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Keywords: social exclusion; psychiatric recovery; vocational integration; barriers to employment; supported employment
The social exclusion of adults with chronic mental health problems acts in all the major domains of life: employment, housing, income, education as well as accessibility of services. The Romanian mental health system is reflecting the discrimination of these adults: the reforms are delayed, the community services are missing, and the treatment is unilateral. In the area of psychiatric recovery, evidence based interventions needs to be implemented, like supported employment and education, family education, costumer-operated services etc. Unemployment is one of the most debilitating effects of the severe mental illness and evidence (as well as experience) shows that a large population of adults with mental health problems want to work. There are some internal as well as external barriers to employment for adults with mental health problems: the attitudes of employers, the symptoms, the lack of confidence, and the fear to lose the disability pension. Supported employment is an evidence-based intervention which aims to combat the internal, as well as the external barriers to employment. The results of a study realised in 2009 (Antal şi colab) with the beneficiaries of a community mental health center in Cluj-Napoca, emphasis the importance of supported employment for the vocational reintegration of adults with mental health problems The present paper underlines the importance of the social work’s contribution in the area of psychiatric recovery, especially on those areas that link mental health with broader social issues, such as discrimination, lack of resources, unemployment and education.
More...Keywords: stress; psychosocial risk; cardiac disease; clinical social work
There is some research that explores effective psychosocial interventions such as clinical social work, counseling individuals and families in conditions of chronic disease. This paper proposes an approach to psychosocial stress as factor in the context of a disease with significant psychosocial meanings: cardiac disease. Intrafamilial, personal and professional stress can have significant adverse effects on the patients life and on the family and professional relationships. Fears and anxieties were expressed about death and permanent damage to the heart. To answer the question “what role has the stress in assessment of psychosocial risk in heart patients?” was made a research that assessed the perceptions of social stress in cardiac patients. This study will be conducted to investigate associations between psychosocial risk factors, including stress sources of illness, low perceived social support, depressive symptoms and behavior adaptation on life stress events in patients affected by cardiac disease. Thirty-eight patients were interviewed. After that it has been calculated a psychosocial risk score and 11 cases were selected for deeper analysis. Was finally analyzed clinical social work as a strategy and interventional method to patients faced with heart disease and having a high psychosocial risk.
More...Keywords: disability; case management; support group; personal development group
The experience of raising and looking after a child with neuro-psychomotor disabilities is one that creates continuous stress that will have an impact on all spheres of family life. Studies show that family members who face the situation of having a child with disabilities encounter a series of economic, social, psychic/ emotional, as well as somatic problems. In this paper I propose to specifically discuss the problems facing family members of children with neuro- psychomotor disabilities in relation to the situation they have to cope with and, at the same time, to present concrete intervention methods for these problems, such as micro level intervention - family and small groups using case management, support groups for parents and personal development groups for the children.
More...Keywords: constructivist power; gender perspective; power in social work
Social Workers do have power – although they themselves often have a different point of view. However, it is the readiness to perceive power as a tool that forms the basis for even reaching out for change. So that´s why it is essential that social workers become aware of their power – in order to make use of it in the best possible way.
More...Keywords: case study; case management; quality of service; beneficiary involvement; rational emotional conselling; effectiveness
This paper presents a case study - approached from the perspective of the case management. The client is a family whose child was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In the first phase we reviewed the relevant information in order to identify resources. The action plan combined counseling of mother, based on cognitive behavioral therapy, with indirect activities to help the family get the resources they were entitled too. By all steps the efficacy and effectiveness of intervention was evaluated and the beneficiaries were involved all along. The paper tries to advocate for social worker jobs in all pediatric oncology hospitals/clinics.
More...Keywords: ecclectic approach; evidence based practice
This article evidences that the application of theory in practice is undoubtedly difficult and a constant effort is needed in order to understand the clients’ problems and which are the most appropriate actions to safeguard the child and to promote the child’s welfare. The article presents a case study based on the author’s experience as a social worker in England and it reflects the main actions that had been taken in the light of legislation, guidelines and relevant theories. The article argues that a theory that is well accepted due to its effectiveness proved to be insufficient and did not help to understand the clients’ problems and their behaviour. The eclectic approach helps the social worker to understand complex behaviour and it underpins the best practice in social work. Also the article evidences the importance of evidence based practice and the need to use in practice what proved to be effective being mindful at the methodological details and the research design.
More...Keywords: child protection; child welfare
Families seen by child welfare agencies often experience mental health, substance abuse and domestic violence problems in addition to child abuse. Many child protection agencies have been slow to incorporate information about such co-occurring familial problems into training protocols. This training deficit continues despite research suggesting that the presence of confounding issues in families involved with the child welfare system warrants specialized intervention strategies. This study explores cross-training efforts in domestic violence, mental health, and substance abuse treatment undertaken by child protection agencies. Information about exemplary cross-training initiatives was collected via telephone interviews with professionals at sites deemed to represent best practices in cross-training by nationally recognized experts in child welfare, mental health, substance abuse and domestic violence. The dynamics of training received by child protection workers at exemplary sites throughout the U.S. was examined, including what motivated these sites to offer training, who was involved, and what kinds of cross-training opportunities were offered. The findings indicate a particular need to devote more resources to training in mental health issues and to provide on-going training in all three areas, domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental health. Supervisors need to be involved in both initial and on-going cross-training efforts. More rigorous evaluation of cross-training efforts is necessary, especially training that examines changes in the behavior of child protection workers. Finally, collaborative networks need to be developed across systems of care to further develop and sustain the results of cross-training.
More...Keywords: Suicide Customer; Social Worker; Advice Normal life
Suicide is one of the expressions of the limit of human behavior present in all historical periods and in all cultures. Existential crisis, unable to face the current difficulties of life, determines many people to resort to suicide, as a last solution. Support for people with suicidal risk is complex and multidisciplinary, a special place being occupied by the counseling offered by the social worker. Due to social workers’ ability and means to support, assessment and intervention, the client with suicidal risk may be advised properly so that he can overcome the difficult situation that is found, to regain confidence in others, to highlight their personal resources to have a normal life, harmony.
More...Keywords: social networks; ego-centered network; network assessment
Each social network is typically composed of family members as well as nonfamily members such as friends, coworkers, neighbors and so on. Personal relationships with these individuals can significantly impact one’s physical and mental well-being. Social networks can exert influence in a number of ways, from the early stages of childhood to early, middle and late adulthood. The social influences of the ego-centered networks can be either positive or negative. In social work, consideration of networks is not exclusive to working with or in communities, they are crucial also when focusing on work with individuals, couples and families. In the context of clinical social work, there are three different networking strategies, mentioned by Coulshed and Orme (1998), that can be useful: network therapy (a therapeutic approach where network is seen as a change agent), problem-solving network meetings (bringing together formal and informal persons, in order to sort out who is doing what) and network construction (assessment of personal networks in order to sustain, change or build new networks). In this paper, I present theoretical aspects of social networks, as well as some methodological issues in assessing personal networks.
More...Keywords: Social work; systemic therapy; systemic social work
From social work to systemic therapy and back: social work is in its basics systemic. Not only many mothers and fathers of family therapy come originally from social work. As the „royal discipline“ of the psycho-social field social work adapted eagerly many systemic ideas and methods and developed them further on. It is time to elaborate on these approaches in order to develop the own concepts of social work.
More...Keywords: mental health; supervision; work model; professional preparation; mental hygiene
The paper is built on the idea that mental health issues are paramount for professionalizing social work. The concern for social worker’s mental health represents a priority, analyzed here from two points of view: on one hand, working with clients requires emotional involvement (relation work) from the part of the social worker; on the other hand, the helper must manage not only his or her own problems but also those of the clients. Further, our interest for mental health derives from the fact that any form of intervention at individual, family, group or community level aims to harmonize social functioning and mental health. To accomplish their goal, social workers need supervision. The study presents a model in which both the premises – at the level of the social worker – and the results of the work – at the level of the client – are directed towards mental health. Its achievement is only possible via supervision.
More...Keywords: foster children; disruptive behavior; cognitive-behavioral parent program
Foster children manifest a high incidence of behavioral problems compared with children from the general population and these problems are associated with unplanned disruptions in foster care placement. This study is investigating the efficacy of a short cognitive-behavioral parent program delivered to foster parents having in placement children with aggressive behavior for increasing placement stability and foster parent’s quality of life. The trial had a randomized controlled comparative pre-post design and the intervention combined components from the most validated parent programs for child defiant behavior in the literature, focusing on providing foster parents with child development information/ psycho-education, parental stress reduction, parenting skills, problems solving skills and efficient communication skills. Results are supporting the efficacy of the program in improving the quality of life in foster parents after the treatment, but no differences were found regarding placement stability between the parental cognitive-behavioral group and the waiting list. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of incorporating the advancements in evidence-based parental interventions to making available viable parent interventions to Romanian Child Welfare System for reducing the rate of unplanned placement disruptions and increasing the quality of life in foster parents having in placement children presenting disruptive behavior.
More...Keywords: NASW; social advocacy; clinical social work practice; policy
A social work educator and former National Association of Social Workers state chapter president provides a perspective on involvement in social advocacy based on a review of the literature, her experience in office, and efforts to involve students in the political process. Major NASW national and state initiatives are also described as they relate to enhancing the quality of social work practice and educating the public about the contribution that the social work profession makes to society.
More...Keywords: violence; family; school; community; peer-group
Objective: exploring the dimensions that describe students’ perceptions over the violence; identifying the variables from the family, school, and community that correlate to experimenting violence, both as victims and as promoters. Method: a questionnaire of 38 items was applied to a sample of 267 students from rural areas enrolled in compulsory primary, secondary and post-secondary education. Results: regarding the quality of the parental relation, children perceive it as supportive. The same supportive attitude is perceived from the teachers. As victims, they experience feeling humiliated, and as aggressors they mostly report hitting and threatening. Also, there is a significant relationship between experienced violent behaviors and promoting them in their social environment, especially in educational settings. The ability of the family to solve conflict situations has a significant impact to this relation. Community and school violence like physical aggression, stealing, threatening, and sexual aggressions are also analyzed. Findings: even if we lack the possibility of exhaustive generalization of the results, it seems that promoting a violent behavior within the community is related to individual and family variables, even if the relation is moderated. The level of family violence has the greater explanatory value to the equation. Intervention models are also recommended to reduce school violence.
More...Keywords: Romania; psychiatry; downward mobility; neoliberalism; social case
In this article, I examine the use of an ad hoc medical category – the “social case” – by psychiatrists in contemporary Romania. “Social cases” receive intensive psychiatric care, usually through long institutional stays, remaining hospitalized because psychiatrists perceive them as too poor and, thus, “unfit” to survive without the welfare assistance provided by institutionalization. The “social case” label emerges at the intersection of 1) plans by the state to deinstitutionalize public mental health care, 2) the rise of a new class of downwardlymobile and increasingly poor formerly working-class people, and 3) the desire of psychiatrists to protect their patients in the face of neoliberal assaults on Romanian welfare state support for publicly funded mental health care. Disability status, illness categories, and everyday medical practices have become battlegrounds for struggles over medical understandings of the psychological distress and illnesses that grip what I call the “New Poor” in postsocialist Romania.
More...Keywords: attachment; grief theory; pregnancy loss; child-bearing women
Social workers assist women of child-bearing age in a wide variety of settings. Although pregnancy and pregnancy loss are often associated with medical settings, the reality is that any clinical social worker will encounter women who are currently pregnant, who have been pregnant, and/or who have experience pregnancy loss. Clinical social workers need to understand the theoretical underpinnings of maternal attachment and loss to adequately meet the needs of the women who have had these experiences. Clinical social workers must be able to competently assess the problems that occur when attachment goes awry or pregnancy loss is experienced. This article provides an overview of maternal attachment and responses to pregnancy loss from the biological, psychological and social perspectives. This enables social workers to be sensitized to the impact of these issues in the work we do with all women of child-bearing age across all settings.
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Keywords: social economy; non-governmental organizations; non-profit organizations; third sector; health promotion
To get high efficiency of the activities in the area of health promotion the involvement of many sectors, including citizens, state institutions and third sector orga-nizations, which may have an impact on maintaining and improving the overall health of society, seems appropriate. A key point is the potential involvement of social economy entities, which by acting locally contribute to the growth of social welfare. This translates not only into the efficiency of the management, but also to improve health. The activities of non- -governmental organizations should be recognized as one of the pillars of civil society and an important element of social capital. The study prepared on the basis of nation-wide research identified the playing field of social economy entities in the area of health promotion and the ways of their achievement. Nationwide study was conducted in a randomly selected group of 305 representatives of the social economy entities, declaring to take action for the protection and promotion of health.
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