Kate van Heugten

Managing Insider Research Learning from Experience

From 1993 until 1999, the author was engaged in a qualitative doctoral study that explored the issues that arise for social workers who make a transition from paid agency employment to private practice. The idea for the research study arose from her personal experience of this transition and of the ethical and professional issues this raises. The findings of the study have been previously reported (van Heugten, 2001, 2002, 2003; van Heugten and Daniels, 2001a, 2001b, 2002). This article focuses on tools the researcher employed to overcome some of the methodological dilemmas that emerged due to the insider nature of the research. The author proposes that intersubjective conceptualizations of countertransference that have emerged from the field of psychoanalysis, provide a useful additional aid to the management of potential insider bias. The other methodological issue explored in this article concerns the reliability of respondents’ retrospective self reports about decision making processes.From 1993 until 1999, the author was engaged in a qualitative doctoral study that explored the issues that arise for social workers who make a transition from paid agency employment to private practice. The idea for the research study arose from her personal experience of this transition and of the ethical and professional issues this raises. The findings of the study have been previously reported (van Heugten, 2001, 2002, 2003; van Heugten and Daniels, 2001a, 2001b, 2002). This article focuses on tools the researcher employed to overcome some of the methodological dilemmas that emerged due to the insider nature of the research. The author proposes that intersubjective conceptualizations of countertransference that have emerged from the field of psychoanalysis, provide a useful additional aid to the management of potential insider bias. The other methodological issue explored in this article concerns the reliability of respondents’ retrospective self reports about decision making processes.

Resilience as an Underexplored Outcome of Workplace Bullying

The problem of workplace bullying appears to be especially common in the hospitality industry and in health, education, and social services. Bullying results in negative effects on the psychological and physical health and well-being of targets, bystanders, and those accused of bullying. I undertook a qualitative research project to investigate the experiences of 17 New Zealand social workers who identified themselves as having been targets of workplace bullying. All participants had experienced negative physical and psychological health impacts. I also found, however, that in the aftermath of their difficult experiences, most considered that they had eventually developed greater resilience. Resilience was enhanced when participants’ sense of control over their situation improved and when they received support from witnesses and managers. I make recommendations to indicate how these resilience-promoting conditions can be achieved in the organizational setting.

Theorizing Active Bystanders as Change Agents in Workplace Bullying of Social Workers

This article analyses data on bystanders that emerged from a qualitative research project undertaken with 17 social workers who had been targets of workplace bullying. During presentations of the findings, questions that arose from practitioners included: Why do bystanders remain silent? and How may helpful responses be evoked? These questions led to a further review of the literature about the part bystanders play in school and workplace bullying, revealing the finding that bystanders may remain silent because they are simply uncertain about how they can assist when bullying occurs. Workplace wide interventions that educate workers about the negative impact of passivity and help them to become active peer supporters may be particularly effective in overcoming this serious workplace problem.This article analyses data on bystanders that emerged from a qualitative research project undertaken with 17 social workers who had been targets of workplace bullying. During presentations of the findings, questions that arose from practitioners included: Why do bystanders remain silent? and How may helpful responses be evoked? These questions led to a further review of the literature about the part bystanders play in school and workplace bullying, revealing the finding that bystanders may remain silent because they are simply uncertain about how they can assist when bullying occurs. Workplace wide interventions that educate workers about the negative impact of passivity and help them to become active peer supporters may be particularly effective in overcoming this serious workplace problem.

Registration and social work education: A golden opportunity or a Trojan horse?

• Summary: The Social Workers Registration Act (2003) introduced a system of voluntary statutory registration of the social work occupation in Aotearoa New Zealand. This was hailed as a measure that would protect the public from unsafe practices, and enhance the status of the profession. More recently, however, commentators have noted that these positive effects may not necessarily be forthcoming. This article explores the impact of registration on educational programmes, by placing regulation of the occupation in the context of hegemonic neoliberalism.• Findings: Neoliberal approaches to social care not only constrain the delivery of services, but attempt to shape the perspectives of the social care workforce. Education is a potentially powerful tool for achieving that shaping. Where statutory regulation of social work is in force, competency based training threatens to supplant critical analysis, which is a hallmark of higher education. To retain viability as an academic discipline, social work educator...• Summary: The Social Workers Registration Act (2003) introduced a system of voluntary statutory registration of the social work occupation in Aotearoa New Zealand. This was hailed as a measure that would protect the public from unsafe practices, and enhance the status of the profession. More recently, however, commentators have noted that these positive effects may not necessarily be forthcoming. This article explores the impact of registration on educational programmes, by placing regulation of the occupation in the context of hegemonic neoliberalism. • Findings: Neoliberal approaches to social care not only constrain the delivery of services, but attempt to shape the perspectives of the social care workforce. Education is a potentially powerful tool for achieving that shaping. Where statutory regulation of social work is in force, competency based training threatens to supplant critical analysis, which is a hallmark of higher education. To retain viability as an academic discipline, social work educators must champion social work’s continuing role in analysing and theorizing the distribution of power in social welfare and social care. • Application: Social work educators have a role in supporting practitioners, who struggle to maintain disciplinary integrity whilst employed within 21st-century human services, by continuing to engage in critical debates, and advancing knowledge about the theory—practice nexus. In advancing such knowledge, they also have much to offer other disciplines in institutions of higher education that are looking to explicate their utility in the ‘real world’.

Human Service Organizations in the Disaster Context

1. Introduction: Human Service Organizations and Disasters 2. Roles and Activities of Human Services in the Aftermath Of Disasters 3. Theories for Praxis 4. The Canterbury Earthquakes 5. The Canterbury Earthquakes and the Politics of Disasters 6. Making Sense of Human Services in the Context of Community Disasters 7. Values, Meaning Making, and Community Building 8. Supporting the Human Services to Strengthen Communities

Insight Development in Schizophrenia The Construction of Dangerousness in Relapse

Mental health professionals believe that lack of insight is a major problem in schizophrenia because it significantly interferes with adherence to medical treatment. Yet few researchers have attempted to ask people with schizophrenia for their views on how insight develops and impacts on their quality of life. We explored these questions in interviews and focus groups with 19 Canadian people who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and identified as having good insight, and with New Zealand and Canadian treatment providers. We found that participants developed insight in three stages, which we labeled the period of chaos, the dynamic period, and the period of wisdom. Crises led participants to realize that their safety and their relationships with loved ones would continue to be dangerously imperiled unless they made sustained efforts to maintain wellness. We propose the Theory of Dangerousness to explain how participants developed and maintained their motivation to remain well.

Domestic Property Violence A Distinct and Damaging Form of Parent Abuse

This article reports on the qualitative phase of mixed method research conducted in a medium-size city in New Zealand, which examined 14 parents’ experiences of child- and youth-perpetrated domestic property violence (DPV). The research used semi-structured interviews and interpretative phenomenological analysis, enabling parents’ perceptions of the causes and impacts of this form of family violence to be explored in depth. Three superordinate themes were identified in the analysis: damage done, the various impacts of DPV; staying safe and sane; and making sense of DPV, parents’ perspectives. An ecological meaning-making theory emerged from the data and provided an overarching interpretative framework for considering the themes both separately and together. The findings showed that DPV is a distinct form of parent abuse and one that can have serious impacts of a financial, emotional, and relational nature. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed along with ideas for further research into this problem.

Stress and Violence in the Workplace: Theory and Practice

Work in the human services—whether on the frontlines or as a policy analyst, grant writer, researcher, manager, or teacher—is potentially satisfying and rewarding. It can also be extremely stressful, beyond the expectations of those starting out in a career. Educators are sometimes reluctant to tell students about the extent of the stress they might encounter in work, fearing that to do so might frighten them. Yet students, new entrants to practice, and seasoned workers find it helpful to receive information that normalizes the impacts of work pressures. They need the tools to identify unreasonable expectations and the knowledge to challenge those expectations. When overstressed workers receive information that recognizes the negative impacts of highly demanding and poorly resourced jobs, they often feel relieved. Critical sociological perspectives help us to challenge discourses that pathologize workers who become distressed when they face pressures, lack appropriate control over professional decisions, or receive too little support. Social work knowledge builds on these theoretical insights, adding to them with understandings derived from practice.

Cultural Meaning-making in the Journey from Diagnosis to End of Life

Abstract This article is based on an ethnographic study undertaken to explore whether eight people diagnosed with terminal cancer and their families drew on aspects of their cultural identities to make sense of their journey towards death, and if so, how. Ethnographic methods were supplemented by semistructured interviews. Most participants received medical treatments until close to death and invested much effort, time, and hope in these. Consequently, they made little sense of their palliative referrals. Instead, they accommodated the biomedical cultures of treatment-oriented services, thus delaying their own and their familys preparation for death. Only three participants appeared well prepared one month prior to death. An ecological perspective helped to explain the systemic factors involved in this prioritisation. The authors make recommendations for greater involvement of social workers in palliative care, and for more attention to supporting dying people and their families to make culturally meaningful decisions in the journey toward death.

The Meaningfulness of Helping Others: Loren Eiseley's “The Star Thrower”

Social work, including psychoanalytic social work, is often highly stressful, but stress is ameliorated by the sense that our work is positively meaningful. Stories can help us retain this sense of meaningfulness. The stories upon which we draw may be real-life accounts of how we have assisted clients, or meta-narratives that address collective existential questions about the purpose of helping others. One such meta-narrative is “The Star Thrower” by the scientist Loren Corey Eiseley. A broadly psychodynamic examination of Eiseleys original work shows how this emerged in the context of the authors troubled life. He invites his readers to join him on a journey where he struggles with complex doubts, and forges a path to their resolution.Social work, including psychoanalytic social work, is often highly stressful, but stress is ameliorated by the sense that our work is positively meaningful. Stories can help us retain this sense of meaningfulness. The stories upon which we draw may be real-life accounts of how we have assisted clients, or meta-narratives that address collective existential questions about the purpose of helping others. One such meta-narrative is “The Star Thrower” by the scientist Loren Corey Eiseley. A broadly psychodynamic examination of Eiseleys original work shows how this emerged in the context of the authors troubled life. He invites his readers to join him on a journey where he struggles with complex doubts, and forges a path to their resolution.