Positive Social Work Research Articles

Positive Social Work (PSW) – Towards a New Methodical Paradigm in Social Work

Various methodological approaches have been appearing in Polish social work for several years, referring to experiences proven in other countries, such as the Solution Focused Approach, Family Group Conference, Motivating Dialogue, Video Interaction Training (VIT), supervision, coaching or community organization/development. What distinguishes them from the current characteristics of methodological activities is opposition to the problem-oriented model dominating social work in Poland and developing a commonly recognizable solution-oriented model. The aim of this article is to present a preliminary concept of a new methodological approach – Positive Social Work (PSW) – its assumptions, to define theoretical references and to characterize a specific “road map” for the development of this approach to the helping methodology.

POSITIVE SOCIAL WORK APPROACH: THE SHIFT FROM “WORK” TOWARDS “SOCIAL”

Positive orientation has become widely recognized in many scientific fields during the last decade. Possible nature of positive orientation in social work could be derived from positive psychology. However this topic is just starting to be discussed and researched in Lithuania and other European countries. In this article the authors represent complementary social work approaches that are proved as effective in a contradiction to most applied and dominant in practice nowadays problem-oriented model of social work. Therefore, the aim of the article is to overview social work practices as a ground for starting modeling Positive Social Work (PSW). Literature analysis was employed to ground different approaches of social work and set the basis for possible Positive Social Work beginning.