Using Social Media to Widen Young People's Participation in Social Work Education: new report

Using a systematic review approach, this study set out to identify social media resources currently used by service users to share knowledge and experience, in order that they could be used to widen young people’s participation in social work education. Resources found were included in a database available to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to support and promote the use of these sites.
The review was undertaken in partnership with young service users.

The Review question was:
• How do interventions/services using new social and other digital media technologies promote children and young people’s participation?

Sub-questions were:
• How do such interventions/services conceptualise participation?
• What are the perceived facilitators and barriers of participation?
• What are the implications for engaging young service users in social work education?
A review of published literature provides a foundation to understand how and in what ways social media is currently being used and suggest ways in which it might be used in the future. In addition to academic studies, this project reviews social media, e.g. social networks, blogs, video conferencing, used by users of personal services to share experiences and contribute to knowledge. Social media resources identified are presented in tabular form and are also made accessible though the inclusion of hyperlinks to a range of digital material.
Finding of this study suggest that social media is currently being used by adults for two purposes, to promote civic participation or to socialise young people. Consequently the potential biases and shortcomings of face-to-face communication between service providers and service users can be reproduced in online forms of communication. 

Conclusions drawn include:
• Genuine engagement with young people requires digital technologies to provide complementary, more empowering public spaces and channels for expression which may lead to social change. 
• There is a need to consider ways group membership is constructed and established, both in terms of involvement in social work education in general, and in providing mechanisms that support the use of social media to facilitate this. 
The report concludes by making recommendations for future action

 

Views: 17

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of Mental Health in Higher Education Hub to add comments!

Join Mental Health in Higher Education Hub

Blog Posts

QMU launches the world's first Masters in Mad Studies

Posted by Jill Anderson on December 1, 2020 at 11:50 0 Comments

Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh is launching the world’s first master’s degree in Mad Studies. The MSc Mad Studies course is primarily a course for graduates with lived experience of mental health issues. It has been hailed by a leading international Mad Studies academic as the most exciting piece of curriculum development in the last 20 years!

Mad Studies is a recognised academic discipline that explores the knowledge and actions that have grown…

Continue

Unlearning through Mad Studies: disruptive pedagogical praxis

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 26, 2020 at 19:00 0 Comments

Medical discourse currently dominates as the defining framework for madness in educational praxis. Consequently, ideas rooted in a mental health/illness binary abound in higher learning, as both curriculum content and through institutional procedures that reinforce structures of normalcy. While madness, then, is included in university spaces, this inclusion proceeds in ways that continue to pathologize madness and disenfranchise mad people.

This paper offers Mad…

Continue

Stepchange: mentally healthy universities

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:48 0 Comments

Earlier this year, UUK published a refreshed version of its strategic framework, Stepchange: mentally healthy universities, calling on universities to prioritise the mental health of their students and staff by taking a whole university approach to mental health.

The Stepchange approach and shared set of principles inform the …

Continue

Think Ahead gets funding to boost its intake.

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:41 0 Comments

Fast-track mental health social work provider Think Ahead will expand its intake by 60% from next year following a government funding boost of at least £18m.

The Department of Health and Social Care has agreed a contract with Think Ahead to increase the number of trainees for its 2021 and 2022 cohorts from 100 to 160, with…

Continue

Transforming Mental Health Social Work videos

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:39 0 Comments

Health Education England has commissioned 11 videos centered on real-life experience of specialists in the social work field.

See the video playlist.

Transforming mental health social work - conference report

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:37 0 Comments

In February 2020 Health Education England and Skills for Care put on two major conferences about the role and development of mental health social work. 

Download the conference report.

Leadership in mental health social work - web pages

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:33 0 Comments

A section of the Skills for Care website has been developed for mental health social workers and AMHPs

View the web pages here.

Social work education and training in mental health, addictions and suicide: a scoping review protocol

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:29 1 Comment

Social workers are among the largest group of professionals in the mental health workforce and play a key role in the assessment of mental health, addictions and suicide. Most social workers provide services to individuals with mental health concerns, yet there are gaps in research on social work education and training programmes. The objective of this open access scoping review is to examine literature on social work education and training in mental health, addictions and…

Continue

Mental health nurse education: perceptions, access and the pandemic

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:25 0 Comments

With World Mental Health Day this Saturday, a new Nuffield Trust report discusses how more people might be attracted to apply to study mental health nursing, and the reasons why they might currently be less likely to do so.

Co-author Claudia Leone picks out some  key findings.

© 2024   Created by Jill Anderson.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service