Comprehensive Assessment in Social Work Practice: The Multi-Problem Screening Inventory

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter W. Hudson ◽  
Steven L. McMurtry
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Functioning ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Initial Evaluation ◽  
Multidimensional Assessment ◽  
Further Development

Findings are reported from an initial evaluation of a new multidimensional assessment tool, the Multi-Problem Screening Inventory (MPSI). The inventory gathers information on 27 different areas of personal and social functioning and is designed for use by human service practitioners in a variety of settings. Basic guidelines for using the instrument are detailed, with emphasis given to the preparation and interpretation of graphic profiles for rapid but comprehensive client assessments. Reliabilities and validities obtained for each of the subscales are then reviewed, along with suggestions for further development and use of the MPSI in clinical trials and research applications.

Lessons from filial piety: Do we need ‘memorial social work’ for the dead and their families?

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong-Jae Park
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Filial Piety ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Cultural Importance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Ageing Parents

Death is often a taboo topic and, consequently, there is a reluctance to address matters such as the cultural importance of after-life reputations and ancestor remembrance in the social work field. Reflecting on filial piety studies with Korean participants, this article aims to call attention to such death-related issues and their implications for end-of-life, palliative social work practice and research. The term ‘memorial social work’ is used to help practitioners broaden the scope and quality of social work associated with people who have died and their surviving families. The discussion in this paper includes issues related to filial piety and attitudes towards ageing parents, ancestor honour and remembrance and family continuity. The areas to which memorial social work are particularly pertinent are suggested for further development.

Bartlett, Harriett M.

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice N. Saunders
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Functioning ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
American Association ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Central Focus

Harriett M. Bartlett (1897–1987) was a social worker and theoretician who served as president of the American Association of Medical Social Workers from 1942 to 1944. She highlighted social functioning as a central focus of social work practice.

scholarly journals Leadership Support of Supervision in Social Work Practice

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 151-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Vito
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Leadership Support

This article discusses research findings that highlight the importance of leadership support of supervision for social workers in human service organizations. While supervision is considered a cornerstone of social work practice, whether and how such supervision is supported by human service leaders is not adequately analyzed. Using qualitative research data from interviews with supervisors and managers in southern Ontario, this article presents the vital role social work leaders play in supporting supervision by modelling values, and creating a safe organizational culture. The challenges of providing this support are also discussed in the current context of new public management. The article concludes with a series of recommendations, including: prioritizing supervision to promote organizational learning, organizational restructuring to reduce power differentials, modelling social work values to create a safe learning culture, and supporting supervisory and leadership training for social workers. Findings may be of interest to social workers who are leading, supervising, teaching or practicing in human service organizations.

scholarly journals Electronic information systems and social work: principles of participatory design for social workers

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Gillingham
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Electronic Information

The introduction of electronic information systems (IS) to human service organizations has been heavily critiqued, most notably for the ways that they may undermine frontline social work practice. Socio-technical design has been proposed as one means to redesign IS and a key element of this approach is the involvement of practitioners in the design process. Social workers, though, may be ill-prepared to engage in such processes. Reflecting on the findings of a program of research which aims to contribute to future designs of IS that support frontline practice, the aim in this article is to provide some guidance for social workers that will assist them to be active and effective participants in the future development of IS.

scholarly journals Theorising Social Work Sense-Making: Developing a Model of Peer-Aided Judgement and Decision Making

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Helm
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Peer Interaction ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Continuum Theory ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Cognitive Continuum Theory ◽  
Further Development

Abstract This article addresses the challenges of sense making in social work practice and presents a descriptive model of peer-aided judgement to facilitate critical debate and knowledge creation. The model is founded in Hammond's Cognitive Continuum Theory and developed in direct application to social work practice. It seeks to expand currently available models of social work judgement and decision making to include processes and outcomes related to informal peer interaction. Building on empirical studies and multiple contemporary literatures, a model of peer-aided judgement is hypothesised, comprising four distinct and interacting elements. By modelling these fundamental aspects of the processes and outcomes of peer-aided judgement, this article provides a tool for illuminating the everyday unseen value of peer interaction in practice and a framework for critical debate of dilemmas and propositions for professional judgement in social work practice. This article concludes by examining some of the implications of the model and its potential use in the further development of theory, methodology and practice.

scholarly journals Reflections on the new Scottish innovative child protection system

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-13
Author(s):  
Robyn Agnew
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Protective Mechanisms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Outcomes For Children ◽  
Further Development

This paper reflects on my work in Scotland in child protection during 2009 and 2010. It reflects on the Scotland I discovered and The Highlands I worked in. It describes recent innovative political decisions that have informed social work practice across all professions and government departments. It describes the implementation of an essentially simple system, which provides support for every child in need, specific to that need. It is a system that could positively inform the further development of child protection in New Zealand. Given the current plan to seek ways to ‘modernise’ Child Youth and Family (CYF), this paper seeks to encourage a debate on the merits of this path-finding Scottish solution to their political, social, ethnic and professional barriers, which could also produce positive outcomes for children in New Zealand (Tolley, 2015). It describes the overlaying of this approach on top of a professional workforce, despite the silo bureaucracy of service delivery and regardless of professional jealousies protecting individual professions. It describes the responsibilities of all who interact with children and sets certain overlying responsibilities for ‘named’ persons. In this way the responsibilities for the protection of children is moved from the realm of the social work profession, which is overloaded, as it is currently in New Zealand, and applied directly to all professions that interact with children. The Scots have produced a reliable system which strengthens protective mechanisms at the point of service delivery to the child. This in turn develops a reliable and accountable protective society, in which children in need are identified early and supported throughout their contact with different services. The goal is an on-going intervention that can achieve change for the child and allow the child to reach their potential. It is an aspirational system of care, aiming for development of innate potential. I reflect on the system and the safety it provided to myself as a social worker, the relief of ‘sharing’ child protection responsibilities with all other professions and the clarity of roles which defines this system.

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