Columbia Social Work Review

Replacing Seclusion & Restraint Practices in Psychiatry With Sensory Rooms

Emma Costain — 2025-06-17

The use of seclusion and restraint (S/R) in acute psychiatric inpatient settings persists as a controversial practice, causing significant harm to patients and stress to staff. This policy brief examines the ethical, financial, and systemic implications of S/R and advocates for replacing S/R with sensory rooms—an evidence-based approach fostering emotion regulation, patient autonomy, and trauma-informed care. Recognizing that eliminating S/R may not be immediately feasible, this brief proposes an incremental approach through a hypothetical pilot program at Jackson Behavioral Health Hospital: converting an isolation room, or a room where a patient receives intervention separately from other patients, on each psychiatric inpatient unit into a sensory room, alongside incentives to reduce overall S/R usage. Sensory rooms can then be evaluated as a humane and cost-effective alternative to S/R practices. This policy brief aims to advance knowledge on patient-centered interventions in mental health care and underscores the ethical imperatives and financial incentives for legislative and organizational policy reform in psychiatric care.

Keywords: seclusion, restraint, sensory rooms, psychiatric inpatient care, policy reform, trauma-informed care, social justice

Technological Innovations in Dementia Care: The Role of Social Work Advocacy

Esther Park — 2025-06-17

According to the World Health Organization (2023), dementia affects over 55 million people across the globe, projected to increase to 139 million individuals by the year 2050. The caregiver burden, which compounds over the years of illness, includes emotional, physical, and financial challenges. These challenges disproportionately impact low-income and minority communities (Mickens et al., 2020). This research paper explores the role of technology in alleviating these challenges by improving the quality of life of both persons with dementia (PWDs) and their caregivers. Current technological tools, including healthcare monitoring tools, location-tracking devices, and reminiscence therapy platforms, are analyzed for their strengths in addressing the cognitive and safety needs of PWDs. I also address limitations such as financial barriers, digital literacy gaps, and accessibility challenges among older adult populations. The study emphasizes the significant role of social workers in advocating for equitable, person-centered care through policy and community-level interventions. Recommendations for social workers
are provided, including promoting digital literacy programs, subsidizing assistive technology costs, and prioritizing user-centered designs to ensure equitable access to dementia care technologies.

Artificial Intelligence-Driven Rent Pricing Tools & the Housing Crisis

McKynzie Clark — 2025-06-17

This policy brief explores the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in rent pricing tools that corporate landlords and property management companies use for rental housing, and its consequences for the housing market. Across the United States, landlords have become increasingly reliant on AI-driven rent pricing tools to raise rents and boost their
profits. This technology, which uses both sensitive proprietary data and publicly available information, is reducing housing accessibility, often driving tenants from their homes. As AI becomes increasingly pervasive in our everyday lives, it is essential that we interrogate its uses, especially in those that have as many collateral consequences as housing. We offer an overview of rent regulation history, the underlying AI technology, and existing policy, and make our own policy recommendations.

Understudied and Underserved: Advancing Inclusive Mental Health Care for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Shayna DelVecchio — 2025-06-17

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) face profound inequities in accessing and receiving quality mental health care despite being at increased risk for psychological distress. This paper examines the historical and systemic barriers that perpetuate these disparities—including financial limitations, imbalances within the healthcare system, provider shortages, inadequate research funding, and persistent misconceptions about the therapeutic potential of individuals with IDD. The exclusion of individuals with IDD from research and psychotherapy further exacerbates these challenges, creating significant gaps in clinical knowledge and guidance. In addition, individuals with IDD face disproportionately severe mental health challenges, including heightened exposure to trauma, diagnostic overshadowing, and the impact of social stigma.

In response, inclusive strategies are proposed to improve care by addressing the unique cognitive, communicative, and emotional needs of this population. Central to these recommendations is a shift toward person-centered, dignity-affirming care that recognizes individuals with IDD as autonomous participants in their own treatment. To advance equity in mental health care, it is imperative to pursue transformative change through inclusive research, targeted provider training, and evidence-based therapeutic adaptations. By amplifying the voices of individuals with IDD and addressing the systemic factors that have long excluded them, it will be possible to move toward a more equitable and responsive mental health care system for this underserved community.

Keywords: intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), mental health disparities, diagnostic overshadowing, person-centered therapy, trauma-informed care, inclusive psychotherapy, disability advocacy

Mereces Todo Lo Bonito: Queer Latinx Mental Health Professionals and Gay Latino Identity Development

Xavier Salas — 2025-06-17

This research explains the critical need to diversify queer Latinx mental health professionals to support the healthy formation of gay male Latinos’ sexual identity. Gay male Latinos go through unique difficulties in their process of identity formation, shaped by cultural concepts such as familismo, machismo, and religion, and economic constraints that hinder access to helpful care. These obstacles fuel greater mental health
risks, including depression, anxiety, and internalized homophobia. The underrepresentation of queer Latinx professionals in mental health, however, is not an isolated issue—it is a symptom of a broader breakdown in the system: Other groups of marginalized individuals are also often unable to access culturally competent care. Increased diversity in the mental health field is essential not only for gay Latino men but also for other LGBTQ+ and BIPOC individuals who face similar disparities.

Queer Latinx mental health professionals bring with them distinct lived experiences that enrich therapeutic relationships, deepen client outcomes, and strengthen research, policy, and clinical practice by interrupting prevailing Eurocentric models of therapy. These benefits are undermined by political efforts to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, further stigmatizing communities in need of affirming care.
Despite these challenges, interventions such as pipeline programs, policy activism, and community organizing provide options for attaining and sustaining diversity in mental health. Committing to recruit and retain queer Latinx mental health professionals allows us to bring about systemwide change that benefits not just gay male Latinos but the mental health field as a whole. As the saying goes, “Mereces todo lo bonito”—you deserve everything beautiful—and that begins with access to care that understands, knows, and confirms identity.

“Our brown skin does not limit us but empowers us for greatness.”
—Brian Saucedo

Letter from the Editor: Halla Anderson

Halla Anderson — 2025-06-17

Letter from the Editor: Halla Anderson

Letter from the Editor: Stephanie Cheng

Stephanie Cheng — 2025-06-17

Letter from the Editor: Stephanie Cheng