Challenges For Social Work Research Articles

Treatment – a perspective in social work and a challenge for social workers

Treatment – a perspective in social work and a challenge for social workers

Sven Hessle (ed.) (2014), human rights and social equality: challenges for social work

Sven Hessle (ed.) (2014), human rights and social equality: challenges for social work

Book Review: Gender oppression and globalization: Challenges for social work

Book Review: Gender oppression and globalization: Challenges for social work

TAKING A STRATEGIC VIEW

This special issue of Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk appears on the eve of the 34th Congress of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) to be held in Durban, South Africa next month. As the main theme of the Congress is Transcending Global-Local Divides: Challenges for Social Work Education and Practice, this issue is intended to expose our readers to strategic thinking about social welfare issues with articles by some of the conferees as well as prominent researchers and practitioners in South Africa. The special issue introduces researchers’ responses to challenges for social work during a period of socio-economic transformation

Confronting the Collateral Consequences of a Criminal Conviction: A Special Challenge for Social Work With Offenders

Millions of former offenders—often members of racial ethnic minority or other disenfranchised groups—experience restrictionson their legal and civil rights as the collateral consequences of their criminal conviction. It is critical for the social workers and other human service professionals who frequently interface with this population to understand these collateral consequences to effectively serve their clients with criminal convictions. This exploratory study examined the impact these collateral consequences may haveon social work practice with offenders. We assessed practitioners’ awareness, knowledge, and experiences with the collateral consequences of clients’ criminal convictions and practitioner efforts as‘‘agents of restoration’’ to pursue statutorily available court-ordered expungements of their clients’ criminal conviction records. Findings revealed that practitioners lacked awareness of collateral consequences, their application, and expungement. Recommendations to enhance social work practitioners’ ability to address andreduce the far-reaching collateral consequences of incurring acriminal conviction are discussed.

Contemporary Challenges in Social Work

The welfare is an area of social policy which is aimed at supporting persons and families aiming at satisfying the needs, as well as enabling persons and families living in conditions suiting the human dignity, preventing difficult life situations of humans. The development of modern societies and the progressing democratization of social relations cause the civilization hazards which make existing social issues deep. The social work face with the challenge of developing new strategies of bringing help in incessantly changing reality.

Ethical Challenges for Social Work in Post-Conflict Situations: The Case of Africa's Great Lakes Region

During the past decades, the African Great Lakes region has experienced several armed conflicts, widespread political crisis, and large-scale loss of human lives. The civilian population bears the brunt of political turmoil and suffers from direct and structural violence and from the violation of their fundamental human rights. Although social work is still weak in these countries, it can play an important role in peace-building and in the overall rebuilding and reconstruction of affected societies in order to achieve a lasting impact in transforming conflict and poverty structures. In this article, a multi-dimensional conceptual framework for social work in such situations is introduced. Social work interventions in highly sensitive post-conflict contexts should ideally be linked to local knowledge systems and African ethics, thus providing guiding principles for ethical social work practice. Empirical examples from Northern Uganda and Burundi underscore the importance of such contextualised approaches.

In the Hyphen: Perceptions, Benefits, and Challenges of Social Workers’ Dual Identity as Clinician–Client

This study is the first to directly inquire into the experience of clinical social workers who live “in the hyphen,” having received psychiatric diagnoses and/or been in therapy themselves. Rather than inhabiting these roles sequentially as previous studies suggest, many inhabit them simultaneously. Social workers who took part in this qualitative thematic analysis describe the benefits of living in the hyphen, such as greater understanding of client resistance and opportunity to serve as a model of realistic hope, as well as its challenges, including countertransference, retraumatization, and fear of being “outed.” Overall, the experience of “sitting in the other chair” was more important to participants than having a skillful therapist as a role model or sharing a specific diagnostic history with a client, which they cautioned did not offer a shortcut to authentic understanding or formation of a therapeutic alliance.

Balancing Micro and Macro Practice: A Challenge for Social Work

The time to recalibrate the imbalance between micro and macro social work is now. There is an important initiative in progress, as we will show, to infuse the foundational macro component of our profession into the classroom and field to achieve a more equal footing with its clinical counterpart. This effort reflects and reinforces the understanding that social problems require complex and sustained intervention at all levels of social work practice. It has gained momentum since President Obama’s identification as the “community organizer-in-chief,” along with significant nationwide movements in the past several years, such as the “Occupy” social protests and immigrant rights actions. In the context of these developments, there is a growing awareness of the relatively small percentage of social work students enrolled in macro methods who will be prepared to actively participate and provide skilled leadership at the grassroots, policy, coalition, and electoral levels (Council on Social Work Education [CSWE], 2012). This awareness was fortified by a recent study of the membership of the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA), where macro faculty reported a problematic level of support from their schools/ departments in this area of social work education (Rothman, 2013). Historically, the social work profession took root having a twofold micro–macro mission. Pioneer social worker Mary Richmond represented service to individuals and families needing aid to alleviate difficulties in social functioning. Her contemporary counterpart, Jane Addams, represented social reform through environmental change to meet broad human needs. This dual approach to practice has defined the profession since its inception. Indeed, during the Progressive era, according to historians, the macro area had a strong presence

Alzheimer's in the Workplace: A Challenge for Social Work

It is estimated that 5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease or a related disorder (ADRD) with approximately 500,000 of these persons younger than 65. Moreover, the number of people affected by the disease will increase 350% by the middle of this century. Although research exists on organizational policies with regard to caregivers, very little is known about how organizations deal with employees themselves who show symptoms of ADRD. This article reports on a pilot study of employers' responses to dementia as it impacts both caregiving employees and employees who themselves show signs of cognitive impairment.

Carolina del Norte and the New South: Social Work Practice with New Latino Immigrant Communities

Over the past decade, the Latino population in North Carolina has increased 111%. More than half of North Carolina Latinos are foreign-born and most face issues related to immigration, acculturation, and often, discrimination. This article provides a brief overview of the historical context in which social workers engaged with immigrant communities, and argues that the profession brings strengths and unique skills to address North Carolina’s Latino immigrant population, historically, and within the current context. Key social demographics of Latino populations, sociopolitical realities, as well as theoretical and methodological issues related to the complex needs of this diverse population group are addressed. Two examples of Latino vulnerability in North Carolina, HIV/AIDS and discriminatory local immigration enforcement practices, are discussed to further highlight the unique strengths and challenges social workers in North Carolina and the New South face when working with Latino immigrants.

Environmental Social Work: Accounting for Gender in Climate Disasters

The person-in-the-environment concept has largely been interpreted by social workers to indicate social networks and relationships, ignoring the physical environment and its complex impact on human health and wellbeing. This article examines the environmental domain, noting the critical role social workers can have in this field as a consequence of climate events and global warming. The article notes the significance of gender as a key factor in vulnerability to disasters and outlines the need for social workers to consider gender as a critical indicator in their work in this emerging area. Embodiment, connection to place, poverty, and cultural awareness are also significant, but often overlooked, factors in a social work response to environmental disasters. Ecological and ecofeminist theories give a direction for social work theory and practice in the postdisaster space. The article challenges social workers to reconsider the person-in-the-environment as a complex and critical emerging domain of social work theories and practice, a domain where gender awareness is fundamental.

Challenges of social workers' involvement in the recovery of the 5.12WenchuanEarthquake inChina

This article explores the challenges of social workers' involvement in recovery work of the 5.12WenchuanEarthquake (12May 2008). Six social workers working in three social work stations inSichuan,China, were asked to report the challenges they faced in working with disaster survivors. Findings reveal that the social workers faced many challenges. These include lack of government support, low professional status of social work, rapid changes in the social environment in disaster‐affected areas, lack of supervision, lack of cooperation and coordination among social service agencies, and lack of experience and knowledge in working with disaster survivors. The practical, educational and policy implications of the findings are addressed.

Place, power, and possibility: Remaking social work with children and youth

Abstract This article introduces the work of an interdisciplinary group of scholars and activists who critically examine the nature and boundaries of social work with children and youth. Their works explore the institutional and social spaces shaping young people's lives; deconstruct discourses, policies, and practices that shape meanings and experiences of childhood; and consider challenges for social work and possibilities for transformative action. In this essay the editors address the social construction of childhood; outline a framework for analysis informed by an understanding of the cultural politics of childhood; consider the relationship between neoliberal globalization and contemporary thought and practice regarding children and youth; and introduce cutting-edge scholarship addressing place, power, and possibility and the remaking of social work with children and youth.

Sexual Minorities in Africa: A Challenge for Social Work

This article addresses issues surrounding same-sex relationships in an African context. Many countries on the continent outlaw such partnerships, creating complex dimensions for people trapped in a no-man's-land of socially unacceptable reality. Furthermore, criminalization of same-sex practices results in a lack of targeted health and welfare programs creating a dangerous lacuna in service delivery. To address this, academic programs, field supervisors, and practitioners, particularly in the field of social work, have to be sensitive to the needs of sexual minorities, and those behind whose acceptability they are forced to hide, especially in an alien environment.

Courageous ethnographers or agents of the state: challenges for social work

Tensions arise for social workers when confronted with wicked policies, particularly in paving their way through dual loyalty issues and risk paradigms. By merging radical, critical and human rights perspectives and drawing on their practice ethnography, social workers can become confident advocates in challenging dominant discourses and contributing to social change. In this article, illustrative case studies are provided in the fields of social work with Indigenous peoples, asylum seekers, people living in poverty and children. Although focusing specifically on the Australian context, the article provides leads for political engagement and moral courage.

'Helping Children Is a Human Process': Researching the Challenges Social Workers Face in Communicating with Children

Research studies and inquiry reports in the UK have consistently highlighted children's wishes for social workers to demonstrate honesty, reliability and continuity in their relationships with them. Despite this awareness, social workers continue to struggle to exhibit these qualities. The literature on social workers' communication with children portrays it as a complex, partial and fragmented aspect of practice, with a lack of research that directly explores how social workers communicate with children. This paper reports on a ‘practice near’ research project, informed by psycho-dynamic, systemic and ecological approaches to social work practice in general and to communication in particular. The project involved social workers participating in reflective case discussions that explored their experiences of working with children and identified the obstacles to and opportunities for child-centred communication. The findings highlight how practitioners' commitment to child-centred practice was constrained by contextual factors relating to the physical, relational and emotional dimensions of practice. The paper concludes with key recommendations to enhance child-centred responses to the unpredictable and uncomfortable realities of practice. These recommendations make an important contribution to dialogues across national settings about child-centred approaches in contexts where home-based working is a central feature of practice.

International social work field placement or volunteer tourism? Developing an asset-based justice-learning field experience

 Abstract This paper examines a developing model for building an international social work placement that meets the needs of the host agency and community first. The paper addresses the challenges for social work departments to develop a strong learning environment while also keeping primary the needs of the host community and agency . Keywords field placement, international, justice-based, social work, asset building

Seeking new strategies: Recent challenges for social work in public measures targeting poverty in Japan

In recent years, Japan has pursued two paths to deal with the growing number of welfare recipients: ‘second safety net programs’ that pre-empt reliance on the public assistance system and ‘self-reliance programs’ for current public assistance recipients. This paper examines the effectiveness of these programs. Its findings suggest that the relationship between social work practice and the success of poverty measures should be explored further. It is necessary to develop a methodology to evaluate the efficacy of social work practices in reducing poverty and social exclusion.

Ripples in a pond

In the face of heightened awareness of terrorism, however it is defined, the challenges for social work are legion. Social work roles may include working with the military to ensure the well-being of service-men and women and their families when bereaved or injured, as well as being prepared to support the public within the emergency context of an overt act of terrorism. This paper reviews some of the literature concerning how social work responds to confl ict and terrorism before reporting a smallscale qualitative study examining the views of social work students, on a qualifying programme in the UK, of terrorism and the need for knowledge and understanding as part of their education.