Recognizing Social Injustice and Epistemic Mistrust in Helping Adolescents with Multiple Needs: The AMBIT (Adaptive...

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Sciences
• Mental Health Services Research

Background:

• Epistemic trust, crucial for social learning in helping professions, can be impacted by client experiences.
• Clients may develop epistemic mistrust or credulity as adaptive responses to past experiences.
• Social injustice is identified as a root cause and consequence of these trust dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the role of epistemic trust, mistrust, and credulity in helping services.
• To analyze how social injustice influences and is influenced by epistemic trust dynamics.
• To propose a framework for addressing these issues within the AMBIT (adaptive mentalization-based integrative treatment) model.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical analysis from an AMBIT perspective.
• Exploration of the interplay between social injustice and epistemic trust.
• Application of concepts to client work, teams, and networks.

Main Results:

• Epistemic mistrust and credulity are adaptive responses to social injustice.
• These trust states perpetuate and generate further social injustice.
• Current helping services often exacerbate injustice by failing to acknowledge its roots.

Conclusions:

• Helping services must recognize the social injustices linked to epistemic mistrust and credulity.
• There is a moral imperative for workers and services to address these dynamics.
• Integrating an understanding of social injustice is vital for effective therapeutic alliances.