Social Services Research Articles

Perspectives of Turkish family physicians towards refugee patients and primary health care: A qualitative study

ObjectivesThe increasing number of refugees in various regions of our country has led to socio-economic issues and challenges in the healthcare system. This study aims to investigate family physicians' perspectives in Turkey regarding refugees' social lives and healthcare services. DesignThis is a qualitative cross-sectional study using phenomenological research design. The study was carried out with family physicians in health care centers. Three online focus group interviews were conducted to collect the data. The interviews proceeded with semistructured questions about their perceptions of refugee health and their challenges while working with refugee patients. The research data were descriptively presented and supported by quotes obtained from interviews with the participants. ResultsA total of 24 family physicians were reached through three online sessions for data collection. Of the 24 participating family physicians, 10 were men and 14 were women. On average, the physicians had eight years of medical experience, and the average number of registered immigrant populations in the family health units was around 100 patients. After consulting the domain experts, a final determination of 4 different themes was made. These themes were identified as follows: experience, emotions, and thoughts; encountered challenges, and proposed solutions. ConclusionsFamily physicians face difficulties adapting to healthcare systems and face challenges in scheduling appointments and accessing advanced medical investigations when seeking hospital services.

‘Shooting in the dark’: implications of the research–practice gap for enhancing research use in adult social care

Background: Despite calls for greater use of research and an appetite to do so within adult social care, a gap persists between research and practice. Aims and objectives: To explore views of adult social care staff about research and its application to everyday practice. To understand how these might impact upon research use capacity-building initiatives within adult social care organisations. Methods: Thematic analysis of semi-structured qualitative interviews with 25 staff members working within the adult social care departments of three English local authorities. Findings: Participants characterised research as feeling separate from practice. They reflected on their use of it in relation to pressures affecting adult social care and identified a lack of relevant research. Research benefiting service users, supporting individual practice or informing organisational decision-making was considered useful. However, research could also be viewed as a luxury where its findings were felt to represent an ‘ideal’ rather than real world of practice or did not accord with practice knowledge or local experience. Discussion and conclusions: While participants feel positively towards research, there remains a gap between these perceptions and its use in practice. There remains a need to improve research relevance and accessibility and to clarify its role in decision-making in social care, including where there is no evidence, where evidence challenges existing practice, or where the evidence base is growing. Collaborative partnerships between adult social care organisations, researchers and service users could help to narrow the research–practice gap and support the routine translation of research to practice.

“What is the point of being able to enter a building if the service or activity is not adapted?”: Leisure opportunities for people with severe disabilities’

Leisure and relationships are crucial for human development, especially in the youth stage, and are recognised rights. Notwithstanding, young people with disabilities encounter many barriers to access these activities, especially those with severe disabilities. We aim to analyse their experiences and those of their families in this area. We conducted a reflexive thematic analysis of 25 interviews held with young people with severe disabilities and/or their guardians from different areas of Aragón (Spain). We detected difficulties, such as access to resources, and the relevance of family support and its impact. Aggravating factors, such as being institutionalised, being a migrant or having multidisability were assessed. After discussing participants’ proposals with current research, we proposed measures to improve social inclusion in the leisure of young people with severe disabilities, such as recognising the leisure assistant figure, the training for and more professionals, or the incorporation of the intersectional perspective into specialised social services.

Climate shocks and food insecurity: Are Burkinabè households resilient in the face of various disruptions?

In response to climate change and international economic crises, which exacerbate the vulnerability of populations in developing countries to various disturbances and shocks, resilience is proposed as a programmatic solution to prevent the deterioration of food security and well-being. This study aims to measure and analyze Burkina Faso households’ resilience to food insecurity during periods of climatic shock and stress. Drawing on the literature concerning the notion of resilience and its conceptualization, we assessed a resilience structure based on three pillars: absorption, adaptation, and transformation. The data used come from the Harmonized Survey of Household Living Conditions conducted in 2018 by Burkina Faso’s National Institute of Statistics and Demography, covering 7,020 households across the country. Statistical analysis, based on structural equation models, revealed that all three pillars are significant in explaining the level of household resilience, measured by a standardized index ranging from 0 to 1. Based on this scale, the average resilience index was estimated at 0.3985 at the national level and exhibited significant differences across regions and socioeconomic factors. Thus, the average resilience index is lower in rural areas compared to urban areas, and similarly, households headed by women exhibit lower resilience levels relative to those headed by men. Furthermore, the resilience capacity index and food security indicators show statistically significant negative correlations with idiosyncratic and systemic disturbances reported, suggesting that their occurrence could have negative impacts on households. One of the key findings is that strengthening the pillars positively impacts social well-being. Therefore, we recommend that development policies focus on supporting households in diversifying income sources, improving access to essential social services, developing supportive economic infrastructure, and enhancing social safety nets to increase the resilience of vulnerable households.

Leveraging the Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) Process to Advance Health Equity.

The fetal and infant mortality review (FIMR) process is a community-oriented strategy focused on improving the health services systems for pregnant persons, infants, and their families. FIMR helps communities to understand and change systems that contribute to racial disparities in birth outcomes. FIMR equally values the medical and social services delivery records and the personal narratives of families who have suffered a fetal or infant loss when creating the de-identified case summaries to be reviewed by teams. A two-tiered process, FIMR uses a multidisciplinary Case Review Team (CRT) as the information processor and the Community Action Team (CAT) as the action arm of the process. Pediatricians are vital to both teams, helping to bring about systems change to improve maternal and child health. This paper examines how the well-established FIMR team serving Indianapolis (Marion County, IN) worked to build the capacity of its CAT to address racial disparities in birth outcomes through 5 distinct steps: focus on the primary causes of local fetal or infant mortality, focus on neighborhoods with the highest stable fetal or infant mortality rates, designation of a CAT leader, creation of a culture of regular CAT meetings inclusive of a health-equity skill building curriculum, and inclusion of Grassroots Maternal and Child Health Leaders on the CAT. This paper demonstrates how the synergy between local organizations and community members can effectively address racial disparities in birth outcomes.

Stronger Together: A community case study highlighting the benefits of pharmacy and community collaborations.

BackgroundThe pandemic exposed weaknesses in existing social and health care infrastructures, disproportionately affecting health outcomes, particularly within rural communities. Addressing these challenges within rural settings requires innovative interventions. This study seeks to evaluate the role of an interagency network in increasing vaccine uptake in rural settings. MethodsThe Network, a partnership of community based clinical and social service organizations, including community pharmacies, community health workers and academic researchers, implemented outreach activities which targeted factors related to access to and acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines at the individual, interpersonal, community and environmental levels. Qualitative methods including in-depth interviews and content analysis of transcripts from planning and networking meetings, were subjected to narrative analysis to document the effectiveness of this multi-component intervention. ResultsThrough different outreach efforts, the Network was able to achieve 84,206 educational touchpoints and administer 14,769 vaccines to individuals in the 16-county project area in southeastern Missouri. Leveraging the influence of community pharmacists and community health workers was found to be effective in overcoming barriers to access, improving vaccine uptake, and addressing social and health inequities. Facilitators for the partnership and the success of its initiatives included trust, capacity building, and enhancing access, while poor communication and unclear role definition created barriers. ConclusionStudy highlights the benefits of community health workers (CHWs) and community pharmacists working collaboratively to increase vaccine uptake in rural Missouri. Findings provide support for expanding this model for future health initiatives.

Development of an organizational typology of interprofessional primary care teams in Quebec, Canada: A multivariate analysis

BackgroundThis study aimed to develop an organizational typology of Interprofessional Primary Care (IPC) teams in Quebec, Canada, by describing their organizational profiles and assessing the association between the characteristics of the populations served and the organizational profiles. MethodsThis cross-sectional study was carried out using a finite mixture model of the 2021 financial monitoring data from the Ministry of Health and Social Services of Quebec. The population consisted of all IPC teams in Quebec (N=368). A multinomial logistic model was used to study the association between the population characteristics and the organizational profiles. ResultsThe analysis revealed that IPC teams were heterogeneous and could be classified into five distinct profiles varying in size, team composition, sector, type, and level of partnership. Pregnant women (odds ratio [OR] = 2.78, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.98-3.91), disadvantaged patients ([OR] = 1.62, [CI] 1.15-2.28), patients receiving homecare support ([OR] = 1.85, [CI] 1.28-2.66) and rural patients ([OR] = 0.66, [CI] 0.50-0.86)) were more likely to be associated to the medium, public, university-affiliated, practitioner-oriented, low partnered profile compared to the very small, private, regular, high-partnered profile. ConclusionIPC teams can be characterized into five distinct profiles that are associated with the characteristics of the populations they serve. These results may help to better evaluate if the desired effects of IPC teams have been achieved.

Development, Acceptability, and Initial Implementation of an Interactive Text-Messaging Program for Fathers with Low Income.

This study describes the development, acceptability, and implementation of an interactive text messaging program to engage fathers enrolled in home visitation programs. We used an iterative development approach that integrated rapid testing of intervention content with acceptability feedback from program participants to examine the processes of implementation. In Study 1, we describe the rapid testing framework and present data from 171 men who provided feedback on Text4Dad content via three online surveys. In Study 2, a case study, we use administrative data from 108 fathers with whom we pilot-tested Text4Dad in three community-based home visiting programs, with the program implemented by fatherhood program community health workers (F-CHWs). Content analysis of exchanges between F-CHWs and fathers describes the specific use of Text4Dad. Across all three online surveys, fathers reported positive reviews of the Text4Dad content. The F-CHWs used Text4Dad mainly to push out information, especially that related to home visit scheduling and local events, instead of engaging in bidirectional interactions with fathers. We conclude with a set of recommendations for social service and maternal and child health providers regarding the feasibility of implementing text messaging to support home visiting in community-based settings.

Effects of Perceived Accessibility to Living Infrastructure on Positive Feelings Among Older Adults.

Social participation among older adults is a critical aspect that facilitates the improvement of their overall well-being. A critical factor influencing the social participation of older adults to achieve optimal aging is perceived accessibility to living infrastructure. The study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of how perceived accessibility to transportation systems, public service facilities, and digital services influences life satisfaction and happiness among older adults. Survey data were collected from 200 households in South Korea and the research paper utilized the Partial Least Squares (PLSs) bootstrapping methodology with 5000 subsample iterations for analysis. The study shows that perceived accessibility to transportation systems, public service facilities, and digital services significantly influenced satisfaction among older adults. Satisfaction, in turn, had a positive effect on happiness. The implications for theory and practical implications were provided for officials and social service professionals concerning the geriatric population.

Pediatric Practices’ Experiences with Massachusetts’ Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations

ObjectiveTo examine the experience of Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) that include pediatric practices, including their motivations and experiences working together. MethodsThis mixed methods study is set within the first two years of the Massachusetts Medicaid ACO Program, which created 17 Medicaid ACOs across the Commonwealth in 2018. It combines qualitative interviews from organizational leaders across three Medicaid ACOs with pediatric representation (N=28; purposive sample; 2018) with a 44-item primary care practice leader survey (N=225 after 64% response rate; statewide stratified random sample of primary care practices; 2019). Interviews gathered information about organizational motivations and experiences with becoming a Medicaid ACO; the survey asked five domains of questions describing the experience of pediatric- and adult-focused primary care practices in joining Medicaid ACOs (e.g., how much practices solved problems jointly with the ACO). We used ordinary least squares regression to describe differences in experiences across pediatric vs. non-pediatric practices. ResultsLeaders of Medicaid ACO with pediatric representation expressed a desire to voice pediatric concerns regarding state Medicaid payment policy and to integrate social services as part of routine medical care. Relative to the experience of adult-focused primary care practice leaders, pediatric-focused practices reported less collaboration within the Medicaid ACO (95% confidence interval 0.81 to 0.05; p = 0.03) and less change toward standardization of policies such as physician compensation (95% confidence interval 0.61 to 0.02; p = 0.04). ConclusionsInitial Medicaid ACO experiences can differ based on the degree to which organizations joining Medicaid ACO programs serve pediatric populations. Article SummaryEarly in Massachusetts’ implementation of Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), pediatric-focused practices reported less collaboration and standardization within their Medicaid ACOs than adult-focused practices.

Value Co‐Creation in a Social Purpose Institution: The Case of the Dynamo Camp Art Factory—Between Art Therapy and Artification

ABSTRACTThis study explores artification in nonprofit organizations, specifically focusing on the use of the arts to enhance the well‐being of users. By examining how nonprofit institutions integrate artistic practices into their programs, the research highlights the potential for art to serve as a tool for promoting emotional, mental, and social well‐being among diverse populations. Moreover, the impact of art therapy on various stakeholders (e.g., artists and/or art dealers) within nonprofit health and social service organizations and the art market in general remains understudied. Therefore, this study examines the case of the Dynamo Camp Art Factory and the complex system of relationships between the various stakeholders to understand the benefits of art therapy and the related artification process. Our findings show that through the involvement of artists in art therapy, value co‐creation activities have a cultural and economic impact far beyond the therapeutic effect.

대학생의 소셜 네트워크 서비스 이용동기가 우울에 미치는 영향: 외로움의 매개효과

This study was conducted to examine whether loneliness mediates the relationship between university students' motivations for using social network service and depression. For this, a survey was conducted among students at a university in Region M from September to November 2023, with a final sample of 456 responses analyzed using SPSS 26.0. The mediation effect was assessed through Baron and Kenny's three-step regression analysis. The main findings are as follows: First, social network services usage motivations among college students varied significantly based on gender, academic performance, and satisfaction with their major. Second, the motivation for reality avoidance during social network services use significantly impacted both loneliness and depression, whereas the motivation for interpersonal relationship formation significantly affected only loneliness. Third, loneliness was found to partially mediate the relationship between reality avoidance motivation during social network services use and depression. Specifically, the negative influence of reality avoidance motivation on social network services use was confirmed, indicating that this motivation increases loneliness, which in turn positively affects depression. Based on these findings, the study proposes differentiated interventions based on social network services usage motivations and strategies to reduce loneliness among college students.

보호자 중심 운영에 따른 보호자의 사회적 자본이 사회복지서비스 이용에 미치는 부정적 영향에 관한 사례연구: 양천구 입양아 사망사건을 중심으로

This study explores the negative impact of caregivers' social capital on the use of social welfare services through a case study of the child abuse death incident in Yangcheon-gu. By applying social capital theory, the study analyzes how caregivers' intangible capital restricts the rights and choices of vulnerable users, such as children, in the operation of social welfare services. The research methods involved frequency analysis and literature analysis using Textom, revealing the structural issues where children’s choice rights were limited due to caregivers’ social capital during the handling of abuse cases by key actors such as the police, daycare centers, and adoption agencies. The results showed that social capital facilitated a caregiver-centered service operation, leading to situations where children's rights were inadequately protected. Specifically, adoption agencies and the police prioritized their networks and trust with the caregivers over the children's interests, resulting in inadequate protection of the children. In contrast, daycare centers intervened relatively more in line with the children's interests, but were still constrained in their role due to the imbalance of social capital. This study suggests that the imbalance of social capital between caregivers and users in social welfare services can distort service delivery, highlighting the need for institutional interventions and the strengthening of advocacy systems. These measures aim to provide concrete solutions for realizing user-centered service operations in social welfare services in the future.

ALADURA IN THE CITY: EXPLORING HOW THE CHERUBIM AND SERAPHIM NAVIGATES CITY DYNAMICS IN NIGERIA

This paper discusses how the Cherubim and Seraphim (C&S) navigates the complex city dynamics within the context of time and space and how both the church and the city shape and reshape one another in Nigeria. The C&S is a major brand of Aladura Christianity, which emerged as a prayer group and metamorphosed into major and countless number of minor strands of churches that bear the name “Cherubim and Seraphim” as prefix or suffix. The C&S navigates a diverse, competitive, and dynamic religious landscape where the changing city life of modernisation and globalisation influence how the church practices its faith. Such influence offers the church a wide range of opportunities and challenges in every city where it exists. Education, media technologies, social services, security challenge and economic depression are major indicators of how the church negotiates its relevance and visibility within the city. The paper posits that the interaction between the C&S and its cities of existence stimulates considerable resilience and positive impacts on the both sides.

Effects of early childhood growth and development interventions on children less than two years of ag.

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of early childhood growth and development interventions on children under two years of age. We used PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Springer Link, and Wiley to select studies that explored the effects of interventions on the growth and development of children under two years published growth from January 2015 to December 2023. The study used the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. We found 1235 articles, while 26 articles were analyzed thematically. The thematic areas included: impact of intervention, health services implemented, and growth and development of children under two years of age. The results show that providing early and comprehensive education, health and social services has an impact on the growth and development of children under two years of age. Further studies regarding the long-term impact and effectiveness of interventions designed to improve the growth and development of children under two years of age are required.

Implementasi Penegakan Hukum Undang-Undang Nomor 18 Tahun 2014 terhadap Perlindungan Hukum dan Kendalanya pada Orang dengan Gangguan Jiwa di Kota Semarang

The number of people with mental disorders in Semarang City continues to increase. The large number of people with mental disorders in Semarang needs to be addressed seriously to prevent causing discomfort in social activities. Therefore, the author compiled a journal titled "Implementation of Law Enforcement Law Number 18 of 2014 concerning Legal Protection and Constraints on People with Mental Disorders in Semarang City." This journal aims to uncover issues related to how the implementation of Law Number 18 of 2014 on law enforcement against legal protection for people with mental disorders in Semarang City and what factors cause people to experience mental disorders in Semarang City. The research method used in this study is a qualitative method with a socio-legal juridical approach. The data used in this study was obtained using data collection techniques through interviews conducted with Mrs. Lela Dwipayana, S.H. as the Social Rehabilitation Staff of the PMKS Guidance Service Sub-Coordinating Social Welfare Services. The results of this study found that Law Number 18 of 2014 on Mental Health has protected people with mental disorders by being handled by the Social Service in Semarang City.

대학생의 디지털 리터러시 변화에 대한 종단연구: 잠재성장모형을 적용하여

The purpose of this study was to examine the change patten of college students’ digital literacy by using the data of ‘Korean Media Panel Data for the 12th(2021), 13the(2021), 14th(2023) year conducted by Korea Information Society Development Institute(KISDI). Four sub-competencies of information utilization, information acquisition, media utilization, and personal information recognition were selected as digital literacy competencies. The latent growth model was utilized to analyze longitudinal change with influence of independent variables. The major findings of this research were as followings. First, college student’s digital literacy showed linearly increased. Second, it was confirmed that the major(engineering sciences), SNS(social network service) and OTT(over-the-top media service) consumption behavior had a positive effect on the initial level and change in digital literacy, while gender had no significant differences in digital literacy. Third, the predictors(major, SNS and OTT consumption) had significant effects on information utilization, information acquisition. Based on the results of study, we suggest that it is necessary to care of non-science and Engineering Students. Also, it is necessary to provide opportunities and programs for individual student to use digital platforms and online contents.

DAMPAK KORUPSI BANSOS TERHADAP KESEJAHTERAAN MASYARAKAT DALAM PANDANGAN MAHASISWA SEKOLAH TINGGI DESAIN INDONESIA

This article explores the impact of corruption on social assistance programmes and its effect on community welfare from the perspective of design students. Corruption, which is a practice that harms both the state and society, often hinders the effectiveness of social assistance programmes, which should aim to improve social welfare. Design students, with different backgrounds and approaches, produce different perspectives in analysing the impact of corruption on social welfare. Through case studies and qualitative analysis, this article shows how corruption can affect social assistance distribution, service quality, and community satisfaction. The results show that design students have an assessment of social assistance corruption cases and design students can play an important role in reducing corruption and increasing the effectiveness of social assistance, so that it can contribute to improving people's welfare.

Efektivitas Layanan Rehabilitasi Sosial dan Kompetensi Konselor terhadap Kualitas Hidup Korban Penyalahgunaan Narkotika

This research is focused on finding the influence of effectiveness on quality of life, the influence of competence on quality of life and the influence of effectiveness and competence on quality of life in the Class IIA Serang prison. This research uses an associative method with a quantitative approach. The sampling technique used a saturated sampling technique, namely all correctional inmates receiving social rehabilitation services, totaling 60 people. Data were collected using a questionnaire in paper form which was distributed to all correctional inmates. Data processing uses multiple linear regression with the help of SPSS 24 to determine the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable. The test results show that the significance probability value for the influence of effectiveness (X1) on quality of life (Y) is 0.098 > 0.05, which means that partially effectiveness has no significant effect on quality of life, then the significance probability value for the influence of competence (X2) on quality of life ( Y) is 0.000 < 0.05, which means that partially competence has a significant influence on quality of life and the significance value for the influence of effectiveness (X1) and competence (X2) simultaneously or combined on quality of life (Y) is 0.000 < 0.05, so it can be It was concluded that there was a simultaneous influence of effectiveness and competence on quality of life.

Analysis of feature extraction techniques for sentiment analysis of tweets

Over the past few years, sentiment analysis has moved from social networking services like LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and online product-based reviews to determine public opinion or emotion using social media textual contents. The methodology includes data selection, text pre-processing, feature extraction, classification model, and result analysis. Text pre-processing is an important stage in structuring data for improved performance of our methodology. The feature extraction technique (FET) is a crucial step in sentiment analysis as it is difficult to obtain effective and useful information from highly unstructured social media data. A number of feature extraction techniques are available to extract useful features. In this work, popular feature extraction techniques including bag of words (BOW), term frequency and inverse document frequency (TF-IDF), and Word2vec are compared and analyzed for the sentiment analysis of social media contents. A method is proposed for processing text data from social media networks for sentiment analysis that uses support vector machine as a classifier. The experiments are carried on three datasets of different context namely US Airline, Movie Review, and News from Twitter. The results show that TF-IDF consistently outperformed other techniques with best accuracy of 82.33%, 92.31%, and 99.10% for Airline, Movie Review, and News datasets respectively. It is also found that the proposed method performed better than some existing methods.