Abstract
The aim of the article is to outline the characteristics of the work experience (feelings, efforts and interactions) of the social workers employed in social care institutions for older people in the attempt to provide quality services in practice and the perspectives of this practice. Qualitative research data collection method was used. The answers to the research question were collected by a semi-structured interview. Data analysis carried out by the inductive theme analysis method revealed that the participants of the survey feel the load of responsibility, ambiguity of a complex function and challenges of quality services in relation to the implementation of the service standards; disappointment and hesitations related to the organization of work and professional status. The strengths of the social workers lie in their commitment to the interaction with the service receivers, involvement in the service quality valuation processes in the institution, and in identifying the challenges.
Highlights
The ageing process of Lithuanian society is gaining speed, and social services for older people are becoming a substantial part of social support
The analysis of the answers produced by the research participants to the open question “What does it mean for social workers to assure quality of social services for older people in the care homes?” led to the identification of the following themes: social services quality assurance – experiencing responsibility load and uncertainty, frustrations about the imposed additional functions
The results of the study revealed that the research participants in their daily practice take upon themselves a huge load of responsibility in the attempt to provide quality services for their clients, they forget personal needs for the sake of the client’s satisfaction with the service: “. . . there is a lot of responsibility I think I take it myself . . . I forget myself and act so that the services were better for the person”
Summary
The ageing process of Lithuanian society is gaining speed, and social services for older people are becoming a substantial part of social support. The growing number of social support users – older people -requires more financial and human resources. The shrinking of self-sufficiency of individuals, the need for stationary care is growing [1]. Though institutional long-term social care is becoming less of a target service in comparison to home provided services and care popularity, the individual who moves to a care institution, as a rule, stays in it for the rest of their life, the quality of care in this sector is of particular importance so that positive goals of ageing and ensuring human rights would be attained. Social workers have an established position of the key providers of social services for older adults in care institutions and they are stakeholders in the issues related to the quality of services. Researchers stress the tendency for the social services to be oriented towards preservation of human dignity and self-sufficiency rather than responding to the key (vital) needs of individuals [4]
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