Background: Mental health conditions are one of the largest burdens of disease in Australia and globally. There is a need to seek innovative and alternative interventions that can prevent and alleviate mental health symptoms. Nature-based interventions (NBIs), namely programs and activities where individuals engage with natural environments with the aim of improving their health and wellbeing (e.g., nature walking groups), may be such an alternative. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of mental health clinicians on the potential benefits of, and barriers to, implementing NBIs within a community mental health setting. Methods: This study used a qualitative, exploratory research design. Fifteen mental health clinicians were recruited from the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, Australia, and interviewed (September–October 2021) about their perceptions of NBIs within mental health settings. The semi-structured interviews were analysed using an inductive thematic approach and managed with NVivo. Results: Mental health clinicians viewed spending time in nature as relaxing, refreshing, and therapeutic. Many described it as part of their lifestyle and encouraged consumers to engage in nature-based activities on their own time. If NBIs were to be introduced as part of mental health services, clinicians expressed willingness to promote them to their consumers. Clinicians listed many potential benefits of NBIs for mental health consumers including improved mood, calmness and relaxation, a sense of empowerment, and social connections. Despite these benefits, clinicians were concerned about a variety of barriers to NBIs including consumers’ mental health symptoms such as anxiety or lack of motivation, scepticism, and geographic accessibility, as well as organisational barriers such as policies around safety risk. Conclusion: Responding to the individual and organisational factors that could hinder the implementation of NBIs while building on the existing evidence of the positive impact of nature on health and wellbeing and, as demonstrated in this study, mental health clinicians’ interest and supportiveness of NBIs, mental health services should consider the implementation of NBIs as part of routine practice.

Little of social work literature provides evidence of best teaching practices for preparing social work students to work with clients from historically excluded racial and ethnic groups. A systematic literature review was conducted to assess studies published in the United States during the 10-year period (2007–2016) that examined: (1) social work educators’ pedagogical interventions for teaching about racial and ethnic diversity, (2) components of those interventions, (3) methodological designs to evaluate the interventions, and (4) the students’ learning outcomes. Following the systematic review protocol, the authors identified and assessed twenty-five studies (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods). The studies reflected a variety of teaching interventions, such as diversity courses and projects, instructional technology, and cultural immersion programs. While many reported positive student learning outcomes, as a whole, the studies lacked methodological rigor and sound theoretical grounding. Although social work education attempts to prepare students for multicultural practice, the field lacks an intentional and systematic approach to teaching about racial and ethnic diversity and evaluating learning outcomes in social work students. There is an urgency to expand the empirical evidence on social work diversity education, particularly concerning teaching about race, racism, and Whiteness.

Situating Thomas Joiner’s concept of belonging within an ecological perspective, this study examined the associations between school and community belonging and suicidal ideation and attempts among high school students. The study used data from the 2013 Texas Youth Risk Behavior Survey (N = 2,560). Results demonstrated that community belonging reduced the odds of youth suicidal behaviors. School bullying, feeling unsafe at school, and being threatened or injured at a school increased the odds of suicidal behaviors. Findings suggest that fostering safe and inclusive environments and strengthening youth’s experiences of school and community belonging may reduce suicidal behaviors in high school youth.

Background: Refugee and migrant women are at higher risk of childbirth complications and generally poorer pregnancy outcomes. They also report lower satisfaction with pregnancy care because of language barriers, perceived negative attitudes among service providers, and a lack of understanding of refugee and migrant women’s needs. This study juxtaposes health policy expectations in New South Wales (NSW), Australia on pregnancy and maternity care and cultural responsiveness and the experiences of maternal healthcare providers in their day-to-day work with refugee and migrant women from non-English speaking backgrounds. Methods: This study used a qualitative framework method to allow for a comparison of providers’ experiences with the policy expectations. Sixteen maternal health service providers who work with refugee and migrant women were recruited from two local health districts in New South Wales, Australia and interviewed (November 2019 to August 2020) about their experiences and the challenges they faced. In addition, a systematic search was conducted for policy documents related to the provision of maternal health care to refugee and migrant women on a state and federal level and five policies were included in the analysis. Results: Framework analysis revealed structural barriers to culturally responsive service provision and the differential impacts of implementation gaps that impede appropriate care resulting in moral distress. Rather than being the programmatic outcome of well-resourced policies, the enactment of cultural responsiveness in the settings studied relied primarily on the intuitions and personal responses of individual service providers such as nurses and social workers. Conclusion: Authentic culturally responsive care requires healthcare organisations to do more than provide staff training. To better promote service user and staff satisfaction and wellbeing, organisations need to embed structures to respond to the needs of refugee and migrant communities in the maternal health sector and beyond.

Immigrant youth experience a combination of stressors, such as isolation and discrimination, that put them at a greater risk for negative mental health outcomes. Relying on interviews with 24 service providers who work with Latino immigrant youth, this article examines how they construct and intervene in the worlds of immigrant youth to improve youth’s mental health outcomes. Inductive thematic analysis revealed providers’ reliance on cultural interpretations of the psychosocial circumstances facing immigrant youth. Providers alternated between drawing on discourses that reproduced stereotypes, assumptions, and biases, while simultaneously striving to transcend sociocultural differences to focus on the lived experiences of their clients. Although providers acknowledged the importance of structural barriers, such as poverty and discrimination, they “bracketed” these issues when recommending interventions. The article highlights that as cultural competence increasingly becomes part of social services, this professional discourse may distract providers’ attention from more relevant targets of intervention.

Social service providers tasked with alleviating the problems of the most marginalized and vulnerable populations are at particular risk for work-related stress and subsequent burnout. This article aims to move beyond individualized understandings of provider burnout and render visible the structural barriers that limit providers’ capacity to authentically help their clients. Guided by the concept of moral distress, we examined the experiences of 17 service providers who deliver behavioral and mental health services to Latino immigrants in a metropolitan area in Texas. An applied thematic analysis of individual interviews collected in 2015 revealed providers’ frustration with the countless systemic issues and helplessness in their inability to make substantial changes in their clients’ lives. This emotional toll, in turn, created a cycle where providers’ capacity to envision authentic, systemic change became limited. Our findings suggest that social work needs to go beyond the recommendations for self-care to prevent provider burnout and to address the inherent paradoxes in service provision to oppressed and vulnerable groups. We urge a shift toward a social action model to show an authentic commitment to social justice and to empower both providers and the marginalized populations they serve.