Megan Gandy, LCSW, is a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Her research focus is on mental health services research for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) children and adolescents with serious emotional and/or behavioral disorders. More specifically, her work examines the practice behavior of mental health service providers as it relates to LGBTQ issues in youth. Ms. Gandy holds a Master of Social Work degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, NC. She has over 5 years of clinical experience with children, adolescents, and adults in service settings such as inpatient psychiatric hospitalization, in-home intensive therapy, case management, and group home care. She has worked with persons who suffer from serious mental illness, as well as co-occurring issues involving either a developmental disability, substance use disorder, or both. At present she is pilot testing a measurement tool that assesses the practice behavior of mental health service providers as it relates to LGBTQ issues in youth. She recently co-authored an article titled “Service provider attitudes towards LGBTQ youth” in the peer-reviewed journal Residential Treatment for Children and Youth. She also has a pedagogical interest in this area and is an adjunct professor at VCU, teaching an MSW-level elective that she developed about micro and macro social work practice with LGBTQ persons. In addition to these specific areas of interest, she is also interested in the role that faith communities play in the lives of LGBTQ persons.
Ms. Gandy is also interested in research and teaching in the mental health services field. She has research and publications on the topics of co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders among adults, service engagement of clients in programs of Assertive Community Treatment, and social supports during re-entry into the community for clients being discharged from residential substance abuse treatment programs. An article that she co-authored is currently in press in the peer-reviewed journal Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, titled “Trends in Hospital Discharges and Dispositions for Episodes of Co-occurring Severe Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders.”
Megan Gandy is also interested in the innovative use of technology in professional social work practice, research, and education. She writes a blog on this topic which can be accessed at http://techsocialwork.blogspot.com. She also manages a Twitter account dedicated to topics around LGBTQ persons, and ways that professional social work efforts can help bring justice to that population. The account is @LGBTQsocialwork and hashtag #LGBTQsocialwork.
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