Description
Co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders are common (Benson et a. 2023). In fact, two or more conditions are so common among those experiencing mental health or substance use problems that “comorbidity is seen as the rule rather than the exception” (Lai et al., 2015, p. 8). As well as co-morbidity and co-occurring disorders, this phenomenon is also commonly referred to as dual diagnosis or dual disorders (Rao, 2022).
Social workers have an important role in reducing impacts of comorbidity (Allan & Cameron 2023; Benson et al. 2023) when working with clients with comorbidity issues. It is important to understand what attitudes and perceived competencies social work students bring to their practice in relation to comorbidity. As these practices are developed in the formative years, it is crucial that we have an improved understanding of social work student attitudes and perceived competencies for working with comorbidity, as well as their own experience of stigma and how this impacts their understanding of comorbidity.
This study involves developing a survey and conducting small number of interviews with a sample of undergraduate and postgraduate students undertaking subjects related to comorbidity and answering the following research questions:
What are the attitudes of social work students towards people with comorbidity?
How does stigma influence student attitudes toward comorbidity?
Do lived experience, or education and training, influence student attitudes?
The research team will recruit students from UoW and other universities and use the study findings to inform future development of teaching resources for students in undergraduate and postgraduate study in relation to comorbidity.
The primary supervisor is chief-co-editor of a journal called Advances in Dual Diagnosis and the research team will support the student to lead a peer-review article for submission to this journal as part of their thesis.
Supervisors
Primary supervisor: Jacqui Cameron
Co-supervisors: Alankaar Sharma
External Stakeholders
Jane Fisher (College of Education, Psychology and Social work, Flinders University)
Discipline
Social Work
Frequently asked questions
What kind of data and/or research methods will it involve?
Mixed methods
- Quantitative data (n=100)
- Qualitative data (n=5)
What key skills and competencies can the student expect to develop?
Mixed methods
- Writing literature reviews
- Completing ethics
- Developing mixed method data collection tools
- Learning how to analyse mixed method data
- Writing for peer-review publications
What career pathways and employment opportunities might value these expertise?
- Working in research.
- Working in comorbidity.
- Pathway to HDR.
What resources, time commitment and other support are offered by the supervisor(s)?
Expertise in all aspects of research, and fortnightly supervision, with support to publish a peer-reviewed publication at the end of the project.
NOTE: This study will require ethics approval thus the student may need to work with research team to submit ethics in later 2024/early 2025.
Who might be a suitable applicant for this project?
- A student interested in alcohol, drug and mental health research, with a harm reduction focus.
- A social work student, with interest in reducing the harmful impacts of substance use and reducing stigma.
- This project Will not criticise or punish drug use.
- Interested students must learn about and practice a harm reduction approach and support a recovery led position for mental health.
References
Allan, J., & Cameron, J. (2023). The intersection of social work, substance use and mental health – where are we now? Advances in Dual Diagnosis, 16(2), 69-70. https://doi.org/10.1108/ADD-05-2023-052
Benson, C., Cameron, J., & Allan, J. (2023). Social work, mental health, and substance use: A scoping review. Advances in Dual Diagnosis. https://doi.org/10.1108/ADD-12-2022-0031
Lai, H., Cleary, M., Sitharthan, T. and Hunt, G. (2015), “Prevalence of comorbid substance use, anxiety and mood disorders in epidemiological surveys, 1990–2014: a systematic review and meta-analysis”, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Vol. 154, pp. 1-13.
Rao, R. (2022), “Dual diagnosis: what’s in a name?”, Advances in Dual Diagnosis, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 149-51.
