NEW PUBLICATIONS
& REPORTS (Ireland)
16 PRACTICE LINKS // DECEMBER 2021
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full article
THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING SOCIAL WORK AS A
SOCIOLEGAL PRACTICE: AN IRISH PERSPECTIVE
It has been argued that social work is the only profession that is based on
a sociolegal expertise. In this article we suggest that this expertise
differentiates social work from related social professions; requiring
advanced sociolegal practice skills and a particular approach to
sociolegal education. In a sociolegal environment, social workers and
legal professionals practice in a space between service user and their
wider environment. We demonstrate the importance of social work
students developing competence in the use of the law and how a
socioecological model can help students develop their sociolegal
practice. We draw from our experience of the Irish child welfare and
protection context and argue that specialist sociolegal skills education is
required to inform practice across domains.
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The evolving use of Mentalization informed thinking with the
'Care Team' in the Irish statutory child protection system
Tom Casey
ABSTRACT
This article articulates the development of a novel form of service
provision in Ireland directed at supporting Foster placements and
Social Work practice with the aim of adverting placement breakdown.
Within The Attachment & Mentalization Service model emphasis is
placed on supporting the Care Team (i.e. Social Workers, Foster
Parents) around children in care in Ireland with the ultimate aim of
providing a depth of understanding that is commensurate with the
level of relational di!culty experienced by children in care. The service
model is underpinned by evidenced informed thinking relating to the
knowledge bases of Mentalization, Re"ective Functioning, and Alan
Schore's articulation of Co-regulation. Privilege of space is provided to
the illumination of the theory of Mentalization and Re"ective
Functioning with Co-regulation and psychoanalytical concepts of projection and
containment also be highlighted. To aid the reader's digestion of
the material a simple, everyday case example is provided.
KEYWORDS
Mentalisation; Reflective
Function; Co-Regulation;
social work practice; foster
parent; containment
"Hello",
"I want to talk to PAULA !", Emily almost shouted down the phone.
Emily was an eleven-year-old girl in foster care who had been allocated to Paula her social
worker for three years.
"This is Paula Emily, what's wrong"?
"I want to move placement, I'm sick of this poxy place!"
Although Paula attempted to engage Emily and figure out what had taken place she just
seemed to get more and more agitated. Paula's anxiety was heightened as this was not the
first such call she had taken from Emily and now she seemed determined, saying:-
"I'm just going and you're not going to stop me! "
Emily hung up saying she was going to pack her bags. As Paula sat back in her office
chair contemplating what her next move should be, her phone rang again. It was not
Emily as she had hoped but Emily's foster mother Anne who was as distressed as
Emily, it seemed.
Paula attempted to talk to Anne but found she made little progress such was her heightened
state:- she repeatedly stated that Emily had just been so mean to Grace (Anne's former foster
child) and ruined what should have been a lovely day out for them both.
CONTACT Tom Casey tomcasey138@gmail.com
JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2021.1922366
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