Biomedical subjects

Michael Ungar

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Ungar.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Practicing as a postmodern supervisor.

In this article, aspects of postmodern supervision are explored that highlight the blurring of boundaries that occurs between the multiple roles performed by supervisors. An approach to supervision is detailed that shows how a supervisor who navigates between roles can assist supervisees in constructing identities congruent with the stories they tell about themselves as successful therapists. Six of the many possible roles that supervisors play are illustrated through dialogue taken from a group supervision session. In the last part of this article, concepts that inform a postmodern approach to supervision, borrowed from the literature on narrative and constructionist therapy, are discussed.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed2004

Surviving as a postmodern social worker: two Ps and three Rs of direct practice.

Social workers interested in postmodernism have been provided an abundance of theory, but little to guide them in direct practice in diverse child welfare roles. In this article, two Ps and three Rs of practice based on postmodernist principles are discussed: positioning, power, resource sharing, resistance, and reflection. Professionals working in the delivery of frontline human services are struggling to work both with and in communities to celebrate diversity and localized constructions of reality while fulfilling professional and agency mandates. Informed by the broad theory of postmodernism, the two Ps and three Rs of practice allow workers to be mandated agents of the system, while deconstructing their privileged position.

Canada↗

PubMed2004

A study of community guides: lessons for professionals practicing with and in communities.

A study of 35 nonprofessional helpers, identified as community "guides," focused on the contribution each made to helping marginalized individuals and families become a part of their communities. The lessons learned through these lay helpers can inform a postmodern social work practice that promotes the use of indigenous practice principles appropriate for work with and in culturally distinct communities. The practice wisdom of these guides demonstrates a need for professionals to reposition themselves in the associational life of a community, and to make their practice less visible. It is shown that an effective community-building practice that respects community solutions to individual and community problems requires permeable boundaries on the part of intervening professionals.

Community Participation↗

PubMed2004

The importance of parents and other caregivers to the resilience of high-risk adolescents.

Relationships between 43 high-risk adolescents and their caregivers were examined qualitatively. Parents and other formal and informal caregivers such as youth workers and foster parents were found to exert a large influence on the behaviors that bolster mental health among high-risk youth marginalized by poverty, social stigma, personal and physical characteristics, ethnicity, and poor social or academic performance. Participants' accounts of their intergenerational relationships with caregivers showed that teenagers seek close relationships with adults in order to negotiate for powerful self-constructions as resilient. High-risk teens say they want the adults in their lives to serve as an audience in front of whom they can perform the identities they construct both inside and outside their homes. This pattern was evident even among youth who presented as being more peer-than family-oriented. The implications of these findings to interventions with caregivers and teens is discussed.

Adolescent↗