Wes Shera

Empowerment of Human Service Workers

ABSTRACT The need for workers to experience a sense of empowerment in the human service organizations where they are employed is essential, but insufficient. The conceptualization of worker empowerment also needs to extend beyond the organizational context toward a broader context. In this article, the authors review the construct of social worker empowerment, examine conditions which negatively impact the potential for empowerment, and suggest strategies available to administrators and workers for increasing the potential for empowerment both within and beyond the organizational work setting.

The Rediscovered Concept of Recovery in Mental Illness: A Multicountry Comparison of Policy and Practice

Recovery has recently reemerged in many countries as a key concept in mental health. Several long-term outcome studies have highlighted much higher recovery rates than previously assumed for persons with long-term mental illness. Service users (consumers) and professionals are now promoting this approach, and for users, recovery is about taking control over their own lives and introducing improvements which may or may not be related to clinical indicators of recovery. This approach also requires that professionals work with consumers in a much more collaborative fashion then in the past. Australia, Canada, England, and Israel have all formally accepted recovery as the cornerstone of their mental health policies and are currently in various phases of implementation. This paper describes these developments and identifies the implications for mental health social work.

Social work education and practice Planning for the future

In planning for the future, schools of social work need good-quality information about current and future anticipated changes which affect the nature of social work practice. A wide variety of methods are available to conduct “futures studies” to assist schools with this planning. This article reviews the international literature on futures studies in social work and concludes that a high-quality study requires substantial funding, the meaningful participation of multiple constituencies, and the use of multiple methods for data collection and action planning.

Promoting Evidence-Informed Practice in Child Welfare in Ontario: Progress, Challenges and Future Directions.

Practice and Research Together (PART) is an Ontario-based research utilization initiative, the core function of which is to distil and disseminate practice-relevant research findings to child welfare practitioners. This article addresses (a) the mission and goals of the PART program; (b) the key components of the program design; (c) the conceptual foundations of evidence-informed practice (EIP) as it relates to the program; (d) the successes and challenges of implementation to date; (e) the results of a comprehensive evaluation; and (f) areas for future research and development. Key findings of the formative evaluation include Link PARTners (LPs—organizational representatives) feeling isolated in their role in promoting organizational change; front-line practitioners reporting that they have little time or resources to use the program materials; supervisors stating that they support the concept of EIP but lack the skills and abilities to move these ideas forward; and executive directors are requesting more evidence to promote organizational and systemic change.

Leadership Challenges Facing Nonprofit Human Service Organizations in a Post-Recession Era

The nonprofit sector has been the fastest growing segment of the U.S. economy in the last decade, primarily due to growth in the economy’s service fields of health care, education, and social servi...

Challenges in the implementation of recovery-oriented mental health policies and services

The development and implementation of recovery-oriented mental health policy and services is a current theme in the ongoing process of mental health reform in many countries. The authors describe the comparative policy work they have been doing over the last fifteen years, leading up to the current focus on the challenges encountered in the implementation of the latest vision of recovery. The challenges identified include definitional clarity, stigma, resources, policy and program implementation, professional and consumer differences, and political will. Experiences in two countries, England and Canada, are used to provide more detail about how these challenges unfold in the implementation of recovery-oriented reform.

Introducing psychiatry to rural physicians in China: an innovative education project.

A brief educational program for 10,000 rural physicians in China introduced them to psychiatric knowledge and skills, emphasizing suicide risk assessment and management. Six months after the program, the physicians reported positive changes in their attitudes toward psychiatry, applicability of their new knowledge, and more communication with specialists.

Responding to diversity in organizational life: the case of a Faculty of Social Work

Increasing diversity of populations in many countries places demands on institutional structures to be responsive to the needs of minority communities. Universities, and especially schools of social work, are expected to be open to these new challenges of diversity. It is argued that inclusiveness should be integrated into the overall strategic responses of institutions. This paper describes the attempts by a Faculty of Social Work to become more inclusive by introducing initiatives in minority student recruitment and retention, faculty development, curriculum development, community outreach and research. The paper also raises critical issues involved in the process and discusses the lessons learned.

Beyond Community Treatment Orders: Empowering Clients to Achieve Community Integration

This article reviews the effectiveness of community treatment orders (CTOs), a community-based treatment program initiated to improve compliance with treatment plans and address societal concerns regarding seriously mentally ill individuals. It assesses the impact of CTOs on individuals who have participated in this treatment and addresses the question of whether CTOs have the potential to resolve mental health problems in the community. This article examines the use of CTOs in a number of countries, and in particular, the outcomes of a CTO program in Toronto, Canada. Finally, it looks at advanced directives, intensive case management, and recovery-oriented service system reform as viable and empowering alternatives to CTOs.

Educational evaluation in China: An analysis of current practices☆

Abstract The Chinese educational system is being challenged to play a pivotal role in the four modernizations. In recent years much effort has been put into educational reform, but much remains to be done. The intent of this article is to discuss the role that evaluation can play in the improvement of the Chinese education system. Although it is claimed frequently that evaluation is a new topic in China, it is more accurate to say that the jargon or language may be new and that various types of evaluation have been and are being conducted at all levels of the Chinese educational system. Results from a recent survey and case studies of evaluation practices in primary and secondary schools in Shanghai will be described to justify this view. The importance of blending present practices with approaches from the West also will be highlighted. The article will conclude with a description of current developments in educational evaluation in China.