Summary This research explores the neglect of people with disabilities from the perspective of social workers in Israel, delving into the key issues and dilemmas surrounding their treatment. A qualitative approach was employed for this research. The study involved 40 social workers, with 25 completing an online qualitative survey and 15 participating in in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis was used to identify major themes related to the studied issue. Findings The research identified three major themes. The first theme focuses on social workers’ perspectives on neglect of people with disabilities. The second theme explores challenges in social workers’ coping with the phenomenon of neglect of people with disabilities. The third theme delves into factors impeding treatment in cases of neglect of people with disabilities. Applications The neglect of people with disabilities constitutes a serious social problem that demands changes in policy and practice. Consequently, there is a pressing need to establish a clear definition of neglect, implement a national protocol for addressing the phenomenon, enhance the training of social workers, and bolster supervision and control to improve the response to neglect experienced by people with disabilities.

Summary Applying the participatory approach alone to development projects has yet to lead to the active participation of the marginalized in African development projects. A qualitative phenomenological research design was utilized. The study purposively included six communities across Delta State, Nigeria, based on the presence of development projects. Eighteen participants with high incomes and above, and 18 participants with low incomes and below were included in the study using the snowball sampling technique. The total sample size for the study was 36. Unstructured interviews were used to collect data, which were thematically analyzed. Findings The findings, which are of significant importance, revealed that the studied communities benefited from town halls, open-stall markets, borehole water, roads, primary health care centers, primary schools, secondary schools, irrigations, electricity, and hospitals. The participants with low incomes and below indicated a low level of participation in the development projects due to poverty, lack of formal education, inadequate information, government interference, male domination, lack of interest, and discriminatory cultural practices. The participants with high incomes and above indicated a high level of participation believing that they were better positioned to participate in development-related matters in the communities. Applications The findings suggest a promising potential for change. There is a clear need for social work educators to adopt the empowerment-participatory approach into Nigerian social work curricula, and social work practitioners should apply it for active community participation, and sustainability in Nigerian and African development projects.

Summary Children's social care services can be a challenging place to work, with staff regularly reporting higher stress levels relative to the general population and other public sector settings. Thus, it is important to provide staff with good support. Previously, we completed a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of Schwartz Rounds (SRs) and reported a series of non-statistically significant differences between intervention and comparison groups. We also undertook a process evaluation, to identify enablers and barriers to the successful implementation of SRs in children's social care. Findings Compared with studies of SRs in healthcare settings, we identified several similar enablers, such as senior management buy-in and effective administrative support, and some similar barriers, such as high workloads and poor publicity. We also identified specific enablers and barriers for social care settings, including the synergy between existing practice models and SRs, the nature of trauma in social care compared with healthcare, and some related to the different nature of organisational and workload pressures. Applications Understanding the differences between SRs in healthcare and social care will be useful for local authorities who may want to support their staff via the provision of SRs. They should also be useful in any future definitive evaluation of SRs for social care by helping to maximise the possibility for a successful implementation.

Summary Forensic social work is the application of social work knowledge, skills, values and ethics within a legal and criminal justice context. Globally, social workers play an integral role in the criminal justice system but in many countries, including Australia, there is limited conception of the competencies needed for this specialist practice. Australia serves as an example of forensic social work regulated through a generalist social work competency framework, where specialist skills and knowledge are not distinctly outlined or assessed. The purpose of this study was to identify the knowledge and skills used by forensic social work practitioners in Australia. This study used a 3-round Delphi method with an expert panel of social workers working in forensic practice across Australia. It consisted of a 1-hour semi-structured individual interview followed by 2 rounds of online surveys. Findings Consensus was obtained for 30 skill and knowledge items for Australian forensic social work. The panel identified these competencies as specialist, meaning requiring further training beyond generalist proficiency. Of these, eight of the skill and knowledge items were seen as essential for graduates entering forensic social work. Applications The findings from this study contribute to an evidence-based model of forensic social work competency. In Australia, they can be used to consider potential gaps between current generalist mechanisms and specialist practice expectations. With further research, these findings can be used to inform professional standards for forensic social work in Australia and potentially internationally.

Summary Social work has an intimate and complex relationship with the systems that shape the social, political, economic, and environmental fabric of the United States. System justification theory helps explain why people are motivated to accept the status quo of systems and unequal social arrangements. This study examined the system-justifying beliefs of a national sample ( N = 516) of master’s-level social workers to better understand how beliefs about the status quo may shape job outcomes (e.g., burnout and satisfaction) and practice outcomes (e.g., goals, motivations, perceptions of clients, and endorsement of practice behaviors). Findings Ordinary least squares regression analyses adjusting for demographic characteristics indicated significant relationships with both practice outcomes and job outcomes. Higher system-justifying beliefs were associated with less social justice motivation, more practical motivation, less transformative practice goals, and less understanding of clients’ needs as symptoms of structural failures. However, higher system-justifying beliefs were also associated with more compassion satisfaction, less secondary trauma, and less emotional exhaustion. Applications Key interventions into the structural conditions of social work practice so that social workers rely less on system-justifying beliefs to cope with burnout and increase satisfaction are discussed. Examples include investments in support resources, workplace empowerment, increased discretion, and workload reduction. Cognitive and psychological interventions, specifically the development of critical consciousness and critical thinking, are also suggested.

Summary Physical abuse in care settings is a social problem with detrimental effects for residents, but effective prevention is dependent on staff reporting. In Sweden, designated officials, commonly social workers, are required to investigate reports of mistreatment. The aim of this study was to analyze what designated officials considered serious in reported incidents of physical abuse in two different care settings: care for older people and care for people with intellectual disabilities. Similar cases of physical abuse were chosen to demonstrate differences between judgments and provide a picture of how designated officials judge the relative seriousness of abusive situations. Interpretative content analysis and analytic induction were used to analyze reports of staff-to-resident abuse and resident-to-resident abuse in the two care areas. Findings There were no differences between incidents described as serious and those described as non-serious. Resident-to-resident abuse was the most commonly reported incident, particularly in dementia care and care for people with intellectual disabilities, and was rarely considered serious. Older people in dementia care were the highest risk group. In staff-to-resident abuse, staff were singled out as scapegoats. Organizational issues, rather than the details of abusive incidents, guided investigators’ judgments of seriousness. Tendencies to normalize violence and apply a narrow understanding of violence were found in the investigator’s judgments, particularly in resident-to-resident abuse. Applications Safeguarding adults from physical abuse in institutional settings is dependent on staff reporting and thorough investigations. This study shows that more training in assessing violence for social workers investigating reports is needed.

Summary Placement with a foster family is one of the care arrangements available for children who cannot live at home. Many of those in foster care are teenagers. The complexity of the development during adolescence poses major challenges and may ultimately lead to what is known in the literature as “foster breakdown.” Most of the research in this area focuses on the point of view of social workers or foster parents. The current study examines this experience through a retrospective view of those who were teenagers at the time of foster care breakdown. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 Israeli young individuals (16–30 years old) who had experienced foster breakdown at various stages of adolescence. Findings The findings paint a complex and multidimensional picture of breakdown. While most of the interviewees described it as a sudden, unexpected event, closer examination revealed a dynamic process of collapse. This process comprised various factors, including those associated with the welfare system, the foster family, and characteristics related to the developmental stage of adolescence of the research participants. The combination of these factors led to the premature termination of the foster arrangement. Applications This study opens a window to the complex experience of foster breakdown in adolescence, an issue that has received very little research attention thus far. Understanding the dynamics of foster breakdown from the perspective of young individuals can improve professional foster care practices and policy and can benefit social workers in their work with foster families.

Summary Incited by the United Nations adoption and ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, social workers are prompted to increasingly pursue an inclusion-focused approach. Our research was carried out in the Netherlands and sought to identify social work practices conducive to fostering social inclusion, in this case with respect to adults with mild intellectual disabilities. For 2½ years, a responsive methodology was employed in a combined action and social design research. Sixteen social workers and five people with intellectual disabilities were involved. The study was conducted in three different settings across the Netherlands, both rural and urban. Findings Three social work practices were captured that generate social inclusion: agency, advocacy, and intrapreneurship. Applications Identification of generative practices provides guidance to social workers in shaping the promotion of social inclusion. It provides guidance in reflecting on past and current inclusion-focused social work performance, it may encourage social workers to adopt inclusion-focused pathways inspired by agency, advocacy and intrapreneurship, and knowledge of generative practices toward social inclusion can help to specify social workers’ competencies.

Summary Social work has grappled with quality of its knowledge base for over a hundred years. In the tradition of critical self-examination, this study was conducted to describe the methods employed in quantitative studies published in social work journals and to assess the extent to which they conform to widely accepted standards of quality. A random sample of 120 articles published in the top thirteen social work journals from 2010 to 2015 were reviewed to identify indicators of quality and rigor. Additional data on citations per year were collected through July 2022. Findings Most studies were cross-sectional and descriptive in nature (62%). While the majority of articles addressed the limitations of the study, only 40% contained reference to theory and 15% described how missing data were handled. Citations per year averaged 4.82, and citations per year exhibited a small, statistically significant positive association with quality indicators and reviewer global evaluations, but not with journal impact factor. Results did underscore the role of doctoral programs in promoting quality research. Applications Social work education programs should continue emphasizing quality social work research methodologies, particularly given the move toward postpositivism as a profession. We note a cycle of disincentivization may be occurring, where social work researchers take their best work to higher impact factor, non-social work journals. We also suggest lack of traditional indicators of rigor may be the result of “concerted resistance” to borrowed epistemologies; we call for consensus-based measures of rigor that reflect the realities of the social work profession.