scholarly journals Adopting e-Social Work Practice: Pedagogical Strategies for Student Decision Making to Address Technology Uncertainty

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Wilkerson ◽  
Samantha N. Wolfe-Taylor ◽  
M. Killian Kinney
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies

Purchasing Power and Self-Determination: Social Worker Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Bailey ◽  
Debbie Plath ◽  
Alankaar Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Purchasing Power ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Management Approaches

Abstract The international policy trend towards personalised budgets, which is designed to offer people with disabilities purchasing power to choose services that suit them, is exemplified in the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This article examines how the ‘purchasing power’ afforded to service users through individualised budgets impacts on social work practice and the choice and self-determination of NDIS service users. Social workers’ views were sought on the alignment between the NDIS principles of choice and control and social work principles of participation and self-determination and how their social work practice has changed in order to facilitate client access to supports through NDIS budgets and meaningful participation in decision-making. A survey was completed by forty-five social workers, and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with five of these participants. The findings identify how social workers have responded to the shortfalls of the NDIS by the following: interpreting information for clients; assisting service users to navigate complex service provision systems; supporting clients through goal setting, decision-making and implementation of action plans; and adopting case management approaches. The incorporation of social work services into the NDIS service model is proposed in order to facilitate meaningful choice and self-determination associated with purchasing power.

scholarly journals Embodied Social Work Practice Within Risk Society

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 673-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Smeeton ◽  
Patrick O’Connor
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Risk Society ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Extreme Risk

This paper critically discusses the limitations of theorising social work from psychological and sociological perspectives and argues that phenomenology offers more opportunity to understand the embodied experiences of service users and social workers themselves. The paper argues that psychology and sociology have a limited analysis of being-in-the-world, which ought to be social work’s primary consideration. The paper offers an overview of the sociology of risk before embarking on an extensive description and discussion of Heidegger’s and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology applied to the lived experience of child protection social workers working within risk society. The argument is put that phenomenology is a useful tool for understanding the lived experience of social work practitioners. Findings: The authors conclude that embodied social work practice containing fear and anxiety can be thought of as akin to taking part in extreme risk sports and that this is an unhealthy experience that is likely to skew decision-making and adversely affect the lives of social workers and service users. Applications: The authors argue that phenomenology can enhance understanding of practice and decision-making and offers insights into the lived experience of social workers. Phenomenology is useful for helping social workers negotiate risk-saturated environments, through a focus on meaning.

Family Group Conferences in Social Work

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Family Group ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Single Text ◽  
Effective Service

Family group conferences (FGCs) are a strengths based approach to social work practice, empowering families to take responsibility for decision-making. It is a cost-effective service, which is currently used by the majority of local authorities. This book discusses the origins and theoretical underpinnings of family-led decision-making and brings together the current research on the efficacy and limitations of FGCs into a single text. The book also covers topics such as the use of FGCs in different areas of children and families social work, uses case studies to illustrate current practice, and explores whether FGCs should become a mainstream function of children and families social work.

Conclusions

2019 ◽  
pp. 187-204
Author(s):  
Matthew Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Case Study Site ◽  
And Control

This chapter reviews and summarises the theory proposed throughout this book. It considers this theory within the context of the case-study site used as an example throughout. While all child and family social work organisations will interpret the wider systemic pressures individually and have their own regional needs and local idiosyncrasies, the case example provides an illustration of how pride and shame can be used in political attempts to shape, direct and control public services. In addition, it also demonstrates the complexity of the decision-making process, where experiences, or the anticipation, of pride, shame and other self-conscious emotions drive practitioners to comply with, or resist, such pressures. These processes are not reserved specifically for child and family social work, however. Indeed, the whole welfare state and governmental apparatus has been going through a transformation as neoliberal ideas, agendas and values have become embedded into political, media and public discourse. These ideas, therefore, relate to other disciplines and practices. This chapter sketches out the conditions needed for authenticity and pride in social work practice before concluding with possible future directions in the theory and practice of pride and shame in professional practice

scholarly journals ‘Everyday Bordering’ in England, Sweden and Bulgaria: Social Work Decision-Making Processes When Working with Migrant Family Members

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Walsh ◽  
Evelyn Khoo ◽  
Karina Nygren
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Contemporary Life ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Migrant Family

AbstractThe global movement of people is a growing feature of contemporary life, and it is essential that professionals providing support services know how to best engage with migrant families. However, despite globalisation and the related processes of de-bordering, borders continue to remain significant and, in contemporary life, the ways in which immigration is controlled and surveilled—bureaucratically and symbolically—are multiple. The paper draws on data gathered in the immediate period following the so called 2015 European ‘migration crisis’ and examines whether and in what ways social workers in three European countries—Bulgaria, Sweden and England—enact bordering in their work with migrant family members. We apply the concept of ‘everyday bordering’ to the data set: whilst borders are traditionally physical and at the boundary between nation states, bordering practices increasingly permeate everyday life in bureaucratic and symbolic forms. Overall, the data show that everyday bordering affects social work practice in three ways: by social workers being required to engage in bordering as an everyday practice; by producing conditions that require social workers to negotiate borders; and in revealing aspects of symbolic everyday bordering. Our analyses shows that ‘everyday bordering’ practices are present in social work decision-making processes in each country, but the forms they take vary across contexts. Analysis also indicates that, in each country, social workers recognise the ways in which immigration control can impact on the families with whom they work but that they can also inadvertently contribute to the ‘othering’ of migrant populations.

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