Slam Bam, Thank you, Ma'am: The Challenges of Advance Care Planning Engagement in Long-Term Care.

This interpretative, qualitative study explored residents' and families' perspectives on advance care planning (ACP) in long-term care (LTC). Perspectives on when, how, and with whom ACP discussions should be introduced and barriers and solutions to improving ACP engagement were examined. Fifty-one residents and families participated in seven focus groups. The findings revealed that residents and families prioritized caring connections over professional rank when reflecting on staff involvement in ACP. The findings further revealed that the caring and compassionate environment considered to be a critical pre-condition for ACP engagement was more typically enacted at end of life when ACP was no longer an option. Our findings suggest that work practices and organizational structures within LTC play an important role in inhibiting ACP engagement.

'I'm not interested in research; i'm interested in services': How to better health and social services for transgender women living with and affected by HIV.

This paper presents results of a research priority setting process focused on trans women living with and affected by HIV across Canada. It features data from semi-structured interviews and focus groups conducted with a diverse group of 76 trans women in five urban centers across the country on how they have navigated health and social service programming within their geographic context. The results focus on the structure and types of services. Respondents offered simple, yet creative ways to address barriers to vital services based on their individual and collective experiences. Notably, participants stressed the need for 1) trans-friendly and trans-specific services, 2) integrated health services, and aid in navigating complex, overlapping systems, and 3) comprehensive community-based services. They also suggest employing trans women as care coordinators or case managers in order to foster more trans-friendly environments and empower community members. We identify concrete ways to improve health and social services at the level of service delivery and program design, as well as recommendations for future participatory research. We close with an interrogation of trans people, and trans women living with and affected by HIV in particular, as 'hard to reach' populations.

The Essentials of the Helping Relationship between Social Workers and Clients.

The helping relationship between a client and a practitioner is often described as the heart and soul in social work. This research explored the helping relationship between social workers and clients (the clients were mothers) in the context of public social services in Israel. The results presented here are part of a larger ethnographic study that included interviews with 14 social workers, 20 mothers who are clients, and extensive participant observations and textual analysis. Presented in this article are the results pertaining to the essential elements of the helping relationship as perceived by the research participants. Social workers and clients pointed to similar elements that comprise a good helping relationship: love and support; trust and feeling safe; listening and feeling understood; making an effort to help; humanness, compassion, and sensitivity; availability, continuity, and being there when needed; and chemistry. Participants' accounts exemplify the importance and centrality of the helping relationship in social work. The article concludes with a discussion of the study's implications for practice, policy, and research.