Jill Reynolds

Choice and Chance: Negotiating Agency in Narratives of Singleness:

This article presents a discursive analysis of interview material in which single women reflect on their relationships and reasons for being single. Despite changing meanings of singleness, it remains a ‘deficit identity’ (Reynolds and Taylor, 2005) and the problem for a woman alone is to account positively for her single state. Our analysis challenges theorisations which would suggest autonomy and agency in how identity and self are constructed. It employs the methodological approaches developed in critical discursive psychology (for instance Wetherell, 1998) to look at the detailed identity work of speakers as part of the identity project proposed by Giddens (1992, 2005), Bauman (1998) and other writers associated with the ‘reflexive modernisation’ thesis (Adkins, 2002). By approaching ‘choice’ as one of the cultural resources available to speakers, we present a more complex view of the dilemmas around a speakers identity work in her accounting for her relationships and the course her life has taken

Opening minds: user involvement in the production of learning materials on mental health and distress

Abstract This article looks at the process of involving users in the production of the Open University course on mental health. There is increasing recognition of the need for partnership with service users in training provision as well as in professional practice, but there has been less attention to how this works out, and to the dilemmas faced by participants in such processes. ‘Mental health and illness’ are highly contested concepts. Professional debates on appropriate frameworks for intervention mean that the promotion of user views in training courses may be derided as ‘antipsychiatry’. This is a particular risk for social work education. There are then dilemmas for educators on providing academic credibility and balance while being sensitive to user perspectives and critiques. However, academic criteria about what counts as knowledge are subject to change, and user views may have an influence here.

Mental health still matters

In a collection of more than 50 readings, Mental Health Still Matters reflects the wide diversity of views about how best to understand and explain mental health and distress. Drawing on writings from a range of academic sources, as well as the rich and compelling stories of mental health service users themselves, it provides a sharp challenge to traditional understandings of mental illness and aims to illuminate future thinking, policy and practice. As a sister volume to the best-selling Mental Health Matters, it combines classic writings about mental health theories, perspectives and practices from psychiatry, sociology, psychology and service users, alongside newly commissioned readings. The book is divided into four parts: • Part I discusses and critiques mental health theory in an exploration of contemporary debates. • Part II considers social inclusion as a goal for mental health services and reviews aspects of the services in which inequality continues to dominate. • Part III offers accounts of mental distress by service users, many of whom have used their experience to become teachers, researchers and innovators in mental health work. • Part IV considers some of the challenges faced by practitioners alongside professional responses to the major changes we are seeing in the landscape of mental health. This is an important and innovative collection of readings which has strong cross-disciplinary relevance and appeal. It is essential reading for everyone studying, training or practising in the field of mental health, whether your background is in social studies, health science, medicine or psychology.

Patterns in the Telling: Single Women's Intimate Relationships with Men

This article explores some ways in which women not living with an intimate partner talk about their relationships with men. Data are considered in relation to social theorising on the changing nature of intimate relationships. The analysis makes use of traditions in narrative analysis and critical discursive psychology to identify some patterns in the telling, including common cultural resources that are drawn on by speakers. Patterned ways of portraying relationships identified in the data discussed here include a self-blame approach in describing extreme behaviour from the man concerned, and a repudiation of any intention of commitment through talk of the positive features of relationships with unavailable men. A further way of talking introduces a ‘new realism’ in which relationships are depicted as right for a time but dispensable when their time is up. The analysis suggests that concepts of individualisation and impermanence in relationships provide new cultural resources that women can draw on in providing a self-narrative. The data demonstrate the detailed rhetorical work involved in producing a positive account of the self as a single woman.

Managing Care and Joined Up Thinking in the Curriculum

This paper discusses the curriculum development of a level three undergraduate course in managing care. It was produced and is presented by The Open University. The course is aimed at frontline managers in health and social care. The course team made consultation with service users, carers and managers a priority in developing the curriculum. The paper discusses this consultation process and the learning gained from it. A major contribution was to clarify debates about how far the course should have one core curriculum and how far it should offer specialist options for managers in different settings. Service users and carers had strong views on the need for better co‐ordination of services and recognition of individual needs rather than divisions into service‐led categories. Managers stressed the importance of reflecting the reality of frontline management. This helped the course team to develop a framework that stresses the commonality in the work and the importance of ‘practice‐led’ management. Service users and managers were involved as critical readers of course texts to ensure that the consultation process continued through the course development. A second strand is the need for the course to be accessible to those not yet in management positions, and extracts from an interactive CD‐ROM which presents case study material demonstrate the innovative joined up and accessible approach taken to student learning needs.

Researching Teaching on Gender in Social Work Education: a case study

ABSTRACT A group of women lecturers in a university department of social work were concerned that perspectives on gender needed more prominence as their department adopted a new problem‐based teaching style. This paper describes a small‐scale research study of the process of introducing pilot learning materials on gender issues. Lecturers identified their need to develop their understanding of gender issues and work on this together, but this was hampered by competition from other equality issues on the timetable. Although there was already some teaching on gender, it was not always recognised as such. The pilot of learning materials on gender revealed conflicting views from male colleagues as to whether it was legitimate for the focus to be on womens experience, and for all small group learning to be facilitated by women. This was resolved by having a male facilitator for a separate mens group. I suggest that the process of introducing separate learning groups for men and women students undermined a ne...

‘The work chose us’: Community development work with Vietnamese people settled in the UK

Abstract Vietnamese people have been working to help their compatriots in their settlement in the UK in a number of ways ever since the early arrivals of refugees in the mid 1970s. A national organisation, Refugee Action, has played a part in promoting the employment of bilingual, bicultural workers. Initially this was through training and employing Vietnamese and Chinese fieldworkers in a social welfare programme. Since 1984 a community development team has worked with local communities to enable refugees from Vietnam to become self-sufficient and able to participate fully in UK society, and to promote better service provision for refugees. This article examines the work of the community development team. It draws on interviews I held in 1993 and 1994 with eight Vietnamese workers, and the two white British team coordinators. At the time of my interviews the team numbered fifteen in all. I also spoke to some local Vietnamese community workers, activists and community group members.

Preparing for social work with refugees using enquiry and action learning

Internationally there is a need for social workers to be prepared to work with refugees and displaced persons. In many countries including the UK it may be difficult to ensure this is included in basic professional courses, especially if these are based on traditional disciplines, or if curriculum content is already overloaded. An approach to learning is described which is problem-led, and based on self-directed small group study, through which teaching and learning about work with refugees has successfully been included at a British school of social work.