Family Psychoeducation: Interview with Carol Anderson, Ph.D.

[Episode 27] In today's podcast, I speak with Carol Anderson, who along with Gerry Hogarty, developed a family-based approach to working with people with schizophrenia called Family Psychoeducation. Family Psychoeducation is only one of a handful of treatments that has been empirically validated to improve the lives of people with serious mental illness. According to the American Psychiatric Association, when people with schizophrenia are involved in family psychoeducation while taking medication, there is a significant reduction in relapse and unemployment. In today's podcast, Carol describes the 5 stages of psychoeducation, distinguishes between psychoeducation and other forms of family therapy, provides some anecdotes about family psychoeducation treatment, and provides some information for people interested in learning how to do family psychoeducation.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Interview with Sabrina Heller, LSW

[Episode 26] In today’s podcast, I speak with Sabrina Heller, a social worker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who has used Dialectical Behavior Therapy, (DBT) in a variety of clinical settings, including an inpatient eating disorders clinic and an outpatient substance abuse treatment program. In today's interview we spoke about the goal of DBT, clinical techniques, the role of the client and clinician, the skills training workshop, the three mind states: reasonable mind, emotion mind, and wise mind, and how Sabrina incorporates DBT into her work with clients.
Download MP3 [52:12]

Results of the first Social Work Podcast Poll

This whole podcast thing is pretty new, and there are only a handful of publicly available podcasts for social workers. Traditional media like television and radio have a pretty good idea of who is tuning in and what they want. In fact, entire industries are dedicated to identifying consumer preferences. The world of podcasts is a little more like the Wild West. I know a little bit about who listens to the Social Work Podcast: I know that since March, 2007, 3200 unique visitors have come to the website over 10,000 times from places like Iran, Australia, England, Canada, China, and Oklahoma. I know that the podcasts have been downloaded over 1000 times. I also know that three times as many people use Internet Explorer as any other browser to view the site. However, I know almost nothing about how you listen to the podcasts, what your preferences are for lengths and topics, why you listen to the podcast, and I know nothing about whether or not you find the podcasts useful, clinically relevant. So, in order to get some information, I've added a new feature to the Social Work Podcast website - a poll. Every month I will ask a question in the hopes of finding out a little more about who you are. The results of the first poll are in...


Download MP3 [4:42]

The first poll asked visitors to the Social Work Podcast website, "What is the ideal length for a Social Work Podcast?" Over a 2 week period (Wednesday September 26 - Tuesday, October 9, 2007), 43 visitors took the poll. Visitors had the option to chose from five answers:

1. less than 5 minutes


2. less than 10 minutes


3. less than 20 minutes


4. less than 30 minutes


5. As long as it needs to be

I was surprised by the results. Only one respondent thought that ideal length for a Social Work Podcast was less than five minutes. In contrast, an equal number of respondents believed that Social Work Podcasts should be less than 10, 20 or 30 minutes (8, 7 and 8 respectively). The runaway favorite for ideal length? "As long as it needs to be" with 19 votes, or 44% of the respondents.

So, what do I make of these results? I like to think that the average listener to the Social Work Podcast is interested in learning something that will improve his or her social work skills, so the podcast should be as long as it needs to be in order for that to happen. However, more people voted for podcasts to be less than 30 minutes than for "as long as it needs to be," which suggests that I better get my point across in under 30 minutes if I expect people to listen.

Note: This is not a scientific poll: there is no way to determine how many people decided not to vote, nor is there a way to determine if a respondent voted multiple times. Just for the record, I did not vote.

Thanks for helping me figure out what you like and what you don't like. While browser preference is somewhat useful, your answers to these questions will ultimately help me make the podcast as useful as I can. So, please visit the Social Work Podcast to participate in the next poll will be available October 12 - October 24: "What do you use to listen to the Social Work Podcast?"

APA (5th ed) citation for this podcast:

Singer, J. B. (Host). (2007, October 11). Results of the first Social Work Podcast poll. [Episode 25]. Social Work Podcast. Podcast retrieved Month Day, Year, from http://socialworkpodcast.com/2007/12/results-of-first-social-work-podcast.html