There is a lack of research examining the mental health of practicing mediums, yet the nature of mediumship work inherently presents a number of challenges to the mental health of practitioners. In this study, we aimed to gain an understanding of how mediums experience their mental health in relation to their mediumistic practice and how they recognise and respond to psychological difficulties experienced by their clients. Fourteen mediums from the North West of England took part in one-to-one interviews, which were transcribed and subject to interpretative phenomenological analysis. Four themes were identified: from past traumas to mediumistic identity; spirit makes sense, mental illness is chaos; being resilient but vulnerable; and ethical mediumistic practice. The research highlights the value of not dismissing or attempting to change appraisals of valued aspects of mediums' anomalous experiences. However, the findings do indicate that support for exposure to clients' difficulties might be helpful.

ABSTRACT This paper draws on UK data from an international, comparative project involving eight countries. The study examined how social workers' conceptions and definitions of family impact on the way they engage with complex families, and how social policies that frame social work context impact on the way social workers engage with families. Focus groups were held in which social workers from four service areas (child welfare, addictions, mental health and migration) were asked to discuss a case vignette. Several factors were embedded in the vignette to represent a realistic situation a social worker may come across in their day-to-day work. Social workers clearly identified the complexity of the family's situation in terms of the range of issues identified and candidate 'causes'. However, typical first responses were institutional, looking for triggers that would signify certainty about their, or other agencies' involvement. This resulted in a complicated story, through which the family was disaggregated into individual problem-service categories. This paper argues that understanding these processes and their consequences is critical for exploring the ways in which we might develop alternative, supportive professional responses with families with complex needs. It also demonstrates how organisational systems manifest themselves in everyday reasoning.

This paper draws on a British Academy (BA) funded study exploring social workers' conceptions of family using a vignette and focus groups. The policy context is discussed and the data from the BA study are then compared and contrasted with families' accounts of their own situations using the data from a separate qualitative study about child protection social work. The paper discusses the themes emerging and argues for a renewed focus on theorizing family in children's social work and the implications for practice.

This paper focuses on cases about children who were the subject of child protection plans and designated by children's social care services as ‘borderline’ for compulsory intervention by way of care proceedings. It moves beyond abstract language, into the everyday vocabularies of practice, with the aim of better understanding decision-making in such cases. The majority of these cases had been categorised as neglect (34/47 children). While social workers and managers clearly invoked a threshold or line for compulsory action, their discussions demonstrated a range of factors about why it was not always easy to identify when this line had been crossed.

Trust (or more often lack of trust) is a key concept in child protection and the subject of much discussion in the social work literature. A distinction by Giddens (1990) between personal and systemic trust is often made (Pithouse et al. 2012). The two are of course linked, as Jessen (2010, p. 304) notes: People entrust their need for care, welfare or social rights to the custody of the public professions, and they expect them to be trustworthy as guardians of the public good.

This paper examines the issue of professional advocacy for parents in England following the local authority issuing the Letter Before Proceedings when the concerns about the welfare of a child are so serious the local authority are considering applying for a care order. We explore the tensions of providing a legal advocacy service for parents - drawing on a study of 57 cases, scrutinised as part of the Coventry and Warwickshire Cafcass Pre-Proceedings Pilot (Broadhurst et al. 2012) and explores the contribution of legal representation for parents.The pre-proceedings meeting can be pivotal in terms of the direction of the case, the impression created at the meeting, and the action parties take afterwards. The importance of advocacy for parents was highlighted in the study both to facilitate parents' understanding of the issues, and to afford a level of protection of their rights. It is noteworthy that in 16 out of 82 pre-proceedings meetings no advocate was present, and in general fathers were less likely to be represented (although as reported the exact pattern appears more complex). Where advocates were present, contributions to the pre proceedings meeting varied from no input, to seeking points of clarification, and in 4 cases there was evidence of active 'brokering' on behalf of their clients.

The topic of parental engagement in the context of child protection is of significant international interest, given much documented problems of achieving effective 'partner-ships' where professional agencies raise serious concerns about children. This article reports the findings of a qualitative study of interaction between professionals and parents in the quasi-judicial setting of pre-proceedings meetings in England. Recent legislative changes in England and Wales have aimed to improve the prospects for effective partnership work with parents through a revised pre-proceedings process. Through detailed examination of parent-professional interaction using methods of applied discourse studies, the study highlights the constraints that institutional requirements create in terms of the differential rights and obligations of parents and professionals. Inevitably, that talk is asymmetrically organized in favour of the local authority, leads to resistance on the part of parents. The study highlights problems of engaging parents who display both active and passive forms of resistance, as they seek to challenge or reject organizational goals. The study concludes with broader observations about the likely limits of legislative efforts that seek to 're-order' the complex relationships between parents and professionals in child protection work.

The topic of parental engagement in the context of child protection is of significant international interest, given much documented problems of achieving effective ‘partnerships’ where professional agencies raise serious concerns about children. This article reports the findings of a qualitative study of interaction between professionals and parents in the quasi-judicial setting of pre-proceedings meetings in England. Recent legislative changes in England and Wales have aimed to improve the prospects for effective partnership work with parents through a revised pre-proceedings process. Through detailed examination of parent-professional interaction using methods of applied discourse studies, the study highlights the constraints that institutional requirements create in terms of the differential rights and obligations of parents and professionals. Inevitably, that talk is asymmetrically organized in favour of the local authority, leads to resistance on the part of parents. The study highlights problems of engaging parents who display both active and passive forms of resistance, as they seek to challenge or reject organizational goals. The study concludes with broader observations about the likely limits of legislative efforts that seek to ‘re-order’ the complex relationships between parents and professionals in child protection work.

Child & Family Social WorkVolume 16, Issue 1 p. 123-124 Child Law: Essential Court Materials Paula Doherty, Paula Doherty Doctoral ResearcherUniversity of LancasterSearch for more papers by this author Paula Doherty, Paula Doherty Doctoral ResearcherUniversity of LancasterSearch for more papers by this author First published: 19 December 2010 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2010.00747.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume16, Issue1February 2011Pages 123-124 RelatedInformation