scholarly journals The specifics in the work of social workers when rendering social services at the person's home

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 03003
Author(s):  
Rita Raudeliunaite

The objective of the study is to highlight the specifics of the work of a social worker when rendering social services at the person's home on the basis of the experience of social workers. Qualitative research strategy was used, including semi-structured interview. The study revealed a wide spectrum of the activities of the social worker when organising the provision of social services at home: the identification and assessment of the need for a service, the planning, provision, coordination and assessment of the assistance or care at the person's home, the involvement of the service recipient in decision-making, the involvement of close relatives of the service recipient, teamwork, cooperation with other institutions, and improvement of skills of the employees. The study revealed the benefit of social services at the person's home to the recipients of the services: living at their homes, they do not feel so lonely, they feel safe, needful, capable of benefiting from the needed assistance. Difficulties, which arise when cooperating with the recipients of social services at home, are the following: people provide false information when identifying the need for a service, mental disorders of the service recipient, dissatisfaction with the rotation of the visiting care workers, complaints regarding the lack of communication. Organisational limitations of bodies providing services are linked to formalism, shortage of the staff, time restrictions for services, lack of transport, unavailability of services due to the limited financial resources of service recipients.

Author(s):  
Maryna Lekholetova

The article presents an analysis of different approaches of domestic scientists to the interpretation of the concept of «social work management». The author surveys the features of management as an object of governance in the activities of a social worker. Features include the social nature of management information; the need for motivation methods that effectively influences and motivates professionals to better results in social work; availability of social workers' professional competence; the presence of problems with forecasting the results of management in the social sphere; the importance of current and final management results. The author proves the necessity of social workers' self-management skills (time management, motivation, stress resistance and recuperation, development of emotional intelligence) for the effective performance of management tasks in professional activities.  The article highlights the principles that should be followed in solving organizational and managerial tasks in social work management (purposefulness, ability of realization, adaptability, efficiency). The researcher presents the structure of social work management methods in the study (economic, administrative, social counselling, psychological and pedagogical influence, social influence). Research characterizes the methods of social work management while working with recipients of social services (methods of individual social work, methods of group social work, methods of community work, methods of social service design).


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Kateřina Glumbíková

Social work in the Czech Republic is confronted with the impact of global neoliberalism, which is manifested by privatisation of social services, individualisation of social risks and economisation. Reflexivity of social workers working with vulnerable children and their families has the potential to lead to a higher quality of social work, strengthening of social workers' identity, and empowering social workers to promote changes in everyday practice. Meeting this potential requires an understanding of constructing reflexivity by social workers, which is the objective of this paper. We used a qualitative research strategy, particularly group and individual interviews with social workers and their analysis using current approaches to grounded theory. Concerning data analysis, we found out that constructing reflexivity (nature and subject of reflexion) derives from the perceived roles of social workers (social worker as an ununderstood artist, social worker a as mediator between social and individual, social workers as an agent of a (society) change, social workers as an agent of normalisation and reflexive professional). The acquired data, within the situational analysis, was inserted into a position map on the scale of holistic and technical reflection. The conclusion discusses the implication for practice and education in social work.


Author(s):  
Maryna Lapina ◽  
Yelyzaveta Boiko

The article is devoted to the topical problem of psychosocial assistance to people with addictive eating behavior, which is common among teenagers and young people, leads to tragic consequences, but still lacks a sufficient scientific basis and a comprehensive solution. The purpose of the study is to determine the place of social work and the content of the social workers’ activity in the system of assistance to persons with addictive eating behavior. Theoretical analysis of research of the food deviations problem, the concrete definition of terms «dysfunctional eating», «eating disorders», content and comparative analysis of professional functions of social workers in the context of helping people with addictive eating behavior are used as methods to achieve the goal of the research. It is determined that the professional activity of a social worker with persons with dysfunctional and disordered eating takes place in medical institutions, social services and secondary schools. The most common task of social work with persons with food addictions is the prevention. Special functions of a social worker in an inpatient (medical) institution are administrative and organizational work with eating disorders patient. Educational, social support and rehabilitation function are predominant in the activities of a social worker in social institutions. Instead, the specialist carries out for the most part diagnostics and monitoring, formation of eating habits, socio-pedagogical support of young people with dysfunctional eating in educational institutions. The leading role of a social worker at all stages of intervention and the need for a multidisciplinary approach in the prevention, correction and rehabilitation of people with addictive eating behavior are identified.


Author(s):  
Vitalii Zaika ◽  
Alla Heta ◽  
Yevheniia Vyshar

The article highlights the topical issue of communicative potential of future social workers in their professional activities. Modern requirements for a social worker require ablity to interact with various groups of clients: children, adolescents, youth, the elderly or people with special needs, deviant or delinquent behavior, addicted to psychoactive substances, victims of violence, war, natural disasters. disasters, prisoners, etc. Social workers must be able to communicate effectively with representatives of various target groups in the social sphere, in order to provide social services. They are become skilled for conflict-free communication, self-control, capable to empathize, to listen and prove point of view. All these professional competencies can be reflected as the communicative potential of a social worker. For the purpose of empirical research of communicative potential psychodiagnostic methods were applied: Diagnosis of the need for communication (U.Orlov), Can you listen? (E.Rogov), Study of the level of communicative control (M.Schneider), Identification of communicative and organizational skills (B.Fedoryshyn), Determining the behavioral style in a conflict situation (K.Thomas). Based on psychodiagnostic methods, it was found that future social workers have high indicators of communication needs, listening skills, level of communication control, level of communication skills and the predominance of average level of organizational skills. Among the styles of behavior in a conflict situation, the dominant are cooperation and compromise, which indicates a desire to meet the needs of the communication partner. The data indicate a high level of development of the communicative potential of future social workers and their readiness for professional activity in the chosen field.


Author(s):  
FATIMAH ZAILLY AHMAD RAMLI ◽  
YUSMARHAINI YUSOF ◽  
NORFARAHIN MOHD NOOR

Knowledges and skills in providing documentation, client assessment and problems solving based on theories and relevance methods are essential roles in the social work profession. The ability to conduct psychosocial assessment among clinical social workers are particularly important in mental health for social work to help clients to overcome their problems. Face to face interviews were conducted with respondents working in mental health setting. Semi- structured interview was utilised to identify the knowledge and skills required for a mental health social worker. Respondents’ transcription were analysed using thematic analysis based on the research objectives. Findings showed that elements of knowledges and skills required by social workers in mental health setting could be categorized into four components: (i) knowledge in doing assessment; (ii) knowledge about mental health and the competencies in relevant theories; (iii) knowledge on academic qualification and advanced social work training and (iv) additional skills as a social worker in a mental health setting.  


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 6374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Colnar ◽  
Vlado Dimovski ◽  
David Bogataj

The growing shortage of skilled social workers, accompanied by an ageing population and the increasing number of fragile, elderly individuals that require social services, poses a serious challenge for our society. The magnitude of this problem is seen in the various predictions hypothesizing that, globally, there is likely to be a shortfall of millions of social workers for the successful provision of social services. To make matters worse, there are not enough social work students to fill that void, whereas the existing employee turnover is another serious concern for the social work field. Policy makers in many countries do not yet understand the pattern of growing needs and have no tool to forecast the future increase in educational requirements for creating a pool of adequately skilled social workers. In addition to this, understanding the patterns of workforce entrance and exit for social workers and the dynamics of transition becomes important for national policy and decision makers. In our paper, we build on current research about knowledge management in social work settings to demonstrate that knowledge management can have a positive impact in helping to fulfil the important role of social work in any ageing society. With our research, we contribute to the underdeveloped literature about knowledge management in the public sector and especially in social work settings and to the knowledge-based view of the organization. We present a multiple decrement model of social workers’ entrance and transition from social work student and social worker trainee to fully productive social worker, to their exit, whether by changed profession, retirement or death. We argue that the availability of social workers in a national economy depends on the development and operationalization of appropriate policies, where knowledge management can be influential. Our model allows measuring the quality of the national policy system related to the social work profession, something which has not been achieved yet, and shows how knowledge management solutions can positively influence the whole field of social work. We apply an objective measuring tool, grounded in an already developed actuarial–mathematical method. Our case relies on the collection and analysis of relevant data found in publicly available statistical reports for Slovenia. Existing data enables us to provide assumptions on how to better forecast the transition of social workers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica Ekström

Boundaries under negotiation – social services’ responsibility for support to women exposed to violence in close relationshipsThis article examines social workers’ perceptions of the social services’ mission and task as regards support for women who are subjected to violence in close relationships and where the social services are considered to be limited. The study is qualitative and based on interviews with 16 social workers in eleven municipalities. The interviews have been analysed with conventional content analysis. The analysis shows that the task or obligation of the social services can be formulated in two different ways: to offer support to women exposed or previously exposed to violence in close relationships, or to offer support to women who have left or intend to leave a relationship where they have been subjected to violence. In the analysis of social workers’ descriptions of support they offer, as well as the boundaries for what is beyond the social services’ responsibility, three levels can be identified. The first level, consisting of financial support, placements at women’s shelters and a social worker to talk to, forms a sort of core for the work in the social services, which most, albeit to varying degrees, offer. The second level describes forms of enhanced support, and the third level describes such support which only a few state that they work with or where responsibility issues are more diffuse.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Montagud-Mayor

Desde hace unos años es evidente la creciente dificultad para intervenir desde los servicios sociales ante situaciones que se presentan en un contexto de multiplicidad e inestabilidad. Esta realidad, tradicionalmente concebida como una expresión de la complejidad de la sociedad, puede ser también observada desde un enfoque particular y poco conocido de los problemas sociales: el de los wicked problem, que nos acerca a otra forma de entenderlos. Sus cualidades nos llevan a reflexionar sobre la posibilidad de que coexistan ciertos límites en la capacidad de las organizaciones y profesionales para obtener resultados que mejoren significativamente las situaciones a las que se enfrentan. Al mismo tiempo vemos en esos límites la oportunidad para ampliar y mejorar nuestras capacidades y destrezas mediante la utilización de una poco conocida estrategia de investigación: la autoetnografía. Gracias a ella es posible escrutar en la memoria de nuestra experiencia profesional para identificar los problemas a los que nos enfrentamos y desarrollar el talento que muchos trabajadores sociales poseemos. Since some years its clear the increasing difficulty of the social services to join in situations that arise in the context of multiplicity and instability. This reality, traditionally conceived as an expression of the complexity of society can also be observed from a particular approach and little known social problems: the wicked problems, that brings us to another way of understanding them. His qualities lead us to reflect on the possibility of the coexistence of certain limits on the ability of organizations and professionals to achieve outcomes which significantly improve the situations they face. At the same time we see in those limits the opportunity to expand and improve our capabilities and skills through the use of a little known research strategy: autoethnography. With it we can scrutinize the memory of our expertise to identify the problems we deal and develop the talent that many social workers possess.


2020 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 03004
Author(s):  
Rita Raudeliunaite ◽  
Giedre Volff

Social workers work in an ever-changing social, political and cultural environment, they are exposed to contacts with persons of different social backgrounds, people experiencing behavioural and various social problems. In complicated, ever-continuing, multidimensional situations, there arises the risk of stress. In order to manage stress at work, it is important to identify the causes of stress. The objective of this study is to reveal the causes of stress experienced by social workers at work basing on the experience of social workers. Qualitative research type was chosen for the study. The method of a semi-structured interview with social workers, who work in different institutions providing social services, was used. The study revealed both external and internal causes posing stress to social workers at work. The external causes of stress are associated with working conditions, for example, the absence of stability and clarity at work. Social workers often remain alone to resolve problems; they can have a heavy workload. There is the lack of cooperation between institutions, such as the police and other institutions when they inform about the problematic behaviour of their client. Stress is caused by the absence of change and excessively high requirements for an employee. Social workers experience negative behaviour of service receivers, for example, threat of physical violence, psychological violence, and pressure from clients in order to receive something. Relationships with management can also cause stress. There is the lack of incentive, the lack of benevolence, an employee is noticed only when he needs “to be taught a lesson”; the conditions of employment are not satisfactory – an employee is offered only a fixed-term contract, low pay. The internal causes of stress are related to excessively high requirements for social workers, the pursuit of perfection when resolving the problems of service receivers, the fear of failure and an inflated sense of responsibility.


2020 ◽  
pp. 73-88
Author(s):  
John Gal ◽  
Yehudit Avnir

The two settlement houses established in Mandatory Palestine were part of efforts by Jewish social workers to both address poverty among immigrant populations and to strengthen their integration into the Zionist project, which sought to establish a Jewish state in that country. The first settlement house was established in Jerusalem by a Zionist women’s organization in 1925. Drawing upon settlement house models in the UK and those developed in Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, the settlement house sought to combine community level and casework interventions, led by a social worker, in working with poor immigrant Jewish families primarily from Yemen. A decade later a second settlement house was established by social workers employed by Jewish social services. Here again a range of community and family-focused interventions were combined with efforts to integrate poor immigrant Jewish families into the wider Jewish community and to strengthen their affiliation with the Zionist values that dominated this community.


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