Summary The use of humor in social work is an underrecognized and underexplored area of practice despite its potential to heal, harm, and complicate communication. To date, very minimal scholarship has been published on humor in social work. Therefore, this qualitative study sought to examine how social workers use, perceive, and experience humor. Data were gathered from 22 participants who identified as social workers via an online survey. Data also included learning artifacts (e.g., discussion board posts, humor therapy treatment plans) from 19 graduate-level social work students who completed a humor in social work course in the northeast region of the United States. Both datasets were analyzed thematically. Findings Participants perceived social workers as using humor in clearly distinct ways, as a tool to promote generative growth, and as a weapon to harm already marginalized populations. In total, participant responses highlight the complexities of humor, including its subjective and dynamic nature, which can lead to multiple and sometimes conflicting experiences. Applications The findings suggest that social workers view humor positively, yet they engage in its use without adequate training, strategy, and reflection, sometimes violating professional ethics. Results further indicate that social workers will continue to employ humor in their professional work to the benefit and detriment of those around them. To support reflective and informed practice, additional research is needed on the use and misuse of humor in social work.

Summary This study focuses on the narratives of participants of a long-term expert-by-experience training programme for people with a history of crime about their past, and how they use their life experience in their work as experts by experience. The research data was collected during interviews of respondents with a history of crime (N=19). The interviews were analysed using a narrative identity framework, and the data further examined in light of various studies focused on a desistance from crime. Findings The transformation process from service user or client to expert by experience provided people with a history of crime with a chance to come to terms with their past, and to and gain a sense of closure. Expertise by experience gave their difficult life experiences a new meaning, and thus promoted their overall rehabilitation and offered them opportunities through which they could gain the appreciation and acceptance of other people. The new relationships presented to them as experts by experience also paved the way to a new kind of self-concept that strengthened the desister's self-confidence and optimistic outlook on the future. Applications This study offers perspectives on how people with a history of crime can re-enter society. Through their survival stories and their journey to become experts by experience, desisters can earn the acceptance and approval of others and gain a more positive perception of themselves. The new identities of people with a history of crime are dependent on society's approval as they continue to desist from crime and re-enter mainstream society.

Summary Unpaid carers were profoundly impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and public health responses. In the UK, in March 2020, people identified as clinically extremely vulnerable and their household members were advised to “shield” for an initial 12-week period, which meant minimizing all contacts from outside the household and not leaving the house at all, unless in an emergency. In a modified form, shielding guidance remained in place until August 2020 and was reinstituted from December 2020 until April 1, 2021. This article, reporting on qualitative interviews with 47 unpaid carers in Wales, thematically analyzed using a coding framework, explores the experiences of unpaid carers affected by this shielding guidance and their wider implications for social work with unpaid carers in the future. Findings Participants in our study described ways in which their caring role expanded, due to the need to provide additional practical and emotional support for loved ones who were shielding, and who lost access to other avenues of support. Some also described their caring role as becoming more involved and complex due to the declining health or self-care capacity of the person cared-for as a direct consequence of shielding restrictions. Alongside the increase in their caring responsibilities, carers reported losing access to important avenues of support for their own well-being. Applications We draw on ecological systems theory to highlight the importance during care planning and management of exploring the carer's mesosystem to identify and optimize sustaining forces, and of attending to the microsystem involving the carer and person cared-for.

How does social workers' agency come about amid the structural constraints they face in their everyday practice? Based on ethnographic fieldwork at a social services department in Israel, this article offers insights into social workers' agentic performances. Fieldwork lasted four and a half months (March–August 2021) and included daily participation in the department life, multiple interviews with all staff members ( n = 28), and participant observations at various professional meetings. We identified four modes of agency among social workers: challenging bureaucracy and regulations, standing up to colleagues, supervisors, and managers, pushing through austerity, and disrupting professional norms and expectations. We conclude with illustrating social workers as Willful Subjects, recognizing the limitations of social workers' agency while acknowledging its powerful effects and prime importance.

Summary Social work practice has a history of collegial, intra-, and interprofessional discussions that take place backstage, that is, without the presence of clients. Because of their backstage character, these discussions may be considered even more important to examine than meetings at which clients are present and that are in a way already open to the public. The purpose of the present review was to provide insight into this practice by identifying and synthesizing recent empirical findings from existing studies using naturalistic data, published in English in peer-reviewed journals. Findings We identified four types of interaction among practitioners in relation to the case discussed and three types of content that were raised and shared, as well as an apparent mismatch between formal reasons for the discussions and the purpose they serve in practice. A lack of common vocabulary for conceptualizing the discussions and of attention given to their backstage character was identified in the included studies. Applications The review highlights an important area for further research and stresses the importance of not being blinded by formal purposes or ideological underpinnings in examining intra- and interprofessional discussions in social work; it shows that it is important to look into what is actually going on in practice.

Social work has long history with practice in diverse places. Indigenous social work traditions have long been grounded in place and land. There has been little attention to the role of place in Western and Northern social work practices. Place-based theories attend to the fundamental role of place in social work practice and provide principles that social workers can use to recognize place in their practice. There has been little practical guidance on how social workers can apply these principles to identify and modify place-based levers for improving practice and outcomes within Western contexts. To address these gaps and advance the use of place in practice, principles of place-based power dynamics are described here in relation to the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of the key areas of social work practice: assessment, intervention, and evaluation. Place-based principles of form, function, location, time, threshold, and relations, provide a framework that social workers can incorporate into social work practices at all levels and throughout social work practice phases. Social workers can use these principles to examine how social work practice can better assess, intervene, and evaluate the role of place in the social environment and in the daily lives of the participants and populations they serve. Incorporating place-based principles can illuminate malleable place-based levers to fit the needs of service users. Attending to place in social work practice can also heighten practitioners’ awareness of power and decision-making to identify and intervene at the root causes of social problems.

Social workers support clients' psychosocial and resource needs across care settings. Social workers are typically not, however, trained to engage in emergency response practices such as the ones that may be necessary to support needs brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article reports findings from a cross-sectional survey of social work students and recent graduates entering the field of social work during COVID-19, exploring their preparation, perceived readiness, and training needs. The study sample (N = 94) included 70 students and 24 recent graduates. The sample was 52% White, 22% Hispanic, and 21% Black/African American. Respondents reported training needs in the areas of trauma-informed care (70%), behavioral health (57%), culturally competent practice (49%), telehealth (48%), loss and grief (44%), and emergency management (43%). No significant differences emerged in self-efficacy ratings of students and recent graduates; both groups reported low self-efficacy in their ability to apply advanced practice skills. After controlling for demographics, receiving training specific to the COVID-19 pandemic (β = .271, p < .05), perceived readiness (β = .779, p < .001), and satisfaction with training/preparation (β = .4450, p < .001) significantly contribute to levels of perceived self-efficacy among SW students and recent graduates. Social work curricular developments, and continuing education, are needed to prepare and support emerging social workers for practice in the context of COVID-19 and its long-term implications. This includes enhancing social workers' readiness to engage in telehealth, trauma-informed practice, emergency management, policy interpretation, self-care, and grief support.