Mandi MacDonald
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 6024239 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Mandi MacDonald |
| NOMBRES | Mandi |
| APELLIDO | MacDonald |
| FIRMA | MACDONALD M |
| AFILIACIONES | Queen's University Belfast |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7433-712X |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 20 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 49 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 20 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2011 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 4 |
Naming parents after adoption - are they still a ‘mum’ and ‘dad’? Recognition, rights and a sense of retained parental identity after a child is adopted from care
This paper sets out the findings from a doctoral study in Northern Ireland about how birth parents of children who have been adopted from public care, and lawyers involved in adoption, experience the use of the terms mum and dad after adoption. While adoption legally removes them as parents, birth parents can retain a sense of parental connection to the child albeit that the role and status associated with their parental identity has changed. The…
Exploring the Meaning and Experience of Family for Youth Leaving Care
Family is important to all, but is a complex issue for young people who are transitioning from out‐of‐home care. This scoping review explores the meaning and experience of family for care‐experienced youth and identifies implications for research and practice to support their social wellbeing. It reports on findings from a review of 31 journal articles that address the concept of family for youth leaving care. The paper explores the range and nat…
Recognising Foster Family Practices as a Form of Extended Care for Emerging Adults Transitioning out of Long-Term Fostering
For care-experienced youth, emerging adulthood is period of normative social and emotional experimentation, but disconnected from the supportive adult relationships available to their peers, particularly from family. To address this, formal child welfare services are increasingly interested in finding ways of avoiding rigid age-determined withdrawal of support by adopting various forms of extended care. This paper identifies continuous relationsh…
Caring for people with non-communicable diseases
Resource-limited health systems in sub-Saharan Africa struggle to provide population-wide high-quality primary healthcare, with particular concerns relating to professional workforce issues and the role of family caregivers. This qualitative study design explores the perceptions of ( n = 19) health and social care professionals of the challenges they face in caring for individuals living with non-communicable diseases in Uganda. Identified challe…
Social Work and the political conflict in Northern Ireland
This paper explores ways in which a concept of space can enable a fuller understanding of the impact of political conflict on social work within Northern Ireland. It begins with an overview of the origins and process of the conflict which has lasted for over forty years, and a complex social work role, impacted by sectarianism and other forms of social divisions. It then moves beyond that analysis to consider how the concept of space can further …
Interrupting a cycle of placement instability with short-term residential care
Continuous caring relationships are crucial to the wellbeing of children living in out-of-home care, with the family environment of long-term foster care usually the preferred placement for achieving relational permanence. Some children, however, experience a cycle of instability with the impact of placement disruption exacerbating emotional and behavioural difficulties and thereby undermining subsequent foster relationships. This paper reports o…
Digital Relationality, Rights, Resilience
The use of digital communication technology by children residing in out-of-home care or adopted from foster care has mainly been approached hesitantly and from a risk paradigm. The Covid-19 pandemic catalysed many digital and social work intersections, including practices used for birth family contact where in-person visits were supplemented or replaced with ‘virtual’ contact via digital devices. Whilst technology-mediated contact is characterise…
Developing and Evaluating a Social Work Assessment Model based on Co-production Methods
Building Better Futures (BBF) is a structured and systematic model developed in Northern Ireland for assessing parenting capacity when there are childcare concerns. This article focuses on the iterative development of the model, through a social work, practitioner–academic, research collaboration. BBF was developed using a mixed method, flexible and multi-modal, iterative design embracing a collaborative approach between social work academics and…
Social work students on the island of Ireland
Understanding the characteristics, motivations, and experiences of student social workers is important to inform their professional education and support needs. To date, there has been relatively little research about social work students in Ireland, both North and South. This study reports on an all-Ireland survey of students beginning their social work course in Autumn 2018 in the six Universities delivering social work education. It describes …
Child, parent or family? Applying a systemic lens to the conceptualisations of Family Support in Europe
This paper considers how Family Support is conceptualised in the European context with respect to its primary beneficiaries. The central question considers the focus of concern in a child welfare system and what it means when Family Support is focused on children, on parents, or involves the family unit as a whole. Informed by a body of relevant literature reviewed as part of a wider project, Family Support is seen as more often conceptualised as…
They shouldn’t have to ask’
This article reports on a study conducted in two counties in the Republic of Ireland designed to elicit the views of fostering and adoption stakeholder groups on the mental health needs of the children, young people and families for whom they are responsible. Included in these groups are young people, adoptive parents, foster carers and professionals who manage and deliver mental health services or refer cases to them. Focus group methodology was…
Life Under Coronavirus
Children have a right to have their views sought and given due weight on all matters affecting them, including at times of emergency and crisis. This article describes the process and findings of the ground-breaking CovidUnder19 survey (“Life Under Coronavirus”) which was co-designed with children for children, capturing the experiences of over 26,000 children in 137 countries as to the realisation of their human rights during the first six month…
Supporting Face-to-Face Birth Family Contact after Adoption from Care
There are recent calls to consider face-to-face birth family contact for more children adopted from care. Given that the threshold for this authoritative intervention is significant harm, post-adoption contact should be sensitive to the possible impact of early childhood trauma, and be adequately supported. This article draws on adopters’ reports of face-to-face contact with birth relatives, and their evaluation of social work support to suggest …
Implementing E-mentoring with care-experienced youth under “lock-down” – a South African experience
Purpose This paper aims to describe the challenges and potential benefits of moving a mentoring programme for young people in care and care leavers to an online mode of delivery in response to the South African Government’s efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive account incorporating reflections from staff responsible for the move to e-mentoring and from South African and UK…
Hearing the voices of kinship foster carers in Northern Ireland
This study describes an investigation into the characteristics, needs and experiences of kinship foster carers in Northern Ireland. By adopting a mixed-methods approach with 54 carers, a number of salient themes was captured. The respondents were predominantly grandparents who experienced a significant incidence of health-related issues. The cohort also endured high levels of stress, particularly at the beginning stage of the foster placement. Co…
Understanding informal kinship care
Many children are cared for on a full-time basis by relatives or adult friends, rather than their biological parents, and often in response to family crises. These kinship care arrangements have received increasing attention from the social sciences academy and social care professions. However, more information is needed on informal kinship care that is undertaken without official ratification by welfare agencies and often unsupported by the stat…
A picture of who we are as a family’
Social work has a central role in negotiating and supporting birth family contact following adoption from care. This paper argues that family display (Finch) offers a useful conceptual resource for understanding relationships in the adoptive kinship network as they are enacted through contact. It reports on an interpretative phenomenological analysis of adoptive parents' accounts of open adoption from care that revealed direct and indirect contac…
Constrained adoptive parenthood and family transition
Adoption policy in the UK emphasizes its role in providing secure, permanent relationships to children in care who are unable to live with their birth families. Adoptive parents are crucial in providing this life‐long, stable experience of family for these vulnerable children. This paper explores the experience of adoptive parenthood in the context of changes to adoptive kinship relationships brought about by new, unplanned contact with birth fam…
Nurturing Adoptions
Drawing on clinical experience as a social worker specialising in attachment and trauma in the USA, Deborah D. Gray has written Nurturing Adoptions as a manual to help parents and practitioners understand and meet the needs of children who have been adopted following early experiences of abuse or neglect. This is a timely and topical book for anyone involved in domestic or inter-country adoption. Current UK adoption policy is focused on the adopt…
Open Adoption
The trend towards more open adoption presents adopters with unique parenting challenges associated with satisfying the child's curiosity about their origins and maintaining relationships with birth family through contact. This article by Mandi MacDonald and Dominic McSherry focuses on the experiences of 20 sets of adoptive parents who were interviewed as part of the Northern Ireland Care Pathways and Outcomes Study. Interviews were analysed follo…
Open Adoption
The trend towards more open adoption presents adopters with unique parenting challenges associated with satisfying the child's curiosity about their origins and maintaining relationships with birth family through contact. This article by Mandi MacDonald and Dominic McSherry focuses on the experiences of 20 sets of adoptive parents who were interviewed as part of the Northern Ireland Care Pathways and Outcomes Study. Interviews were analysed follo…
Constrained adoptive parenthood and family transition
Adoption policy in the UK emphasizes its role in providing secure, permanent relationships to children in care who are unable to live with their birth families. Adoptive parents are crucial in providing this life‐long, stable experience of family for these vulnerable children. This paper explores the experience of adoptive parenthood in the context of changes to adoptive kinship relationships brought about by new, unplanned contact with birth fam…
A picture of who we are as a family’
Social work has a central role in negotiating and supporting birth family contact following adoption from care. This paper argues that family display (Finch) offers a useful conceptual resource for understanding relationships in the adoptive kinship network as they are enacted through contact. It reports on an interpretative phenomenological analysis of adoptive parents' accounts of open adoption from care that revealed direct and indirect contac…
Understanding informal kinship care
Many children are cared for on a full-time basis by relatives or adult friends, rather than their biological parents, and often in response to family crises. These kinship care arrangements have received increasing attention from the social sciences academy and social care professions. However, more information is needed on informal kinship care that is undertaken without official ratification by welfare agencies and often unsupported by the stat…
They shouldn’t have to ask’
This article reports on a study conducted in two counties in the Republic of Ireland designed to elicit the views of fostering and adoption stakeholder groups on the mental health needs of the children, young people and families for whom they are responsible. Included in these groups are young people, adoptive parents, foster carers and professionals who manage and deliver mental health services or refer cases to them. Focus group methodology was…
Life Under Coronavirus
Children have a right to have their views sought and given due weight on all matters affecting them, including at times of emergency and crisis. This article describes the process and findings of the ground-breaking CovidUnder19 survey (“Life Under Coronavirus”) which was co-designed with children for children, capturing the experiences of over 26,000 children in 137 countries as to the realisation of their human rights during the first six month…
Supporting Face-to-Face Birth Family Contact after Adoption from Care
There are recent calls to consider face-to-face birth family contact for more children adopted from care. Given that the threshold for this authoritative intervention is significant harm, post-adoption contact should be sensitive to the possible impact of early childhood trauma, and be adequately supported. This article draws on adopters’ reports of face-to-face contact with birth relatives, and their evaluation of social work support to suggest …
Child, parent or family? Applying a systemic lens to the conceptualisations of Family Support in Europe
This paper considers how Family Support is conceptualised in the European context with respect to its primary beneficiaries. The central question considers the focus of concern in a child welfare system and what it means when Family Support is focused on children, on parents, or involves the family unit as a whole. Informed by a body of relevant literature reviewed as part of a wider project, Family Support is seen as more often conceptualised as…
Digital Relationality, Rights, Resilience
The use of digital communication technology by children residing in out-of-home care or adopted from foster care has mainly been approached hesitantly and from a risk paradigm. The Covid-19 pandemic catalysed many digital and social work intersections, including practices used for birth family contact where in-person visits were supplemented or replaced with ‘virtual’ contact via digital devices. Whilst technology-mediated contact is characterise…
Hearing the voices of kinship foster carers in Northern Ireland
This study describes an investigation into the characteristics, needs and experiences of kinship foster carers in Northern Ireland. By adopting a mixed-methods approach with 54 carers, a number of salient themes was captured. The respondents were predominantly grandparents who experienced a significant incidence of health-related issues. The cohort also endured high levels of stress, particularly at the beginning stage of the foster placement. Co…
Open Adoption
The trend towards more open adoption presents adopters with unique parenting challenges associated with satisfying the child's curiosity about their origins and maintaining relationships with birth family through contact. This article by Mandi MacDonald and Dominic McSherry focuses on the experiences of 20 sets of adoptive parents who were interviewed as part of the Northern Ireland Care Pathways and Outcomes Study. Interviews were analysed follo…
Nurturing Adoptions
Drawing on clinical experience as a social worker specialising in attachment and trauma in the USA, Deborah D. Gray has written Nurturing Adoptions as a manual to help parents and practitioners understand and meet the needs of children who have been adopted following early experiences of abuse or neglect. This is a timely and topical book for anyone involved in domestic or inter-country adoption. Current UK adoption policy is focused on the adopt…
Constrained adoptive parenthood and family transition
Adoption policy in the UK emphasizes its role in providing secure, permanent relationships to children in care who are unable to live with their birth families. Adoptive parents are crucial in providing this life‐long, stable experience of family for these vulnerable children. This paper explores the experience of adoptive parenthood in the context of changes to adoptive kinship relationships brought about by new, unplanned contact with birth fam…
A picture of who we are as a family’
Social work has a central role in negotiating and supporting birth family contact following adoption from care. This paper argues that family display (Finch) offers a useful conceptual resource for understanding relationships in the adoptive kinship network as they are enacted through contact. It reports on an interpretative phenomenological analysis of adoptive parents' accounts of open adoption from care that revealed direct and indirect contac…
Hearing the voices of kinship foster carers in Northern Ireland
This study describes an investigation into the characteristics, needs and experiences of kinship foster carers in Northern Ireland. By adopting a mixed-methods approach with 54 carers, a number of salient themes was captured. The respondents were predominantly grandparents who experienced a significant incidence of health-related issues. The cohort also endured high levels of stress, particularly at the beginning stage of the foster placement. Co…
Understanding informal kinship care
Many children are cared for on a full-time basis by relatives or adult friends, rather than their biological parents, and often in response to family crises. These kinship care arrangements have received increasing attention from the social sciences academy and social care professions. However, more information is needed on informal kinship care that is undertaken without official ratification by welfare agencies and often unsupported by the stat…
Implementing E-mentoring with care-experienced youth under “lock-down” – a South African experience
Purpose This paper aims to describe the challenges and potential benefits of moving a mentoring programme for young people in care and care leavers to an online mode of delivery in response to the South African Government’s efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive account incorporating reflections from staff responsible for the move to e-mentoring and from South African and UK…
Life Under Coronavirus
Children have a right to have their views sought and given due weight on all matters affecting them, including at times of emergency and crisis. This article describes the process and findings of the ground-breaking CovidUnder19 survey (“Life Under Coronavirus”) which was co-designed with children for children, capturing the experiences of over 26,000 children in 137 countries as to the realisation of their human rights during the first six month…
Supporting Face-to-Face Birth Family Contact after Adoption from Care
There are recent calls to consider face-to-face birth family contact for more children adopted from care. Given that the threshold for this authoritative intervention is significant harm, post-adoption contact should be sensitive to the possible impact of early childhood trauma, and be adequately supported. This article draws on adopters’ reports of face-to-face contact with birth relatives, and their evaluation of social work support to suggest …
Social work students on the island of Ireland
Understanding the characteristics, motivations, and experiences of student social workers is important to inform their professional education and support needs. To date, there has been relatively little research about social work students in Ireland, both North and South. This study reports on an all-Ireland survey of students beginning their social work course in Autumn 2018 in the six Universities delivering social work education. It describes …
Child, parent or family? Applying a systemic lens to the conceptualisations of Family Support in Europe
This paper considers how Family Support is conceptualised in the European context with respect to its primary beneficiaries. The central question considers the focus of concern in a child welfare system and what it means when Family Support is focused on children, on parents, or involves the family unit as a whole. Informed by a body of relevant literature reviewed as part of a wider project, Family Support is seen as more often conceptualised as…
They shouldn’t have to ask’
This article reports on a study conducted in two counties in the Republic of Ireland designed to elicit the views of fostering and adoption stakeholder groups on the mental health needs of the children, young people and families for whom they are responsible. Included in these groups are young people, adoptive parents, foster carers and professionals who manage and deliver mental health services or refer cases to them. Focus group methodology was…
Interrupting a cycle of placement instability with short-term residential care
Continuous caring relationships are crucial to the wellbeing of children living in out-of-home care, with the family environment of long-term foster care usually the preferred placement for achieving relational permanence. Some children, however, experience a cycle of instability with the impact of placement disruption exacerbating emotional and behavioural difficulties and thereby undermining subsequent foster relationships. This paper reports o…
Digital Relationality, Rights, Resilience
The use of digital communication technology by children residing in out-of-home care or adopted from foster care has mainly been approached hesitantly and from a risk paradigm. The Covid-19 pandemic catalysed many digital and social work intersections, including practices used for birth family contact where in-person visits were supplemented or replaced with ‘virtual’ contact via digital devices. Whilst technology-mediated contact is characterise…
Developing and Evaluating a Social Work Assessment Model based on Co-production Methods
Building Better Futures (BBF) is a structured and systematic model developed in Northern Ireland for assessing parenting capacity when there are childcare concerns. This article focuses on the iterative development of the model, through a social work, practitioner–academic, research collaboration. BBF was developed using a mixed method, flexible and multi-modal, iterative design embracing a collaborative approach between social work academics and…
Caring for people with non-communicable diseases
Resource-limited health systems in sub-Saharan Africa struggle to provide population-wide high-quality primary healthcare, with particular concerns relating to professional workforce issues and the role of family caregivers. This qualitative study design explores the perceptions of ( n = 19) health and social care professionals of the challenges they face in caring for individuals living with non-communicable diseases in Uganda. Identified challe…
Social Work and the political conflict in Northern Ireland
This paper explores ways in which a concept of space can enable a fuller understanding of the impact of political conflict on social work within Northern Ireland. It begins with an overview of the origins and process of the conflict which has lasted for over forty years, and a complex social work role, impacted by sectarianism and other forms of social divisions. It then moves beyond that analysis to consider how the concept of space can further …
Recognising Foster Family Practices as a Form of Extended Care for Emerging Adults Transitioning out of Long-Term Fostering
For care-experienced youth, emerging adulthood is period of normative social and emotional experimentation, but disconnected from the supportive adult relationships available to their peers, particularly from family. To address this, formal child welfare services are increasingly interested in finding ways of avoiding rigid age-determined withdrawal of support by adopting various forms of extended care. This paper identifies continuous relationsh…
Naming parents after adoption - are they still a ‘mum’ and ‘dad’? Recognition, rights and a sense of retained parental identity after a child is adopted from care
This paper sets out the findings from a doctoral study in Northern Ireland about how birth parents of children who have been adopted from public care, and lawyers involved in adoption, experience the use of the terms mum and dad after adoption. While adoption legally removes them as parents, birth parents can retain a sense of parental connection to the child albeit that the role and status associated with their parental identity has changed. The…
Exploring the Meaning and Experience of Family for Youth Leaving Care
Family is important to all, but is a complex issue for young people who are transitioning from out‐of‐home care. This scoping review explores the meaning and experience of family for care‐experienced youth and identifies implications for research and practice to support their social wellbeing. It reports on findings from a review of 31 journal articles that address the concept of family for youth leaving care. The paper explores the range and nat…
Psychology (18 obras) · Child Welfare and Adoption (15 obras) · Political science (14 obras) · Medicine (12 obras) · Sociology (11 obras) · Social Psychology (10 obras) · Nursing (9 obras) · Public relations (9 obras) · Developmental psychology (7 obras) · Social Psychology (7 obras)