Educational Determinants of Readiness to Practise with LGBTQ Clients: Social Work Students Speak Out

Abstract

As health and mental health providers are increasingly called to attend to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) issues, it is critical for social work education to ensure the competency of students to deliver services to these populations. This North American online study investigated the self-assessed readiness of LGBTQ undergraduate and master's-level social work students (n ¼ 1,018) to practise with LGBT clients, as well as their assessment of their non-LGBTQ peers. Participants were enrolled in Master of Social Work (MSW) (76.0 per cent) or Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) (24.0 per cent) programmes, representing 136 schools in fifty-two states/provinces. Students reported fairly low levels of self-assessed practise readiness with specific subpopulations (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender), with participants reporting the highest (somewhat prepared) self-assessed readiness with gay populations and the lowest (not well prepared) self-assessed readiness with transgender populations. Regression analyses were conducted separately for each subpopulation and revealed that across all groups higher readiness to practise was positively associated with implicit programme support for LGBTQ students, positive handling of LGBTQ issues in classrooms and explicit inclusion of LGBTQ content in courses. Implications for social work education are discussed.

Examining Cohort Differences and Resilience among the Aging LGBT Community: Implications for Education and Practice among an Expansively Diverse Population

“…Educators, practitioners, and researchers alike would benefit from a broader understanding of specific life span and age cohort differences that exist among the LGBT community (Smith et al, 2010). For this trend to continue in a positive manner, however, it is necessary that professionals prepare themselves to work with LGBT older adults such as any other diverse client population as well as to acknowledge the ongoing need for personal and professional growth (Bogo, 2010;Logie et al, 2007;Craig et al, 2014). Only through continued learning and exploration of personal attitudes and beliefs about LGBT and aging issues can this community be effectively, comprehensively, and competently served.…”

“…In order to effectively expand cohort-specific knowledge and clarify perceptions of LGBT legal, psychosocial, well aging, and health care issues, educators and practitioners alike must ensure expansion and infusion of such topics within the classroom (Logie et al, 2007;Gezinski, 2009;Craig et al, 2014), agency settings, field placements (Messinger, 2011) and counseling offices alike while measuring competency whenever possible. This may be accomplished though broader and ongoing discussions related to policy, advocacy, social justice, and civil rights in order to effectively advocate and increase knowledge of LGBT aging (McFarland & Sanders, 2003), lifespan, and psychosocial issues.…”

“…Many LGBT older adults who lived through the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s may actually be far more cautious of, and educated about, HIV/AIDS and safer-sexual practices and attitudes (Craig, Dentato, Messinger, & McInroy, 2014) that sets them apart from younger generations who may be complacent and no longer view HIV as a terminal illness (Jaffe, Valdiserri, & De Cock, 2007) thanks to advancements with HAART and availability of pre-exposure prophylaxis treatments. Older LGBT individuals may be more willing to communicate about their sexual practices and more comfortable engaging in educational discussions.…”

“…Such training may relate to maleto-female transsexuals' need for regular prostate exams or most female-to-male transsexuals' need for regular pap smears (Thompson, 2008). In the same regard, recent literature is just beginning to examine the effective preparedness of LGBT and non-LGBT undergraduate and graduate students within mental health professions, including social work (Logie et al, 2007;Bogo, 2010;Craig et al, 2014), to practice among the LGBT community and other minority populations.…”

Are you ready? Qualifying social work students’ perception of their preparedness to work competently with service users from sexual and gender minority communities

“…LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) social work students (Craig et al, 2016) found low levels of self-assessed readiness to practise with specific subpopulations, particularly trans populations. In addition, the findings of a recent survey undertaken on behalf of Stonewall in the UK (Somerville, 2015), suggest that more than one in ten workers in health and social care settings (including social workers) do not feel confident in their ability to understand or meet the needs of LGB people, and that a quarter of them are not confident in their ability to respond to the specific care needs of trans people.…”