Editorial

We started our last editorial on a note of hope and optimism regarding the arrival of the Covid-19 vaccine and the gradual re-opening of society. In the intervening three months, there have been many examples of progress as society musters its capacity to overcome the dangers posed by this virus. There have been setbacks also, and the perseverance on the part of society, the ‘us collective’, to adhere to new ways of behaving and interacting with each other, has been tested many times. Change is not easy. In particular, sustained behavioural, cognitive and emotional change is challenging, even at the best of times.

The articles in this general issue address the psychodynamic processes surrounding change in a variety of contexts, not necessarily Covid-specific types of change, but change of various kinds in relational or family contexts.

In the first article of this issue, Stan Houston and Calvin Swords consider how the application of a psychodynamic lens can aid social workers to assess the capacity of parents to change in contexts where child safety and protection concerns arise. To understand and measure this capacity to change must, they argue, take into account the intra-psychic and relational dimensions of a parent’s lived reality. The title of their article, ‘Analysing a parent’s capacity to change: towards a model for child protection social workers’, signals the aim of their article which is to strengthen the knowledge base of social work in child protection assessment and intervention contexts.

On a similar theme, but in a different context, Louise Sims, delves into the changing processes in adoption practices and the potential negative implications for new family formation which can arise when such processes are rushed. She titles her article, ‘Encounters with liminality: transformative practices in the building of an adoptive family’, and, in particular, she highlights the potential for transformative practice during the matching stage, which she identifies as a ‘liminal hotspot’ in which intense psycho-social processes are typically at play.

Katarina Glumbiková and Marek Mikulec’s article is titled ‘Reflexivity and strategies of emotions (re)construction in social work with families in the Czech Republic’. In this paper, the authors provide important insights into the ways in which social workers use reflective practice to manage the emotional and stress-inducing elements of their work. The authors consider how the suppression of emotions on the part of the social worker is a coping strategy that is sometimes adopted but which may diminish the social worker’s ability to connect with their personal feelings in the context of their work with clients. The implications of social workers not connecting with these dimensions of their experiences are discussed.

The fourth article in this issue is titled, ‘Rural grandparenting through a family development lens: implications for social work practice’ by Tamara Woods. This is the first of two articles in this issue which specifically address social work in rural contexts. This article focuses on the experiences of grandparents who take on kinship care-type arrangements in respect of their grandchildren, and it illustrates the complex nature of such arrangements. This complexity can give rise to different types of stressors which the author’s study illuminated in detail. But the findings here also reveal the coping mechanisms used by the grandparents as they navigate the changes in their family configuration brought about by the kinship care context.

The rural theme is continued in the next article by Justin Bucchio, V. Nikki Jones and Donna M. Dopwell, which is titled, ‘Applying Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to LGBT foster youth: practice implications for child welfare professionals and those working in rural settings’. In their article, the authors set out in detail how Maslow’s model can inform a useful framework through which to consider the different levels of need experienced by rural-based LGBT youth in foster care settings.

In the penultimate article, Justin Dunne and Andrew Parker discuss the ‘working alliance’ concept within the context of services for vulnerable young people. The article titled, ‘Exploring effective practice with vulnerable young people: what does practice wisdom reveal about the working alliance?’, reports on the findings from their study on effective practice with this group of young people. They highlight the relational dimensions of effective working alliances and the skills, such as active listening, which help develop trusting relationships through which positive change can be supported.

The final article in this issue by Linda Gilkerson and Julia Pryce is titled, ‘The Mentoring FAN: a conceptual model of attunement for youth development settings’. The Mentoring FAN is an acronym for Facilitating Attuned Relationships which the authors explain as a model used to build relational capacities among staff and mentors in youth mentoring programmes in the United States. This article sets out the different models applied in youth mentoring services and emphasises the value of incorporating the concept of attunement into such programmes, including the training offered to staff and mentors. The article signposts the broader relevance of attunement for social work practice and how it helps signpost a process through which social workers can identify and connect with the issues of importance to clients, or as the authors describe it, it helps social workers to engage with clients ‘where they are’.

We would like to thank all the authors for their contributions to this issue. Although, the world continues to grapple with significant challenges, this collection of articles reminds us that positive solutions can be found to problems big and small when we acknowledge and deal with the underlying processes which influence our thoughts and actions.