Brian J Taylor
Biographic Data
| ID | 236429 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brian J Taylor |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brian J |
| FAMILY NAME | Taylor |
| SIGNATURE | TAYLOR B J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Ulster |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3833-1986 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 60 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 283 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 60 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1975 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Risk Factors for Violence in Adult Heterosexual Noncasual Relationships: An Overview of Reviews
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread social, public health, and human rights problem. Empirical investigation of IPV risk factors can promote evidence-based assessment tools and effective prevention and intervention. This overview is a pioneering synthesis of systematic reviews (SRs) of IPV risk factors. Systematic searches for SRs in English reporting a meta-analysis of IPV risk factors in adult heterosexual, non-casual relationships …
The Families’ Civil War: Black Soldiers and the Fight for Racial Justice by Holly A. Pinheiro Jr (review)
Reviewed by: The Families' Civil War: Black Soldiers and the Fight for Racial Justice by Holly A. Pinheiro Jr Brian Taylor (bio) The Families' Civil War: Black Soldiers and the Fight for Racial Justice. By Holly A. Pinheiro Jr. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2022. Pp. 242. Cloth, $114.95; paper, $26.95.) In The Families' Civil War, Holly A. Pinheiro examines the lives of African American Philadelphians who wore the Union blue, detailing th…
Relational Interventions for Intimate Partner Violence: A Systematic Narrative Review
Purpose: This systematic narrative review examines relational approaches to working with interpersonal violence (IPV) within established heterosexual couple relationships at secondary and tertiary prevention levels. Method: Searches were conducted on five bibliographic databases, supplemented by citation searching and field recommendations. Thematic analysis involved reading and re-reading the data, and subsequent generation of analytical themes.…
Threshold Decisions in Social Work: Using Theory to Support Practice
Decision making is an intrinsic and complex aspect of social work practice, requiring consideration of diverse but connected aspects. Decisions are often required as to whether a situation requires protective state intervention or whether it reaches the criteria for public or charitable services. Such instances of deciding whether or not a situation is ‘on one side of the line or the other’ are referred to in this article as ‘threshold judgements…
Making Sense of Risk: Social Work at the Boundary between Care and Control
‘Risk’ has become a central concept for social work practice in countries with more developed social welfare systems. As argued by Hazel Kemshall and colleagues, ‘risk’ has often replaced ‘need’ as the main driver for social work interventions as societies seek to avoid harm to citizens. This shift of focus raises a tension between care (support for the individual or family in their own right) and control (seeking to prevent harm to themselves, e…
Processes of Multiprofessional Child Protection Decision Making in Hospital Settings: Systematic Narrative Review
The aim of this systematic narrative literature review is to explore empirical evidence as to how a multiprofessional approach to child protection decision making is implemented in hospitals settings. Child protection cases where there is a suspicious serious injury suspected sexual abuse or serious neglect are often investigated in hospital, involving a number of relevant professions. Five electronic bibliographic databases were used for the sea…
Building a Research Community to Bring Evidence into Practice: Case Study
This case study drawn from our collective experience in Northern Ireland presents a relatively unique approach that considers the role of wider contextual and organisational factors in supporting or inhibiting research into social work and social care practice. It has been written by members of the Building A Research Community Group (hereafter referred to as Research Community) established in 2019. The Research Community was built on the premise…
Barriers to knowledge acquisition and utilisation in child welfare decisions: A qualitative study
Permanency decisions in child welfare are recognised as being challenging. Nevertheless, society and the profession expect that professional judgements should be of the highest quality, consistent, reliable, fully justified and informed by evidence of what works, particularly where decisions are potentially life-changing. However, barriers to knowledge acquisition and utilisation exist, preventing practitioners from gaining the full range of know…
Christian faith-based youth work: Systematic narrative review
Christian faith-based youth work is a valuable complement to school-based religious formation. This paper provides a review of research on Christian faith-based youth work. Five bibliographic databases were searched using terms to express the concepts (youth work) AND (Christian faith). The eight studies meeting the inclusion criteria were synthesised by four major themes in the papers. (1) The purpose of Christian faith-based youth work could be…
Is It Harmful? A Thomistic Perspective on Risk Science in Social Welfare
Does it work? A scholastic epistemology perspective on evidence-based practice in social welfare
Contemporary “knowledge” relies increasingly on probabilistic data. A key example is the “evidence” for the effectiveness of health and social welfare interventions. Such claims to “knowing” require an epistemological underpinning. This paper explores the concept of probabilistic knowledge, evidence and “proof” which underpin claims for the effectiveness of social welfare interventions from the perspective of scholastic epistemology. It provides …
Group decision-making theories for child and family social work
There is increasing interest in decision making in social work. Much of the attention has been on individual professional judgement rather than on group decisions processes. This paper outlines key theoretical approaches from diverse fields of knowledge for conceptualising professional group decision processes in child and family social work, as a framework for future research and more focused theoretical developments. The main theoretical approa…
Dilemmas and Decision Making in Social Work, Abbi Jackson
This book comprises twelve case studies each of six to eight pages, and each summarising a social work interaction with an individual or members of a family. Each case study has notes in the margin illustrating links to aspects of Approach, Intervention, Theory or Values. Each case study concludes with six Reflective Questions, and (usually four) books for Further Reading. The book also contains a two-page Introduction and a two-page: Some Though…
Systematic Bibliographic Database Searching for Literature Reviews: Case Study on Child Protection Decision-Making
Skills of the ‘information age’ need to be applied to social work. Conceptual and practical aspects of using online bibliographic databases to identify research were explored using multi-professional decision-making in child protection as a case study. Five databases (Social Science Citation Index, Scopus, Medline, Social Work Abstracts and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) were searched for relevant studies, retrieving 6,934 record…
Using intuition in social work decision making
Social workers must make ‘justifiable’ decisions, but ‘intuition’ is also important in assessment, decision making and working with risk. We discuss intuition within professional judgement as being part of our cognitive faculties; emotionally-informed reasoning processes connecting workers with clients and families; and intuition making use of internalised learning. Challenges discussed include intuition as a taboo topic; communicating intuition-…
Risk-Managing Decision-Making: A Psycho-Social Rationality Model
Social workers are frequently involved in making decisions and in managing risks, although there has been limited conceptualisation to connect these tasks with each other or with assessment processes. This lack of connection reflects the general separateness of the wider academic discourses on risk and uncertainty (often sociological and organisational, relating frequently to business or economic contexts) and those on decision-making (often focu…
Loneliness, cumulative inequality and social capital in later life: Two stories
The potential impact of cumulative inequality upon loneliness in later life is under-researched. This study applies Ferraro and Shippee’s axioms of cumulative inequality to the narratives of two Northern Irish older women, who completed semi-structured diary entries over a 16-week period, recording and reflecting on their social lives and their personal histories. The two women were subsequently interviewed on the basis of what they had recorded.…
Male IPV Perpetrator’s Perspectives on Intervention and Change: A Systematic Synthesis of Qualitative Studies
OBJECTIVE: To add to our understanding of change processes by analyzing perpetrators' perspectives on intervention. METHOD: Fourteen databases were searched and 27 articles reporting relevant qualitative findings were identified. Analytic coding was applied across the findings and discussion sections of all 27 study reports to form an interpretive account of the data set. Studies were also grouped according to their perceived theoretical standpoi…
Better Decisions for Children with “Big Data”: Can Algorithms Promote Fairness, Transparency and Parental Engagement
Most countries operate procedures to safeguard children, including removal from parents in serious cases. In England, care applications and numbers have risen sharply, however, with wide variations not explained by levels of socio-economic deprivation alone. Drawing on extensive research, it is asserted that actuarial decision tools more accurately estimate risks to children and are needed to achieve consistency, transparency, and best outcomes f…
Using risk factor statistics in decision-making: Prospects and challenges
Society expects social workers and other professionals to use the best available knowledge in making decisions. Statistical (numerical) data are rapidly becoming an increasing part of the repertoire of knowledge available to professionals. However, social workers can at times seem reluctant to use statistics to inform their judgement processes when considering the assessment and seriousness of risk factors. This paper explores and considers the p…
Older People, Loss, and Loneliness: The Troublesome Nature of Increased Contact With Adult Children
Older people may experience considerable loss when they endure emotional or social loneliness. Emotional loneliness is related to the loss or absence of a confidant while social loneliness describes the discrepancy between the nature of one’s desired and actual social network. In this article, both concepts are examined in relation to new attendees at time-limited day center reablement programs in Northern Ireland. Using group work activities, re…
Social workers’ perceptions of restorative approaches with families in cases of elder abuse: A qualitative study
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore professional perspectives on restorative approaches with families in elder abuse cases. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered from 37 social workers in statutory and voluntary organisations through nine focus group sessions in one region of Northern Ireland. A thematic analysis was undertaken and themes were derived from the data using NVivo software. Findings This paper reports main findin…
Communicating risk in dementia care: Survey of health and social care professionals
Supporting people to live at home in line with community care policies requires increasing attention to assessing, communicating and managing risks. There is a challenge in supporting client choices that include risk-taking while demonstrating professional accountability. Risk communication becomes increasingly important with the need to engage clients and families in meaningful shared decision-making. This presents particular challenges in demen…
Heuristics in Professional Judgement: A Psycho-Social Rationality Model
There is increasing attention to decision making in social work as we become more concerned about ‘risk’ and the most effective design of assessment tools to aid professional judgement. In order to develop practice, a better conceptual understanding is required of the cognitive processes in making these judgements. This paper explores the potential use of heuristic (small-scale, ‘rule-of-thumb’) models of cognitive judgement in social work, recog…
Risk Communication in Dementia Care: Professional Perspectives on Consequences, Likelihood, Words and Numbers
Communicating effectively about risk is fundamental to professionals addressing critical issues with clients and families, and to informed decision making. Using a grounded theory approach, this qualitative study explored how risk is conceptualised and communicated in dementia care. Data were gathered across five focus groups (thirty-five health and social care professionals) covering concepts and perspectives on verbal, numeric and visual forms …
Online communication, social media and adolescent wellbeing: A systematic narrative review
Factorial Surveys: Using Vignettes to Study Professional Judgement
Decision making is becoming an increasingly central feature of social work practice, yet there is limited research on the topic. Experimental methods of investigating decision making tend to be constrained by practical and ethical difficulties, whilst questions about validity and generalizability surround ethnographic and other descriptive methods. It is argued here that the factorial survey addresses these methodological difficulties as a resear…
Models for professional judgement in social work
In order to further research on decision-making in social work, a richer theoretical underpinning of models of decision-making is required. There has been significant theoretical advance in other disciplines from which we might learn and develop supportive theoretical constructs. This article outlines some major theoretical approaches to modelling individual judgement including expected utility, fuzzy set theory, signal detection, heuristics and …
Risk Management Paradigms in Health and Social Services for Professional Decision Making on the Long-Term Care of Older People
Journal Article Risk Management Paradigms in Health and Social Services for Professional Decision Making on the Long-Term Care of Older People Get access Brian J. Taylor Brian J. Taylor Brian Taylor is Lecturer in Social Work in the School of Sociology and Applied Social Studies at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. His particular interests include assessment, care planning, risk, decision making and evidence-based practice. Corresponden…
Professional Perspectives on Decision Making about the Long-term Care of Older People
Journal Article Professional Perspectives on Decision Making about the Long-term Care of Older People Get access Brian J. Taylor, Brian J. Taylor Correspondence to Dr Brian Taylor, Department of Social Work, University of Ulster at Jordanstown, Shore Road, Newtownabbey BT37 0QB, Northern Ireland. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Michael Donnelly Michael Donnelly Search for ot…
The Unseen Cost: A Discussion of the Secondary Traumatization Experience of the Clergy
Social Work and Social Media: Online Help-Seeking and the Mental Well-Being of Adolescent Males
Current global concerns regarding the mental well-being (MWB) of young males have called for fresh approaches to social work service delivery. This study investigates the efficacy of adopting more ‘online’ approaches within social work practice by examining the current impact of online help-seeking behaviours on the MWB of adolescent males. A survey questionnaire comprised of validated scales measuring mental well-being and self-efficacy, combine…
Heuristics in Professional Judgement: A Psycho-Social Rationality Model
There is increasing attention to decision making in social work as we become more concerned about ‘risk’ and the most effective design of assessment tools to aid professional judgement. In order to develop practice, a better conceptual understanding is required of the cognitive processes in making these judgements. This paper explores the potential use of heuristic (small-scale, ‘rule-of-thumb’) models of cognitive judgement in social work, recog…
Using intuition in social work decision making
Social workers must make ‘justifiable’ decisions, but ‘intuition’ is also important in assessment, decision making and working with risk. We discuss intuition within professional judgement as being part of our cognitive faculties; emotionally-informed reasoning processes connecting workers with clients and families; and intuition making use of internalised learning. Challenges discussed include intuition as a taboo topic; communicating intuition-…
Implications of divergences in adult protection legislation
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the similarities and differences of legal responses to older adults who may be at risk of harm or abuse in the UK, Ireland, Australia and the USA. Design/methodology/approach – The authors draw upon a review of elder abuse and adult protection undertaken on behalf of the commissioner for older people in Northern Ireland. This paper focusses on the desk top mapping of the different legal approaches…
Systematically Retrieving Research: A Case Study Evaluating Seven Databases
Objective: Developing the scientific underpinnings of social welfare requires effective and efficient methods of retrieving relevant items from the increasing volume of research. Method: We compared seven databases by running the nearest equivalent search on each. The search topic was chosen for relevance to social work practice with older people. Results: Highest sensitivity was achieved by Medline (52%), Social Sciences Citation Index (46%) and…
Systematically Identifying Relevant Research: Case Study on Child Protection Social Workers’ Resilience
Context: The development of a consolidated knowledge base for social work requires rigorous approaches to identifying relevant research. Method: The quality of 10 databases and a web search engine were appraised by systematically searching for research articles on resilience and burnout in child protection social workers. Results: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) had …
Battle on the home care front: Perceptions of home care workers of factors influencing staff retention in Northern Ireland
The provision of home care services is a key component in avoiding inappropriate admission of older people to institutional care and preventing delayed discharge from hospital. However, there is a growing problem of retention of home care workers (HCWs), creating problems for delivering this increasingly essential service. The present study was based in a health and social services trust in Northern Ireland, and was designed to explore the growin…
Using risk factor statistics in decision-making: Prospects and challenges
Society expects social workers and other professionals to use the best available knowledge in making decisions. Statistical (numerical) data are rapidly becoming an increasing part of the repertoire of knowledge available to professionals. However, social workers can at times seem reluctant to use statistics to inform their judgement processes when considering the assessment and seriousness of risk factors. This paper explores and considers the p…
Seeking Help From Everyone and No-One: Conceptualizing the Online Help-Seeking Process Among Adolescent Males
Online help-seeking is an emerging trend within the 21st century. Yet, despite some movement toward developing online services, little is known about how young people locate, access, and receive support online. This study aims to conceptualize the process of online help-seeking among adolescent males. Modified photo-elicitation techniques were employed within eight semi-structured focus group sessions with adolescent males aged 14 to 15 years ( n…
Social Work Literature Searching: Current Issues With Databases and Online Search Engines
Objectives: To compare the performance of a range of search facilities; and to illustrate the execution of a comprehensive literature search for qualitative evidence in social work. Context: Developments in literature search methods and comparisons of search facilities help facilitate access to the best available evidence for social workers. Method: The performance of 14 databases and web search engines was appraised, by applying a search formula…
Developing an Integrated Assessment Tool for the Health and Social Care of Older People
Assessment is central to identifying needs, making decisions and providing services. Assessment tools have a role in relation to co-ordinating care, communication between professionals and gathering data for monitoring and service improvement. As the health and social care of older people becomes more complex, there is an increased requirement for co-ordinated, effective and efficient assessment. This paper outlines the development of the Norther…
Preparing young adults with disability for employment
Young people with disabilities are often excluded from the labour market. The present paper describes an evaluation of an innovative 2-year pilot initiative called Vocational Opportunities in Training for Employment (VOTE) implemented in Northern Ireland to provide employment training and support for vulnerable young adults with a wide range of disabilities. The principal aims of the study were to assess the impact of the new service in the exten…
Better Decisions for Children with “Big Data”: Can Algorithms Promote Fairness, Transparency and Parental Engagement
Most countries operate procedures to safeguard children, including removal from parents in serious cases. In England, care applications and numbers have risen sharply, however, with wide variations not explained by levels of socio-economic deprivation alone. Drawing on extensive research, it is asserted that actuarial decision tools more accurately estimate risks to children and are needed to achieve consistency, transparency, and best outcomes f…
Communicating risk in dementia care: Survey of health and social care professionals
Supporting people to live at home in line with community care policies requires increasing attention to assessing, communicating and managing risks. There is a challenge in supporting client choices that include risk-taking while demonstrating professional accountability. Risk communication becomes increasingly important with the need to engage clients and families in meaningful shared decision-making. This presents particular challenges in demen…
Risk communication in dementia care: Family perspectives
Family carers are often involved in decisions concerning the health and social care needs of people with dementia. These decisions frequently involve considering risks inherent in daily living situations and discussing these with care recipients and professionals. The purpose of this study is to understand the risks that present most concern to family carers; explore attitudes and approaches of this group towards risk; and examine how information…
The Creation of the European Social Work Research Association
As the social work profession matures, the need for robust knowledge becomes more pressing. Greater coordination is required to develop the research community and an infrastructure to support this nationally and internationally. This article discusses the foundation, in 2014, of the European Social Work Research Association and its roots in the annual European Conference for Social Work Research series since 2011. Discussion focuses on the Associ…
Judgements of Social Care Professionals on Elder Abuse Referrals: A Factorial Survey
Guidance in the UK requires the co-ordination and standardisation of services to protect adults from abuse. However, there remains considerable ambiguity about the basic concepts of abuse and vulnerability. This paper reports an empirical study of factors in professional decision making in relation to identifying and reporting abuse of older people. A systematic review and a panel of expert practitioners were used to identify factors that might i…
Group decision-making theories for child and family social work
There is increasing interest in decision making in social work. Much of the attention has been on individual professional judgement rather than on group decisions processes. This paper outlines key theoretical approaches from diverse fields of knowledge for conceptualising professional group decision processes in child and family social work, as a framework for future research and more focused theoretical developments. The main theoretical approa…
Risk-Managing Decision-Making: A Psycho-Social Rationality Model
Social workers are frequently involved in making decisions and in managing risks, although there has been limited conceptualisation to connect these tasks with each other or with assessment processes. This lack of connection reflects the general separateness of the wider academic discourses on risk and uncertainty (often sociological and organisational, relating frequently to business or economic contexts) and those on decision-making (often focu…
Church and state in Borneo: The anglican bishopric
When James Brooke became rajah of Sarawak in 1841, his enterprise – the acquiring of territorial sovereign rule by a private British citizen– was regarded with doubt and hesitation in official circles in London, and all three white rajahs were always very sensitive about their status. But when James Brooke visited England in 1847-8 there was no doubt about his personal standing as a romantic figure. Moreover, he added to the strength of the Briti…
Jeremy Bentham and Church of England education
(1979). Jeremy Bentham and Church of England education. British Journal of Educational Studies: Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 154-157
Alexander’s Apostasy: First Steps to Jerusalem
The synagogue in Bevis Marks in the city of London, 1700-1, is the oldest in this country. The second is in Plymouth, in Catherine Street. It was built in 1762, and is the oldest Ashkenazi synagogue in the English-speaking world. It is noteworthy for its original furnishings, which are mainly austere—the deal benches, and plain turned balusters for the enclosures, with the eight brass candle-sticks, now electrified, round the bimah . The exceptio…
Church Art and Church Discipline round about 1939
On 3 May 1939 Dr Francis Carolus Eeles, General Secretary of the Central Council of Churches, wrote to Dr John Victor Macmillan, second Bishop of the new diocese of Guildford. He began by praising the Guildford Advisory Committee, ‘one of the best in the country; its businesslike methods and its thoroughness leave nothing to be desired.’ It was not one of the six on which Eeles himself served. He went on to speak about Guildford St Nicolas’
Devolution: An early verdict
Hidden Gems: Systematically Searching Electronic Databases for Research Publications for Social Work and Social Care
Context: Electronic bibliographic databases are an important source for professional publications about social work and community care more generally. This article describes and evaluates a method of identifying relevant articles as part of a systematic review of research evidence. Decision making about institutional and home care services for older people is used as an example. Method: Four databases (Social Science Citation Index, Medline, CINA…
Preparing young adults with disability for employment
Young people with disabilities are often excluded from the labour market. The present paper describes an evaluation of an innovative 2-year pilot initiative called Vocational Opportunities in Training for Employment (VOTE) implemented in Northern Ireland to provide employment training and support for vulnerable young adults with a wide range of disabilities. The principal aims of the study were to assess the impact of the new service in the exten…
Risk Management Paradigms in Health and Social Services for Professional Decision Making on the Long-Term Care of Older People
Journal Article Risk Management Paradigms in Health and Social Services for Professional Decision Making on the Long-Term Care of Older People Get access Brian J. Taylor Brian J. Taylor Brian Taylor is Lecturer in Social Work in the School of Sociology and Applied Social Studies at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. His particular interests include assessment, care planning, risk, decision making and evidence-based practice. Corresponden…
Factorial Surveys: Using Vignettes to Study Professional Judgement
Decision making is becoming an increasingly central feature of social work practice, yet there is limited research on the topic. Experimental methods of investigating decision making tend to be constrained by practical and ethical difficulties, whilst questions about validity and generalizability surround ethnographic and other descriptive methods. It is argued here that the factorial survey addresses these methodological difficulties as a resear…
Risks to home care workers: Professional perspectives
Care at home is fundamental to community care policy, but the simultaneous growth of health and safety regulation has implications for home care services because of the duty of employers towards home care workers. This grounded theory study set in Northern Ireland used data from 19 focus groups and nine semi-structured interviews with a range of health and social services professionals and managers to explore perspectives on planning long term ca…
Battle on the home care front: Perceptions of home care workers of factors influencing staff retention in Northern Ireland
The provision of home care services is a key component in avoiding inappropriate admission of older people to institutional care and preventing delayed discharge from hospital. However, there is a growing problem of retention of home care workers (HCWs), creating problems for delivering this increasingly essential service. The present study was based in a health and social services trust in Northern Ireland, and was designed to explore the growin…
Professional Perspectives on Decision Making about the Long-term Care of Older People
Journal Article Professional Perspectives on Decision Making about the Long-term Care of Older People Get access Brian J. Taylor, Brian J. Taylor Correspondence to Dr Brian Taylor, Department of Social Work, University of Ulster at Jordanstown, Shore Road, Newtownabbey BT37 0QB, Northern Ireland. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Michael Donnelly Michael Donnelly Search for ot…
Grading Gems: Appraising the Quality of Research for Social Work and Social Care
The impetus towards basing practice and policy decisions more explicitly on sound research requires tools to facilitate the systematic appraisal of the quality of research encompassing a diverse range of methods and designs. Five exemplar tools were developed and assessed in terms of their usefulness in selecting studies for inclusion in a systematic review. The widely used ‘hierarchy of evidence’ was adapted and used to appraise internal validit…
Systematically Retrieving Research: A Case Study Evaluating Seven Databases
Objective: Developing the scientific underpinnings of social welfare requires effective and efficient methods of retrieving relevant items from the increasing volume of research. Method: We compared seven databases by running the nearest equivalent search on each. The search topic was chosen for relevance to social work practice with older people. Results: Highest sensitivity was achieved by Medline (52%), Social Sciences Citation Index (46%) and…
Invited Commentary on Papers by Holden et al. and Shek on the Quality of Social Work Abstracts
Literature reviews – including systematic reviews – that underpin professional practice guidance and research funding bids now rely on searching electronic databases so as to ensure comprehensive coverage of relevant journals. Competent data extraction from journals onto databases is essential for efficient information retrieval and thus in ensuring that practice and research build on best evidence. The best investment to achieve a profession tha…
The Unseen Cost: A Discussion of the Secondary Traumatization Experience of the Clergy
Models for professional judgement in social work
In order to further research on decision-making in social work, a richer theoretical underpinning of models of decision-making is required. There has been significant theoretical advance in other disciplines from which we might learn and develop supportive theoretical constructs. This article outlines some major theoretical approaches to modelling individual judgement including expected utility, fuzzy set theory, signal detection, heuristics and …
Systematically Identifying Relevant Research: Case Study on Child Protection Social Workers’ Resilience
Context: The development of a consolidated knowledge base for social work requires rigorous approaches to identifying relevant research. Method: The quality of 10 databases and a web search engine were appraised by systematically searching for research articles on resilience and burnout in child protection social workers. Results: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) had …
Dare 2012 Symposium, Belfast, Northern Ireland
This is a report of the second biennial symposium on “Decisions, Assessment, Risk and Evidence in Social Work” held near Belfast, Northern Ireland, in July 2012. The third symposium is planned for July 2014
Judgements of Social Care Professionals on Elder Abuse Referrals: A Factorial Survey
Guidance in the UK requires the co-ordination and standardisation of services to protect adults from abuse. However, there remains considerable ambiguity about the basic concepts of abuse and vulnerability. This paper reports an empirical study of factors in professional decision making in relation to identifying and reporting abuse of older people. A systematic review and a panel of expert practitioners were used to identify factors that might i…
Developing an Integrated Assessment Tool for the Health and Social Care of Older People
Assessment is central to identifying needs, making decisions and providing services. Assessment tools have a role in relation to co-ordinating care, communication between professionals and gathering data for monitoring and service improvement. As the health and social care of older people becomes more complex, there is an increased requirement for co-ordinated, effective and efficient assessment. This paper outlines the development of the Norther…
Assessing and managing risk with people with physical disabilities: The development of a safety checklist
Assessing risk with adults with physical disabilities who receive social care services is a task at the confluence of three perspectives on risk: the rights and choices of clients, the role and task of the social worker and the responsibilities of the service provider organisation in managing risk. The purpose of this article is to articulate and contextualise some of these issues of risk and risk-taking when people receive social care services. …
Conceptualising elder abuse across local and global contexts: Implications for policy and professional practice on the island of Ireland
Purpose Social policy and professional practice across the island of Ireland is dominated by the WHO definition of elder abuse and national and professional interpretations of what constitutes elder abuse. Top-down, generalist knowledge of the abuse of older people have facilitated paternalistic and protectionist policies and services designed to protect older vulnerable adults across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. However, a quali…
The emotionally intelligent ministry: Why it matters
Pizarro and Salovey hypothesise that religious systems are frequently “inherently emotionally intelligent” and that religious leaders may be experts in emotional regulation due to the inherent demands of their role. Despite such assertions, to date there appears to be little exploration of Emotional Intelligence (EI) amongst religious populations. Thus, suggesting that statements such as this may be based on supposition, speculation and stereotyp…
Resilience and Burnout in Child Protection Social Work: Individual and Organisational Themes from a Systematic Literature Review
Child protection social work is acknowledged as a very stressful occupation with high turnover and poor retention of staff being a major concern. This paper highlights themes that emerged from findings of 65 articles that were included as part of a systematic literature review. The review focused on the evaluation of research findings, which considered individual and organizational factors associated with resilience or burnout in child protection…
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