Suchergebnisse

It is difficult to understand what it feels like for people with mental ill-health to be cared-for and supported by family members; this experience is often little-explored. Narratives about caring have been increasingly written alongside first-person accounts of recovery, however, there is a dearth of literature written to gain the perspective of being cared-for because of mental distress. Thus, using autoethnography, I present three critical incidents occurring at different points in my recovery to enable exploration of experiences of being cared-for. Firstly, a critical incident at the point of acute unwellness is introduced, secondly an incident during a consultation with a health professional is highlighted, and finally a moment of transition when embarking on an independent life with my husband-to-be is described. I use autoethnography to connect "the autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social, and political". I consider how the identity of a carer is continually negotiated in a relationship with the service user in both the "private" and the "public" worlds during recovery. I reflect on how professionals can support both service users and carers in a triangle of care, by providing information and support, alongside promoting the development of independence and agency for the service user whilst in the caring relationship. Finally, I introduce a service model which promotes a family network approach to empower the service user, and highlight training programs on recovery that enable carers. I conclude by suggesting the potential of both approaches to support carers to promote the recovery of the service user.

It is difficult to understand what it feels like for people with mental ill-health to be cared-for and supported by family members; this experience is often little-explored. Narratives about caring have been increasingly written alongside first-person accounts of recovery, however, there is a dearth of literature written to gain the perspective of being cared-for because of mental distress. Thus, using autoethnography, I present three critical incidents occurring at different points in my recovery to enable exploration of experiences of being cared-for. Firstly, a critical incident at the point of acute unwellness is introduced, secondly an incident during a consultation with a health professional is highlighted, and finally a moment of transition when embarking on an independent life with my husband-to-be is described. I use autoethnography to connect "the autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social, and political". I consider how the identity of a carer is continually negotiated in a relationship with the service user in both the "private" and the "public" worlds during recovery. I reflect on how professionals can support both service users and carers in a triangle of care, by providing information and support, alongside promoting the development of independence and agency for the service user whilst in the caring relationship. Finally, I introduce a service model which promotes a family network approach to empower the service user, and highlight training programs on recovery that enable carers. I conclude by suggesting the potential of both approaches to support carers to promote the recovery of the service user.

I reflect on how lived experiences that are derived from service user expert knowledge have the potential to confront stigmatization, which is encountered widely by people who have a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The implications of the political dimensions of the diagnosis are explored and the impact of stigma on those who have mental ill-health is discussed. The value of narrative research is highlighted, and the growing importance and increasing recognition of the validity of service user expert knowledge is considered. Using two stories to illustrate how professionals responded to me as a parent with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, I highlight the defensive practice I experienced and the assumptions about me as a person with mental ill-health. I reflect on how simultaneous feelings of power and powerlessness, accorded to my personal and professional status, are experienced in this context. This leads to consideration of the potential for service user expert knowledge, specifically in the context of narrative research, and how such knowledge expressed in stories and narratives can influence professional frameworks of practice. Schizophrenia is indeed a diagnosis of discrimination, but the presentation of service user expert knowledge through narrative research has the potential to overcome the experiences of stigmatization.

Supervision forms an essential component of professional social work practice. It supports the development of the capacity and skills of both students as emerging practitioners and of more experienced social workers. Reflection is a key part of supervision because social work practice is constantly evolving due to rapid change in society. Supervision provides social work practitioners and students with an opportunity to speak openly and honestly about their work, and the everyday feelings and emotions they face whilst in practice. This enables both improvement in practice and prevents the buildup of stress. In this article, we explore different methods of supervision utilised in social work and highlight implementation in Slovenia and England. We developed our own framework of supervision drawing on our knowledge of research from Slovenia and England; moreover, we engaged in informal discussion with colleagues in England, and a more formal process with supervisors in Slovenia, to inform the development of this model. This article thus reports the conceptual findings of a study and introduces our own model of reflective supervision, which is founded on the premise that we learn better from good experiences than from mistakes. We believe that through the proposed format of appreciative practice, we can move from deficit-based practice to strengths-focused practice. Key words social work; reflective practice; co-creation; group work; professional development

Abstract
The authors contend that the rise of neo-liberal codified management systems within English social work increasingly restricts social workers freedom to be creative in their practice reducing them to social administrators. We are two registered social work professionals and academics who believe managerial contexts encroach on our professional values. As insider researchers, we engaged in conversations and case storytelling to examine how our knowledge and practice as social workers positively influenced outcomes for people who have lived experiences. The two stories articulated in this article magnify how professional use of self can enact emancipatory empathy in the minutiae of practice. Collaborating as insider ethnographers supported us to deconstruct practice using critical reflection and reflexivity in post-modernist contexts. We highlight how micro examinations in collaborative autoethnography have potential for engaging wider philosophical conversations about social work identity.

In this article we discuss the nature of service user involvement in Higher Education (HE) social work programmes in both England and Slovenia. This discussion is based on our experiences of supporting such programmes alongside evidence derived from the literature. Firstly, we present a discussion of the effective development of service user involvement in the respective HEIs in our two countries. Secondly, we explore how the involvement of experts-by-experience in HEIs benefits the learning of social work students. Thirdly, we investigate how the emergence of Covid-19 has influenced the delivery of social work education and the involvement of service users in our respective social work programmes. We conclude by noting that our social work programmes have been forced to adapt to the needs of students in an online community and have embraced inclusive education. As a result of this, we suggest that the needs of experts-by-experience should inform the development of social work education and that they should be consulted on how they choose to be involved in educational practice. Key words experiential knowledge, expertise-by-experience, service user involvement, England, Slovenia

This article highlights the importance of learning about reflective processes in social work education, because acts of reflection enable us to learn from past experiences in order to improve our future practice. We show how duoethnography, as a reflective method, enables us, as two social work academics from the UK and Slovenia, to investigate our personal positioning and its influence on our practice. This duoethnographic study allows the authors to challenge their place in the status quo, and consider their social and political position in society. Alongside the use of duoethnography as a reflective method, the analysis of critical incidents, is used herewith to develop our personal and professional knowledge base. We consider how our own educational experience taught us to value the perspectives of experts-by-experience in all aspects of our practice, investigating disclosure of our own self and identity in this process; furthermore we consider the importance of incorporating the perspectives of experts-by-experience in the wider professional development of social workers. Consequently, we recommend that social workers reflect on their experience throughout their professional development; and suggest the potential of duoethnography as a potentially significant method in the development of theory and practice in social work.

We introduce the new meaning of recovery and reflect on its potential to develop current thinking and practice in mental health with adults, and look at its implications for service providers and service users. We analyse the relevance of this concept to the context of the UK government's policy to move disabled people, including mental health service users, from 'welfare to work'. The social and economic climate that drives this policy agenda and the implications for society of the focus on employment are outlined, as we reflect on the role of work in supporting or hindering the recovery process and identity re-formation, in part through the experience of the first author. We conclude by suggesting how practice can enable a process of returning to ordinary living, including employment, that supports recovery through a process of shared responsibilities.