General Social Services Research Articles

Šeimų, globojančių neįgalų asmenį, socialinės pagalbos poreikio analizė

The article analyzes the social assistance needs and emerging challenges of families caring for a person with a disability. During the research, the need for provided general social services (information, consulting, mediation and representation) and other services (financial, psychological assistance, physiotherapist services, adapted technical and household assistance, medicinal and nursing measures, communication) became evident. The need for informational, economic and geographical accessibility of social assistance and the need for inter-institutional and inter-sectoral cooperation, provision of daily social care services and continuous communication with a social worker in providing assistance to families caring for a person with a disability have been determined. Keywords: social services, social assistance, needs for social services.

Social Welfare for Thailand’s Elderly: Policy Perspectives and Proposals for Co-production

With the increasing number of older adults and the mechanisms driving elderly work in the past, most work is separated. There is a redundancy in the issue of promoting and supporting the welfare of the elderly and redundant space. Many agencies deal with the elderly. As a result, the operation of the elderly is not considered part of the overall welfare provision. The objectives of this study were (1) to study the problem of social welfare provision for the elderly, according to the process of public policy, categorized into policy formulation, policy implementation, and policy evaluation, and (2) to analyze the social welfare provision for the elderly in the areas of health, housing, income, employment, education, recreation, and general social services from the perspective of experts. Qualitative research was conducted on secondary data and data collected using an Ethnographic Delphi Futures Research technique, whereby twenty-five informants were classified into three groups: 1) Nine people with direct or indirect roles and responsibilities in the development of welfare schemes and setting guidelines for the elderly; 2) Ten individuals with roles providing welfare services to the elderly in either provincial or local areas, and 3) Six academics studying welfare provisions for the elderly. In-depth interviews were conducted, and data systems were organized to analyze and classify content. The analysis found that: 1) Public policy is currently inadequate due to the following problems and management conditions: a) A central authority determines policy formulation concerning welfare for the elderly. As a result, welfare provisions cannot respond to the specific problems of the elderly in each area; b) A gap exists between policy formulation and implementation of each welfare policy; and c) While welfare policies do undergo an evaluation process, assessments are low quality and incomprehensive according to standards outlined in Thailand’s Elderly Act; 2) All experts agreed that government mechanisms should provide welfare for the elderly in cooperation with the government, private and public sectors to address insufficient budget allocation and reduce the redundancy of receiving interest. It is proposed that social welfare for the elderly should follow a pluralistic model. Many parties participate in welfare provision utilizing groups or networks of people in the community. Interconnected networks require co-production and joint management to optimize the efficiency and quality of public services.

社会工作介入兜底性社会服务的策略分析——以D市为例

社会工作介入兜底性社会服务的策略分析——以D市为例

P139 A Trauma-Informed Approach to Charitable Food Distribution: The Nutrition Pantry Program

<h3>Objective</h3> This study's objective was to evaluate the change in environment, inventory, policies, services, and overall healthy scores of pantries in the Nutrition Pantry Program (NPP), a trauma-informed policy, systems, and environment (PSE) intervention. <h3>Use of Theory or Research</h3> One out of 8 Californians faces food insecurity and 1 out of 7 utilize food pantries. This population also faces higher rates of diet-related diseases and traumatic experiences related to food insecurity. NPP utilizes behavioral economics, trauma-informed principles, and the transtheoretical model of change to create environments that promote healthy choices and mitigate retraumatization. <h3>Target Audience</h3> NPP is open to all California pantries; participants included 53 pantries during 2018 and 2019 within the following settings: faith-based, higher-education, general social services, housing, and K-12. <h3>Program Description</h3> NPP provides a framework for pantries to provide trauma-informed nutrition security, and lasts on average 10 months. Pantries start by completing the Healthy Food Pantry Assessment Tool (HFPAT) and a client needs assessment and obtaining client feedback. Next, a personalized work-plan is created, and trainings, technical support, and resources are provided. <h3>Evaluation Methods</h3> The HFPAT is a validated survey used to evaluate PSE initiatives in pantries. Those using the tool viewed a 2-hour instructional webinar. Researchers analyzed pre- and post-HFPAT scores to evaluate the effectiveness of NPP on pantry practices. <h3>Results</h3> Fifty-three pantries completed a baseline HFPAT and 19 completed a follow-up HFPAT. On average, overall healthy scores increased by 9 points, with the most improvements in the "Food Distribution to Clients" and "Policies" sections. Sections with the lowest improvements include "Frozen Foods" and "Services for Clients." <h3>Conclusions</h3> When given a framework, technical support, and resources, pantries are able to improve their overall "healthy" score by using PSE and trauma-informed interventions. Pantries are, however, limited on changes requiring larger infrastructure investments, such as increased refrigeration/freezer space and increased staff time for support services.

Deep neural network architectures for social services diagnosis in smart cities

Abstract Social services intend to aid disadvantaged, distressed, or vulnerable persons or groups. Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL), which are important technologies to leverage Internet of Things and Big Data, have not been considered to support intelligent social services in Smart Cities. Using technology to achieve more responsive, efficient, and proactive social services is a must in Smart Cities because it will lead to a more fair and egalitarian society. This research work contributes with the evaluation of a thousand Neural Networks architectures for the automatic diagnosis of chronic social exclusion. Some of them outperform previous models in quality metrics such as accuracy and F-score. Beyond the improvement in predicting this specific social condition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper open the research line of applying these methods for the general social services diagnosis in Smart Cities. Finally, the advantages of using the DL paradigm over other ML alternatives in this scope are discussed.

\u201cOne program that could improve health in this neighbourhood is ____?\u201d using concept mapping to engage communities as part of a health and human services needs assessment

BackgroundThis paper presents the findings of a rapid needs assessment conducted at the request of the local health authority responsible for health care services, the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network (Ontario, Canada), to inform health and social service planning.MethodsWe utilized concept mapping methodology to facilitate engagement with diverse stakeholders–more than 300 community members and service providers–with a focus on hard to reach populations. Key informant interviews with service providers were used to augment findings.ResultsParticipants identified 48 unique services or service approaches they believed would improve the health of residents in the area, including those addressing health care, mental health and addictions, youth, families, people experiencing homelessness, seniors, general social services, and services targeting specific populations. While service providers consistently identified a critical need for mental health and addiction services, community members placed greater importance on the social determinants of health including access to housing, job placement supports and training and service accessibility. Both groups agreed that services and programs for seniors and people experiencing homelessness would be highly important.ConclusionOur study provides a unique example of using concept mapping as a tool to aid a rapid service gap analysis and community engagement in a metropolitan area. The findings also reinforce the importance of working cross-sectorally, using a Health in All Policies approach when planning services for underserved populations.

Are therapists likely to use a new empirically supported treatment if required?

SummaryThere continues to be a movement to address the gap between empirically supported treatment research and social services practice. While the general social services field values services bas...

Satisfacción de usuarios y profesionales en la evaluación de programas sociales

The study of customers´ satisfaction is usually included in most of the quality management models and it is a relevant element in any process of assessment and improvement of services. This trend, deeply rooted in the private field, has also spread over the public services and in social services. This paper sustains the relevance of developing satisfaction studies in general social services, not only from customers´perspective, but also from professionals. It is a proved trend that citizens make a good judgement of social services provision, in line with several opinion polls about public services in Spain. On the same line, although there are little studies about people working in social services opinion, it is relevant the high satisfaction expressed by front line staff, that shows an important vocation in most of social services employees.

Failure to Attend Child Preventive Examination as a Possible Indication of Risk to Children's Welfare: Retrospective Analysis of 605 Cases Reported to the Child Protection Services

Objective: The extent to which childrens's welfare is compromised when they do not attend compulsory prevention medical check-ups is yet to be determined. Together with the Hessen Prevention Center for Children (Hessisches Kindervorsorgezentrum), the Child Protection Services in the Main-Taunus district have conducted a study to investigate failure to attend child preventive examinations as a possible indication of risk to the welfare of such children. Method: 605 notifications of child preventive examinations that were not carried out, sent in 2012 to the Child Protection Services by the Hessen Prevention Center for Children, were analyzed retrospectively. Each case was recorded using a standardized questionnaire and, cases that were passed on to General Social Services within Child Protection Services were investigated with an additional interview with the employee responsible. Results: In 60 (10%) cases there was no certificate to show that the check-up had been conducted, while in 165 (27%) cases the check-up was conducted late, i. e. only after being contacted by the Child Protection Services. In 9 of the 605 cases (1.5%), the families involved were already known to Child Protection Services due to previous proceedings against them under endangering children's welfare act (known as § 8a cases). No new case of a risk to children's welfare was detected. In 58 cases, families gave reasons for the missed or late check-up. Reasons included being abroad and moving house (20 cases), forgetting (14 cases) and illness (11 cases), as well as lack of knowledge of the law (6 cases), lack of health insurance (4 cases), lack of language skills (2 cases) and objection to the law in principle (1 case). It was notable that, in 57% of the cases notified, documentary evidence could be provided by the end of the case work that the check-up had taken place within the recommended period (including additional discretionary period). The majority of these notifications of failure to attend can be prevented by an upstream clearing procedure.

Is multidimensional treatment foster care (MTFC) more effective than treatment as usual in a three-year follow-up? Results from MTFC in a Swedish setting

This study examines three-year post-baseline outcomes for a randomized controlled trial of Swedish antisocial youths who received either multidimensional treatment foster care (MTFC) or treatment as usual (TAU). Several studies in our literature review indicated that MTFC intervention is preferred to the alternative (TAU) in the USA during follow-up. Two studies (one conducted in the UK and one in Sweden) have shown indications of a washout effect between the intervention alternatives during follow-up. However, this study showed few but positive significant outcomes at follow-up for the MTFC programme in comparison to TAU. Juveniles who participated in MTFC spent fewer days in locked settings and had committed fewer violent crimes, according to the social case records. Two key features of the MTFC programme certainly merit use in general social service—namely, reducing exposure to deviant peers and increasing school participation.

Strategies to reduce the harmful effects of extreme heat events: a four-city study.

Extreme heat events (EHEs) are becoming more intense, more frequent and longer lasting in the 21st century. These events can disproportionately impact the health of low-income, minority, and urban populations. To better understand heat-related intervention strategies used by four U.S. cities, we conducted 73 semi-structured interviews with government and non-governmental organization leaders representing public health, general social services, emergency management, meteorology, and the environmental planning sectors in Detroit, MI; New York City, NY; Philadelphia, PA and Phoenix, AZ—cities selected for their diverse demographics, climates, and climate adaptation strategies. We identified activities these leaders used to reduce the harmful effects of heat for residents in their city, as well as the obstacles they faced and the approaches they used to evaluate these efforts. Local leaders provided a description of how local context (e.g., climate, governance and city structure) impacted heat preparedness. Despite the differences among study cities, political will and resource access were critical to driving heat-health related programming. Upon completion of our interviews, we convened leaders in each city to discuss these findings and their ongoing efforts through day-long workshops. Our findings and the recommendations that emerged from these workshops could inform other local or national efforts towards preventing heat-related morbidity and mortality.

Promoting Rights of the Extreme Socially Excluded People for Effective Hiv/Aids Intervention

This is a exploratory study on the project titled Promoting Right of the Extreme Socially Excluded People (PRESEP), aimed to work with the most potential risk population of the target area like female commercial sex workers (FCSW) in brothel, street and hotel settings, transgender, intravenous drug users (IDU), male having sex with male (MSM) and persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA). They are stigmatized and discriminated for their (often perceived) psychosexual behavior and activities, which has got social disapproval. However stigma, discrimination and violation of human rights restrict them to access to general social services like health and education. Therefore, they suffer from the common diseases (due to lack of information and services) including sexually transmitted infections (STI), HIV/AIDS, and they pass the risks of those to their spouses and their surrounding population. But the purpose of the PRESEP has given clear direction that `selected marginalized communities capable in demanding their rights related to accessing information, civil amenities, health and education and the society is compassionate and understanding to respect their human dignity and support in realization of human rights for the marginalized community. The study shows that by developing self-esteem at individual level and capacity building for organizational development can improve overall situation including HIV/AIDS positively.

Socialinių paslaugų naudingumas reumatoidiniu artritu sergantiems asmenims

Rheumatic joint diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis are recognized as the second most common diseases in causing disability. Rheumatoid arthritis affects more than 12 thousand of the population in Lithuania. Rheumatoid arthritis with increasing age of the population and the increasing number of patients with the diagnosis of the disease becomes an important and relevant social issue not only from the medical, financial but also from the social side. Because of rheumatoid arthritis joint damage, patients with advanced disability face many issues: financial, emotional, and psychological and of course social. Therefore it is appropriate to carry out research and to find out whether social services are useful to persons with rheumatoid arthritis and which of the social services provide the greatest benefits. Aim of the work – to analyze benefits of social services to persons with rheumatoid arthritis. Practical meaning of the research. The research data showed that social services are useful to persons with rheumatoid arthritis. Analysis of the research, conclusions and recommendations may be practically useful to social workers in providing social services to persons with rheumatoid arthritis. Research method – quantitative research. Non -probabilistic purposive sampling was executed among 31 persons with rheumatoid arthritis. Conclusion of the research. The research data showed that social services are more used almost by every person with rheumatoid arthritis. From the general social services were mentioned technical and compensatory equipment, housing and environmental applications, special transportation services. From the special social home care services were mentioned food purchasing and food preparation, documentation management, doctor’s appointments at home, drug purchasing from pharmacies services. The benefit of all social services most of the respondents rated as average, because of their opinion that social services system is still not well developed to provide the maximum benefit. doi:10.5200/sm-hs.2013.100

Social service offices as a point of entry into substance abuse treatment for poor South Africans

BackgroundIn South Africa, district social service offices are often the first point of entry into the substance abuse treatment system. Despite this, little is known about the profile of people presenting with substance-related problems at these service points. This has a negative impact on treatment service planning. This paper begins to redress this gap through describing patterns of substance use and service needs among people using general social services in the Western Cape and comparing findings against the profile of persons attending specialist substance abuse treatment facilities in the region.MethodsAs part of a standard client information system, an electronic questionnaire was completed for each person seeking social assistance. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, the range of presenting problems, patterns of substance use, perceived consequences of substance use, as well as types of services provided were analysed for the 691 social welfare clients who reported substance use between 2007 and 2009. These data were compared against clients attending substance abuse treatment centres during the same time period.ResultsFindings indicate that social services offices are used as a way of accessing specialist services but are also used as a service point, especially by groups under-represented in the specialist treatment sector. Women, people from rural communities and people with alcohol-related problems are more likely to seek assistance at social service offices providing low threshold intervention services than from the specialist treatment sector.ConclusionsThe study provides evidence that social services are a point of entry and intervention for people from underserved communities in the Western Cape. If these low-threshold services can be supported to provide good quality services, they may be an effective and efficient way of improving access to treatment in a context of limited service availability.

Early twentieth-century Japanese worker saving: precautionary behaviour before a social safety net

This paper pools data from independent household surveys of Japanese workers roughly spanning the Taishō period (1912–1926), a time before private-business or government-provided social safety nets. First, we construct estimates of permanent and transitory income and then estimate saving functions consistent with intertemporal optimization. The saving behaviour of Japanese worker households is in turn compared with that of American worker households before World War I, a time when they too lacked access to general social services. The estimated marginal propensities to save out of permanent and transitory incomes were quite similar for Japanese and American worker households, but the Japanese ones saved more at a given level of income. The economic environment facing Japanese workers, however, seemed to be no riskier than that facing American workers. We attribute instead this result primarily to the widespread postal savings banks in Japan which increased the convenience and decreased the risk of saving.

Altruistic behaviour and social capital as predictors of well-being among older Canadians

ABSTRACTSelf-reported altruistic activity and social capital were examined as predictors of perceived happiness and life satisfaction among a sample of 4,486 Canadians aged 65 or more years from the 2003Canadian General Social Services Survey, Cycle 17. Altruistic behaviour was measured by number of volunteer hours per month and helping others (not including family and friends). Social capital was measured using dimensions of belonging to one's community, community and neighbour trust, and group activities. Drawing on generativity and role-identity theories, it was hypothesised that altruistic behaviour and social capital are positively associated with well-being (using perceived happiness and life satisfaction), and that social capital mediates the relationship. For both perceived happiness and life satisfaction, after controlling for demographic, health status, and social support variables, measures of altruistic behaviour demonstrated statistically significant associations. Once measures of social capital were entered into the analysis in the final block, however, the altruistic behaviour variables were no longer statistically significant. Robust associations were found for social capital and the two measures of well-being, particularly between sense of belonging, trust in neighbours, and perceived happiness and life satisfaction. The findings suggest that altruistic behaviour is mediated by social capital. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to understanding the well-being of older Canadians.

Social Service Research

This article and each of the articles in this journal discuss general social service research applications with different populations at risk. While sharing much in common with respect to many of the technical characteristics of the research process, each of these articles was selected through a peer-review process because of its applicability to the field. Understanding phenomena requires an openness and exposure to a complex array of methods designed to address the identified problem, the client's or the system's reaction, the social service provider's handling of the situation, and identification of the expected surrounding circumstances and outcome(s). A brief review of the state-of-the-art for social service research is provided along with suggestions for facilitating future research endeavors.

Agency Practices Affecting Social Workers Who Treat Substance-Abusing Clients

This study interviewed 115 MSWs with substance abuse training working in general social service agencies to determine if they viewed their settings as facilitating or hindering their work with substance-abusing clients. This study builds on the work of Lightfoot and Orford (1986) who found that social workers were more hindered than helped by their agencies' practices regarding substance-abusing clients. Results: A majority of workers viewed their agencies as facilitating substance abuse-related work through support from supervisors and administrators, availability of substance abuse training, workers' freedom to choose clients, and opportunities to supervise others on substance abuse-related issues. Supervisor data corroborated these findings. This is a hopeful sign for the profession contrasting with considerable social work literature documenting the profession's historic ambivalence toward substance-abusing clients.

Comment on Jean L. Cummings and Denise DiPasquale's “The Low Income Housing Tax Credit: An Analysis of the First Ten Years”: Lifting the Veil of Ignorance

Although the Low‐Income Housing Tax Credit is the largest low‐income housing production program in the country, we know very little about it. Even basic questions remain, such as who owns tax credit developments or how much do they cost? We do not even know if tax credits foster income mixing, or reinforce existing patterns of economic segregation. We need more information, not less, which is why the research performed by Cummings and DiPasquale is so important. The competition for the tax credit has increased and states are using it as a general social service tool. Some states, such as Florida, Maine, and Rhode Island, now favor the use of tax credits to help finance service‐enriched housing for seniors. States also are trying to anticipate the likely outcome when the tax credits expire. The Washington State Housing Commission received funding last year to study early tax credit projects with expiring affordability requirements, while California will start a study in 1999.

Mandatory Reporting Laws: Child Protective Case Finding Gone Awry?

Recent attacks on the child protective system have included criticism of the mandatory reporting laws to protect children from maltreatment. After a brief history of the development of the reporting laws and an evaluation of the assumptions underlying the use of these laws for case finding, this article analyzes the costs and benefits of the reporting laws for four stakeholders—the state, professionals, families, and children—and concludes that the costs of the laws outweigh the benefits. Recommended policy revisions include improved income maintenance, general social services and family-preservation programs to support families in their care of children, and narrowed definitions of child maltreatment.