Performance Management in Social and Healthcare Services for Older Persons

Author(s): Mihaela Ghenţa / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2015

The research objectives were to identify specific problems that social and healthcare service providers face in the process of performance achievement and the way these efforts influence the relationship with older persons and their families. The scarcity of data on performance in public and private organisations in the social and healthcare sector recommends the use of qualitative methods. Data collection included five in-depth interviews with local and central authorities and two focus groups of managers from public and private organisations providing social and healthcare services for older persons. Findings show that performance in the social and healthcare sector is related to human and financial resources, to managerial capacity to balance the quantity and quality of services provided, and to the relationship with the beneficiaries.

SATISFACȚIA SAU INSATISFACȚIA CETĂȚENILOR DIN REGIUNEA BUCUREȘTI-ILFOV CU PRIVIRE LA VIAȚA LOR

Author(s): Mihaela Mureșan,Emilia Gogu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 21/2015

The goal of the study is represented by the identification of the citizens’ perceptions regarding the living conditions in Bucharest-Ilfov Region, generating the people’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The statement: “In Bucharest-Ilfov region, the people are satisfied with their lives” represented the main hypothesis of the study. In line with the established objective, a survey has been carried out in order to understand the people’s views related to their socio-economic and environmental living conditions, and to their personal life. The pilot survey has encompassed 154 respondents randomly selected. Due to the number of the participants and the sampling methods implemented, the results illustrate only the existing trends in the region related to the people’s level of satisfaction, without a generalization of the findings. Interesting results have been obtained also by comparing the citizens’ opinion with the statistical data analysis. In the most cases both results have been convergent, demonstrating the people’s correct perceptions. The main outcomes of the research have validated the initial hypothesis, demonstrating that despite various issues and difficulties, the people consider that they are satisfied with their personal, constructing their level of satisfaction around family and professional values. Consequently, the study revealed important qualitative aspects, impossible to be determined through the analysis of the statistical data.

РЕФОРМИ НА СОЦИЈАЛНАТА ЗАШТИТА ВО СРБИЈА – НЕОБЕЗБЕДЕНА ПОМОШ ЗА РАБОТОСПОСОБНИ КОРИСНИЦИ

Author(s): Natalija D. Perišić / Language(s): English,Macedonian Issue: 14/2018

In Serbia, transition from socialism has had profounding effects in the social welfare sector, all the way during the 1990s and especially after 2000. Changes in the sector have been of legislative and normative nature, but also of ideological and paradigmatic one. And while the irreversibility of the trajectory of changes seems to be out of the question, some important topics have not been put into the agenda, and even if put, solutions to them have not been always straightforward. On the one hand, objectives the society tries to pursue with and within its social welfare system, are those in terms of social inclusion of its beneficiaries, with simultaneous prevention and reduction of social exclusion of its most vulnerable citizens. On the other hand, measures with a view to its effectuating have been largely ineffective, either due to their inappropriate design or incomplete implemenation. This paper is structured around the theoretical background on needs, their interpretation and translation into social rights. Social welfare reforms in the national context are analyzed in the central part of the paper. The emphasis is on the reform of social welfare benefits, more precisely, social welfare benefit in cash (novčana socijalna pomoć), beneficiaries thereof and the exit strategies designed. The objective is to analyze advantages and disadvantages of the social welfare reform concept deployed, and to argue in favour of its transformation and redesign. The research is positioned within the qualitive analytical framework.

Eficiența sistemului de protecție socială în reducerea sărăciei. Comparație România – țări din UE

Author(s): Mihnea Preotesi / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 01+02/2018

As regard to the risk of poverty and social exclusion but also to the relative poverty, Romania has significantly higher rates than the EU average. Although the social impact of the transition was an important one in all former communist countries, the comparison between them reveals the functioning of a different model of social development followed by Romania and Bulgaria during the transition period. The proposed analysis will start from identifying, in the general picture of poverty in nowadays Romania, those groups that are mostly vulnerable, those with the greatest potential for accentuating vulnerability and those with the most precarious addressability; it will also focus on the effectiveness of the social protection system in reducing the risk of poverty and in supporting each of these vulnerable categories. The approach will be carried out from a comparative perspective, the comparison with the EU countries being complemented by those from the group of former communist countries of UE. In addition to the quantitative comparison set up by the socio-economic indicators, the analysis will also use some of the results of the study visits made in Poland, Ireland and Catalonia, Spain, in the years 2016–2017, inside the project „Implementation of a policy-making system in the field of social inclusion at the level of MLSJ”, code SIPOCA 4, co-funded by the European Union (EU).

Tranziția la o Românie modernă de tip occidental

Author(s): Cătălin Zamfir / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 01+02/2018

After the fall of the communist regime, Romania was left in a state of major indecisions and lack of consensus regarding its own development and, even though plans for transition were coagulated, they were not put in place. Various social groups can be distinguishable as important actors in the first years after 1989. The transition from communism to capitalism involved major changes in economy and production, as well as in the social structure of Romania. Associated with these changes, the role of the state has been restructured and diminished. Using quantitative data available from national as well as European surveys, the argument of this study is that the lack of a consistent strategy of reform, coupled with a flagrant disregard of the social costs and effects of the structural change in 1989, set Romania on a difficult course and severely affected the everyday lives of Romanians. Poor economic performances, caused by the dismantling of industry and the lack of efficiency of agriculture, result in low wages, social inequalities and poverty. Further, these imbalances seem to have been disregarded in public policies and government strategies so far, as the role of the state as provider of welfare and improvements in quality of life shrank considerably in the transition period.

Welfare Attitudes over time of V4-, Northern- and Western European countries in ESS Round 4 and Round 8 data

Author(s): Ivana Piterová,Jozef Výrost / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

Welfare attitudes are a complex and multidimensional phenomenon. Social solidarity in the sense of interdependence is understood as the first dimension of welfare attitudes, while differentiation – in terms of how people usually make a distinction between groups that results in their attitude about whom to support – is understood as the second dimension. According to their preferred level of social solidarity and social differentiation, four clusters of people can be identified which represent four distinct types of welfare attitudes: social democratic, liberal, conservative, and radical. The aim of this paper is to analyse ESS fourth- (2008) and eighth-round data (2016) to compare three groups of countries: the Visegrad Group, represented by Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary; Northern Europe, represented by Norway, Sweden and Finland; and Western Europe, represented by Germany, France, and the UK, in terms of the level of social solidarity and social differentiation. Based on ESS data we outline that the differences in the welfare attitudes of V4, Western-, and Northern European countries are not so obvious. However, the analysis of the four types of welfare attitudes reveals some significant differences in interpersonal and institutional trust and basic human values, the description of which falls within the scope of this paper.

Szpitalne zapiski o wolności

Author(s): Timothy Snyder / Language(s): Polish Issue: 787/2020

Bariere în integrarea socio-profesională a persoanelor cu deficienţe de vedere

Author(s): Daniela Rusu Mocănașu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2019

In the efforts to find, obtain and maintain a job, people with visual impairments face a variety of difficulties, which leads to diminishing the opportunities for socio-professional integration. In this paper we aim to identify barriers to employment and participation in the competitive market for jobs, which they are experienced by visually impaired adults, obstacles that we have encountered following the literature review the fields.

Grupul suport ca metodă de intervenţie în asistenţa socială

Author(s): Valerica Celmare / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2019

This article deals the support group method and how it is used in interventionist practice. The study presents the evolution of the support group as a method used in the psycho-social field and its defining elements. The article is addressed both to professionals working in the field of social assistance and to students from the social assistance specialization, who are in the process of training.

Tehnica genogramei în practica socială

Author(s): Valerica Celmare / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2017

This paper represents a theoretical and practical approach on the genogram technique. The study analyzes the concepts and theories that have been the basis of genogram development as a useful technique in the evaluation of family systems but also how it is constructed and used in social practice. The article is addressed both to professionals working in the field of social assistance and to students from the social assistance specialization, who are in the process of training.

Perspective de înţelegere a adopţiei

Author(s): Valerica Celmare,Victor Păduraru / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2016

Adoption is a measure of protection that meets the child separately from biological parents, giving it the opportunity to grow and develop into a permanent family. Although it is a noble protective measure, adoption involves a number of specific problems that need to be addressed with delicacy to ensure its success. In this study, the author presents the specific adoption issues from the perspective of all adoptive participants, namely adoptive parents, adopters, biological parents and specialists who are instrumental in adoptions.

Problematica adopţiei internaţionale

Author(s): Valerica Celmare,Victor Păduraru / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2016

This study aims to describe the issues specific to international adoption. The author starts from a short presentation of the history of international adoptions in the Republic of Moldova and the specific conditions for making international adoptions in the Republic of Moldova. International adoption has a number of peculiarities, because besides the specific problems that the integration of the child in the adoption family (such as the problems of age, personality and availability between child and family) increase, others factors such as cultural differences and physical differences (color, height, language, race, etc.) between the child and adoptive parents. Another factor that influences international adoptions is legislative policies on international adoptions, policies that can encourage or aggravate the process of international adoption. Although, in essence, international adoption has a noble purpose, to provide children with permanent families, in practice they also encountered situations of irregularities (child trafficking, violations of principle and violations of the law) that led to a negative perception on the process of international adoption.

Protecţia persoanelor vârstnice în contextul provocărilor lumii contemporane

Author(s): Mihail Rarita / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2014

Each epoch faces specific challenges. Currently, global societies must deal with phenomena that, because of their novelty and interaction, can only be addressed multidisciplinarily. Among the issues debated in today's society, the protection of the elderly requires such a multidisciplinary approach (medical, legal, political, social, ethical, etc.). This article, starts from the idea that politics is one of the major areas involved in the progress of elderly protection, but ethical issues regarding the respect due to every person should not be neglected.

Argumente pro şi contra avortului din perspectiva teoriilor teleologice si deontologice

Author(s): Ionuț Ștefan / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2013

The most important general and theoretical horizons regarding bioethics refer to the foundation of ethical theories. We can talk about two main general categories in which we can place the ethical theories: teleological and deontological. From the first category we enumerate the Aristotelian perspective or the one developed by J. St. Mill, while the Kantian perspective is exemplary for deontological ethics. According to the teleological perspective, a form of human behavior is described as moral or non-moral according to the goals explicitly set. The mere achievement of these goals is a necessary and sufficient condition to qualify as moral people’s actions or deeds without taking into account the ”intermediate stages“ of the actions performed to achieve those goals. Deontology, as a general horizon of articulating ethical theories, believes on the contrary that in every moment of our existence, every action or deed that we accomplish can be described as moral or non-moral according to the ethical principles underlying our behavior. The very important consequences arising from the two general theoretical horizons concern two different perspectives on ”human nature“, or what we call the essence of the human being. Starting from this horizon we will have the consequentialist and deontological dimensions related to abortion. The bioethical dimension in which we will discuss the issue of abortion involves both dimensions or horizons. The arguments against abortion seem to rely rather on the Kantian deontological horizon, while abortion pros seem to rely on the consequentialist horizon. This text is intended as an open discussion between the two horizons which cannot yet be harmonized. There are existential situations in which abortion is described as ”desirable“ in a consequentialist view and there are situations in which abortion can be ”avoided“ in a deontological view. Both existential horizons are justifiable and cannot be reducible. For the moment, bioethics confirms to us the unilateral impossibility as to abortion (either pro only or against only).

Conduite toxicomane la adolescenţi, modalităţi de intervenţie din perspectiva asistenţei sociale

Author(s): Tudor Gheorghe / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2013

Since 1990, Romania has been facing drug trafficking caused by the liberalization of borders uncorrelated with the establishment of effective structures, properly equipped with technical equipment control. In the context of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, Romania has become an alternative corridor for transportation of drugs, has been set the so-called "Balkan Route". This paper tries to capture some of the most common behavioral manifestations and social pathology that cause drug addiction at teenagers a and some ways of intervention from the perspective of social assistance and social worker.

Argumente pro şi contra eutanasiei din perspectiva teoriilor teleologice şi deontologice

Author(s): Ionuţ Ştefan / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2012

The most important general and theoretical horizons regarding bioethics refer to the foundation of ethical theories. We can talk about two main general categories in which we can place the ethical theories: teleological and deontological. From the first category we enumerate the Aristotelian perspective or the one developed by J. St. Mill, while the Kantian perspective is exemplary for deontological ethics. According to the teleological perspective, a form of human behavior is described as moral or non-moral according to the goals explicitly set. The mere achievement of these goals is a necessary and sufficient condition to qualify as moral people’s actions or deeds without taking into account the “intermediate stages” of the actions performed to achieve those goals. Deontology, as a general horizon of articulating the ethical theories, believes on the contrary that in every moment of our existence, every action or deed that we accomplish can be described as moral or non-moral according to the ethical principles underlying our behavior. The very important consequences arising from the two general theoretical horizons concern two different perspectives on “human nature”, or what we call the essence of the human being. Starting from this horizon we will have the consequentialist and deontological dimensions related to euthanasia. The bioethical dimension in which we will discuss the issue of euthanasia involves both dimensions or horizons. The arguments against euthanasia seem to rely rather on the Kantian deontological horizon, while euthanasia pros seem to rely on the consequentialist horizon. This text is intended as an open debate between the two horizons which cannot yet be harmonized. There is at least one class of existential situations in which euthanasia is described as “desirable” in a consequentialist view and there are situations in which euthanasia can be qualified as non-moral in a deontological view.

Practica avortului în conștiința umanității

Author(s): Valerica Celmare / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2012

The article makes a historical foray on the way in which abortion was regarded in the culture of different peoples. Doctrinaire Christian aspect towards the abortion issue is another point of interest in the present study. This article discusses the abortion issue as it is seen in the canons of the Christian Church. The approach is as interfaith perspective because it highlights the orthodox, the roman catholic, but also the neo-protestant point of view. The basic idea is the unity of Christian denominations regarding the practice of abortion. It is also discussed the approach of abortion from the canonical perspective of Christian confessions (Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Neo-Protestant). The basic idea is, in fact, the unit's views regarding the seriousness of abortifacient.

Implementarea aplicațiilor software în cadrul instituțiilor de asistență socială - Studiu de caz – Direcția Generală de Asistență Socială şi Protecția Copilului Tulcea

Author(s): Tudor Gheorghe / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2012

Social assistance is the set of institutions and measures by the state, local communities and civil society which intervene to prevent, restrict or remove temporary or permanent effects of conditions that lead to poverty and social exclusion of individuals, families, groups or communities. Social assistance includes social benefits and social services provided to develop individual and collective capabilities to ensure social needs, quality of life and to promotie inclusive and cohesive society. The use of social software represents a new direction of research and development in social care institutions. We can say that for improving the management, analysis and implementation of software produced by track indicators of the institution or social service have an important role not only in carrying out daily activities specific to social unit, but especially in decision making on service development, increasing or decreasing expenses, and last but not least good decisions on improving the quality of social services.

Reinserţia socială a persoanelor fără adăpost. Studiu de caz - persoanele fără adăpost din judeţul Brăila

Author(s): Tudor Gheorghe / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2011

Insuring the access to an adequate housing is frequently a pre-condition for the exercise of many other basic rights that any individual must gain. Lacking the access to civilized living conditions probably signifies the most serious manifestation of social exclusion. Lacking a home is synonimous to the extreme poverty, in fact, representing more than a life contingency but the extreme frame of a deficit of means and opportunities. The term ”homeless” defines a human condition which is hard to believe that someone would have problems in understanding it. However, almost everybody who uses this term uses a different definition to define it. These definitions become mere ”instruments” which justify the action or the lack of action, depending on who uses the definition.The condition of an adult homeless person presupposes a series of attributes which define it. Therefore, the state of isolation, marginalization, alienation and social exclusion have extreme outcomes within the frame of emotional, relational and social integration. In this respect, there must be built and improved new programmes and social services for the benefit of the homeless persons. As a result of the work experience with these homeless persons, I identified some stages of the adaptation to the street life. It is self-evident that the psycho-social degradation is a process and not a gradual evolution.The intervention of specialists through the specialized services is vital for the improvement of the quality of life for these beneficiaries of welfare work.The present research develops a strategy related to the social services in Braila offered as a method of social reinsertion of the street life, especially those from the municipality of Braila.

Problematica rromilor din perspectiva asistenţei sociale. Studiu de caz - comunitatea de rromi de la km 10, Municipiul Brăila

Author(s): Tudor Gheorghe / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2010

One of the most important minority by number, traditions, and cultural specificity of the Romanian society is the gypsy/rroma minority. Since 14th Century they have permanently been present on the Romanian territory, reinforcing their subordinate status by contributing to the development of the Romanian culture and society. Today they are a major preoccupation for the Romanian society. Rroma community named generally “10 KM Colony” is settled 10 KM South-West from Brăila City, on the 21st National Road which links Brăila to Slobozia. On the South of the Community is located the Former Paper and Cellulose Factory, to the West there are patches of arable ground, to the North the Lacu Sărat spa and to the East, the community is bounded by the village of Chiscani. Regarding the Rroma/gypsy dwelling-houses, the buildings, the yards as well as their overall organization, all stand as a proof of the gypsies lack of interest accounted for by their poverty or poor incomes, most of the times that being a matter of their mentality or personal interest concerning household aspects, i.e., not paying attention or due respect to their household maintenance (and garnishment). Unfortunately, there are no important or significant programs for social work interventions with a view to sustaining this community as part of our society. There is no social or educational project either, the growing problem of illiteracy and the necessity to benefit by the 416/2001 law regarding the minimum income making the gypsies an even less-favored community.