Foundations of Social Work Practice with Lesbian and Gay Persons

Gerald P Mallon

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135904050
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Health Care Delivery

Focusing on the pragmatic aspects of social work with gay and lesbian persons, this book offers a knowledge base of practice that will better prepare students and practitioners for working more competently and effectively with lesbians and gay men. Written by scholars and practitioners in the social work profession, Foundations of Social Work Practice with Lesbian and Gay Persons teaches you how to develop practice approaches that are sensitive to issues of sexual orientation as well as how to work with this population in the contexts of practice with individuals, couples, families, groups, communities, and organizations. The book's sensible strategies and case studies provide you with critical information that will help you deal with homophobia and heterocentrism and enact a professional commitment to pursuing economic and social equality for diverse and at-risk client populations. A foundation-level text on social work practice with gays and lesbians, this book is designed to provide social work students, academics, and practitioners with an understanding of the values and ethics fundamental to practice with this group of clients. Foundations of Social Work Practice with Lesbian and Gay Persons summarizes the variety of issues, dynamics, and techniques required to work effectively with gay and lesbian clients who are at different points in their development and life cycles. To further help you in your practice, it also discusses:

• providing skilled professional assistance to gay victims of hate crimes
• how homophobia can prevent lesbians and gay men from receiving adequate services
• the obstacles social workers sometimes face when trying to integrate the core set of professional values and ethical principles into their practice
• practitioner self-disclosure regarding sexual identity
• developmental milestones for lesbian and gay persons
• alcohol and substance abuse among lesbians
• family therapy concepts of fusion and enmeshment
• same gender socialization
• assessing issues of sexual expression Counselors, social workers, and students and academics in gay and lesbian studies will find that Foundations of Social Work Practice with Lesbian and Gay Persons greatly expands the social work knowledge base to disrupt the impact of institutional, individualized, and internal homophobia on social workers, their clients, and the institutions in which social workers practice. Its flexible and creative treatment approaches to therapy with sexual minorities are sure to help you sensitize your therapeutic techniques and improve the quality of care you deliver.

Chapter 1

Knowledge for Practice with Gay and Lesbian Persons

Gerald P. Mallon

“You are the first gay person whom I have ever met that appears to be happy about who you are,” said a graduate social work student to me several years ago. She meant it as a compliment, but it made me sad that she thought all gay people were unhappy. “How many gay people do you know?” I asked in response to her comment. “Oh, you're the first,” said she. I felt even worse. Even though this student had been exposed to one openly gay man, who happened to be her research professor, I could not help but ask myself how well she was being prepared to practice with gay men and lesbians in her field placement and in her course work. The answer, I knew, was that she was not being prepared at all. She had no courses that expanded her knowledge about the needs of gay men and lesbians; she had few, if any, readings assigned that addressed this content; and apart from her one experience with her openly gay professor, she had no practical experience in her professional training. It seemed woefully insufficient and somehow unethical to permit a student to graduate without any knowledge about the needs of this population. How were students, who would undoubtedly encounter gay men and lesbians in their professional lives, suppose to know how to practice with them? Unquestionably there was a need to address these issues with graduate students preparing for practice in a diverse world. Apart from its significance as a practice dilemma, this experience also illustrates an important truth about gay men and lesbians in contemporary society: that most people have little or no accurate knowledge about the lives of gay men and lesbians.

AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH

The person:environment* perspective (Germain, 1991), utilized throughout this text as a framework for practice, has been a central influence on the profession's theoretical base and has usefulness and relevance as an approach to social work practice with gay men and lesbians. Germain and Gitterman (1996) underscore the point that disempowerment, which threatens the health, social well-being, and life of those who are oppressed, imposes enormous adaptive tasks on gay men and lesbians. An understanding of the destructive relationships that exist between gay men and lesbians and a predominantly heterocentric environment is integral to the process of developing practice knowledge about working with gay men and lesbians as clients. The purpose of this chapter, then, is to define and describe the knowledge base of practice with gay and lesbian persons and to review social work's response to the needs of this population.

What the social worker is supposed to do should dictate the boundaries of the profession's knowledge base, noted Meyer (1982). If social workers are supposed to be able to work with gay men and lesbians, then a knowledge base for practice with them must be within those boundaries. An organized knowledge base is crucial to any profession. Anyone, notes Mattaini (1995, p. 6) “can act.” The professional, however, is expected to act deliberately, taking the steps that are likely to be most helpful, least intrusive, and most consistent with the person's welfare. Making a conscious determination about those choices requires an extensive knowledge base.

SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE

In his chapter that focuses on the acquisition of knowledge for foundation practice, Mattaini (1995) identifies several key sources of knowledge that, in a modified version herein, provide a framework for this chapter's discussion on knowledge for practice with gay men and lesbians. Sources identified by Mattaini include (1) practice wisdom derived from narrative experiences of the profession and professional colleagues, (2) the personal experiences of the practitioner, (3) a knowledge of the professional literature, (4) a knowledge of history and current events, (5) research issues that inform practice (both qualitative and quantitative), (6) theoretical and conceptual analyses, and (7) information that is provided by the case itself. All of these, understood within an ecological framework of person:environment, with a consciousness of the reality of oppression in the lives of gay men and lesbians, is called upon to inform social work practice with gay and lesbian persons, and each source contributes to the development of the knowledge base of practice with this population.

PRACTICE WISDOM

Practice wisdom can be viewed as that which is derived from the narrative experiences of the profession, from both professional colleagues and from clients. Interest in narrative theory has grown in recent years, and the use of life stories in practice has in some organizations replaced elaborate, formalized intake histories. Life stories, which tend to be rich in detail, are usually obtained early in the work with a client and can be a useful means toward not only gathering important data to enhance one's knowledge base, but useful also in establishing a rapport and a trusting relationship with a gay or lesbian client. As the client tells and the worker listens empathically—that is, in the telling and the listening—the story gains personal and cultural meanings. This process, particularly with gay men and lesbians who have been oppressed, can be a healing process. It is, as Germain and Gitterman (1996, p. 145) put it, “our human way of finding meaning in life events, of explaining our life experience to ourselves and others, so that we can move on.”

Over the years, several notable social work practitioners (English, 1996; MacPike, 1989; Muzio, 1996; Shernoff, 1991, 1996a) have provided excellent examples of the use of personal narrative as a means to enhance local knowledge that can guide practice (Hartman, 1992). Markowitz's (1991a) beautifully written and touching story of a lesbian daughter and her father as they struggle to forge a new understanding of one another is one almost perfect example of the power that personal narrative has to inform practice.

In addition to listening to the life stories of clients and the practice experiences of practitioners, social workers practicing with gay and lesbian persons can rely on rules that have been handed down by experienced practitioners. Heuristic practice, which can be described as principles to guide patterns of professional behavior and which has shaped and refined practice, may also serve as a model for other workers. The acquisition of group-specific language to guide practice, and a knowledge of the myths and stereotypes about gay men and lesbians can be extremely useful forms of heuristic practice. A glossary of terms and several of the most common myths about gay men and lesbians can be found in the appendix in this text. These fragments of practice wisdom can be valuable as a guide for practitioners interested in enhancing their practice knowledge base in working with gay men and lesbians.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

The personal experiences of practitioners is the second powerful force that guides knowledge development. Social workers are guided not only by their own personal experiences but also by a professional code of ethics (see McCartt Hess and Hess's chapter on values and ethics in this text). Most social workers base some of their knowledge about clients on integrated and synthesized events gathered from their own life experiences. Within the guidelines provided by the professions' code of ethics, basic interpersonal and problem-solving skills that social workers have developed throughout their lives are important means toward informing their practices.

It is a myth that most people do not know anyone who is gay or lesbian. Unquestionably, social workers who have a close friend or a family member who is openly gay or lesbian may have additional personal experiences that can assist them in guiding their practice with this population. Additionally, social workers who are themselves gay or lesbian will unquestionably have additional insights into gay and lesbian clients. However, being gay or lesbian alone does not provide a practitioner with a complete and full knowledge for practice with gay and lesbian clients. Individuals who are gay or lesbian may be at various stages of their own sexual identity development, and their knowledge may be, at best, incomplete.

Issues of self-disclosure become significant when a social worker has had personal experiences or shares something in common with a client, in this case a gay or lesbian identity. A gay or lesbian practitioner may find it helpful to disclose their orientation with a client who is struggling with whether or not to come out; but in other cases, the worker's disclosure could inhibit the client from sharing genuine feelings (Gartrell, 1994). Although self-disclosure can be useful in many cases (Cain, 1996; Rochlin, 1985), and while practitioners are using self-disclosure more than they did in the past, social workers need, at a minimum, close supervision and consultation to process these issues. Although personal experiences are key in knowledge development, social workers must always be in touch with their own feelings (Greene, 1994) and must remember that self-disclosure always has to do with the well-being of the client, not the practitioner.

HISTORY AND CURRENT EVENTS

Since practice is embedded in the broader social context of life, a knowledge of the social policies and shifting social forces is important for knowledge development and working with gay and lesbian persons. The media is an important source of information since historical events are most often documented in newspapers, in televised news reports, and in weekly and monthly magazines. Television talk shows and news journals are often less than objective and in many cases replete with inaccuracies; however, for many, these are the only sources of knowledge about gay men and lesbians and an important basis to work from, even in a professional context.

Recent media attention has thrust a variety of gay a...