Columbia Social Work Review

New York's Directive for Mental Health Involuntary Removals: The Intersectional Risk for Unhoused New Yorkers with a Serious Mental Illness

2023-05-10T15:05:22+00:00

Behavioral health care, more commonly known as psychiatric care, has been a longstanding and complex issue, especially for marginalized New Yorkers. Healthcare policy addressing and caring for people diagnosed with a serious mental illness is fundamental to basic human rights; at the same time, it is a nuanced matter. Policies surrounding economic issues of poverty and housing instability are inextricably linked to social issues of mental and physical healthcare.

Healthcare policy and the experience of homelessness are closely linked for two reasons: first, the high cost of healthcare contributes to poverty for many Americans; and second, the poor and the aging are the most likely to suffer from illness and high medical expenses (Martin, 2015). This paper will consider the intersectional risk for unhoused New York City residents with a serious mental illness in light of Mayor Eric Adams’ recent directive for Mental Health Involuntary Removals. This new directive enables authorities to forcibly transport unhoused New Yorkers to hospitals to remove them from public areas. Although the current mayoral administration frames this as a moral obligation to act on behalf of New Yorkers with a serious mental illness, it is far from an effort to ensure that everyone has housing and receives basic healthcare. Adams’ misguided policy is a veiled attempt to make the city appear safer while doing little to assist those who are suffering and fails to address interventions for the real issue at hand: housing.

Digital Exclusion, Gender Oppression, and How Social Workers can Advocate for Digital Feminism in China

2023-05-10T18:25:42+00:00

For the past decade, the pace of China’s digital and technological development has been rapidly increasing. While this growth creates economic opportunities, it has negative impacts for Chinese women who are marginalized at the intersections of gender, class, and geographic location. This paper adopts an intersectional feminist lens to examine how Chinese women experience digital exclusion and gender oppression in the digital era. To do so, it discusses (1) existing technologies that reflect and perpetuate gender stereotypes through gendered technology design, (2) digital spaces and media censorship that disenfranchise women, and (3) AI surveillance and unfair labor practices that oppress women.
This paper calls for social work practices in digital feminism at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels, specifically in promoting gender equality in training and design, leading feminist initiatives, and promoting digital accessibility and data protection.

"Small Victories of Survival in a Deeply Homophobic World": Current Realities and Paths Forward for Substance Use in the LGBTQIA+ Community

2023-05-10T18:37:10+00:00

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, members of the LGBTQIA+ community are disproportionately impacted by problematic substance use (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2020). Despite this well-documented reality, there is still limited funding and access to substance use treatment for queer and trans people. This exploratory paper surveys the literature on the prevalence of substance use in the LGBTQIA+ community in the United States (US), highlighting the historical and cultural realities leading to this trend within the context of the minority stress model. The article then outlines a path forward, suggesting the best treatment models for social workers in the field. Suggestions include integrated healthcare, trauma-informed, LGBTQIA+-specific treatment models, cognitive behavioral therapy focusing on co-occurring Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorder, harm reduction, and crisis intervention outside of policing.

Enhanced Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT-E) as an Intervention for BIPOC Adolescent Girls with Eating Disorders

2023-05-10T18:44:30+00:00

Eating disorders (ED) have some of the highest mortality rates of any mental health condition due to medical complications and high rates of suicidality. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) adolescent girls and women are at especially high risk for developing EDs, which can have numerous negative mental and physical health consequences. Enhanced Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT-E) is a transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral treatment for EDs that, although originally designed to work with adults, has been shown to be effective with adolescents. Despite CBT-E’s proven efficacy across age populations, there is limited research on its effectiveness with BIPOC individuals. We argue that with culturally informed, competent, and sensitive clinicians, CBT-E can be used to treat underdiagnosed and undertreated BIPOC adolescent girls, whose EDs have been unjustly overlooked.

Choosing a Frame: How Medusa Tells the Story of Trauma and Life After Trauma

2023-05-10T18:50:42+00:00

This paper names the elements of the Medusa myth that make it an uncanny allegory for trauma and examines the role of choice—both having choice and offering choice—in the treatment of trauma. It considers two perspectives on the myth: (1) Medusa as a captive object to the hero in the myth and (2) Medusa as an autobiographer, the narrator of her own story, and a subject working to establish more control over her own experience. This myth translates to the social work space. When a clinical social worker acts as the listener/observer and a patient as narrator/autobiographer, the social worker is uniquely positioned to support the patient in reclaiming life after trauma.

Disability and Self: Critical Factors in Positive Adjustment After the Onset of Disability in Emerging Adulthood

2023-05-10T18:55:54+00:00

Resiliency, self-efficacy, and social support are key factors influencing adjustment following the onset of chronic disability. The presence or absence of these factors influences the affected person’s perceptions of self, perceptions by others, and overall life satisfaction and confidence in their ability to achieve goals. This article assesses data collected from an open-ended interview with a single participant, D, organized by thematic analysis. It finds that D's resiliency, self-efficacy, and social support system significantly influenced her mindset and attitude toward life after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The author explores how these factors were influenced by the micro-, meso-, and macro-contexts in which D existed, focusing particularly on the context of her relationships with others. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research.

Where Were the Social Workers? A Historical Overview of the Social Work Profession’s Complicity in the Family Policing System

2023-05-10T18:58:53+00:00

In recent years, segments of the social work profession have highlighted the ways that social workers are complicit with carceral systems, including the foster care system. Following the advocacy of impacted families and communities, social workers have increasingly called for re-examination of standard social work practices such as mandated reporting. This paper seeks to strengthen historical understanding of the social work profession’s complicity in the creation of the modern family policing system, commonly known as the child welfare system. In particular, this paper explores the impacts of the anti-communist movements on social work advocacy and practice during crucial periods of racial and economic reckoning, with an emphasis on the profession’s complicity with the 1960s-era criminalization of the Black family structure.