Community-based Service Programs Research Articles

Developing a Community-Based Social Service Program for the Elderly

This article describes the development and implementation of a community-based social service program for the elderly. The problems encountered as a new professional unit within the municipality are analyzed and the role of the social worker in resolving those problems is described. The local community is the primary focus of change and strategies of intervention include reaching out and involving members from all levels of the community in the social service program, from members of the client group to individuals with political influence in the governmental system. Planning considerations for social work practice are posed including the relationship of the private, nonprofit sector to the public sector, the demands for service and difficulties establishing program stability.

Development of community-based health services for adolescents at risk for sociomedical problems.

Community-based service and training programs have been advocated as important for improving access to medical care for the poor as well as enhancing the ambulatory training setting for residents and medical students. In 1981 the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided funds to 20 teaching hospitals to support community-based, comprehensive health services to high-risk young people, that is, young people living in communities with high rates of sociomedical problems, such as adolescent pregnancy, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, accidents, homicide, suicide, and depression. In this article, the authors describe the experiences of these institutions in establishing off-campus clinics, concluding that high-risk adolescents need additional services and that teaching hospitals and communities can collaborate to provide these comprehensive services. They discuss issues of maintaining services after foundation grants end and the impact of recent financial restraints on continued support from teaching hospitals for off-campus activities.

Reaction of a skeptical sociologist.

Various federal efforts to stimulate participation of the disadvantaged in community-based human service programs appear to have produced only modest results. Particularly deserving sober attention are support services needed to initiate and sustain meaningful involvement of the disadvantaged. Both financing such support services and potential professional dominance of citizen participants pose critical problems.