Creating Relatives You Don't Have: Kinship Care, Social Services and Fictive Kin

2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 20-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Youngblood ◽  
Michelle Rosenthal

What can we learn about kinship care and the effective delivery of supportive social services when we talk to relative caregivers in San Francisco, California? Practicing anthropology in a social service setting with kinship caregivers raises some interesting questions regarding "fictive kin" and effective social service delivery. Our findings from a four-year mixed methods study of kinship care families illuminate the ways that kinship families rely on a community-based social service program in a familial manner. Furthermore, the perception of social service providers functioning like extended family members both increases client satisfaction with the services as well as the ability of social service workers to build positive working relationships with clients.

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 25-31
Author(s):  
Jacquelyn Elkington

Pakiwaitara (Elkington, 2001) came about as a gap identified in social service delivery between western, middle class, dominant culture and the healing of Māori whānau in crisis. While education has responded to this gap by offering bicultural training, ensuring more Māori components within degree programmes, etc, social services statistics are still high for Māori and indigenous peoples. It has helped to shift the definition of cultural supervision to inside the definition of specialised professional supervision (Elkington, 2014), but now continued invisibility of values and beliefs, particularly that of Tauiwi, exacerbate the problem. The challenge must still be asserted so that same-culture practitioners are strengthened in same-culture social work practice (eg, by Māori, for Māori), and to avoid when possible, or otherwise by choice, white dominant-culture practice, for all-and-every-culture social work practice (eg, by Pākehā, for everyone).


2013 ◽  
pp. 685-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Kathlene

This chapter describes and analyzes the effectiveness of two methodological techniques, cognitive mapping and geographical information systems (GIS), for identifying social service resources. It also examines the processes used to integrate hand-drawn map information into geocoded data points and provides recommendations for improving efficiency and precision. As a first step to integrate Jefferson County social service delivery into community-based child welfare “systems of care” (SOC), both formal and informal services had to be identified. Cognitive mapping, a process by which participants draw visual representations of geographical areas, was conducted with 247 participants in Jefferson County, Colorado. Over 3,500 resources were identified and entered into a GIS to analyze the availability, capacity, and distribution of social services in the county and within communities. Identification of community resources via cognitive mapping and GIS analysis provide: (1) a comprehensive database of existing services; (2) a basis to build communication networks and cooperation among government and community providers; (3) the ability to create an efficient system that avoids duplication of efforts; (4) an understanding of the geographical distribution of resources; (5) the identification of resources lacking in the county and specific communities; and (6) knowledge differences among diverse participant groups.


1980 ◽  
Vol 61 (8) ◽  
pp. 490-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
John G. Red Horse

American Indian elders play a central role in the day-to-day activities of Indian family life. Social service providers must be aware of Indian extended family structure so that programs for Indians will reflect the inclination of these communities to integrate the generations, not isolate elders from children.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (s1) ◽  
pp. 94-94
Author(s):  
Deepthi S Varma ◽  
Piyush V Chaudhari ◽  
Krishna Vaddiparti ◽  
Catherine Woodstock Striley ◽  
Linda B. Cottler

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: To examine the rate of medical and social service referral utilization among community members who are enrolled in HealthStreet - a community engagement initiative at University of Florida. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: HealthStreet utilizes the CHW model to conduct health needs assessment, provide referrals to medical and social services and link them to health research at UF. Across two follow-up schedules, these participants are contacted to assess their rate of referral utilization. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: From October 2011-October 2018, HealthStreet completed 10,829 health needs assessments and provided a total of 15,723 medical and/or social service referrals with an average of 1.48 referrals per person. About a third of people completed first and second follow-up respectively (n=3,461; 32.0% and n=3,477; 32.1%), and another third (n=3,891; 35.9%) completed neither. The total number of follow up attempts was 40,863, with an average of 3.85 attempts per person. The overall service utilization rate was 17.02%. The top barriers to utilization included, could not schedule an appointment (26.3%), busy on the date of appointment (21.9%), transportation (9.4%), and already received the service from elsewhere (4.7%). Others (28.3%) did not identify a specific barrier for non-utilization. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Findings show that those who need services are still hampered by barriers to care that CHWs and other service providers could help them overcome. Facilitating the appointment and providing transportation would assist over a third of those needing services.


2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 48-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew A Reeves ◽  
Nigel M Barnes ◽  
Tom Mizutani ◽  
Steve J Brown

A pilot telecare system was trialled in Liverpool. It was used to support the provision of care to 21 of the city council's elderly and frail social services clients. A typical installation consisted of about 20 wireless, ambient sensors in the client's home. A home gateway device ran alerting algorithms designed to learn the normal patterns of user behaviour and to identify deviations from this in real-time. When deviations were detected, social service delivery teams were alerted to a possible cause for concern. The pilot service ran for about 30 months and included a period of examination by independent evaluators. The evaluation found that overall the people who used the service – both users and carers – were overwhelmingly pleased with it and viewed it as a great success.


2001 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Broad

There is little written about children living in kinship care placements, either generally about the role and work of social services in supporting such placements or specifically about kinship care from carers' and users' perspectives. For a child in need who can no longer live with their birth parents(s), being supported by social services to live with a member of her or his extended family can be another appropriate placement option. Given that a good-sized proportion of looked after children, at least equivalent to those in residential care, are placed with a relative or friend, it is argued here that kinship care merits much more discussion, research and development than has hitherto been the case. Based on an ongoing research project, Bob Broad seeks to begin to redress this balance. After reviewing the kinship care literature, as well as the legislative and policy context, research findings from an ongoing research project are presented. The views of kinship carers are given, which suggest they value the support of social workers and require further support, financial payments, information and recognition from social services. Questions are also raised about the over-representation of black children in such placements.


1983 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 151-159
Author(s):  
Catherine A. Rivlin

Direct federal support and corporate philanthropy are two of the many mechanisms of social service delivery in the U.S. The ongoing federal retrenchment reflects both a public decision to reduce the overall level of spending and a pressure to reallocate responsibility for providing some social services from one source to another. The success of this reallocation depends on the match between provider abilities and incentives and the characteristics of the social programs demanded from that provider. The author draws from theory and recent history a partial list of criteria for policymakers to consider in deciding who should be responsible for providing various public services.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.E. Gasumova

This article presents the author’s definitions of “digitization of social service provision” and “digitization of social services” concepts and identifies the difference between them. It presents the results of an interview with 18 experts — the heads of institutions and organizations of social service provision implementing the rehabilitation of disabled people in Perm region. The research was conducted in 2019 and sought to identify problems and prospects for the digitization of the social services sphere. Interviewees rated their satisfaction regarding the convenience and time cost of automated systems that are currently being used in their organizations; characterized their needs in introducing various innovative interactive services, mobile applications, and other digital software; and expressed their attitude to various innovations. Social innovations were developed by the researchers and offered to experts by interviewers (for example, services for assessing the quality of work of specialists by service users, quick selection of the right social service, filing a complaint, referring a citizen to another organization, counseling in video mode, electronic appointment service, etc.). The research has shown how innovations can improve the performance of social service providers’ work and the quality of their interactions with citizens, which will ultimately increase the satisfaction of social service users and will positively affect the level of social well-being in society as a whole. A number of problems have been identified that currently impede the development of digitization: they are related to staff resources, the level of computerization, the lack of motivation among managers and personnel of social service organizations to implement innovative IT, and a certain distrust that such technologies can facilitate the activities of the organization and increase its effectiveness. Keywords: digitization, social service provision, social services, social institutions, social work


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-39
Author(s):  
Lyudmila A. Kozhushko ◽  
Oksana N. Vladimirova ◽  
Natalia P. Lemke ◽  
Margarita A. Urmancheeva ◽  
Vladimir Yu. Soldatov

The relevance of the development of developing experience and methodological support of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. To organize activities to provide activities aimed at the development of the direction, the experience of St. Petersburg, as a subject of the leader in the Russian Federation in the development of technologies for accompanied accommodation, was studied and analyzed. The study was conducted on the basis of the results of the annual monitoring study of materials submitted by the executive authorities of 85 constituent entities of the Russian Federation on the organization of technologies for accompanied accommodation.As a result of the study, the main activities in the development of this direction in St. Petersburg were identified: expanding the regional list of social services provided by social service providers; assigning disabled people of working age with intellectual disabilities to a separate social group; developing recommended individual social service programs, including: for disabled people of working age with intellectual disabilities when living in social apartments, development of industry-specific technological regulations for the provision of measures to support disabled people, creation of equal opportunities to enter the social services market for both state and non-state social service organizations, implementation of infrastructure measures, identification of financial sources, etc. The use by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation of recommendations on reforming the regional regulatory legal framework and the implementation of key events will allow introducing the best practices of St. Petersburg in organizing various forms of accompanied residence.


Author(s):  
Zhanna Petrochko ◽  
Nataliya Datchenko

Relevance of the research problematics is proved by the social demand for acceleration of social commissioning implementation in Ukraine so as to respond to the ongoing pandemic COVID-19, armed conflict in Ukraine, long lasting tradition of institutional care  for vulnerable people. The purpose of the article is to reveal the core of social commissioning linked to social work with families with children, to characterize dynamics of its implementation and development in Ukraine. Methods of research: the theoretical analysis of actual scientific sources, rated to the topic, is applied in the research together with desk review of a new international and national legislation. The methods of generalization and systematization were applied for definition of actual interpretation of “social commissioning” and its characteristics. The results of the research are as follows: The social commissioning is determined as an instrument for public regulation in the system of social service provision by means of contracting social service providers for satisfaction of social service needs identified within social service need assessment by entities of local self-government. Research attention is paid to the structure and key elements of social commissioning. Participants (сustomers, recipients and providers of social services), constituents (social character; contracting core and innovation value), and principles of social commissioning (result orientation; awareness; planning; priority to prevention and early intervention; partnership) are covered in the article. The procedural stages of social commissioning are also unpacked in the article (designing; implementation; monitoring and evaluation). Prospects for further research are the studies of barriers to the implementation of social commissioning and ways to overcome them, development and implementation of optimal algorithms for its implementation in a decentralized environment.


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