Current calls to end structural racism in the US include proposals to abolish or radically transform child welfare services (CWS). While substantial research finds numerous poor outcomes following maltreatment, the efficacy and acceptability of CWS, particularly for children of color, has long sparked debate. This review summarizes the state of quantitative research across seven domains for children overall and by race with varying degrees of CWS contact. Current research with adequate comparisons provides no robust evidence to support the idea that children have worse outcomes from CWS involvement, but few studies focused on Black children. Implications for research and system change are discussed.
Miller SE, Hayward RA, Shaw TV. Environmental shifts for social work: A principles approach
The social work profession is rooted in a history of addressing the needs of vulnerable populations. Generally, however, this history has not extended to issues relating to the natural environment. Building on a framework of environmental justice, this article proposes a shift from the artificial separation of the social and natural environments in its person‐in‐environment focus to an expanded holistic understanding of the dynamic interplay between human society and the natural environment. It examines issues surrounding environmental and ecological justice, and proposes a principles approach to move the profession towards a paradigm of environmental justice using as its template the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice adopted by the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in the USA in 1991. It discusses the value of these principles in enhancing social work's capacity to address issues of environmental concern. It proposes that, with greater awareness of the effects of environmental issues on high‐needs populations, the profession would be better able to balance environmental and human concerns.
Female nursing students who had completed an instructional and experiential training program were compared on their perception, beliefs and opinions about mental illness with students who had just entered the same program. The results showed that students who had completed their training were better able to perceive the presence and severity of mental illness. Both groups favoured psychosocial etiology and psychosocial forms of treatment. There was no difference in their attitudes towards the mentally ill and both groups shared an overall optimism about prognosis. The implications of the lack of sophisticated knowledge about psychiatric disorders among mental health professionals are discussed.
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