The Need for Families with Children with Disabilities to Receive Social Services During the Pandemic Period COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 146-154
Author(s):  
V.V. Sizikova ◽  
◽  
O.A. Anikeeva ◽  
O.O. Afanasyeva ◽  
◽  
...  

the establishment of needs is an essential part of the work of social work specialists, a starting point for determining programs for helping families with children with disabilities. During the quarantine period, the prerequisites for revising many of the usual methods and technologies of social work developed by COVID-19. The object of the study is to establish the need of citizens for social assistance and social services in the new conditions, the goal is to develop recommendations for identifying the need of families with children with disabilities in order to increase the effectiveness of social protection and social services in the new conditions. Research methods included analysis of statistical and demographic data, official documents, an online survey of families with children with disabilities, conducted during the period of quarantine restrictions, as well as an expert survey of social workers and heads of social service organizations in the metropolitan region. The authors analyzed changes in the identification of need and proposed changes in technologies and approaches to the provision of social services. The application of the obtained data can be both in social work practice and in research work.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 505-514
Author(s):  
Walter A. Lorenz ◽  
Silvia Fargion ◽  
Urban Nothdurfter ◽  
Andrea Nagy ◽  
Elisabeth Berger ◽  
...  

Purpose: The measurement of quality in social work practice has become an area of growing interest and relevance in the social services field. Our starting point is that quality in interventions with human beings has to be defined in ways that incorporate the multiple perspectives of all the subjects involved. Methods: The study, adopting qualitative and quantitative methods, explored issues of quality in social services provision in South Tyrol in Italy from the point of view of the main stakeholders. Results: It was possible to identify four dimensions of quality that stakeholders considered important: the political role of practitioners, the ability to take an active role in the organization, the capacity to connect with other professionals, and the quality of direct relationships with users. Conclusions: Results provide an understanding of the common and differing expectations evident in stakeholders’ perspectives and ideas for better quality systems


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 184
Author(s):  
Andrea Rácz ◽  
Dorottya Sik

The aim of this study was to analyze the perception of families and concerned social workers. The research was conducted in an underprivileged and disadvantaged microregion in North Hungary. The main focus was on the available health, educational, child welfare, and social services and supports. The starting point was to enquire about the target group’s knowledge of these services. The study examined the extent to which social work is able to provide support to disadvantaged, marginalized families with children and the way the dysfunctional operation of the system contributes to the perpetuation of the clients’ living conditions. Analyzing the quality of these services and supports is crucial to understanding the social mobility opportunities of the children living in this microregion. The results show that without capability and talent development for the children and given the lack of welfare services, the social mobility opportunities of these families are extremely low in Hungary.


Author(s):  
Andrea Rácz ◽  
Dorottya Sik

Abstract The aim of our study is to analyse the perception of the families and concerned social workers. The research was conducted in an underprivileged and disadvantaged microregion in North Hungary. The main focus was the perception on the available health, educational, child welfare and social services and supports. The starting point was to enquire the target group’s knowledge of these services. The study examines the extent to which social work is able to provide support to disadvantaged, marginalized families with children, and the way how the dysfunctional operation of the system contributes to the perpetuation of the clients’ life conditions. Analysing the quality of these services and supports is crucial to understand the social mobility chance of the children living in this microregion. The results show that without capability and talent development for the children and given the lack of welfare services, the mobility chance and opportunities of these families are extremely low in Hungary.


2020 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 01010
Author(s):  
Anna Broka ◽  
Hanna Mihailova

In all the EU countries and Latvia, the health care impact during the Covid-19 outbreak was one of the first priorities. Meanwhile, less attention was paid to the social service burden, especially in social work with families and children, elderly and other social groups in the most vulnerable situations. New social measures were introduced from the very beginning of the emergency situation, and a crisis benefit was initiated for families and children at the local level. Social workers had to adjust their practice to more flexible, remote and transformed social service delivery. It required specific personal protective equipment (PPE) and new forms of communication channels with families in need and new risk groups. The analysis of correlation between the Covid-19 estimated cases and the social crisis benefit provided during the emergency was performed with a regression model by using the SPSS statistical and mathematical program. It is a starting point for the research on how the social measures introduced in the emergency were allocated. The evidence about the communication and inter-disciplinary experiences was obtained via the analysis of open-ended interviews with social workers and experts. The preliminary results demonstrate the importance of the work alleviating impacts from the national to local level with inter-disciplinary professional teamwork solutions and adaptability in social work practice.


2020 ◽  
pp. 91-113
Author(s):  
Yu.V. HOREMYKINA

Th is article is devoted to the issues of formation and functioning of innovative social work practices in Ukraine. Its purpose is to highlight the best examples of innovative social work practices for vulnerable groups in the country and to analyze the possibilities for their further application. Th e relevance of the study, on the one hand, is conditioned by the humanization of approaches to building relationships between the individual and the social protection system, the appearance at the state level of the requirements for the quality of social services, which are refl ected in the activities of social services, creating certain new models of work with socially vulnerable groups of citizens, and on the other hand it is conditioned by the severity and unresolvedness of a number of social problems related to the social protection of vulnerable populations. Such general scientifi c methods as generalization and analogies logical analysis are used for realization of the purpose. Innovative prac- tices are practices in the fi eld of social work practices for vulnerable groups, which have emerged as new ways of meeting the urgent needs of social service clients and aiming to achieve the most eff ective result both in solving the problems of individuals in need and social problems in general. Th e author proposes the algorithm for the formation of innovative social work practice, which covers all stages from the identifi cation of the need for such practice to the beginning of the functioning of an innovative practice. It is found that case management and integrated social services are the most widespread among innovative practices in the fi eld of social work in Ukraine. Th e article analyzes the specifi cs of both innovative practices and identifies and justifies the ways of their further development. Both practices have proven their eff ectiveness and fl exibility in solving specifi c social problems, and therefore the possibilities of their application (including in the newly created territorial communities) are expected to be expand in the future. Combined, these practices are able to ensure the high effi ciency of the domestic social service delivery system.


Author(s):  
Michael S. Kelly ◽  
Rami Benbenishty ◽  
Gordon Capp ◽  
Kate Watson ◽  
Ron Astor

In March 2020, as American PreK-12 schools shut down and moved into online learning in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, there was little information about how school social workers (SSWs) were responding to the crisis. This study used a national online survey to understand how SSWs ( N = 1,275) adapted their school practice during the initial 2020 COVID-19 crisis. Findings from this study indicate that SSWs made swift and (relatively) smooth adaptations of their traditional practice role to the new context, though not without reporting considerable professional stress and personal challenges doing so. SSWs reported significant concerns about their ability to deliver effective virtual school social work services given their students’ low motivation and lack of engagement with online learning, as well as significant worries about how their students were faring during the first months of the pandemic. Implications for school social work practice, policy, and research are discussed.


Groupwork ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquin Castillo de Mesa ◽  
Antonio López Peláez ◽  
Paula Méndez Domínguez

Isolation is a clear indicator of social exclusion. To tackle it, we wondered if it would be possible to improve digital skills and strengthen bonds through online groups on a social networking site. This paper presents the results of an experimental study carried out in Malaga (Spain) with unemployed users of social care services. From the perspective of social work practice with groups, this study aims at strengthening bonds and mutual help through improving digital skills. This was carried out using a Facebook group as a shared space for community empowerment. To know the impact of these interactions, netnography and social network analysis were conveyed, as well as algorithms to identify communities and assess cohesion. Results showed that Facebook groups may be effective tools to promote active learning and mutual support and which can be used effectively by social workers.


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).


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 13198
Author(s):  
Inês Casquilho-Martins

The effects of the international crisis brought economic and financial risks, as well as consequences for human, social and sustainable development. This study aims to analyse the effects of social intervention with families since the 2008 crisis in Portugal. Through a qualitative approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with social workers (23), to identify the main impacts of the crisis and the adopted social intervention practices. We highlight a new increase in social problems and the growth of vulnerable groups facing an unprepared social protection system. The Portuguese case reveals that the effects of austerity have shown a decline in the welfare and benefits system, leading to worsened social problems, such as increased poverty and unemployment, as well as social inequalities. Social Work was required to respond to these consequences, although organisational contexts and austerity measures constrained practitioners’ autonomy. By reflecting on this critical period, we seek to contribute to better social protection and assistance models in the face of the current and future crisis. In this sense, Social Work practice ensures a means to guarantee fundamental rights and social justice, preparing social workers and social intervention for new challenges in crisis contexts.


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