ТЕХНОЛОГІЇ СОЦІАЛЬНОЇ РОБОТИ В ЗАРУБІЖНИХ КРАЇНАХ

Abstract

Today, there is a shortage of highly qualified social work specialists who could professionally carry out work on diagnosis and forecasting of social processes, provide preventive, social-therapeutic, psychological, pedagogical and legal assistance to various categories of the population in Ukraine. In the article, the author examines the common and distinctive features of social work technologies in Ukraine and foreign countries. Based on the analysis of the scientific literature, it was determined that the category of «social work» is considered in three directions: practical professional activity of providing help and support to people who find themselves in a difficult situation; educational discipline for professional training of specialists in social assistance and population support; the field of scientific knowledge, which is based on a set of concepts and theories, has its own categorical apparatus, investigates the principles and regularities, models and methods of social work. Social work as a professional activity in Ukraine and foreign countries has the following main common features: conceptually, the concept of a social problem in foreign and domestic social work has similar interpretations; the unified structure of social work as a professional activity in Ukraine and abroad: object, subject, principles, models, methods and technologies of social work; social work training in each country is carried out in specialized educational institutions. The differences are that the subject of social work abroad is non-commercial and public organizations; the main principle of social work in foreign countries is the activation of one's own efforts; self-help and mutual aid groups are the main method of providing social assistance abroad; social work with the elderly and the disabled abroad is more aimed at providing social support by specialists specifically at home; social work with persons without a certain place of residence in foreign countries is the most relevant, especially in the USA. In the field of innovative areas of social work and public service, the most important features of social work abroad can be distinguished, such as social work with victims of disasters, social work with representatives of informal youth groups, social work with representatives of ethnic groups, etc.