Social Work Activities Research Articles

11. THE STATUS OF SOCIAL WORK ACTIVITIES AT SOME HOSPITALS IN HANOI 2024

Objectives: Describe the status of social work activities at some hospitals in Hanoi 2024. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study on medical staff working at several hospitals in Hanoi. Data were collected through a toolkit developed based on Circular No. 43/2015/ TT-BYT dated November 26, 2015 of the Minister of Health, regulated the tasks and forms of organization of social work in hospitals. Result: Health workers performed the most activities such as reception (63.6%), communication guidance (44.6%), and hospitalization (43.8%), while home treatment consultation had the lowest rate (22.3%). Service connection was highest for diagnosis and financial support (47.1%), while emergency support had the lowest rate (13.2%). Popular activities included support for discharge procedures (43.8%) and follow-up visits (43%), while the reception rate was lowest (23.1%). At the three hospitals National Cancer, Bach Mai, and National Children's Hospital, the rate of staff who had participated in social work training programs was 39.7%, while 60.3% had not participated. In addition, 64.5% of staff wanted to continue further education, and 35.5% had no need for further education. Conclusion: Medical facilities need to strengthen the organization of intensive and long-term training programs, with special attention to monitoring and counseling for patients after discharge to improve the quality of care. At the same time, it is necessary to add social work graduates to departments and rooms and develop a post-discharge support system to improve the effectiveness of social work in hospitals.

Building a Legacy of Research for Black Survivors of Homicide Victims: A Call to Action for Social Work

Building a Legacy of Research for Black Survivors of Homicide Victims: A Call to Action for Social Work

Critically unlearning about madness and distress: Reflections on social work education and activism in Ireland

This article draws from my involvement in critical social work education and my position as an aspiring ally of the Mad movement in the Irish context. I use a reflexive auto-critique as a methodology to consider a significant shift in my engagement with Mad matters which has led to new ways of (un)learning critically about madness and distress in education and activism. This is a shift from celebrating criticality and inclusion strategies, and in particular service-user involvement in education, to problematising criticality and its potential to perpetuate power inequalities within mental health and education systems. It is a shift from viewing critical education as a process of knowing about distress and Mad people to a process of knowing with and from Mad people, service-users, and survivors. The emerging field of Mad Studies provides a conceptual framework to inquire about knowledge and knowers, to consider issues of co-option and epistemic injustice, to focus on pedagogies for unlearning, to ask questions about representational politics and the complexities of being an engaged academic and Mad positive ally. Guided by Mad Studies as a mode of analysis, I recognise that inclusion of madness in university curricula can work in ways that continue to pathologise and subjugate Mad people. This is an unsettling recognition that leads to an interrogation of my own praxis as an academic and an aspiring ally of the Mad moment. I propose that prefigurative politics are central in these considerations as genuine engagements with mental health matters need to model the changes we aim to achieve. Engaging with the tensions of inclusion politics, the complexities of madness, and the unsettledness this engagement generates, can be a source of knowing through epistemic humility and a resource for networks of solidarity.

Applying human rights approaches in social work education through incorporating practitioner involvement and social work activism in classroom settings

ABSTRACT As a practice-based profession, the application of human rights approaches situated within a radical and critical lens is the focus of this article. It is suggested in this article that human rights can be considered a feature in both the practice and the result of radical social work. Through the use of a case study example of social work activism in Ireland, this article aims to describe how the involvement of practitioners in social work education modules, who are involved in human rights-based campaigns, can be utilized as a tangible way to show social work students the application of human rights-based approaches to the practice of social work in the field.

Organization of professional communication in social work

The article analyzes the key concepts of "communication" and "professional communication" from the point of view of an activity approach, because communication not only activates the consciousness of the subject, but also provides rational knowledge regarding the choice of social goals and means of their achievement. The specificity of the social work specialist's communicative activity is determined, which is aimed at changing individuals, groups and other social systems, at the development of one's own personality, colleagues and clients. The analysis of communication technologies taking place in social work is shown. The peculiarities of the communicative potential of social work, the improvement of the efficiency of professional communication, the identification of signs of communication in social work in the conditions of the information society, the identification of the most demanded mechanisms of interaction, the clarification of new functions and professional roles of social workers are analyzed. The need to update the principles and methods of communicative activity in social work, the approval of new communication technologies in accordance with the dynamics of social relations, the level of development of technical capabilities and the needs of modern society are substantiated. Special attention is paid to Internet communication, its advantages and limitations, problems and prospects of using the latest communication technologies are determined. Emphasis is placed on the system of social assistance, which does not always respond to the challenges of the times in a timely manner. One of the reasons for this situation is that the communicative potential of social work, which includes the development, adaptation, and implementation of various technologies for organizing professional interaction in social work, is insufficiently researched and used. New studies of the possibilities of organization and directions of development of professional communication in the activity of a specialist in the social sphere in modern conditions are considered

E-Upkruti-A Novel App to Attend Social Problems

Due to the fasting moving technical world all are busy in our routine life, without getting the time to pay heed on the social problems occurring in the society. These problems remain unaddressed by the public because of the lack of time coordination and lack of moral untechnical support. Hence our project aims at creating a platform for solving these issues. By taking the help of relevant departments and social workers into picture for help. This project aims at capturing the real-time photos of social problems and sending it to the relevant sectors to solve in the stipulated time. In an era of dynamic and innovative solutions, its designed to revolutionize the way social work is administered, executed, and experienced. This project addresses this demand by creating a seamless ecosystem that caters to the unique requirements of three distinct user groups: Administrators, Social Workers, and Users. For Administrators, the system provides a robust suite of tools that enables them to not only log in and oversee social work activities, but also to verify and manage user complaints. This Social Work Management System represents a significant step in optimizing the social work process, promoting collaboration, and ultimately improving the lives, who rely on social services

Examining /l/ variation in Singaporean bilingual child-directed speech for sociophonetic insights

Language is integrated into multiple dimensions of human behavior, and social work is essentially a language-centered activity. Although language plays a key role in many social work activities, few studies have explored its significance from the perspective of differences. This paper introduces the process of language conceptualization in social work and points out the limitations of some existing conceptual perspectives in the multilingual context in which language and social work are viewed. In English language variation, language variation mainly includes dialect, stress, register and variation. Dialects are the starting point of the study of language variation, so this paper takes dialects as a representative to study this field. First, the definition of language variation and its related factors are introduced and discussed, and how to define and study language variation is further discussed. Second, dialects are taken as a representative area to delve deeper into language variation. The different types and features of dialects are analyzed. Finally, the influence of dialects and language variation on education, society and other aspects is reviewed, highlighting some of the important effects observed in previous research.

‘Rocking the boat’ at the boundaries of social work practice

The response to the immigration crisis of 2015 raised issues about how social work as a profession in the UK was responding to what was unfolding in Calais, France. This article draws on evidence from a qualitative study conducted between 2018 and 2020 that analysed the narratives of 13 front-line local authority social workers’ experiences of volunteering with a charity. It was found that social workers were motivated to volunteer with the charity due to its commitment to social work’s core values of social justice and human rights through a radical social work approach and activism on issues affecting asylum seekers and refugees. This article highlights the opportunities for an alternative social work practice and recommends ways of embedding this in social work practice and education.

The incidence and effects of decentralized wage bargaining in Finland

There was a strong push from employers to decentralize wage setting in Finland in the early 2000s. We analyze the incidence of decentralization and its effect on the level and dispersion of wages by using nationally representative panel data. The results show that wage setting was more likely decentralized in collective agreements where a high share of employees worked in manufacturing or real estate industries than in other industries, such as in education and human health and social work activities. Decentralization was, for the most part, quite short-lived. Using recent difference-in-differences methods that allow for heterogeneous treatment effects and differences in the timing of treatment, we show that decentralization had modest positive effects on the level and dispersion of wages in manufacturing.

The Patient Symptom Experience After Tisagenlecleucel and Lisocabtagene Maraleucel CAR T-Cell Therapy for Lymphoma

ObjectivesChimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell treatment is associated with several unique toxicities, and the short-term symptom trajectory in the immediately after therapy is well-documented. However, little is known about patients’ long-term symptom experience. The study aimed to elicit the symptom experience of adult patients in remission after CAR T-cell therapy for B cell lymphoma. Data SourcesA qualitative descriptive design with thematic analysis was utilized. Recruitment occurred at a tertiary academic medical center using the following inclusion criteria: adult recipient of CAR T-cell therapy for B-cell lymphoma between 3 and 12 months prior to enrollment, and currently in remission. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcripts were inductively coded, and team members met weekly to ensure rigor. The final sample included 10 patients: Seven received tisagenlecleucel and three received lisocabtagene marleucel and were a median of 169 days post-infusion and 65 years of age. ConclusionsParticipants continued to report symptoms, including fatigue, neuropathy, low endurance, insomnia, memory problems, and pain. Most symptoms improved over time. Some symptoms interfered with social activities, work, driving, and physical activity, though participants reported that most symptoms existed prior to CAR T-cell therapy, and overall, found CAR T-cell therapy acceptable. Implications for Nursing PracticePatients in remission after CAR T-cell therapy often continue to experience symptoms. Nurses should continue to assess this growing patient population and determine if patients require additional symptom management or support. Further research is needed to understand long-term symptom trajectory and associations with prior lines of therapy and CAR T-cell therapy.

Features of cultural work and ideological education of disabled people of the Great Patriotic War in 1945–1955 (based on materials from the Tambov Psychiatric Hospital)

Importance. The study of certain aspects of cultural work among disabled people of the Great Patriotic War who are being treated in psychiatric hospitals allows not only to clarify the features of the treatment process in medical organizations, but also to carry out a systematic detail of the socialization and rehabilitation of military veterans in the 40–50s of the twentieth century.Materials and Methods. The methodological features of the study of the stated problems are based on the author’s concept of involving the works of contemporaries, primarily specialists in the field of psychiatry, practitioners of the Tambov region, as well as the actual case histories and anamnesis of mental illness. Materials from state and party archives of the Tambov region and memoirs of contemporaries were used, many of which were introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.Results and Discussion. In fact, patients in psychiatric hospitals, to one degree or another, were involved in mass cultural events, ideologically verified political and cultural activities, which reflected the mentality of not only the party elite and nomenklatura, but also completely coexisted in the perception and understanding of the overwhelming majority of the population of the Soviet Union. The results of studying the problem made it possible to assess these processes, viewed through the prism of the development of regional healthcare, to identify not only the vectors and trends in the formation of Soviet psychiatry in the first post-war decade, but also to clarify the features of the relationship between government and society, the individual and the state, individual consciousness and the collective Soviet (“communist”) worldview.Conclusion. The results of the study allow us to draw a very obvious conclusion that cultural work, as well as political education in general, was not only an integral part of the ideological concept of the era of socialism, which lowered the entire structure of Soviet society, but also an important component of the treatment and preventive work of medical institutions of various profiles. These medical and social work activities were carried out very successfully in the Tambov region. However, in general, it should be noted that the lack of trained personnel and resources, including logistics, musical instruments, etc., often contributed to the formation of a superficial approach in organizing cultural work in psychiatric clinics. It is important to note that these shortcomings are fully preserved in the modern healthcare system in the Russian Federation. In fact, the traditions of budgetary residual financing of medical institutions are stable in the worldview of officials from different historical eras. But it is still worth noting that the general messages of ideological education consistently covered the entire population of the country, including patients in psychiatric hospitals. For these war veterans, political information, reading newspapers, and watching movies were quite common, which inevitably helped their rapid socialization, inclusion in normal communication, and ensured stable remissions during mental disorders.

‘Behind bars, beyond borders’: solidarity in the face of the criminalisation of a social work human rights defender

This commentary piece is written by Bilal Yildiz, a social worker in Turkey and a human rights defender. It tells the story of his arrest on trumped-up charges and the continuing threat to his freedom as a result of his social work activities. Bilal graduated from Istanbul University, Department of Social Work, and continues his master’s programme in human rights law at Istanbul Bilgi University. He has been working as a social worker at the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey since 2016. In addition to his professional work, he has been active in many professional and human rights organisations. He is currently a board member of the Association of Social Workers, a member of the Human Rights Association, a member of the Kurdish Studies Association and a founding member of the Migration Monitoring Association.

Findings from a national evaluation of social work field education programs in Liberia, West Africa

Program evaluation is an integral component of social work field education and continuous social work programmatic improvement. To conduct an inaugural national survey of social work field education programs in Liberia, West Africa, Made in Africa Evaluation (MAE) was used to design and implement a national evaluation of social work field education programs. The evaluation was led by and implemented with Liberian social work faculty and staff. Thirty-six field supervisors completed a quantitative survey. Results were used to assist programs identify strengths and areas for improvement. The MAE approach guided analysis and discussion of evaluation results. Findings revealed an emerging credentialed and experienced pool of field supervisors with high exposure and endorsement of human rights concepts, which was a strength. Field agencies were clustered in the city center of Montserrado County, the county seat for Monrovia-Liberia’s capital. Field agencies’ missions and services aligned with health, education, and gender equality sustainable development goals. Field agency supervisors provided few opportunities for students to practice macro based developmental social work activities such as advocacy and community work, an area identified as needing improvement. Challenges included Liberian social work faculty’s lack of experience in conducting evaluation research, insufficient access to scholarly databases to obtain research articles, and expensive data management platforms. Collaboration was recommended as a strategy to build evaluation capacity. How to reference using ASWNet style: Tuggle, F., Banks, S. and Gbessage, S. (2023). Findings from a national evaluation of social work field education programs in Liberia, West Africa. African Journal of Social Work, 13(6), 273-284. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ajsw.v13i6.1 Visit journal website: https://ajsw.africasocialwork.net

The Development Strategy of Voluntourism in Tourism Villages at Badung Regency

World tourism before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic showed positive growth, especially with the birth of new tourism products such as voluntourism. Badung as one of the tourist destinations in Bali has the opportunity to develop voluntourism. This research aims to determine the perceptions, and motivations of tourists, managers, and tourist village communities in Badung Regency to make voluntourism an alternative tourism, as well as formulate strategies for developing voluntourism to support tourism development. This research was designed using a qualitative approach through data collection and analysis using observation, questionnaires, interviews, and literature study. Data were analyzed to understand the relationship between the structure of the voluntourism implementation process between organizers, tourists, and the community, and the impact of the voluntourism program. This research is based on voluntourism theory, voluntourist perceptions, motivation, supply and demand for voluntourism, consumer behavior, alternative tourism, and sustainable tourism. These theories are the basis for explaining the research concept clearly and measurably regarding the views of tourists, the community, and organizers or implementers of voluntourism to make voluntourism alternative tourism under the principles of sustainable tourism development in Badung Regency. The results and discussion show that the perception of tourists, the community, and tourist village managers regarding the implementation of voluntourism in tourist villages in Badung Regency is positive because it provides benefits to the community; The motivation of tourists to make voluntourism an alternative tourism in tourist villages in Badung Regency is well received because it can combine various holiday activities and social work activities with the community in tourist villages in Badung Regency; voluntourism is becoming a new force as alternative tourism that provides real and positive multi-effect benefits to the community; and voluntourism is used as a new strategy. This research concludes that voluntourism can be accepted as a potential alternative to tourism because it provides positive benefits for the community and managers of tourist villages in Badung Regency, and can be used as a strategy to support sustainable tourism development in tourist villages in Badung Regency.

SOCIAL PROJECTS AS A TOOL FOR IMPLEMENTING INNOVATIONS IN SOCIAL WORK

The political and socio-economic situation in the country calls for a rapid response to address social issues through the implementation of innovations in the work of professionals in the social sphere of both the public and private sectors. The aim of the research is to analyze social projects as innovative tools for solving or minimizing social issues in social work. To achieve the research objective, the following methods were used: analysis and synthesis of scientific resources to investigate types of social innovations and the characteristics of internal innovations (social projects) as tools of innovative activity in social work. External (managerial, radical) and internal innovations (social projects) have been characterized, with the advantages of the latter identified: rapid response to situations, specificity, consideration of the characteristics and interests of individuals, groups, and communities, and the ability to more easily implement their own innovations compared to those proposed by others. The article presents classifications of social project ideas based on the criterion of novelty (absolute and relative novelty). It also discusses ways to develop a project after funding has ceased: using the implemented idea in the form of innovative material or ideal products (event scenarios, games, methodologies, technologies, social advertising, etc.) in further activities; error correction and improvement of the idea (project), developing a new project based on the modified idea; diffusion of the project idea into other areas; and the search for fundamentally new ideas and solutions for the development of new social projects. Emphasis is made on the fact that during the years of Ukraineʼs independence, a large number of social projects have been implemented by both government and non-governmental organizations in the field of social work. These projects contain a wealth of innovative ideas, original developments, and innovative products that can be partially or fully transformed and adapted to new conditions. Today, there is a necessity to develop a resource (platform) where innovators can consciously share their ideas and products for free, enabling individuals with active civic positions to unite for collaborative solutions to social problems in the country.

Covid-19 Occupational Risk Incidence and Working Sectors Involved During the Pandemic in Italy

BackgroundStarting from March 2020 until December 2021, different phases of Covid-19 pandemic have been identified in Italy, with several containing/lifting measures progressively enforced by the National government. In the present study, we investigate the change in occupational risk during the subsequent pandemic phases and we propose an estimate of the incidence of the cases by economic sector, based on the analysis of insurance claims for compensation for Covid-19. MethodsCovid-19 epidemiological data available for the general population and injury claims of workers covered by the Italian public insurance system in 2020–2021 were analyzed. Monthly Incidence Rate of Covid-19 compensation claims per 100,000 workers (MIRw) was calculated by the economic sector and compared with the same indicator for general population in different pandemic periods. ResultsThe distribution of Covid-19 MIRw by sector significantly changed during the pandemic related to both the strength of different waves and the mitigation/lifting strategies enforced. The level of occupational fraction was very high at the beginning phase of the pandemic, decreasing to 5% at the end of 2021. Healthcare and related services were continuously hit but the incidence was significantly decreasing in 2021 in all sectors, except for postal and courier activities in transportation and storage enterprises. ConclusionThe analysis of compensation claim data allowed to identify time trends for infection risk in different working sectors. The claim rates were highest for human health and social work activities but the distribution of risk among sectors was clearly influenced by the different stages of the pandemic.

A New World Cannot be Built Alone: An Abolitionist Framework for Collective Action in Social Work

States across the U.S. are increasingly passing anti-CRT and anti-trans policies, most of which have begun to pervade institutions of higher education, igniting a concerning trend that is harming our communities, clients, students, and each other. While social work has been quick to name the harms of the systems with which we engage, it fails to address the mechanisms underlying those systems. To better aid schools of social work to move toward meaningful action, this conceptual article presents an abolitionist framework for collective action that highlights how social work schools and educators can resist performative responses to legislative terror. This framework calls for social work to take on the role of fugitive as we critically examine, disrupt, and disinvest from harmful power structures in social work. By adopting an abolitionist approach to collective action, schools of social work can better prepare faculty and students to engage in collective action for a more just society.

Prevalence and burden of nausea and vomiting in pregnant women: Interim analysis of the PURITY survey

ObjectivesNausea and vomiting in pregnancy is a common and invalidating condition in early pregnancy. However, no data are available on its prevalence in Italy. This survey aims to evaluate the prevalence and impact of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy on the quality of life of Italian women. Study designThe survey was performed in three Italian public University Hospitals in two distinct periods: a first interview took place between the 18th and 22nd week of pregnancy, using the Questionnaire for Pregnancy Period (14 questions regarding demographic data and 30 questions about nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, including Pregnancy-Unique Quantification of Emesis questionnaire), and a follow-up interview, by telephone call, took place immediately after giving birth and in any case within 14 days of delivery, using the Questionnaire for Post-Pregnancy (9 questions). Included women were Caucasian, in physiological pregnancy and between the 18th and 22nd week (time of morphological ultrasound), able to communicate adequately with the interviewer, understand the questionnaires and able to provide valid informed consent. Twin pregnancies and women who recurred to medically assisted procreation were excluded.This is an interim report on data collected from 232 of the planned 600 women. ResultsMean age of the recruited subjects was 32.6 ± 4.6 years, with approximately 60% primiparous. The prevalence of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy in the sample examined was 65.5% overall (152 out of 232 subjects). Of these 152 women, 63 (41.4%) experienced only nausea, 6 (3.9%) only vomiting, and 83 (54.6%) reported both. Symptoms were reported to begin at 7.2 ± 2.7 weeks, lasted 10.2 ± 5.6 weeks, and persisted at the time of the interview in 32.2% of cases. Overall, over 50% of the women interviewed experienced a negative impact of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy on social relationships and work activity. ConclusionsA high prevalence of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, 65.5% overall, was found in this interim analysis. These symptoms appeared capable of negatively influencing women quality of life. Screening procedures should be offered during pregnancy and measures that address nausea and vomiting in pregnancy impact warranted.

Values in Social Work and Professional Relationship Towards Users

The paper presents the results of comparative empirical research conducted among social work students (N=146), who were grouped into two subsamples: students from the Australian College of Applied Psychology, Sydney and Melbourne (N= 71), and students from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from the Universities of Banja Luka, Tuzla and Sarajevo (N=75). The subject of the research was the values in social work that determine the professional attitude and ways of intervening towards the users of the social protection system, among social work students in two different educational, cultural, and social-political environments (Australia and Bosnia and Herzegovina). The goal of the research was to determine whether there are differences in the attitudes and opinions of students about the values of social work, professional attitudes, and actions towards users of the social protection system, about the country of study and residence. The research was carried out using the research method (survey technique), for the needs of which a specially prepared instrument - Questionnaire (ORiSR/April 2020) was created, which examined students' attitudes about the professional relationship and measures of treatment towards users of social work services. The obtained results confirmed the assumed hypothesis that there are significant differences in students' attitudes regarding the place of study, that is, the different cultural and social circumstances in which future social workers are educated. Differences were observed in the evaluation of individual measures and forms of protection for users of social work services. Students from Bosnia and Herzegovina believe that adoption and foster care are preferable forms of protection for children without parental care, while the majority of students from Australia think that the adoption of children in same-sex unions should be allowed. Also, the obtained results showed that, even though the views of students from Australia and Bosnia and Herzegovina differ on some values of social work, essential differences were not observed in the values related to satisfying the primary interest of the user, subordinating personal principles to the values of social work and social activism of social work in the community.

Ethical conflicts, moral distress, and moral action in social work

ABSTRACT In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the diverse ethical conflicts facing social workers, who often find it difficult to act in accordance with their moral and professional obligation to their clients due to organisational constraints and restrictions. ‘Moral distress’, a theoretical and empirical term taken from the nursing literature, refers to ethical conflicts of this type and their emotional ramifications. Despite the burgeoning discourse on moral distress and its manifestations in social work, ambiguity exists regarding the types of conflicts that should be included in this term, as well as the relationships between its environmental and personal components. In addition, although theoretical models emphasised the relationships between moral distress and moral action, empirical research knowledge on these relationships is limited. This article maps the existing research knowledge on ethical conflicts, moral action, and moral distress in social work and proposes additional qualitative and quantitative research directions that will expand the scholarly knowledge regarding these components as well as the relationships between them. Enriching the research knowledge regarding moral conduct in social work may contribute to the development of organisational and professional strategies to cope with these ethical challenges in the profession.