PROBLEMS OF FORMATION OF ECOLOGICAL SOCIAL WORK IN UKRAINE

Abstract

Ecological social work is a new direction of social services and is based on increasing the level of environmental friendliness of the entire social sphere. Ecological social work has its history since the time of active discussion of the ecological model of social work. Active formation of ecological social work began in the XXI century. In Europe, the development of environmental social work was the result of the promotion of environmental movements and environmental NGOs, which were active in most Western European countries. The development of ecological social work began in the early 90s of the twentieth century with the creation of an appropriate base and was aimed at social services to citizens affected by the Chernobyl disaster. In the future, due to the permanent financial crisis, new directions of development of ecological social work in Ukraine were not mastered. Today, at the theoretical level, the possibilities of applying certain environmental techniques in the framework of social work with different groups of clients are actively discussed and explored. Ukrainian scientists have a special hope for the technology of ecological socialization of the individual at both the primary and secondary levels. A great achievement of modern ecological social work is the active use of ecological technologies of social work in the framework of social rehabilitation of children with disabilities. The most promising in this direction are animal therapy and its derivatives (hippotherapy, canistherapy, etc.) and garden therapy. The creation of infrastructure for the integrated implementation of environmental technologies of social work is a necessary component for the further development of environmental social work in Ukraine. Intensification of introduction of technologies of ecological social work is also caused by the international global initiatives. The precedents are set for the application of social technologies in various countries, and then international environmental organizations, together with the UN and the EU, disseminate successful examples of environmental social work in different countries around the world, considering them as a norm of sustainable development.