Perceptions Of Social Workers Research Articles

Clients and Social Workers' Perceptions of Social Work: An Israeli Case Study

Clients and Social Workers' Perceptions of Social Work: An Israeli Case Study

The Role of Perceptions in Collaborative Relationships: Implications for Forensic Social Work Practice

This study aims to explore the perceptions held by law students who work collaboratively with social work students. Findings from the focus group data indicate that law students’ perceptions of social work may be influenced by stereotypes. Implications for students preparing to enter into forensic social work practice are considered.

Poverty Perceptions of Social Workers and Physicians in Israel

This qualitative study comparing poverty perceptions of social workers (SWs) and primary care physicians (PCPs) employed in Israel's public services found that both attributed the poverty of their own clients to similar causes—individualistic, structural, fate, and policy—but differed in most of their perspectives and moral imperatives. The PCPs tended to be more angry, skeptical, and accusatory than the SWs, who were more forbearing and accepting. Both believed that those in a position to work should, but only PCPs held that they should work for any salary. With respect to policy, PCPs looked at the macro, SWs at the micro. The findings suggest that it might be more fruitful to keep inter-professional discussions on the poor and poverty pragmatic, rather than theoretical and principled.

Construction of a Parent-Derived Questionnaire to Measure End-of-Life Care After Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

The objective of this study was to develop and pretest a questionnaire to assess the practice of withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment in the NICU on the basis of the experiences of bereaved parents. We conducted semistructured interviews with 11 parents whose infants had undergone withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment in the NICU at McMaster University Medical Centre to obtain their views on helpful practices. Interviews continued until no new items were obtained (ie, saturation point). A total of 370 items were distilled into 82 questionnaire statements on care by a multidisciplinary team and grouped for analysis into 6 domains: communication, quality of care, quality of life, shared decision-making, withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment process, and bereavement care. Respondents were asked to rank how frequently events occurred on a 7-point Likert scale anchored from 1 = never to 7 = always. A score of >5 was considered favorable. The questionnaire was distributed to a pretest sample of perinatal social workers who attended a bereavement workshop at an international conference. The response rate was 48%. Respondents ranked items that pertained to the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment process highest, indicating that items were done well. Items related to quality of care and bereavement care ranked lowest. Other domains ranked as follows: communication, shared decision-making, and quality of life. Consistency of items within domains was tested by Cronbach's alpha and split-half testing and were >0.6 for most domains. Parents' views on important aspects of end-of-life care in the NICU were incorporated into a quality assurance questionnaire. Pretesting assessed the performance of the instrument and the perceptions of social workers on the effectiveness of end-of-life practices. Respondents identified that parents' practical needs were met during the withdrawal process but were not consistently met in regard to the quality of in-hospital and follow-up bereavement care.

Social Workers and Policy- Practice: The Role of Social and Professional Values

ABSTRACT Although policy practice is regarded as an essential component of social work, the actual involvement of social workers in policy practice is apparently very limited. This article presents the findings of a study that seeks to explore the role of social and professional values in support by social workers in Israel for engagement in policy practice and their actual involvement in this type of practice. The findings indicate that socioeconomic orientations and professional values have an impact on social worker's perception of policy practice and the degree to which they are actually involved in the social welfare policy process. In particular, it was found that attitudes toward social justice played a major role in the social worker's perceptions of, and involvement in, policy practice.

Students' Perceptions of Social Work: Implications for Strengthening the Image of Social Work among College Students

This study, inspired by the efforts of NASW to improve the public perception and understanding of social work, focused on the perceptions and attitudes of college students regarding the profession of social work. The sample included 678 undergraduates at a state university who represented a wide variety of majors. Findings indicate that students' affiliation with a social worker, whether a family member, friend, or work or volunteer experience, positively influenced both their perception and understanding of the profession. Furthermore, regardless of demographics, respondents generally had a negative perception of the salary range of social workers, implying that this aspect of the profession could limit or deter students from choosing social work as a profession. Implications for improving the image of social work among college students are delineated along with issues that require further study.

Front Line Workers’ Attitudes towards Psychiatric Advance Directives

Studies have begun to explore provider attitudes' toward psychiatric advance directives (PADs) and how those attitudes are related to provider characteristics. The study gathered attitudinal data from a sample of 193 social workers serving mentally ill adults. Social workers with pro-healthcare power of attorney (HCPA) attitudes were likely to have prior experience with an HCPA and to believe that involuntary treatment violates the NASW Code of Ethics. Social workers are more favorable of HCPAs than advance instructions. The findings suggest that clinical experiences with PADs may positively impact social worker's perceptions of the law.

Social Work and Criminal Justice Students' Perceptions of Elders

This study investigated perceptions of older adults among undergraduate social work and criminal justice students (N = 228). With moderately ageist attitudes in general toward older adults and controlling for ethno-cultural identification and previous gerontology education, there were significant differences in the perceptions of social work and criminal justice students in ten of twelve dependent variables. These significant variables included perceptions of elders as unmotivated and parsimonious, perceptions of elders as attractive, perceptions of elders as useful, perceptions of elders' health, perceptions of elders' ability to drive, perceptions of elders as romantic, willingness to be with elders, willingness to work with elders if the job required it, perceptions of elders' right to suicide, and perceptions of elders engaging in sexual behaviors. While generally ageist in perspective, there were not significant differences between the two students groups regarding their perceptions of elders as depressed and their working with elders if they were paid a greater salary. The General Linear Model was found to be significant (F = 5.565, df = 12, p < .001). Because of the prevalence of moderately ageist perceptions in this sample, there are important implications for interdisciplinary human service education. Social work education may offer helpful methods to reduce ageist perceptions, particularly exposure in field settings and concentrated attention to aging in curricula. Other implications and strategies are discussed.

An International Analysis of the Role of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work Practice

As service populations have changed, social workers in Norway and the United States have attempted to respond to the needs of diverse cultures, which often include issues of religion and spirituality. Members of the Norwegian Union of Social Educators and Social Workers (FO) and the U.S. National Association of Social Workers (NASW) were sampled to explore attitudes and perceptions of social workers regarding the placement of religion and spirituality in practice. In general, U.S. social workers were more accepting of religion and spirituality than their Norwegian colleagues. Factors such as secularism, functional differences of church and state relations, and different historical trajectories in the social work profession's development in both countries may contribute to differences between the U.S. and Norway.

Perceptions of Social Work: Undergraduate Students Assess the Profession

This study explores social work student attitudes and continued misperceptions concerning the social work profession. Participants included students who were psychology, social work, and other majors. Students were administered questionnaires concerning their knowledge of key terms, degree requirements, disciplinary practices, and attitudes toward various social work-related employment settings. It was hypothesized that social work majors would have more knowledge and more positive attitudes toward the social work profession than other majors did. It was further hypothesized that student regard of social work-related agencies would vary across agencies being assessed. As might be expected, the findings show that students from other majors are less informed about social work and its professional functions. However, the data also indicate that social work students themselves continue to manifest misperceptions about their own discipline. The authors suggest that efforts to confront public misperceptions be augmented by proactive remediation efforts in social work curricula.

A Comparative International Analysis of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: A Survey of UK and US Social Workers

As service populations have changed, the social work profession in the UK and the US has attempted to respond to the needs of diverse cultures, which often include issues of religion and spirituality. This can be problematic, however, due to the extrication of religious and spiritual concerns from the public social services that resulted from the process of secularization. Members of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) in the US were sampled to explore the attitudes and perceptions of social workers regarding the placement of religion and spirituality in practice and education. In general, US social workers in this sample were more accepting of religion and spirituality than their UK counterparts, even among those respondents who expressed non‐religious world views (e.g. atheism). A majority of the respondents in the UK (76%) and the US (73%) indicated that their training programs lacked content on religion and spirituality. In the UK, 57% of the respondents believed that social workers should increase their knowledge on spirituality, compared with 90% of the US respondents. The lower level of acceptance of religion and spirituality among UK social workers may be related to higher levels of secularism in UK society.

Do Social Workers Integrate Sociocultural Issues in Mental Health Session Dialogue?

ABSTRACT Empirical research has not adequately examined whether social workers and clients discuss sociocultural issues when addressing mental health problems, nor the quality of the interaction when such discussion occurs. This exploratory mixed-method study examined the interactional process associated with discussion of sociocultural issues in the first three counseling sessions with four white social worker/client of color dyads. Findings showed that productive cross-cultural interactions were associated neither with specific sociocultural content nor client-worker composition, but rather with the social worker's perception and skill. Analysis differentiated one worker/client dialogue from the others, highlighting the importance of training practitioners to apply social work knowledge and skills in a synthesized manner.

Humanitarian Attitudes and Support of Government Responsibility for Social Welfare: A Study of Perceptions of Social Work Graduates in the People's Republic of China

This study examines humanitarian attitudes and the individualist-collectivist orientation of graduates drawn from various social work study programmes of some major universities and colleges in the People's Republic of China. The research findings show that in general, the respondents have a positive regard of humanitarian issues, and that it is this positive orientation which lends support to the perception of social welfare as a government responsibility. However, responses to some of the items reflect the influence of the traditional emphasis on self-reliance and a prevailing ideology that emphasises the country's economic needs and priorities.

Social work perceptions of transformational and transactional leadership in health care

Despite the resurgence of leadership research, few investigations have examined the association between leadership behaviors and organizational performance in the social work field. The purpose of this study was to evaluate empirically a model that delineates two types of leadership processes, transformational and transactional leadership, within social work practice as measured by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. The model was tested with a sample of 187 clinical social workers employed in hospitals. Results indicated that all five transformational factors and one transactional factor were significantly correlated with leader outcomes of effectiveness, satisfaction, and extra effort. Implications for social work practice are provided.

Perceptions of Social Work Intervention with Bereaved Clients

The study focussed on social work bereavement intervention in a large Australian teaching hospital comparing client and social work perceptions of the service provided. The study involved the completion of a series of questionnaires and client interviews over a three month period. A combination of content and statistical analysis was used to interpret the findings. Eighty-eight percent of clients contacted indicated satisfaction with the social work service received. The results indicated a positive match between clients' and social workers' perceptions of the intervention, and affirmed the role of social work in bereavement care. Seventy percent of clients made recommendations regarding potential improvements to social work services. These recommendations contained four specific suggestions: •that social workers be present when the doctor breaks bad news; •that additional support be provided in how to talk to doctors; •that social workers be involved from the point of admission of the patient; and •that a primary social worker remain with the family throughout the hospital stay. These recommendations have implications for hospital social work practice in both the delivery and organisation of social work services.

What role for social work in the new health care practice paradigm?

The hospital . . . must become part of primary care network of community-oriented delivery systems focused on chronic disease management. In this model, the social worker treats the patient throughout the continuum of care. Therefore, dynamic training that addresses the changing health care environment will be needed. (Berkman, 1996, p. 541) The rapidly changing organization and financing of health care delivery in the United States compels social to specify the elements of its health-related practice and to convincingly document its cost-effectiveness. (Ell, 1996, p. 583) Amid palpable anxiety over welfare reform, devolution, and multiculturalism, the Annual Program Meeting of he Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) held this March in Chicago offered more sessions than ever on aging, disability, health care, and managed care. Given the panoply of challenges facing social and higher education, perhaps it was remarkable that health care was on the agenda at all. The higher profile of bio amid the usual psychosocial fare at the meeting reflects how rapidly social is changing and how far it has to go to be player in the nation's lean-and-mean health care system. This terrain at the margins between social as profession and health care as system is not easy to traverse. Several challenges confront those eager to see health care higher priority in social education and social higher priority in health care. CHALLENGES TO SOCIAL WORK IN HEALTH CARE Articulating Social Work's Role The power of social work is not well understood in health care. Is social really health care Profession? Recent assessments of the nation's future health care staffing needs make no mention of social workers (Osterweis, McLaughlin, Manasse, & Hopper, 1996). Nor does the federal Bureau of Health Professions include social among the professions for which it advocates. Perhaps most telling, social workers rarely publish research findings in the journals most read by health care administrators, analysts, and policymakers. Social has peripheral presence at best in the larger arena of health policy and design of care delivery. And evidence abounds of tenuous relationships with colleagues in medicine and nursing in the largest medical research centers as well as in the most rural home health care programs. The term partnership overstates relationships often felt to be secondary and unnecessary to the enterprise of treating medical conditions and shaping medical outcomes. The research of Netting and Williams (1997) on physicians' and nurses' perceptions of social workers in the Hartford Foundation Generalist Physician Initiative identified vast misunderstandings among professional colleagues about what social workers do. Abramson and Mizrahi (1996, 1997), who also have studied physician-social relationships, noted similar problems. The value bases and missions of the various health professions differ markedly. Social work, for example, advocates a biopsychosocial model that encourages client empowerment and self-determination in medical environment that expects patient compliance (Netting & Williams, 1996, p. 217). Nurses, on the other hand, are socialized to during any 24 hours of the day. No wonder communication is difficult. Not the least among these problems is the difficulty social workers have effectively articulating what they do to other health care professionals and, presumably, to the public at large. Communication is also problematic in hospital and institutional settings where there has been an increase in nursing personnel in social and discharge planning departments and where shared responsibilities between social and other disciplines have increased (Berger et al., 1996). All hospital personnel are having to harder to ensure that patients and families are not affected by changes in hospital organization, placing all staff under pressure. …

‘Walking in a minefield’: Findings from a survey of social workers in Australian hospice and palliative care programs

Abstract Hospice and palliative care services have become an established part of Australian health care in the last decade. Multi-disciplinary teams are usually a feature of such services and social workers are common members of such teams. Yet the exact extent of their use and role in these programs has not been investigated previously. The author conducted a survey of 53 social workers working in such programs and at the same time, another questionnaire was also sent to service directors in all 134 Australian programs about their utilisation and perception of social workers. This article reports the results of both surveys. The results show that a third of the programs employed social workers, but the social workers themselves reported a number of difficulties: nurses are often the dominant occupational group and role-blurring amongst team members is common. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the social work profession.

Social work education in India: perceptions of social workers in Bombay

Social work education in India: perceptions of social workers in Bombay

Exploring the ‘Need’ for Family Centres: The Perceptions of Social Workers and Their Importance for Planning

Exploring the ‘Need’ for Family Centres: The Perceptions of Social Workers and Their Importance for Planning

Reviews : Contributions, comments and suggestions to Liz Bullingham, Probation Office, Frost House, Woodhouse Green, Thurcroft, Rotherham S66 9AH, Tel: (0709) 546444 Like Distant Relatives: Adolescent Perceptions of Social Work and Social Workers RAY JONES Gower, 1987

Reviews : Contributions, comments and suggestions to Liz Bullingham, Probation Office, Frost House, Woodhouse Green, Thurcroft, Rotherham S66 9AH, Tel: (0709) 546444 Like Distant Relatives: Adolescent Perceptions of Social Work and Social Workers RAY JONES Gower, 1987