Reviewing the literature on the breakdown of foster care placements for young people: complexity and the social work task

The article presents the elements of social work, which are important for shaping the aspects of clients' adulthood. The methods, techniques and forms of help should mobilize the client to be active and independent. In the process of help, it is important to build a mutual relationship between a social worker and a client based on the treating as a subject, showing respect and listening. Such an attitude towards the assisted person is aimed at strengthening him/her on the way to regain control over his/her own life, to build a faith in his/her own possibilities and to take responsibility for his/her own fate and the fate of people dependent on the client. The social worker participates also in the process of empowering young people, who are brought up in foster care, and in the case of children from dysfunctional families, the social worker makes sure that they are not overwhelmed by the challenges of adulthood.

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Role of Narrative and Social Networks in Thwarting Violence and Sexual Abuse in Young People’s Lives

The British Journal of Social Work ◽

10.1093/bjsw/bcz114 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 50 (7) ◽

pp. 2172-2190

Author(s):

Margareta Hydén ◽

David Gadd ◽

Thomas Grund

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Sexual Abuse ◽

Social Work ◽

Young People ◽

Narrative Analysis ◽

Interpersonal Violence ◽

Sexually Abused ◽

Her Family ◽

The Social ◽

Work Intervention

Abstract Combining narrative analysis with social network analysis, this article analyses the case of a young Swedish female who had been physically and sexually abused. We show how she became trapped in an abusive relationship at the age of fourteen years following social work intervention in her family home, and how she ultimately escaped from this abuse aged nineteen years. The analysis illustrates the significance of responses to interpersonal violence from the social networks that surround young people; responses that can both entrap them in abusive relationships by blaming them for their problems and enable them to escape abuse by recognising their strengths and facilitating their choices. The article argues that the case for social work approaches that envision young people’s social networks after protective interventions have been implemented. The article explains that such an approach has the potential to reconcile the competing challenges of being responsive to young people’s needs while anticipating the heightened risk of being exposed to sexual abuse young people face when estranged from their families or after their trust in professionals has been eroded.

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Vulnerable childhood, vulnerable adulthood: Direct provision as aftercare for aged-out separated children seeking asylum in Ireland

Critical Social Policy ◽

10.1177/0261018317691897 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 37 (3) ◽

pp. 386-404 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Muireann Ní Raghallaigh ◽

Liam Thornton

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Foster Care ◽

Young People ◽

Asylum Seekers ◽

The State ◽

Migrant Status ◽

After Care ◽

Systematic Exploration ◽

Care Leavers ◽

Discretionary Powers

Ireland’s approach to after-care for ‘aged-out’ separated children is problematic. Currently, upon reaching the age of 18, most separated young people are moved to ‘direct provision’, despite the fact that the state can use discretionary powers to allow them to remain in foster care. Direct provision is the system Ireland adopts providing bed and board to asylum seekers, along with a weekly monetary payment. Separated young people in Ireland are in a vulnerable position after ageing out. Entry into the direct provision system, from a legal and social work perspective, is concerning. Utilising direct provision as a ‘form of aftercare’ emphasises governmental policy preferences that privilege the migrant status of aged-out separated children, as opposed to viewing this group as young people leaving care. In this article, utilising a cross-disciplinary approach, we provide the first systematic exploration of the system of aftercare for aged-out separated children in Ireland. In doing so, we posit two core reasons for why the aftercare system for aged-out separated children has developed as it has. First, doing so ensures that the state is consistent with its approach to asylum seekers more generally, in that it seeks to deter persons from claiming asylum in Ireland through utilisation of the direct provision system. Second, while the vulnerability of aged-out separated children is well-documented, the state (and others) ignore this vulnerability and are reluctant to offer additional aftercare supports beyond direct provision. This is due, we argue, to viewing aged-out separated children as having a lesser entitlement to rights than other care leavers, solely based on their migrant status.

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The Vastness and Vagueness of the Social Work Task

10.4324/9781003196440-2 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 6-10

Author(s):

E. Matilda Goldberg ◽

R. William Warburton

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Work Task ◽

The Social

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Treasuring the Social in Social Pedagogy

Children Australia ◽

10.1017/cha.2015.49 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 40 (4) ◽

pp. 348-350 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Robyn Kemp

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Young People ◽

Social Worker ◽

Social Care ◽

Children And Young People ◽

Social Pedagogy ◽

The Social ◽

Vulnerable People ◽

Management Positions ◽

Outcomes For Children

Robyn is a UK-qualified social worker who has a deeply held passion for, and some 30 years of experience working with disenfranchised and/or vulnerable people and children and young people in care. She has a strong interest in social pedagogy and residential childcare both operationally and strategically. Since 1995, she has been in a variety of management positions and has developed and delivered training, conferences, workshops and consultancy on children's social work and social care for the statutory, voluntary and independent sectors. Her work has aimed at improving both the experiences and outcomes for children and young people in or on the edge of care and raising the profile of those affected by, and working within, the social work and social care sectors.

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Do We Appear to Be a Profession Chasing Its Tail? Non-Social Work Major Perceptions

Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work ◽

10.18084/1084-7219.7.1.37 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 37-52 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Diane Zosky

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Young People ◽

Professional Identity ◽

Social Work Students ◽

Centennial Celebration ◽

The Social ◽

Negative Effect ◽

The Difference ◽

Identity Struggle

The profession of social work has recently completed its centennial celebration, yet it still remains a profession with an identity struggle. Could the internal struggles experienced within the profession have a negative effect on young people who are selecting career pursuits? An investigation was undertaken at a medium-sized university assessing the perceptions held by non-social-work majors about the social work profession and the social work major. Results demonstrated that the social work major was perceived to be as difficult as other majors and social work students were perceived to be as intelligent as other students. Social work careers were perceived to be more challenging than other occupations. The results highlighted some confusion regarding intensity of the curricular requirements for social work and the difference between social work and sociology or psychology. The struggle for professional identity did not seem to negatively affect perceptions regarding social work for this sample of students.

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Capturing/captured by stories of marginalized young people: Direct scribing and dialogic narrative analysis

Qualitative Social Work ◽

10.1177/1473325016656750 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 206-223 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Kennedy Saldanha ◽

Lynn Nybell

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Young People ◽

Narrative Analysis ◽

Youth Voice ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Practice Experience ◽

Significant Movement ◽

The Social ◽

Seminal Article

Examining the results of the “narrative turn” in social work in their seminal article for Qualitative Research in 2005, Riessman and Quinney found themselves disappointed with the size and quality of the research corpus they reviewed. However, they also identified three exemplars of promising work, including the research of Faye Martin (Martin, 1998). Riessman and Quinney highlighted Martin’s narrative-gathering strategy, devised on the basis of her practice experience and dubbed “direct scribing.” The direct scribing method of narrative data collection disciplines the work of the researcher, who becomes the “scribe,” and elaborates the roles of the interviewees as authors of the narratives that they create. This article on capturing (and being captured by) the narratives of marginalized young people is situated in an increasingly significant movement in the social work literature that promotes giving voice to young people, so that they may have their views taken into account. We highlight the benefits of direct scribing as a means of narrative-gathering in social work and then address the challenge of interpreting these narratives, drawing on examples from our research. We suggest connections between direct scribing and the interpretive approach of dialogic narrative analysis as a method of interpretation that requires “letting stories breathe.” (Frank, 2010). The aim of this contribution is to describe specific ways in which linking direct scribing and dialogical narrative analysis may contribute to the advancement of narrative research in social work, and, in particular, to the enhancement of efforts to amplify “youth voice” in social work policy and practice.

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Street level society

Critical Social Work ◽

10.22329/csw.v7i2.5738 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Christine Vinum ◽

Morten Nissen

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Young People ◽

Social System ◽

Drug Users ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

Social Practices ◽

Street Level ◽

The Social ◽

Research Findings ◽

Socially Excluded

This paper aims to reflect on research findings from different empirical studies of social work with young drug users and socially excluded young people in Copenhagen. In the paper we account for historical changes in social policy and interventions into young people's drug taking in Copenhagen, and we discuss some of the most central dilemmas in today's social work with young drug users. Among other things, we identify pervasive marginalizing dynamics in the social system that result partly from the deep-rooted cultural dichotomy between stigma and taboo that organizes the drug issue, and partly from the decentralizing and specializing efforts characteristic of the Danish welfare state and its institutions. We discuss a general turn towards street level interventions to address the problems of social exclusion, as well as different attempts to create what we term street level heterotopias - sites of alternate ordering - where issues of drug use and other social problems can be dealt with and objectified in more flexible ways and handled as part of ongoing social practices of everyday life.

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