scholarly journals Social (in) Mobility and Social Work with Families with Children. Case Study of a Disadvantaged Microregion in Hungary

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Rácz ◽  
Dorottya Sik
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Life Conditions ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Services And Supports ◽  
Families With Children

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.

scholarly journals Social (Im)Mobility and Social Work with Families with Children. Case Study of a Disadvantaged Microregion in Hungary

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 184
Author(s):  
Andrea Rácz ◽  
Dorottya Sik
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Talent Development ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Services And Supports ◽  
Families With Children

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.

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 ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Families With Children

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.

Asylum Seekers in Israel: Challenges to Social Work

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (8) ◽  
pp. 2283-2298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orit Nuttman-Shwartz ◽  
Ofer Shinar Levanon
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
The One ◽  
Global Agenda

AbstractThe challenges facing social workers in addressing the migration crisis are myriad and complex. Against this background, the current article presents a case study on the response of Israeli social work to the asylum seekers, which allows us to identify gaps between the social work profession’s global agenda and its implementation. The article examines how recent immigration policies have impacted Israeli social workers’ responses to these challenges. Following a brief description of Israel’s policies for controlling and limiting the entrance of asylum seekers to the country, the article offers insights into social workers’ involvement in some of the main social services that aim to assist asylum seekers in Israel. Insights are also offered into the response of Israeli social workers to the community of asylum seekers, which focuses on individual needs and on urgent needs. Several explanations for these emphases was offers, noting that they may reflect a more general gap between repeated statements about the significance of human rights for the social work profession on the one hand and the professional reality on the other. Finally, several strategies for social work in the community of asylum seekers and in society as a whole are recommended.

scholarly journals An educational intervention focused on teaching Qualified Empathy to social work students in Finland

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eija Raatikainen ◽  
Leigh Anne Rauhala ◽  
Seija Mäenpää
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Educational Intervention ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
Emotional Reaction ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Work Education

PurposeThe main goal of the one semester long intervention for first-year Bachelor of Social Services students was to enable them to increase their awareness of a variety of cultures and practices encountered in social pedagogical work and to support the development of their ability to interact empathically with clients.Design/methodology/approachThe aim of this article is to describe an educational intervention focused on teaching Qualified Empathic skills to social work students in higher education at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Finland. We introduce the concept of Qualified Empathy to describe professional empathic working skills and define it as: Qualified Empathy requires compassion for empathic action and it includes the ability for professional self-reflection, emotional skills and a healthy set of boundaries. Qualified Empathy encompasses the ability to tell the difference between sympathy and empathy, as it includes the capacity to use compassion to act in an empathic way in professional contexts (Raatikainen et al., 2017). The study was a case study, designed to explore the students' experiences of their one semester long educational intervention (n = 20). Our research question was: How do students construct Qualified Empathy as a dimension of their own professional expertise?FindingsThe results of the study demonstrate the progress areas of the students' Qualified Empathy skills. The development stages in the three progress areas are: (1) from emotional reaction to emotional response, (2) from understanding to empathic acting and (3) from client perspective to a more systemic approach. Implications of the results for Social Services students are discussed.Research limitations/implicationsIn this study, as in all studies, some limitations need to be taken into account. One limitation of this study is the size and “nature of data”. Secondly, challenges with the concept of Qualified Empathy need to be addressed and more research is needed to define it more concretely. Even so, as it is a new concept, we need more discussion on the differences in the definition of empathy and Qualified Empathy. However, this study offers one new perspective for discussion which is the need for empathy training, in social work education practices and in the field. An important ethical aspect of research emphasizes that its implementation must not be to the detriment of the people being researched (Juuti and Puusa, 2020, pp. 168).Practical implicationsOur findings demonstrate that educational interventions can improve students' empathy skills to more qualified skills. We emphasized that maintaining the skill demands continuous reflection as a lifelong process. This article provides an overview of an educational intervention to improve students' Qualified Empathy skills and suggests a definition for educators to frame the teaching of professional empathy or empathy in a professional context – especially in the social work context. Furthermore, with this educational intervention in social work, we offer a way to support the students to – not only – have a more professional approach to empathy but also to find a way to establish a more emotionally sustainable environment for professionals in social services. It is essential for social work education to focus on the growth of Qualified Empathy in students through supervision and guidance which supports their professional competence. By doing so, we contribute to the development of more sustainable working environments in the social work context.Social implicationsProfessional empathy is seen as an important factor in building a socially sustainable society from the perspectives of employees, clients and patients. We noticed that it is important to allow time and space for the learners to internalize the concept of Qualified Empathy. When we allow for this, students begin to recognize and assign more value to it and, as we suggest, they become more adept in their interactions and work with clients.Originality/valueThe study was a case study, designed to explore the students' experiences of their one semester long educational intervention (n = 20). Our research question was: How do students construct Qualified Empathy as a dimension of their own professional expertise? The results of the study demonstrate the progress areas of the students' Qualified Empathy skills. The development stages in the three progress areas are: (1) from emotional reaction to emotional response, (2) from understanding to empathic acting and (3) from client perspective to a more systemic approach. Implications of the results for Social Services students are discussed.

scholarly journals SOCIAL WORK WITH DIFFERENT TYPES OF FAMILY REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT CHILDRENS’ DISABILITY

2021 ◽  
pp. 33-37
Author(s):  
Nadiia Butenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Client Group ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Family Behavior ◽  
Life Challenges ◽  
The Social ◽  
Disability Status ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Families With Children

The article is dedicated to the research of family representations about childrens’ disabilities. Nowadays, special attention is paid to the targeted social services development and implementation that will correspond to the needs and demands of a certain client group. The relevance of the research is identifying different types of family representations will help to classify families with children with disabilities according to their attitudes towards social change and, accordingly, improve the quality of provided social services. The purpose of the article is to study the characteristics of family representations about childrens’ disabilities and determine their impact on the process of providing social services to families. The method or semantic differential was used to study the content of different types of family representations, which included the study of the attitudes towards childhood illness, disability status, and family. The observation was used to study the characteristics of family behavior in the process of providing social services. The result of the research there were found four types of family representations: «sacrificial», «compensatory», «perspective» and «adaptive». The first type considers himself as a victim of circumstances and tries to attract specialists to his problems, however does not want to take responsibility for it. The second type tries to compensate for all the restrictions, which were caused by disability, and joined all the activities. The third type of representations percepts disability as a normal characteristic of personality, trying to cope with life challenges. The fourth type of representation is highly adapted, though all the restrictions are perceived as a normal thing, which does not cause any problems. Families with each type of representation have different types of interaction with the social worker and act differently during social events.

scholarly journals Public Perception about Social Work Profession

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Fatbardha Osmanaga
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social

The perception of social work profession is very important, because there are people that are beneficiaries of social services. So, if we have positive perceptions, will have a strong relationship between social workers and people and the quality of services will be better.We have a quantitative study. The main purpose of the paper is to know the public information and perception about the social work profession. The research questions of the paper are:1.What is the information of Shkodra citizens regarding the social work profession?2.What is the perceptionof Shkodra citizens about the social work profession?3.What is the opinion of Shkodra citizens regarding the areas of social work?4.What is the opinion of Shkodra citizens regarding the roles of the social worker?The population of the study is composed of residents of the city of Shkodra. The sampling consists of people who have reached the age of 18. It is sed the survey method. A questionnaire composed of four parts is used. The first part includes the demographic data of the participants, the second part includes data about the information of participants for social work profession, the third part includes data related to the perception that they have regarding social work profession and the fourth part includes data about the opinion of the participants for the fields and roles of the social workers.The syrvey was created on the basis of different sources. There are given the coclusions and the appropriate suggestions. Keywords: Shkodra city, social work, public perception.

scholarly journals En scenariobaserad analys av ett IT-avbrott i socialtjänsten

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carin Björngren Cuadra
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Functional System ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Functional Equivalence ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Empirical Material

A scenario-based analysis of an IT failure in the social services – adaptations and social redundancyThis article takes as its starting point the fact that documentation as well as communication within the social services are to a great extent dependent on IT. Against that backdrop, an investigation is presented whose aim is to contribute to knowledge about what IT failures can mean within the social services. The focus is on the immediate consequences for the documentation and communication of the social services. The aim is also to contribute to the understanding of how the course of events relates to the maintenance of social work despite interruptions. Systems theory provides an overarching theoretical framework. Based on that approach, social work is seen as a societal functional system aiming at the administration of exclusion. The study is based on empirical material consisting of assessments of the consequences of failures, as formulated by social services staff in risk and vulnerability analyses conducted within the framework of the investigation. The results include descriptions of consequences that arise as a result of inaccessible operative systems but also as a result of, for example, the disruption of VoIP telephony. Further, the results describe concrete adaptations and suggestions for possible changes that potentially reduce the vulnerability entailed by IT dependency. The conclusion is that the IT failure does not lead to a corresponding failure of social work as a functional system, despite technical dependencies. The system is maintained through adaptations, which are possible thanks to functional equivalence (that is, a goal may be reached in several ways) and available redundancy. It is the staff that, besides a number of technical adaptations, make concrete organizational and social adaptations, to some degree at the expense of their working environment. This is called social redundancy in order to highlight how lost technology is replaced by social processes.

The Mother-Based Intervention: Policy, Social Work, and the Absence of Fathers in the Social Services in Israel

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadav Perez-Vaisvidovsky ◽  
Reli Mizrahi ◽  
Ayana Halpern
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intervention Policy

Abstract The increasing scholarly interest in the absence of fathers from family-focused interventions by the social services tends to focus on the role of fathers, mothers, and social workers in this absence. The role of policymakers, however, has been neglected. This article examines the case study of policymakers in the Israeli social services to fill in this gap and examine the role of policy and policymakers in fathers’ absence. The findings reveal that policy is based on the ‘mother-based intervention’ assumption—the services are built around the assumption that interventions include only mothers, and therefore make engaging fathers an exception.

The Assurance of the Quality of Social Services Through Supervision or Accreditation and Possible Ethical Dilemmas

2018 ◽  
pp. 236-259
Author(s):  
Svetlana Haraz ◽  
Teodor Vicol
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Legal Form ◽  
Republic Of Moldova ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Autonomy

The profession of social work promotes the social change, the resolution or diminution of social problems and contribution to the development of social autonomy of the individual in order to increase his/her welfare. One of the most efficient ways of professional improvement of social workers is represented by implementing a complex process of supervision which involve the analysis and observance of the whole activity of social work. In this context, the accreditation of the providers of social services is the identification of their capacity to provide qualitative social services to people and to increase the responsibility for respecting the minimal standards of quality, regardless the type of property, legal form of organization and administrative subordination. In this work, we will present the experience of the Republic of Moldova in the development of the mechanism of supervision in the context of social services integrated and the process of accreditation of the providers of social services.

scholarly journals Family counselling and flexibility of social services during Covid-19 emergency: Case study of Latvian municipalities

2020 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 01010
Author(s):  
Anna Broka ◽  
Hanna Mihailova
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Emergency Situation ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Emergency Case ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social

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.

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