Social Work Scrapbook (Ethical Dilemmas, Youtube Channel)

Social Work Scrapbook Youtube
Social Work Ethical Decision Making Guide

I found my item of interest in my SWK-611 Field Practicum class. My item of interest is, The Social Work Scrapbook, it a series of Youtube videos, blogs, social media and tools to use for social workers. All of these resources are run by a social worker from Texas, Lauren. Lauren offers a unique and modern approach to help social workers navigate the challenges and benefits of being a social worker. The topics Lauren presents are very applicable to social workers’ personal and professional lives. Her Youtube channel offers a number of vlogs on different topics across the social work profession. Her blog opens up a space for discussion on these topics and other tools that are useful, which are also available for free on TeachersPayTeachers.com. I have found Lauren’s perspective and tools to be helpful in my own learning and offer another approach to new information outside of the classroom. 

One of the most useful tools I have found in Lauren’s media is the “Social Workers Ethical Dilemma Decision Making Guide”. This tool, created by Lauren is paired with a short Youtube video discussing ethical dilemmas and how to navigate them best. The decision making guide presents simple questions to help the social worker assess and analyze the situation and how to approach the issue. 

Child Mind Institute

Child Mind Institute

The item of interest I chose is a website dedicated to mental health disorders and concerns that children and adolescences may encounter. The website is the Child Mind Institute (https://childmind.org/). The Child Mind Institute (CMI) is based out of New York. CMI conducts various research students on mental health issues that occur in children and adolescences.at any given time CMI has multiple clinical studies going on that are led by their vast multi-disciplinary teams. For example, they currently have two different studies related to autism occurring. One is Neuronal Correlates of Autism in ADHD and Autism and the other is Brain and Behavioral Changes Over Time in Young Children with Autism. Also, within the vast realm of research conducted by CMI, they also have a platform called Data-Sharing & Open-Source Initiatives where the researchers for CMI freely and openly share their data as they obtain it instead of withholding it for publication.

In addition to research, CMI offers access to a plethora of other resources some of which include:

·       Topics A-Z (https://childmind.org/topics-a-z/)

o   Provides information about disorders, concerns, medications and basic facts about disorders children can have.

·       Guides (https://childmind.org/topics-a-z/guides/)

o   Resources for parents, educators, and practitioners to use to not only gain a better understanding and to identify signs of disorders and concerns in children but also how to better support children with different disorders.

·       Blogs & Articles (https://childmind.org/topics-a-z/brainstorm-blog/)

o   Provides information about different disorders, concerns, and current factors that can influence or relate to the mental health of children.

·       Programming (https://childmind.org/our-impact/school-and-community/)

o   Offers curriculum for schools and communities as well as webinars for educators, parents, and professionals. Some resources may cost money.

·       Ask an Expert (https://childmind.org/topics-a-z/ask-an-expert/)

o   Provides an FAQ format with questions that other parents have had about their children with different mental health disorders that are answered by the multi-disciplinary team at CMI.

·       Symptom Checker (https://childmind.org/symptomchecker/)

o   Survey platform where parents can check off different items that relate to their child’s behavior. Gives insight into what their child might have but does not diagnose any disorders.

·       Project UROK (https://childmind.org/our-impact/project-urok/)

o   Online platform that allows children with mental health issues to share stories, videos, and to gain support from others with mental health issues. UROK was designed to help de-stigmatize mental health issues through encouraging others to share their stories.

Although this is not an exhaustive list of the resources or information that is provided through the Child Mind Institute, these are resources that I found to be unique and potentially beneficial. The information and resources provided through this website allow for anyone on it to gain better insight into the diverse mental health disorders and concerns that children and adolescences face. I think that this website is a great tool to have in our toolbox as school social workers as we could share the information on it with our fellow educators at our schools and with the parents of the students that we work with. This website could be especially useful to share with parents who may not have a deep knowledge of mental health disorders in children. Parents and children alike could utilize this website to gain a better understanding of disorders especially if a student is being evaluated for special education services (IEP or 504). With this website in our toolkits, we can continue to partake in the home-school-community linkages that are a part of the school social work practice model (Villarreal Sosa, Cox, & Alvarez, 2017).

Please explore this awesome website! https://childmind.org/

References

Villarreal Sosa, L., Cox, T., & Alvarez, M. (2017). School Social Work: National Perspectives on Practice in Schools. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978019027842.

Social Behavior Mapping

Item of Interest #2

My second item of interest is a worksheet that focuses on social behavior mapping. This is a great tool that we use with our students in the Bridges Program (Adult Transitional Program). It helps give a visual guide to the expected and unexpected behaviors of the student. The sheet is formatted in the form of a chart. To start, the student and the social worker (or other professionals) describe the situation taking place. Then the student describes the behavior that is expected. In this section, the behavior itself, others’ feelings about the behavior, how others will treat them based on the behavior, and the student’s feelings based on how they are treated are explained. This is then repeated for the unexpected behavior. An example of when I have used this chart is when working with a Bridges student before going out into the community for group (we will sometimes go off campus and into the community for social work group). We will use this chart to discuss the expected and unexpected behaviors of the student while in a specific setting. For example, for group, we will sometimes go to the mall and visit stores such as Barnes and Noble, or restaurants like Starbucks. This chart helps establish the expected behaviors with the student so that they can act appropriately while in the community. This in turn helps them effectively learn things such as social skills, self-regulating emotions, or self-awareness. Social behavior mapping helps make expected and unexpected behaviors clear to the student. The chart allows the student to think about how others are also affected within specific situations depending on their behavior. It is also based on a CBT approach. This is because it has the student consider thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. Overall, this is a great tool that can be used with multiple age levels in a variety of situations.

The Zones of Regulation

My second item of interest is a book called The Zones of Regulation which is a curriculum designed to foster self-regulation and emotional control. The curriculum's learning activities are presented in 18 lessons. The Zones of Regulation is a conceptual framework is designed to be taught by anyone who works with students who struggle with self-regulation. This curriculum is used to teach students: how to identify their feelings and levels of alertness, effective regulation tools, when and how to use the tools, problem solve positive solutions, understand how their behaviors influence others' thoughts and feelings. This can include, but not limited to special education and regular education teachers, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, psychologists, counselors, social workers, and parents.

I decided to share this curriculum because it can help us as social workers teach clients how to learn to express what they are feeling and explore their reactions and behavior. For instance, social workers can use this as a check-in. It is suggested to use and introduce the concept of the zones with the wall posters for a visual. A social worker can share the four zones and describe how it would be used during their session and have the client express how their brain and body feels before and after the session.

When a person is in a blue zone, their body is running slow, such as when you are tired, sick, sad or bored. The green zone is described to be as a green street light, meaning "good to go". If a person is in the green zone a person might feel happy, calm and focused. The yellow zone is compared to a caution sign meaning to slow down. A person in this zone may feel frustrated, overwhelmed, silly, excited, anxious or surprised. When someone is in the red zone, they might be out of control meaning; feeling extreme emotions such as terror, uncontrolled anger, and aggression. In this zone, you have trouble making smart choices and must stop and take a breather. This curriculum also promotes learning sensory and perspective-taking strategies to encourage self-regulation in a variety of scenarios.

In the context of my internship at District 104, my supervisor and I plan to use this curriculum material when working with students.  This serves as a great tool because we can share with teachers and parents to help students identify what they are feeling and learn how to self-regulate. This curriculum is appropriate for all ages and can be tailored for students and groups if necessary.

 I hope this is helpful to you and your practice! Below is an image of the book! I highly recommend.

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Boardmaker Online

The item of interest I want to share is a multi-level approach website that is mainly utilized for the special education classroom, however, offers benefits to all educators and service providers. The website is https://goboardmaker.com/. Boardmaker online is an online resource that allows you to create, search and support interventions in place through visuals. Beyond the creation of visuals, boardmaker online also serves as a gateway to other resources. The boardmaker online website provides links to additional hands on games, manipulatives and actives that are evidenced-based practices, particularly relating to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).

Boardmaker also allows you to address behavior, and mental health services in a multi-level approach from of the school social work practice mode by creating or finding documents from the website that monitor progress and evaluate service effectiveness. Boardmaker can be an assistant to collecting data and tracking student progress towards IEP goals and educational standards.

Individuals with disabilities learn and manage their world better when visual strategies are used to support their, understanding, expression, and positive behavior.  Visual strategies encourage communication, emotional regulation, learning, and independence for our students. The visuals from Boardmaker also help with organization and structure for students who either struggle with organizational skills or require organization.

I have utilized Boardmaker to create data tracking documents, behavior charts, emotion cards to help students communicate, visual task cards to keep students on track, graphic organizers, visual schedules for school and home to ensure services are being implemented in all settings, and social stories to encourage positive behavior.

Boardmaker is not free however since this resource can be used by ELL teachers and general education teachers I would highly recommend advocating for access. This resource has been used by ELL and Gen. Ed. teachers by creating word walls that are visuals cards with sight or vocabulary words to help the students create sentences.

Prices:

Personal: 1 month/$9.99, 1 year/$99, 2 years/$190, 3 years/$270

Professional: 1 Month/$19.99, 1 Year/$199, 2 Years/$360, 3 Years/$540

District: Call for pricing (800) 588-4548



Free resource that offers premade visuals: http://www.victoriesnautism.com/communication--behavioral-cues.html

Elyssa's Mission

        Elyssa’s Mission (website: http://elyssasmission.org/) offers five different free programs (Signs of Suicide, Grief Group, EveryBody Matters, Workplace Education and Scholarship Award Program) based around mental health and suicide prevention. The leading program that Elyssa’s Mission offers is their SOS (Signs of Suicide) Prevention Program (link: http://elyssasmission.org/sos-signs-of-suicide-prevention-program/). This SOS Prevention Program has the ability to educate students, staff, parents, and community members on the signs of suicide, as well as, helps save lives by teaching the technique, “A.C.T.” which stands for Acknowledge, Care, Tell. The program can be done within a period of a school day or can be drawn out to be longer. The program can be done by someone from Elyssa’s Mission themselves or by competent school staff (social workers, school psychologist, etc.). The program is delivered by introducing the students to Elyssa’s Mission and then having them watch a ~25 minute video and then discussing the video. Also, possibly the most important part of the program is screening students by using a Brief Screen for Adolescent Depression (BSAD) sheet. Any students who have alarming scores/answers should be seen by the school social worker in a timely fashion. The relevance of Elyssa's Mission for school social workers is to be proactive in finding students who may be struggling with their mental health or have suicidal ideation, as well as teach others how to identify signs of suicidal ideation and what to do if they see the signs.

        The Signs of Suicide Prevention Program was not invented by Elyssa’s Mission but was adapted by Elyssa’s Mission due to it being a successful evidence-based program. On the Elyssa’s Mission website it is quoted that, “Signs of Suicide (SOS) is the only school-based suicide prevention program to show a reduction (by 40-64 percent!) in self-reported suicide attempts in a randomized controlled study. -(Aseltine et al., 2007 & Schilling et al., 2016).” Elyssa’s Mission uses a prevention and enrichment social work model, as well as a crisis intervention model when needed. Elyssa’s Mission is to help prevent suicide but also provide intervention in the crisis in which someone is suicidal.

References

Our Mission: Suicide Prevention. Retrieved October 8, 2019, from http://elyssasmission.org/.