Clinical social work practice has traditionally focused on assessing and intervening in concerns within individual, couple, and family contexts. While this remains a dominant focus, new concerns are emerging in the therapy office about the planet’s well-being and the concomitant impacts of climate change on the human population. These concerns include both physical and mental health impacts from sudden-onset disasters such as floods, wildfires, and tornadoes, as well as prolonged disasters such as heat waves. While time-honored therapy models are efficacious, the challenges posed by climate change call for innovative approaches that address these unique concerns. We propose an ECOSOCIAL Work Model predicated on the relationship between human beings and the natural world. This article outlines an ecosocial work approach to practice across the engagement, assessment, intervention, and termination phases of helping, and includes a case vignette illustrating how this model can complement existing approaches.
Culturally adapted cognitive behavioral therapy (CA-CBT) has improved the accessibility and relevance of psychotherapy for diverse populations, including immigrant communities. Nevertheless, adaptation may remain incomplete when therapeutic assumptions about emotional disclosure, communication, and healing do not align with the experiences of Chinese immigrants in the United States. Using soft assimilation as a guiding lens, this conceptual paper examines how culturally adapted psychotherapy may subtly privilege Western norms despite incorporating culturally responsive techniques. Drawing on relevant literature and a composite vignette, the paper considers four influences that may be overlooked in treatment: migration histories and trauma, generational tensions, digital media, and subgroup-specific experiences. It proposes an integrative framework combining CA-CBT strategies with selected Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) principles, including acceptance, psychological flexibility, and values-guided action. Grounded in clinical social work, the framework also emphasizes relational meaning and the cultural and structural contexts shaping communication and coping. Rather than rejecting CA-CBT or privileging one model, the paper advocates greater therapeutic flexibility in addressing the historical, relational, and sociocultural realities of Chinese immigrant clients.
Caregivers play a central role across the cancer trajectory, yet their needs often remain insufficiently recognized within routine oncology workflows. This conceptual manuscript proposes a trauma-informed, ecological, and interprofessional model designed to support the systematic integration of caregivers into oncology care from the earliest stages of treatment. Guided by Ecological Systems Theory and trauma-informed care principles, the model conceptualizes caregiver distress as emerging from interacting sources that include medical uncertainty, emotional strain, changing family roles, and practical disruptions. The framework outlines mechanisms through which oncology teams may enhance caregiver visibility, communication, and psychosocial support by embedding structured screening, documentation, and interprofessional coordination into routine clinical practice. A clinical illustration demonstrates how early identification, trauma-informed communication, and collaborative care planning may reduce caregiver invisibility within oncology settings. Integration of caregivers into electronic health records, standardized assessment processes, and shared care planning has the potential to support more coordinated, equitable, and responsive psychosocial care. Overall, the model offers a theory-informed and practice-oriented framework intended to strengthen communication, promote caregiver recognition, and address persistent gaps in oncology caregiver support across the care continuum.
Clinical social work preparation involves more than acquiring professional knowledge. Students must also develop a sense of professional belonging, confidence in emerging clinical capabilities, and a realistic intention to enter practice. This multicenter cross-sectional study examined associations among professional identity, clinical social work self-efficacy, career intention, and commitment among 438 undergraduate and postgraduate social work students across five academic sites in Saudi Arabia. Participants completed adapted measures of professional identity and clinical self-efficacy and study-developed measures of career intention and commitment. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor measurement model with excellent fit. In the structural model, professional identity was positively associated with clinical self-efficacy and career intention, and clinical self-efficacy was positively associated with career intention. Career intention showed the strongest direct association with commitment and carried the indirect associations of professional identity and clinical self-efficacy with commitment. Because the design was cross-sectional, these findings represent theoretically specified associations rather than causal or developmental sequencing. The results suggest that professional belonging and perceived clinical capability may be most closely connected to commitment when students also form a clear and personally meaningful intention to pursue clinical practice. Implications are considered for education, supervision, and workforce preparation.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are consistently associated with adverse health and behavioural outcomes, including sexual risk behaviours (SRBs). However, limited research has examined associations between ACEs and sexting, an increasingly prevalent form of technology-mediated sexual interaction. This study investigated relationships between cumulative ACE exposure, SRBs, and sexting behaviours among Canadian adolescents and young adults. Data were drawn from wave two of the Canadian Study of Adolescent Health Behaviors (n = 912). SRBs included age of first sexual intercourse, number of sexual partners, condom use, and alcohol/drug use at last intercourse. Sexting behaviours included sending, receiving (including non-consensual), and requesting sexual images or videos in the past 12 months. Adjusted analyses revealed threshold effects, with five or more ACEs significantly associated with earlier sexual debut (β = -1.14, p < .001) and a greater number of lifetime sexual partners (β = 2.04, p < .05). Four ACEs were also associated with higher odds of alcohol/drug use at last intercourse (AOR = 2.22, p < .05). ACE exposure demonstrated stronger and more consistent associations with sexting behaviours – participants reporting five or more ACEs had significantly elevated odds of engaging in all sexting outcomes, especially non-consensual experiences. Findings underscore the cumulative impact of ACEs on both offline and digitally mediated sexual behaviours, highlighting the importance of social work interventions that are sensitive to early adversity, stress responses, and developmental and psychosocial contexts.
