Social Work Profession Research Articles

Analysis of Human Rights Needs of Internally Displaced Persons and the Role of Social Work Practice: The Case of the Northwest, Southwest, and Littoral Regions of Cameroon

The scourge of internal displacement has continued unabated despite efforts from the international community to address its root causes. Ironically, the so-called Anglophone crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon has been widely ignored on the world stage despite the toll and misery it has caused the local people, many of whom have been internally displaced. The purpose of this ethnographic study was to explore the human rights situation of internally displaced victims of this violent insurgency and reflect on the role social work practice can play to alleviate the suffering of displaced people. A quantitative research approach was employed through the use of a questionnaire in collecting data from 529 respondents in the Northwest, Southwest, and Littoral regions of the country. The major finding of the study is that most of the internally displaced respondents live under immense fear of either losing a family member or being killed themselves. Moreover, they have been deprived of their basic freedoms and live in indignity as there is hardly water, food, or other means of subsistence. The greatest aspiration of most of the respondents is to reunite with their families and return to their livelihoods. An important implication from this study is the potential contribution that social work professionals can make in the rehabilitation of IDPs. This study contributes to literature on forced migration and human rights, and practical suggestions on how to improve the human rights situation of internally displaced persons.

Ruling Relations Coordinating the ‘Migrant Family’ in Institutional Encounters between Finnish Social Work Professionals and Migrant Service Users

Abstract Despite the growing body of literature on how migrancy transforms family relations, surprisingly little research exists on how ‘migrant family’ takes shape in institutional encounters. In this article, we analyse the negotiations on when and how family relations become addressed in encounters between social workers and migrant service users. Drawing from institutional ethnography, we understand the local service encounters as actively regulated by extra-local relations of ruling, represented here mainly by texts such as legislative acts, service descriptions and professional guidelines. The results show that the ways in which family is present and addressed in the institutional encounters often became an act of balancing between a broader understanding of family relations building on the service user’s self-definition as well as psychosocial and holistic professional ideals, and a narrower administrative understanding rooted in the Finnish legislation on social security and immigration. The legislative texts thus become a strong relation of ruling that coordinates the actual encounters and what happens in them. Nevertheless, family is essential to human subjectivity, and if the institutional encounters focus only on those family relations recognised by the legislation, important aspects of human relations remain unseen.

Improving LGBTQ+ mental health in Southeast Asia through social work: Insights from the Philippines

This article explores the roles of social workers in advancing LGBTQ+ inclusive mental healthcare in Southeast Asia. This role aligns with the global nature of the social work profession and several regional and national ethical frameworks and principles for social workers in Southeast Asia, emphasizing core values such as dignity, human rights, and social justice. Highlighting mental health disparities and social adversities faced by LGBTQ+ in the region, social workers can adopt a framework encompassing cultural competency, community support, advocacy, and research to improve the mental health outcomes of this marginalized population.

Effective Altruism: Implications for the Social Work Profession: Part I

Effective Altruism: Implications for the Social Work Profession: Part I

Development of Social Work Education in Nepal: A Historical Review

Social work is not a new discipline in Nepal. However, it is slowly expanding professionally and currently faces various challenges. Including need to rely on modern techniques, cultural distancing from the environment and strategies because there is not a professional social work model in Nepal. In addition, difficulties include a lack of training, guidelines, and instruction at the governmental level; absence of functioning associated social organizations’ ethics, and accountability on the part of social workers. This study seeks to address issues impeding professionalism to protect service users. The search engines Google, Google Scholar, Google Book, ProQuest, and Eric, etc. were used in this study. Two primary themes were studied: the challenges and implications of social work education in Nepal. To discuss findings, content analysis of the themes was employed. This study finds that social work practice needs to be properly regulated and accredited. The social worker should promote social work practice and instruction. Social workers ought to be recognized by the government to increase funding in the field. The Nepalese social work model can be developed with the help of practitioners and even service users. The vision for Nepalese social work should be to get the profession recognized and strengthen the association of social work.

Power 5 University Football Athletics: Consider Offering Social Work as a Degree Plan for Athletes

The profession of social work is meaningful – creating agents of change who are not afraid to challenge injustices while developing better communities. As activists, social workers promoted the need for athletes to be recognized as vulnerable due to their unique and definable identity and specific needs. Sport social work continues to expand, now reaching into creating practicum field placements for social work students in athletic departments. This article asks the most prominent universities to consider empowering their football athletes to complete a social work degree. Social work is highly versatile and can be tailored to help the student-athlete who has a goal of opening a non-profit, making policies, or becoming a licensed clinician. Furthermore, this article will discuss equipping student-athletes to help each other and their communities by attaining a social work degree.

Justice Views in Social Work Project: Examining Views on Race and Justice

ABSTRACT Advocacy for social justice is a core duty of the social work profession. Social injustice, oppression, and marginalization in the United States demand that social workers critically evaluate and address systemic oppression, in the profession, society, and social work education. This study sought to explore the attitudes of social work students in institutions of higher education in one Midwestern state concerning social justice, systemic racism, race relations, and policing to measure the impact of social work educational programming on promoting anti-oppressive and anti-racist practice. Survey responses from undergraduate and graduate students (n = 74) from two universities in an upper, Midwestern state were analyzed to assess attitude and beliefs on social justice, policing, and racial relations. Results indicate the majority of students endorsed an understanding of injustice in the world and high perceptions of themselves as advocates and agents of social change. Alternatively, students’ responses to items regarding a general belief in the world as providing just rewards and punishments were neutral. These results suggest the need for increased examination of the implicit and explicit curriculum. The use of Critical Race Theory, decolonization practices for higher education which includes diversifying perspectives in course materials and learning activities among other practices, and modeling of the positionality of self by social work instructors is examined.

Social Work Education on Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People: Application of an Intersectional Feminist Lens and Suggested Classroom Exercises

ABSTRACT This paper argues for the application of Intersectional Feminist theoretical lens to social work pedagogy and provides sample educational activities, from simple to complex, which apply this lens to bachelors, masters, and doctoral social work levels. All social workers must be prepared to work effectively with transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people. This work relies on social workers’ knowledge, skills, and self-awareness. Social workers who lack knowledge, skills, and self-awareness of the dimensions of gender diversity can create barriers to care for TGNC people. Increasingly, research on social work education and professional social work organizations are encouraging and expanding guidelines for effective practices with TGNC people. Much of this guidance stresses discrete practices rather than situating practice within a broader theoretical framework. Rather than adding to general guidance, we advocate for the application of an Intersectional Feminist lens in teaching social workers dimensions of gender diversity. Applying an Intersectional Feminist lens to social work education creates a context to frame educational activities and facilitates students’ self-discovery of personally and socially held conceptions and biases related to gender. We include activities to help those teaching social work infuse this lens into pedagogy across levels of teaching social work.

Professional responses to exogenous change: the social work profession and the jurisdictional domain opened up by the Norwegian welfare-to-work reform

ABSTRACT This paper examines the social work profession’s responses to the organizational reform of the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, which opened a new jurisdictional domain of employment services to groups marginalized in the labour market. This domain was not colonized by any established professions, and social workers were the only occupation in the reformed organization with the character and identity of a profession. With existing research as the main source, the paper shows that despite having influenced the reform policy, during reform implementation, agents of the profession refrained from expanding the jurisdiction of social workers and instead protected and maintained its established jurisdiction based on municipal social services. Potential explanations behind the response are discussed: the pressure from the organizational context, combined with the profession’s ingrained distrust of ‘the system’; the ‘dirtiness’ of welfare-to-work tasks, around which some scepticism existed; and the profession’s strong value base and lack of capacity to articulate its knowledge base and, subsequently, theorize its knowledge and skills as resources that were key to meeting the reform’s welfare-to-work goals. All three explanations have some explanatory power but must still be considered tentative and in need of more research.

Exploring Social Work professionals' Experiences of the Mindfulness-Based Social Work and Self-Care Programme: A Focus Group Study.

The evidence for the potential of mindfulness-based programmes to support improved social work practice and self-care is growing. The aim of this focus group study was to explore social workers' (n = 13) experiences of the Mindfulness-based Social Work and Self-care programme (MBSWSC). Thematic analysis highlighted two superordinate themes: benefits to direct social work practice and coping with the social work role. Four subordinate themes highlighted the different social work practice components that were enhanced through MBSWSC participation: social work assessment, service user engagement and team working, working to social work values, and social work skills. Three subordinate themes identified improvements in individual processes which supported enhanced stress coping: moving from avoidant to approach coping, improved boundaries, increased emotional awareness and reduced negative thinking. Our findings indicate that the MBSWSC programme can have a multi-faceted positive effect on social work practice, and on social work professional's capacity to cope with their role.

Well-being at work factors perceived by social work professionals during COVID-19: reflections for the generation of Healthy Organisations

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 crisis brought with it many questions and highlighted the shortcomings of the different social protection systems, including the Social Services, with the consequent impact on their professionals in the form of stress, burnout, fatigue, etc., which do not emerge as a result of the pandemic, but are exacerbated by the fact that they are already present. For this article, 22 semi-structured interviews were carried out with social workers (as a reference professional in Social Services) in Spain, with the aim of finding out their perceptions and experiences derived from the changes in work organisation during the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to extract strategies and good practices specifically identified by social workers, and for their specific professional field, that lead to an improvement in the quality of working life and well-being in their organisations. The results made it possible to identify some specific practices that could be incorporated into the praxis of these professionals for the construction of Healthy Organisations that could have a positive impact on their working conditions, which could also mean an improvement in the services provided by these professionals to the public.

Disciples and Friends: Investigations in Disability, Dementia, and Mental Health

Disciples and Friends: Investigations in Disability, Dementia, and Mental Health

Disciples and Friends: Investigations in Disability, Dementia, and Mental Health

Disciples and Friends: Investigations in Disability, Dementia, and Mental Health

Social Work Professor Develops Innovative Approach to Teaching About Food Insecurity

Social Work Professor Develops Innovative Approach to Teaching About Food Insecurity

Research on the Talent Team Construction of Township Social Work Stations in the Context of Rural Revitalisation

Talent is the foundation of rural revitalisation and an important part of the construction of township social work stations, while township social work stations, as a product of rural revitalisation and development, provide professional social work talents for rural revitalisation in a continuous manner, but in the process of the construction of the talent team in township social work stations, it is found that there are shortages of professionals, lack of professional competence, insufficient localisation, and loss of talents in township social work stations, which urgently need to innovate the mechanism of the construction of the talent team to solve the dilemmas of the development of talents and to promote rural revitalisation and development.

The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development: A Conflicted Global Concept?

This paper reflects on the impact of The Global Agenda (GA) process and focuses on its relevance for social work practitioners and educators in the United Kingdom (UK). It asks, is there a global social work profession? The paper explores three key elements. Firstly, to what extent is it possible to view the diversity of social work under the differing national frameworks, as a coherent, single professional identity? Secondly, to what extent are national concepts of social work related to global instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thirdly, are there universal theoretical models? Having explored these questions, The GA process unequivocally adopted the position that there is a global social work profession, that its members and practitioners do share core values, principles and practice models, that these models require constant review and revision, and that one purpose of the process was/is to stimulate those discussions and explore those narratives, as is evident in the four GA reports. This makes The GA process as relevant for practice and policy in the UK, as it is for other countries.

Older LGBTQ People and Religious Abuse: Implications for the UK Regulation of Care Provision in Later Life

Research suggests health, social care, and social work professionals who are highly religious, and adhere closely to traditional doctrine, are more likely to take a negative view of LGBTQ people. This includes those who provide services to older people. Negative attitudes towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and/or queer (LGBTQ) people can translate into poor care and even abuse. This commentary discusses recent literature on older LGBTQ people’s experiences of religious abuse. It highlights the concerns among many older LGBTQ people about care from religious based providers where religion becomes a factor leading to abuse, associated with microaggressions, psychological abuse, harassment, discriminatory abuse, neglect, and poor care. Even though only a minority of religious care providers may hold negative attitudes towards LGBTQ people, and even fewer may allow this to inform poor/abusive practice, this is nonetheless an area of concern and merits further investigation. All care providers, including those with strongly held religious beliefs, should deliver equally good, affirmative, non-abusive care to older LGBTQ people, and to LGBTQ people of all ages.<strong>Key words</strong>LGBTQ; religious care providers; abuse; adult protection; equality and human rights; law

A Deeper Look at the Origin and Evolution of the Social Work Profession

This article explores how social work has changed from its beginnings to the early 21st century in India, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. It emphasises the significance of understanding social work's past to consider the field's potential future. The researchers used a qualitative research method and gathered information from existing literature, knowledgeable persons, and field visits for observation and verification to validate the collected data. Almshouses, or choultries, in India, can trace their origins back to the time of Buddha. Records from the Chinese travellers Fa-Hien and Xuanzang reveal that similar hospitals/Buddha Vihars existed in India around 400 BC. From the 7th century AD, the temples served food to devotees through 'temple kitchens. These institutions paved the way for almshouses in China, the Middle East, Europe, and Britain, signifying that Social Work's groundwork in India predates the Charity Organisation Society and the Settlement House Movement. Available records also reveal how the British Poor Laws systematised welfare services and played an important role in turning them into rights for the poor. Although social work, both as a career and as a way of living, evolved in India, countless books on social work published over the decades did not explicitly mention it as such.

Please help me, I am drowning! The cry of parents of adolescents with a substance use disorder.

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are on the rise among adolescents worldwide, including in South Africa, causing a significant challenge to parents. Regardless of the difficulties associated with SUDs in adolescents and their impact on parents, current studies on substance addiction have focused on diverse fraternities, excluding social work services for parents of adolescents with SUDs. To develop an in-depth understanding of social work services provided to parents of adolescents with SUDs. The study was conducted in two districts, Capricorn and Waterberg, in Limpopo province, South Africa. A qualitative research method using exploratory and descriptive designs was employed. The scheduled interview guides facilitated semi-structured interviews with 11 social workers and 8 parents. For data analysis, Tesch's eight steps were used. Six themes emerged from the study: (1) social work interventions for parents, (2) family and community-related obstacles, (3) organisation-related obstacles, (4) substance use intervention strategies received by parents, (5) parents' coping mechanisms in dealing with adolescents with SUDs and (6) factors hindering access to social services. The findings show that the government, particularly the Department of Social Development as the custodian of social services, is obliged to develop and design standard guidelines for services to parents of adolescents with SUDs and to provide uniform services to social workers. The study benefits the social work profession, particularly in the field of substance abuse because it generates effective parameters for services for parents of adolescents with SUDs.

Cultural Competency: A Cardinal Force in Social Work Practice and Service-A Cultural Practice Guide for Human Services and the Helping Professions

Culture is a significant factor in human development, sustainability, and societal cohesion. It is greatly cherished and holds universal significance to individuals, groups, families, communities, societies, and nations. Culture affects how a victim, survivor, client, or family responds to life altering experiences such as domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, and trauma. It also influences how a client or family deals with loss and grief, resilience, and recovery. Hence, understanding different cultures and cultural practices, symbols, artifacts, the meaning they hold, and respecting and operating within the confines of a set culture is very important. Cultural competency is a key medium through which this need can be addressed. Cultural competency is a core principle that should undergird a social worker’s service/practice with clients as enshrined in the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. Failure to execute cultural competency is detrimental to the delivery of appropriate and effective services to clients, and a digression from the code of ethics and professional standard of practice within the profession of social work. The execution of cultural competency in social work practice fosters a positive and enduring therapeutic relationship between the social worker and client, and lays the foundation for productive engagement, interaction, and intervention. From this perspective, this article embodies a review of the research literature on the topic of culture and culturally competent practice from different disciplines. The review and analysis include a study this author conducted in Ghana-Africa that examined the significance of culture and its impact on individuals and their perceptions as well as behaviors within a cultural context. Specifically, the study focused on the cultural effects on learning and the transfer of knowledge, and this paper relates its significant implications for understanding culture and responsiveness to cultural practices within professional practice. The findings from this original study revealed that culture impacts an individual’s perception and behavior significantly. The implications for culturally effective social work practice were discussed and recommendations for cultural competence, responsive, and responsible practices including anti-oppressive intervention strategies at the micro, mezzo and macro levels were put forward. In addition, a cultural conceptual practice model called GACIE was proposed for use in assessing and intervening with culturally diverse ethnic minority clients.