without their consent. AMHPs are required to embed the statutory guiding principle of Empowerment and Involvement as well as to maximise service users’ self-determination and this is part of a broader policy orientation toward principles of participation, involvement, shared decision-making and supported decision-making. Yet there is very little research in this area and AMHP practice takes place in the absence of guidelines or clear evidence base. Consequently, more needs to be understood about effective techniques for communication and involvement. This study was conducted with AMHPs from an AMHP service in England. A qualitative methodology was employed to gather indepth information about AMHPs’ communicative practices. MHA assessments were observed and audio-recorded to enable Conversation Analysis to be used to analyse the content and style of communication within interactions. Findings suggest that at a micro, conversational level, AMHPs worked to address obstacles to communication as well as to maintain, or restore, affiliation and alignment in their relationships with service users. Evidence suggests that communicative techniques form part of AMHPs’ broader coordinating and empowering role. The study concludes that there is a need for a more deliberate and deliberative approach to re-engineer how AMHPs and service users work together, providing original evidence for AMHP practice and supporting future training.","PeriodicalId":47677,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Social Work","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142216417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Themes do not emerge. An editor’s reflections on the use of Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis","authors":"Lisa Morriss","doi":"10.1177/14733250241277355","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250241277355","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47677,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Social Work","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142216418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘A home to dream love into’ – An autoethnographic analysis of mothering with mental illness","authors":"Kirsty Oehlers","doi":"10.1177/14733250241270934","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250241270934","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the links between mothers, mental illness, estrangement from children, and systemic power and control, through a critically creative autoethnographic methodology. A historical and contemporary discursive analysis of two kinds of documentation is made. Firstly, my great-grandmother’s psychiatric hospital records from almost one hundred years ago are analysed, incorporating parts of my own story, as well as the personal account of a family member. These are then contrasted against four Family Court Judgement, where mothers have been found to be incapable of caring for their children. ‘Found poetry’ is then created from the documents presented, to elucidate the argument that a century since my great-grandmother’s forced separation from her children, women with mental illness still face stigma, marginalisation, and hopelessness in the face of outdated, narrow constructions of mothering. Implications for those who work in forensic social work fields are noted in terms of addressing systemic abuses of power against mothers.","PeriodicalId":47677,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Social Work","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142216419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The role of phone mediation: Social workers’ and vulnerable clients’ role performances in mediated welfare encounters","authors":"Alexandrina Schmidt","doi":"10.1177/14733250241268765","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250241268765","url":null,"abstract":"Welfare encounters are increasingly being conducted using communication devices which comprises mediated encounters. This article contributes to studies on the integration of mediated encounters into social work practice. The study adopts a symbolic interactionist perspective and is based on interviews with 24 social workers and 17 vulnerable clients. It examines the role of phone mediation in social workers’ and clients’ role performances in welfare encounters that lack non-verbal communication. This study argues that phone mediation illustrates the unequal stakes in welfare encounters: A professional work role and organisational goal attainment are at stake for social workers, whereas the livelihoods of vulnerable clients depend on welfare encounters and the social and economic support provided by them. Such stakes are often taken for granted in routine face-to-face welfare encounters; thus, phone mediation alerts the participants to the consequentiality of welfare encounters. Moreover, this article finds that phone mediation may provide confidential distance, which can be used to support hard-to-reach clients and social work practices. However, mediated encounters also run the risk of being insignificant for client trajectories and restrict the roles of social workers and clients. Overall, the study highlights everyday technologies, such as phones, that are important for the social worker-client relationship, welfare delivery, and clients’ welfare trajectories. It argues for further inclusion of everyday technologies in future research agendas that examine the digitalisation of social work and the importance of non-verbal communication.","PeriodicalId":47677,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Social Work","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141778408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Indigenous scholar’s journey towards decolonizing social work","authors":"Autumn Asher BlackDeer","doi":"10.1177/14733250241268730","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250241268730","url":null,"abstract":"Tonóéva Mo'⊙htáeváótséva ná-heševehe. Ná-tsėhéstahe. I seek to begin this work in a good way by introducing myself and my nation; I am Dr Autumn Asher BlackDeer, sovereign member of the mighty Southern Cheyenne Nation. It is an honor to be of the Little Calf bloodline, to be part of the legacy of my grandfather Sam B. Deer, a sacred arrow keeper, medicine man, and camp crier for our people. As my ancestors have served our people and created a path for future generations, I strive to do the same, honoring their legacy and furthering their work, standing on the shoulders of giants. The present work is a weaving of a storytelling approach with an academic lens to sharing pieces of my journey as an Indigenous scholar towards decolonizing social work.","PeriodicalId":47677,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Social Work","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141778482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘I like checking in on myself’: Control group experiences in a strengths-based addiction recovery study, with implications for self-monitoring and measurement reactivity","authors":"Amy R Krentzman, Julie C Gass","doi":"10.1177/14733250241262347","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250241262347","url":null,"abstract":"New definitions of addiction recovery are aligned with social work’s strengths-based orientation: recovery from addiction is not only a process of reducing pathology but also a process of flourishing and thriving. In response to new recovery definitions, researchers are now designing studies that measure strengths-based, multidimensional aspects of recovery instead of measuring substance use or symptoms exclusively. This study employs grounded theory to investigate this change in measurement strategy; its impact on people in recovery; and its implications for social work research, existing theory, and interventions social workers employ to support client recovery. Thirty-two participants (47% female, M = 40 years in age, 16% BIPOC) in treatment for substance use disorders participated in interviews after completing surveys daily for 28 days that assessed strengths-based, multidimensional aspects of recovery. Participants reported that completion of surveys led them to realize aspects of self that were previously hidden from awareness, use that information to determine where they ‘were at’ in their recovery (doing well, could be doing more, not doing well); and, based on that determination, take steps to strengthen recovery. A minority of participants expressed despair when surveys revealed painful information and these participants did not describe using skills to regulate negative affect. This study found that strengths-based, multidimensional recovery-oriented surveys can provide therapeutic benefit. This grounded theory analysis extends existing theory to include the influence of coping skills on an individual’s ability to derive benefit from the self-monitoring of diverse aspects of their recovery.","PeriodicalId":47677,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Social Work","volume":"145 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141503400","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Giving voice by doing with not doing through: Collaborating with tactile sign language interpreters in interpretative phenomenological analysis research involving older deafblind people","authors":"Peter Simcock, Jill Manthorpe, Anthea Tinker","doi":"10.1177/14733250241250140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250241250140","url":null,"abstract":"There is a dearth of qualitative research into deafblind people’s experiences, impoverishing our understanding of the phenomenon and contributing to deafblind people’s social exclusion. As an approach which seeks to amplify the perspectives of participants from so called ‘vulnerable groups’, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) appears ideally suited to qualitative research exploring the experiences of the deafblind population. However, one strategy for facilitating the inclusion of deafblind people in qualitative research is the involvement of tactile sign language interpreters, and some have argued that phenomenological methods, such as IPA, be avoided where interpreters are involved. Nevertheless, those promoting IPA encourage flexibility and creativity in its use. Using the example of a UK based study exploring vulnerability among older deafblind people, this paper illustrates how tactile sign language interpreters were involved in IPA research. The criteria for evaluating the management of interpreters in qualitative research devised by Squires are used to frame critical reflection on the necessary adaptation of IPA, and the authors contend that IPA study involving tactile sign language interpreters can successfully give voice to older deafblind people when careful attention is paid to the interpreters’ credentials, role, and positionality, and it is acknowledged that IPA research is completed with not through the interpreters.","PeriodicalId":47677,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Social Work","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140840819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}