Alastair Neil Roy

Football metaphor and mental well-being: An evaluation of the It's a Goal! programme

Background The Its a Goal! programme utilises football metaphor and football venues as a means to frame and deliver a non-clinical, group-based therapeutic intervention, targeting men with mental health needs. A pilot in the North West of England was hosted by seven professional football clubs in partnership with local Primary Care Trusts. Aims To evaluate the impact of the intervention and to identify the benefits and key components of the approach from the perspective of participants. Method Analysis of impact utilised before and after well-being scores measured on a modified version of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale. Focus groups provided additional qualitative data that were analysed thematically. Results Findings suggest that Its a Goal! had a significant impact upon participants well-being. In addition, participants reported a range of positive benefits especially in relation to confidence, self-esteem and developing better coping mechanisms. Participants related these benefits to a number of key components, not least the therapeutic value of football metaphor, the focus on goal-setting and the mutual support developed within the groups. Conclusions Using football metaphor to deliver a group therapeutic programme aimed at men appears to be an effective means of facilitating mental health benefits.

Using Football Metaphor to Engage Men in Therapeutic Support

This paper is an account of a small scale exploratory study about the use and value of football metaphor as a device for facilitating therapeutic work. It is based on an evaluation which used a range of qualitative and quantitative approaches. In this paper, we selectively draw on the qualitative data to provide examples to inform our discussion. We illustrate various ways in which football metaphor can support therapeutic change: by aiding initial engagement, facilitating mutual support, enabling self-understanding and motivating change. We relate our analysis to the literature about the therapeutic value of metaphor and highlight the salience of using football metaphor in a group-based setting for men who are often seen as ‘hard to engage’ in therapeutic support. With some caveats, we argue that football metaphor offers a potentially rich and flexible therapeutic resource.

Avoiding the involvement overdose: Drugs, race, ethnicity and participatory research practice

Participatory research (PR) strategies have been used extensively in policy and practice based research in the last fifteen years in the UK. This paper offers a critical reflection on the growth in PR programmes commissioned by statutory bodies as part of attempts to understand the influence of race, ethnicity and racism on issues related to substance misuse policy and practice. The stated aim of many PR programmes has been to alter the role of the communities involved, from the subject matter of research activity undertaken by academic outsiders, to co- roducers of knowledge. The paper addresses four specific issues: first, the recent political context in which the use of PR has grown; second, the ways in which participation and community have been operationalized in different projects; third, the differences between vertically driven and horizontally driven PR; and fourth, the different methods and modes of involvement and their implications. It finishes by raising some concerns which might inform future approaches to PR.

Playing by the Rules? Gender Relations in a Football and Mental Health Project

This paper examines gender issues in relation to a mental health project in England, which is based on football metaphor and aimed at engaging men in therapeutic activity. We use the football related analogy of “playing by the rules” to explore how gender was framed, performed, negotiated and contested in the project. We note three different “games” at play within the project: football, gender, and therapy. We argue that gender had a doubled character in the project. The prevailing rules of gender and football were re-reinforced, for example, through defensive heterosexuality and binary ideas about sex and gender. Yet, at the same time, engaging in the project meant these very same rules were transgressed through the enactment of care, concern and group bonding. We conclude that whilst there probably has been a shift in culturally dominant forms of masculinity, any generalized endorsement of “inclusive masculinity” is probably over-stated.

The Relationships between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), Conduct Disorder (CD) and Problematic Drug Use (PDU).

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the literature examining the relationships between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder (CD) and problematic drug use (PDU). The review considers the main debates around the structure and aetiology of ADHD and the main theoretical frameworks offered to explain the relationships between ADHD, CD and PDU. ADHD is one of the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorders of childhood and one of the most researched. However, many people who meet the diagnostic criteria for ADHD also meet the criteria for other disorders such as CD. Most studies suggest that it is CD, not ADHD, that is the most relevant factor in predicting the development of PDU. However, some evidence suggests that those with coexisting ADHD and CD may be at the highest risk. The paper concludes that ADHD is less important than CD in predicting PDU.

Learning on the move: exploring work with vulnerable young men through the lens of movement

Abstract This paper discusses a practice context in which process and movement are central to the provision of care and support. It draws on data from a research project conducted with The Men’s Room, Manchester, England which used ethnographic and mobile methods to explore the complex task staff undertake in engaging and supporting highly vulnerable young men. The organisation’s commitment to getting alongside these young men includes a mobile and highly improvised use of temporary city centre spaces for delivering its work. In this paper, I argue that these movements of practice are not simply a logistical necessity or a physical activity, but involve a kinetic way of attending, reflecting, thinking and knowing in which the organisation’s movements are intrinsic to the provision of care and support.

The visual matrix: A psycho-social method for discovering unspoken complexities in social care practice

This article discusses the use of an innovative research tool, the visual matrix (VM). The VM is a tool that uses the visual imagination, expressed both verbally and in drawing, to reveal hidden or unexpressed ideas, feelings and emotions in research subjects. It is hypothesised to be of particular utility in the study of psychologically painful and/or complex situations, where normal discourse cannot find a means of expression. The VM is discussed as a method that can be applied to psycho-social research. Its use is analysed in the context of a case study in a social care organisation in Manchester.

Recovery and Movement: Allegory and ‘Journey’ as a Means of Exploring Recovery from Substance Misuse

The paper explores the quality of the affective and embodied experiences of a group of people in recovery from substance misuse as part of their involvement with dance and movement workshops provided by the Fallen Angels Dance Theatre. In the research we used the visual matrix method alongside individual- and group-based movement sessions so as to explore associations and affect emerging from the visual matrix. We question the frequently used metaphor of the ‘journey’ in recovery and suggest ‘allegory’ to be more apt. The linearity implied in journey contrasts with movements – both inner and outer – that are ‘nomadic’, ‘wayfaring’ and ‘rhizomatic’, focussed on affect and experience rather than targets and outcomes. We conclude that people working in the field of recovery and other areas of social work may wish to reconsider the value of embodiment in movement, relationship and affect when working with the experience of vulnerable people.

Thinking and doing: ‘race’ and ethnicity in drug research and policy development in England

The drug treatment and support needs of black and minority ethnic populations have been a policy concern for more than 10 years in England. This paper considers how these needs are currently understood, addressing four particular issues. First, it considers the ways in which ‘diversity’ and ‘difference’ are conceptualized and operationalized in research, practice and policy decisions. Second, it offers a critical oversight of the epistemological and methodological limitations of the current knowledge base. Third, it addresses the differences and tensions between the priorities and agendas of policymakers and academic researchers. These are seen as central because policymakers are not merely consumers of research, rather their potential to influence the knowledge base manifests in their role as commissioners and publishers of research evidence. Finally it makes recommendations about how these issues might be overcome in future research, including advocating the value of psycho-social approaches and situated understandings.

The Life Narrative of a Mixed-Race Man in Recovery from Addiction: A Case-Based Psychosocial Approach to Researching Drugs, ‘Race’ and Ethnicity

This paper explores the use of a psychosocial approach to researching drugs, race and ethnicity. It produces an analysis of interviews with Bobby, a mixed-race man in recovery from addiction. Sociological and psychoanalytic perspectives are brought to bear on the data in order to consider the character of Bobbys opportunities, identifications, crises and resolutions. Despite the affective components of the wider discourse on drugs and race, the majority of previous research on the subject has focused on the production of rational explanations produced within objectivist epistemological frames. In contrast, the methods used in this project seek an explicit engagement with the irrational and unconscious aspects of researching these subjects. The paper concludes by reflecting on the value of psychosocially oriented narrative methods in this field.