Public Social Services Research Articles

Examining the Relationship Between Local Governmental Expenditures on the Social Determinants of Health and County-Level Overdose Deaths, 2017-2020.

Prior studies have examined the social determinants of health (SDOH) characteristics of counties with elevated rates of overdose deaths. However, this research often ignores variation in upstream governmental investment in these SDOH categories. To examine the association of local governmental investments in SDOH with drug overdose mortality at the county level, controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Longitudinal analysis from 2017 to 2020. United States counties. 3126 counties. The primary study outcome was county overdose death rates per 100000 population taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The main predictor of interest was the per capita average of local governmental expenditures in public health, social service, and education drawn from the U.S. Census of Governments, categorized into quartiles. Covariates included county-level socioeconomic and demographic characteristics as well as county-level SUD services from the AHRQ SDOH Database. In longitudinal multivariate linear regression models with state and year fixed effects, counties in the highest 3 quartiles of SDOH spending had significantly lower rates of overdose deaths compared with counties in the lowest quartile of SDOH spending; in particular, counties in quartile 2 had an average of 9.09 fewer overdose deaths per 100000 population (95% CI: -12.58, -5.60), counties in quartile 3 had an average of 13.18 fewer deaths per 100000 population (95% CI: -17.56; -8.80), and counties in quartile 4 had an average of 13.92 deaths per 100000 population (95% CI: -19.16, -8.68). Our findings demonstrate that higher levels of local governmental investments in SDOH were associated with significantly lower rates of overdose death in U.S. counties after controlling for socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Going forward, research should focus on determining causality in this relationship, the mechanisms through which this relationship occurs, as well as assess the impact of local public health expenditures allocated toward SUD prevention and treatment specifically on substance use outcomes at the local level.

Online volunteering and subjective well-being in China

This study aims to examine the relationship between online volunteering and subjective well-being (SWB) and to explore the mediation effect of online bridging networks. The data used in this study came from the 2019 Chinese General Social Survey (CSS). In this study, individuals who responded to survey questions about their participation in online volunteering activities and their subjective well-being(SWB) were included for analysis (N = 5556). The results showed a positive relationship between online volunteering and online bridging networks and indicated that online volunteering affects subjective well-being through the mediating role of online bridging networks. The implications of this study are relevant to policy-makers in public health and social service organizations. Based on the findings, policy-makers and nonprofit organizations are called on to support this type of volunteering which is an important means of improving public health. Nonprofit organizations can establish online social networks for potential volunteers. In addition, nonprofit organizations need to invest more resources to enhance the digital literacy of employees and volunteers, in order to enhance the quality of online volunteering services.

Displacing the displaced: the response to the protracted precarious situation of Syrian refugees in Türkiye during the Covid-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The Covid-19 crisis exposed deeply-rooted systemic problems for Syrians in Türkiye, especially continuous instability in accessing public health and social support services. By reviewing legal amendments and policies, this article examines the legal situation and the humanitarian challenges they encounter during the pandemic in Türkiye. Although the Turkish government provides free access and includes Covid-19 treatment within the emergency scope, the barriers impoverished the Syrian refugees accessing those services. This article does not address all aspects of the impact of Covid-19, thus emphasising how Turkish legal policies on refugee maintenance have constrained the life of Syrians in Türkiye. The study implies the multiple barriers, such as registration requirements and structural problems of the asylum policies restricting the Syrian refugee’s access to healthcare and State services in all aspects. The article concludes by demonstrating that the precarious legal status brings even more vulnerability at times of crisis for the Syrian refugees in Türkiye.

Формальные и неформальные практики социального обслуживания пожилых граждан

The formal and informal practices of social services for elderly consumers of social services in modern Russia are analyzed on the basis on the results of quantitative (questionnaire survey) and qualitative (interview) research. The article analyzes the current state of the social service system for citizens of retirement age in this country, which allowed the authors to state the impossibility of its state formalization in order to satisfy all social, living and medical needs of citizens of the third and fourth ages. The article emphasizes the need for a serious transformation of the existing system of public social services in the direction of expanding its subjects – participants in the service market. The practice of social, social, medical and psychological services for elderly citizens at home is considered. The most popular services are identified for full payment or partially paid. The ranking of demand for social services has been determined: social services: cooking, grocery shopping, cleaning; services for organizing medical events: escort to the polyclinic, purchase of medications, hygiene procedures; services of a psychological nature, performed less frequently and implemented in the process of interaction with a client. The authors come to the conclusion that despite the commercialization of social services and their contractual regulation, there is no transformation of social service practices on the part of consumers of services. It is common for social workers, in addition to their professional duty, to satisfy additional requests, outside the list of services provided to the consumer, which does not become an obstacle to the formation of favorable interactions between social service employees and senior citizens.

Vertical Spatial Differentiation and Influencing Factors of Rural Livelihood Resilience: Evidence from the Mountainous Areas of Southwest China

Rural livelihood resilience (RLR) is significant for the sustainability of rural areas, farmers and agriculture. This research takes the mountainous areas of Southwest China as the study areas and integrates the buffer, adjustment and renewal capabilities to construct a RLR analysis framework and evaluation indicator system. The RLR of 234 sample counties was evaluated using set pair analysis, and the influencing factors of RLR were investigated using Geodetector. The aim is to scientifically analyze the vertical spatial differentiation and influencing factors of RLR and fully explore the risk-resistant potential of rural livelihood systems in mountainous areas. The results show that (1) From 2000 to 2020, RLR increases significantly, but the level is still low, and its structure shows a primary pattern of “buffer capability > adjustment capability > renewal capability”. (2) There is no significant negative correlation between RLR and terrain gradients, especially in the middle and low mountains. RLR in high mountainous areas is significantly lower than in low and medium mountainous areas, but the gap is narrowing. There are no significant gaps in RLR and various capabilities between low and medium mountain areas. (3) Economic development, non-agricultural industries and grassroots autonomous organizations are essential determinants for RLR. Economic development, grassroots autonomous organizations and transportation conditions are more important in low and medium mountain areas, while non-agricultural industries and medical conditions contribute more to high mountainous areas. (4) To enhance the RLR, policy recommendations should place a strong emphasis on extending the agricultural industry chain, improving rural production and living infrastructure and strengthening the supply of high-quality social public services. The findings can provide a scientific basis for governments to implement rural revitalization strategies and improve farmers’ well-being, as well as practical guidance for enhancing the risk resistance ability of underdeveloped mountainous rural areas.

The Digital Economy: Opportunities and Difficulties Isamic Economy's Future

The advent of technical innovation and economic digitalization via social media platforms and shopping applications has an impact on community social and economic activity. The manual, traditional economic system has been replaced by a modern one. A basic definition of a digital economy is any economic output that uses multifunctional internet-based technologies applied in a variety of digital business models for products or services. The expansion of the Islamic economy's involvement in e-commerce must be promoted in order to support the rise of financing via the digital economy and the empowerment that comes with it. One approach that can be used to create halal product innovations that are popular on the digital economy platform is principle-based regulation. With this technology, one would anticipate that. The results of this study demonstrate that initiatives to support innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic expansion may present a chance to increase access, particularly to Islamic economic inclusion. The digital economy is also anticipated to serve as a platform for the exchange of knowledge about how to better public services, finance, or social services, as well as new technologies that could offer all societal levels first-rate, quick, and reasonably priced Islamic economic services while also enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of economic activity.

The impact of age-related differences in emotion dysregulation on refugee mental health and social outcomes.

The refugee experience is typically characterized by exposure to numerous premigration traumatic events and postmigration stress in the resettlement environment. Refugees' experiences can lead to elevated rates of psychopathology, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Emotion regulation is a key mechanism contributing to mental health outcomes among refugees. This study examined the impact of age on the association between emotion regulation and critical social outcomes relevant to refugee resettlement, such as social engagement and functional impairment. Participants were 1,081 Arabic-, Farsi-, Tamil- and English-speaking adult refugees. Premigration trauma exposure, postmigration stressors, PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, emotion regulation, social engagement, and functional impairment were measured. A series of hierarchical regression and Poisson regression analyses revealed emotion dysregulation as a significant predictor of functional impairment, β =.36, p <.001, and social engagement, Exp B = 0.99, p =.002. A significant interaction between age and emotion dysregulation was associated with both PTSD, β =.05, p =.048 and depressive symptoms, β =.06, p =.010, suggesting a stronger positive association between emotion dysregulation and both PTSD and depressive symptom severity for older individuals. Postmigration stressor exposure, emotion dysregulation, and older age are important factors that may negatively impact social engagement and functional impairment in the resettlement environment. Additionally, higher levels of trauma exposure may negatively impact social engagement. These findings have implications for public health and social services in the context of resettled refugee communities.

Prospects for Encouraging Competition in the Public Social Services Market

The article examines the practice of engaging private providers to deliver public social services in Russia, as well as the legal regulation applicable to those activities. In addition, it outlines the evolution of the legislation and incentives affecting the access of private providers to the public services market, what their actual share in this market is, and the benefits and risks from expanding it. The author’s overall conclusion is that involving private providers to deliver public services is advisable, but it should not be an end in itself. The consequences of this policy for the state budget, public infrastructure, and consumers should be considered. In keeping with this recommendation, the author suggests legislative amendments designed to eliminate artificial incentives for expanding the share of private providers in the public services market while maintaining state control over the volume of financing of the public infrastructure in order to prevent its degradation. The article also analyzes the Russian system for independent assessment of the quality of public services (IQA) which began in 2015 and assesses its suitability for comparing the quality of services from public and private providers. The author finds shortcomings in the IQA methodology, which artificially inflate the overall level of assessments. This becomes a disincentive for providers to improve the quality of their services and also reduces public confidence in the results of IQA. This analysis of IQA is used to generate proposals for improving its methodology by making its results more objective.

From the Perspective of Resource Dependence, Why Do Micro-social Work Organizations Emerge from the Circle?

The diversity of social problems and people's demand for social public services are gradually showing a diversified trend, which raises people's expectations for social work. The traditional model of social work organizations can no longer adapt to the development of social work in the new social form. This paper discusses the development of social work organizations from the perspective of resource dependence. Through in-depth analysis of organizations of the same scale based on specific cases, it can be found that stable social resources are crucial to the survival of social work organizations, and resource diversification can promote the sustainable development of organizations. Therefore, social work organizations need to promote the diversification of social resources and reduce their one-way dependence on government departments. Increase autonomy.

COVID-19 Research Trends in Social Work: LDA Topic Modeling Analysis in South Korea

This study utilizes LDA topic modeling to examine research trends related to COVID-19 within the field of social work, analyzing these trends through peer-reviewed articles from the Korea Citation Index database. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling, a statistical method for discovering abstract topics within a collection of documents, is applied to categorize and summarize the thematic concentration of the literature. Five themes have emerged: healthcare service and digitalized methods, exploring mental health status, qualitative approaches to social service program responses to COVID-19, evaluation of care services, and public service and program responses to COVID-19. Key findings reveal that the Korean social work academia focused on digital-based non-face-to-face services, evaluating the adequacy of public social services, and analyzing mental health and caregiving services during the pandemic. These findings indicate a reassessment of social work practices in response to the pandemic, underscoring the need to explore the challenges and opportunities presented by varied national responses. Additionally, the application of Python and machine learning in this research has shown significant benefits for social work studies, enabling a deeper analysis of complex, big data and facilitating more informed decision-making.

Administrative and legal mechanism of public service provision in Ukraine

Administrative and legal mechanism of public service provision in Ukraine

Konflik Perebutan Lahan Kereta Api: Dilema Penguasaan Aset Negara Pasca Nasionalisasi

This research explains the conflict over railway land and the dilemma of controlling state assets after nationalization. The research results show that there is a gap in understanding between the state and society regarding the history of land ownership. There is a perception that if land has been used for more than a few years, it can be transferred to individual ownership. In several cases, in big cities such as Medan, Bandung, and Jakarta, there is a tendency to involve the business interests of certain individuals or communities with strong capital. This indicates that in the case of the second classification, the state is challenged by capitalist forces with a pure profit orientation, while the public interest and public social services tend to be ignored. The emergence and strengthening of regional institutions as a result of growing autonomy in government also has the potential for conflicts of interest with PT. KAI regarding ownership of its assets. In this case, it is not surprising that a dispute involving the two of them becomes a conflict of interest between the central and regional governments.

Outcomes of Comprehensive Service Delivery and Early Interventions in Countering Youth Exclusion

The high rates of young people not in employment, education, or training (NEET) are an international concern. At the core of the European Union’s (EU), policy agenda is the reduction of youth unemployment and the active engagement of as many young people as possible in the workforce. The need for holistic services, interagency collaboration, and early intervention have been highlighted as important measures to reduce the risk of youth becoming NEET and subject to long-term unemployment. However, although highlighted as important, little is known about how these factors affect NEET rates. This study addresses this issue by exploring whether comprehensive service delivery, including holistic and collaborative approaches, and early interventions aimed at preventing youth from disengaging from education or employment, may explain the outcome of local NEET rates. Empirically, this study consists of multiple steps. An initial multilevel regression analysis of all Norwegian municipalities provided the basis for strategically selecting 18 municipalities based on their consistently higher or lower NEET rates than predicted when controlling for individual and structural factors that are shown to impact NEET risk. Semi-structured interviews in these municipalities regarding local work with NEETs provided the data, which were analysed using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative method (fsQCA). The results suggest that the engagement of public employment and social services (PESS) in early intervention measures aimed at preventing youth from ending up in a NEET situation, combined with either extensive collaboration with other services or a holistic-oriented local (mental) healthcare service, may indeed explain lower NEET rates.

"We want our freedom back, that's our only need": a qualitative study of health and social needs among asylum seekers and undocumented migrants crossing the borders from Belarus to Lithuania.

The influx of undocumented migrants and asylum seekers into Lithuania, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, presents unique public health challenges. This study employs the Social Determinants of Health framework to explore the healthcare and social needs of this vulnerable population. In May 2022, we carried out a qualitative study through semi-structured interviews with asylum seekers across four centers in Lithuania. Employing both purposive and snowball sampling techniques, we selected participants for our investigation. The study comprised 21 interviews-19 conducted in Arabic and 2 in English-with durations ranging between 20 and 40 min each. We audio-recorded all interviews, transcribed them verbatim, and subsequently performed a thematic analysis using Atlas.ti software. This process of design and analysis strictly followed the principles of thematic analysis as outlined by Braun and Clarke, guaranteeing methodological precision and rigor. 21 interviews revealed critical insights into the healthcare access challenges, mental health issues, and social integration barriers faced by the participants. Key themes included 'Healthcare Needs and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic 'and 'Social needs and Aspirations Amidst Pandemic-Induced Uncertainty '. The findings highlight the multifaceted healthcare and social needs of asylum seekers, juxtaposed against significant barriers they face. Access to medical services is hindered by long waiting times and financial constraints, especially for specialized care such as dental services. Communication issues during medical appointments due to language barriers and the lack of gender-specific healthcare, such as access to gynecological services, further exacerbate the challenges. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic introduces hurdles such as limited testing, isolation measures, language-specific information barriers, and insufficient social distancing practices. Mental health has emerged as a critical concern, with asylum seekers reporting significant stress and emotional exhaustion due to uncertainty and restrictive living conditions. Social needs extend to delayed asylum application processes, inconsistent language education opportunities, inadequate clothing, and nutrition that lacks cultural sensitivity, and living conditions characterized by overcrowding and insufficient facilities. The restricted freedom of movement within asylum seeking centres severely impacts their psychological well-being, underscoring a deep longing for autonomy and a better life despite the myriad of challenges faced. The study illustrates the complex interplay between migration, health, and social factors in the context of a global pandemic. It highlights the need for culturally sensitive healthcare services, mental health support, and structured language education programs. Offering educational avenues alongside language courses for children and adults is essential for fostering social inclusion and securing economic prosperity. Addressing the challenge of language barriers is of utmost importance, as these barriers significantly impede undocumented migrants' and asylum seekers employment opportunities and their access to crucial services. The findings emphasized immigration as a health determinant and underscored the importance of inclusive health policies and advocacy for undocumented migrants and asylum seekers' rights and needs. There is an urgent need for comprehensive policies and practices that are grounded in the principles of equity, compassion, and human rights. Additionally, advocating for practice adaptations that are culturally sensitive, linguistically inclusive, and responsive to the unique challenges faced by undocumented migrants and asylum seekers. As global migration continues to rise, these findings are crucial for informing public health strategies and social services that cater to the diverse needs of this vulnerable population.

Основные аспекты цифрового развития общества

The digital development of society is an urgent and important topic in the modern world, as technologies and digital tools play an increasingly important role in our daily lives. This research topic is an urgent phenomenon that requires attention and study for the effective implementation of digital technologies in various spheres of life. The purpose of the work is to study the main aspects of the digital development of society, their use and impact on people’s lives. To achieve the goal, the following were studied: the development of digital technologies and devices, the creation of digital infrastructure, the use of digital technologies to increase productivity and efficiency in various fields, the use of digital technologies to ensure a decent human life, as well as opportunities and risks. Thus, the relevance of this work lies in describing the impact of digitalization on all processes taking place in society as a whole. The paper reflects the directions of the use of the Internet and the use of digital technologies in organizations, identifies the share of the use of digital technologies to increase productivity and efficiency in agriculture and higher education, notes the development of electronic services for public services in the field of public administration and social services, improving the efficiency of the health system, the introduction of electronic voting and digital identification, the development of data monitoring and analysis systems and more. It is noted that along with the possibilities of digitalization, risks arise. Thus, digitalization has affected the economy, education, healthcare, government, cultural and entertainment development, and security.

중대재해처벌 등에 관한 법률 시행에 따른 사회복지조직의 대응방안

The Serious Accidents Punishment Act was expanded to apply to all workplaces with five or more employees on January 27, 2024. This paper examines the major legal issues surrounding senior employment support agencies, especially senior clubs, which are social welfare facilities particularly vulnerable to major accidents, and proposes organizational countermeasures for preventing major accidents. To this end, this paper analyses the main contents of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act through academic literatures, and reviews various legal principles and key issues related to the implementation of the Act on senior clubs through the case laws. This paper aims to seek effective preventive measures and responses to the accidents that occur in senior clubs. The research revealed that the characteristics of senior clubs include continuous increasing trend in the number of elderly participants in senior job programs, full-time employments more than three hundred employees, various types of business operations such as public service, social service, and private business, and continuous occurrence of dangerous accidents. The key issues of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act relevant to the senior clubs are identifying an employee with legal responsibility, types of business subject to the Act, establishment of a dedicated occupational health and safety board appropriate to the type of business, a joint penal provision, and punitive damages. This paper proposes the following responsive measures for senior clubs in response to the implementation of the Act; changing employees’ perspective towards the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, building a health and safety management system reflecting characteristics of senior clubs, utilizing scientific risk management techniques in establishing a health and safety management system and support and management from the Ministry of Health and Welfare as well as local governments.

Digital Social Connectedness as a Lifeline for Older People: Use and Non-use of VinclesBCN During the Pandemic

AbstractThis article presents the results of a study that evaluated VinclesBCN during COVID-19. This digital-based public social service aims to prevent loneliness and isolation in +65-year-old adults living in Barcelona. Through service user (N = 12) and professional (N = 6) interviews and a questionnaire with service users (N = 255), we demonstrate the pivotal role of digital connectedness in transforming VinclesBCN into a lifeline during the pandemic. The analysis revealed the importance of sociability, social support, and, especially, entertainment in coping with pandemic fatigue and facilitating social connectivity and support among users. Users engaged in activities such as sharing images, songs, memes, and daily greetings to provide proximity, sociability, and care among users, whether they belonged to preexisting groups or were newly introduced to the platform. It also facilitated the identification of individuals who needed companionship, comfort, or more specialized support. The findings emphasize the significance of entertainment as a resilience-building strategy during times of uncertainty. Despite the positive impact, not all users equally used the platform. Non-use was strongly associated with being a woman, having a low educational level, having preexisting social relationships, less time of enrolment in the platform, as well as a high perception of loneliness, poor self-reported health, and low mood. The article underscores the need for further research into older adults’ digital engagement during crises, its role in building resilience, and advocating for inclusive digital interventions that take into account diverse older adults’ needs and experiences in crisis contexts.

Communities organizing to promote equity: engaging local communities in public health responses to health inequities exacerbated by COVID-19-protocol paper.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted rural and under-resourced urban communities in Kansas. The state's response to COVID-19 has relied on a highly decentralized and underfunded public health system, with 100 local health departments in the state, few of which had prior experience engaging local community coalitions in a coordinated response to a public health crisis. To improve the capacity for local community-driven responses to COVID-19 and other public health needs, the University of Kansas Medical Center, in partnership with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, will launch Communities Organizing to Promote Equity (COPE) in 20 counties across Kansas. COPE will establish Local Health Equity Action Teams (LHEATs), coalitions comprised of community members and service providers, who work with COPE-hired community health workers (CHWs) recruited to represent the diversity of the communities they serve. CHWs in each county are tasked with addressing unmet social needs of residents and supporting their county's LHEAT. LHEATs are charged with implementing strategies to improve social determinants of health in their county. Monthly, LHEATs and CHWs from all 20 counties will come together as part of a learning collaborative to share strategies, foster innovation, and engage in peer problem-solving. These efforts will be supported by a multilevel communications strategy that will increase awareness of COPE activities and resources at the local level and successes across the state. Our mixed methods evaluation design will assess the processes and impact of COPE activities as well as barriers and facilitators to implementation using aspects of both the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) and Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance (RE-AIM) models. This protocol is designed to expand community capacity to strategically partner with local public health and social service partners to prioritize and implement health equity efforts. COPE intentionally engages historically resilient communities and those living in underserved rural areas to inform pragmatic strategies to improve health equity.

Defining a public health approach to substance use: Perspectives from professionals and practitioners across Canada

BackgroundWhile increasingly referenced in the literature and policy discussions, a “public health approach” (PHA) to substance use has been inconsistently defined or remained undefined. As part of a larger project on building the capacity to implement a PHA to substance use, we aimed to understand how professionals and practitioners across Canada who work with or whose work directly impacts the lives of people who use substances conceptualize a PHA. MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional national online survey of public health professionals, public safety professionals, health and social service providers, and other relevant professionals and practitioners. The survey contained closed- and open-ended questions designed to gauge familiarity and comfort with application of a PHA to substance use, and perspectives on an organizational definition of such an approach. Survey recruitment was active between May and July 2021. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. ResultsA total of 1041 surveys were completed. Most respondents (76 %) reported having heard of a PHA to substance use, as it was defined. Over half (54 %) indicated a high level of comfort with applying such an approach within their work. In relation to defining a PHA to substance use, the following thematic suggestions emerged from respondent's open-ended answers: explicitly recognize people with lived/living experience of substance use; incorporate trauma-informed understanding and acknowledge the varied underlying reasons for substance use; decolonize approaches to substance use and empower communities; and consider a more critical appraisal of a PHA and the terminology in its definition. ConclusionEmpirically unpacking multi-stakeholder understandings of a PHA to substance use can help to inform a more cohesive definition and build the consensus needed for more effective, coordinated, and community-led responses to substance use. Future work, especially qualitative research, will provide richer and more practical understandings of a PHA to substance use.

La contribution des fournisseurs à la résilience de la chaîne logistique d'équipements de protection individuelle

AbstractThe disruptions experienced by the healthcare supply chain of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID‐19 pandemic highlighted the importance of initiatives aimed at strengthening the resilience of this chain. This research takes the point of view of suppliers who were involved in the first months of the pandemic to fully understand their reading of events and thus be able to identify resilience initiatives to face future crises. The case under study is that of the PPE supply chain of the public healthcare and social services sector in the province of Quebec. Interviews with 23 suppliers were the main source of data, which was analyzed through the lens of social capital theory. This case study demonstrates that traditional resiliency initiatives such as safety stock or excess production capacity at suppliers would be better calibrated if buyers conducted a supplier market watch to anticipate major turbulence that could impact the supply chain.