Social Work Agencies Research Articles

Attuning to the needs of structural socially isolated older adults with complex problems: the experiences of social workers with personal guidance trajectories for a less-researched group.

Many interventions to combat the social isolation of older adults are hardly effective because they ignore both the heterogeneity of the target group and the uniqueness of the individual experiences of social isolation. In order to be effective, interventions must meet the individual needs of specific clients. In this study, we aim to gain insight into the process in which professionals seek to understand how clients assess their situation, and what this means for the help they provide. We investigated how social workers in one‐to‐one guidance trajectories try to attune to the needs of the clients they accompany and what considerations they make in doing so.The study was conducted between 2014 and 2017 in the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Participants were 20 social workers of 8 social work agencies who provided guidance to community‐dwelling older adults who have been isolated for a long time and have problems in multiple life domains. We analysed 36 research‐driven logbooks, written by the social workers, which contain case study descriptions with information about specific clients who belong to the target group of this study. We also interviewed the individual social workers and organised six focus groups with 8–12 of the participating social workers.Our findings make clear how social workers try to identify the needs of their clients and provide help that is tailored to their possibilities and ambitions. By giving recognition to the emotions and situations of their clients, and by practical problem‐solving, they build a relationship with the older adults in which adequate help is accepted. The professionals set modest goals; their guidance helps stabilise the existing situation and may also contribute to the self‐reliance of their clients. This knowledge will be highly valuable in the developing and implementation of programmes and interventions for this less‐researched group.

Baseline Survey of China Social Work Longitudinal Study 2019: Design and Implementation

Purpose: The China Social Work Longitudinal Study (CSWLS) aims to provide the first national longitudinal multilevel dataset that contains comprehensive domains to monitor the development of social work in China. This study presents the design and implementation of the baseline survey in 2019. Methods: The CSWLS includes three scholarly themes of professionalization, governmentality, and institutionalization, which are reflected in comprehensive questionnaires on social workers and social work agencies. The CSWLS is a longitudinal panel study that has multilevel datasets of social workers nested within agencies that are selected by a multistage sampling strategy. Results: The baseline survey collected 979 agency questionnaires and 5,965 social worker questionnaires in 56 cities, holding the validity rates of 98.59% and 99.92% respectively. The sample had certain national representativeness when comparing to existed national data in China. Conclusions: The CSWLS will become a critical tool for government officials, professional leaders, and academic researchers.

A Brief Analysis of the Ethical Dilemma Encountered in the Elderly Social Work and Thinking—Taking Jinhua City G Social Work Agency as an Example

This study takes the perspective of ethics and values as the entry point to explore the ethical dilemma of social work in the implementation process of social work service projects for the elderly due to various reasons. By studying the moral dilemmas in the process of project implementation, this paper tried to analyze the causes of these moral dilemmas and the impact of these moral dilemmas, find out the countermeasures to solve the moral dilemmas, help the follow-up activities more smoothly, and provide better solutions for social workers who encounter the same moral dilemmas.

Presencias y ausencias sobre género y feminismos en las publicaciones de trabajo social

Revisión sistematizada que indaga en artículos publicados entre 2014 y 2019, respecto de la relación entre género, feminismos y trabajo social, en revistas de especialidad en Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Brasil y España. Los resultados demuestran acercamientos teórico-conceptuales, metodológicos y principales discusiones que desde el trabajo social se exponen para establecer las presencias y ausencias de género y feminismos en la literatura especializada de la disciplina. Los resultados permiten seguir las pistas de un trabajo social feminista agenciado desde los márgenes, cuyas tramas concluyentes se sitúan en la responsabilidad ética-política acuerpada, la formación en metodologías críticas feministas, la trascendencia de la perspectiva de género y el (re)posicionamiento del quehacer disciplinar en/con actoras/es y movimientos sociales en pluralidad y diversidad de luchas y resistencias.

Social Work Students’ Experiences of Ethical Difficulties in Field Placements: A Qualitative Study in China

Abstract Field placements provide social work students with opportunities to learn to handle ethical difficulties in a professional manner. In many developed countries, field staff are generally employed to supervise social work students’ field placements. ‘Code of Ethics’ and other ethics documents have also been developed to guide students’ professional activities. However, there is a lack of field staff, ‘Code of Ethics’ and other ethics documents in China, which may lead to ethical difficulties amongst students during their field placements. Based on the interviews of twenty-four social work students who completed field placements in 2016 at a university in China, this research revealed that students encountered many ethical difficulties in field placements. They tried to handle the difficulties in the beginning, but gradually adapted to the difficulties passively due to the lack of support. Most students also reported that they adhered to social work values and ethics in field placements and learned from field placements. The findings suggested that social work profession associations, Departments or Schools of Social Work, social work agencies and social work academia in China need to collaborate to create a more professional and supportive environment for students’ field placements.

Book Review: Program evaluation: Pragmatic methods for social work and human services agencies

Book Review: Program evaluation: Pragmatic methods for social work and human services agencies

Standardization of Human Rights–Based Workforce Induction Curriculum for Social Work Field Supervisors

Field practicum is the signature pedagogy of the social work profession Ketner et al. (2017); CSWE (2015); Boitel and Fromme (2014), yet field programs struggle to find adequate field placements, in quantity and quality Maynard et al. (2015), especially those that highlight human rights and social justice advocacy as core programming. The authors propose a standardized 1-day eight-segment orientation and training, informed by Frimpong, Banks, and Brodie’s (2019) onboarding model, designed to cover 6 hours of in-person class time, operationalizing human rights and social justice practice into social work students’ field practicum experience. Social work competencies and standards from the International Association of Schools of Social Work, International Federation of Social Workers, and the Council of Social Work Education are embedded in the Standardized Field Supervisor Orientation and Training to help social work field students and agency staff employ human rights informed engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation with clients, constituents, and communities. By focusing on the important role of the Field Supervisor in emphasizing human rights and social justice, this paper fills a gap in the literature by offering an exemplar to cultivate a human rights and social justice practice paradigm in field education settings. The standardized training advances social work’s core mission and values of upholding and defending human rights.

사회복지사의 소명의식이 조직시민행동에 미치는 영향

This study was designed to verify that the sense of calling of social workers have effect on organizational citizenship behavior along with the mediating effects of organization trust. Research participants were social worker working in social work agency located in Busan city, data was collected through mailed self-administered questionnaires and among the collected 349 surveys, 323 answers were used in the final analysis. Research results showed that the sense of calling of social worker has a significant positive effect on organizational citizenship behavior and that it also has indirect effects through organizational trust. In other words, while the sense of calling of social worker directly increases organizational citizenship behavior, it also increases organizational citizenship behavior by heightening organizational trust. With control variables, only the variable of job position had a significant positive effect on organizational citizenship behavior and gender, age, academic background, marital status, and religion did not show any effects. Through the research results, practical proposals were made to systematically develop educational courses that can strengthen the sense of calling of social worker, prepare diverse actions so that social worker can trust in the organizations they belong to, and reinforce the organizational citizenship behavior of social worker.

Reduced working hours and work-life balance

ABSTRACT Little is known about how reduced working hours affects the work-life balance of staff in the Swedish social services, or their recovery off-work in terms of specific everyday choices. Staff at a Swedish social work agency participating in a longitudinal trial of work-time reduction in the public services were interviewed about their experiences of work and private life after their work hours were reduced (n = 12). All the interviewees described feeling more positive anticipatory emotions when going to work, several felt that their relationships with colleagues had improved, and most felt their relationships with clients had improved. Several worried less over work, and most perceived the risk for exhaustion syndrome to be lower. Most experienced more positive anticipatory emotions when returning home from work, most of those with children felt that their relationships with their children improved, and those with partners felt their romantic relationships also improved. Several devoted more time to parents and siblings. Most devoted more time to friendship, and all described having more time for recovery activities. Several worried less over their private life. A process that established and maintained a positive work-life balance is suggested by the interviews as a whole, related to increased control over private life, a larger capacity to meet private demands, improved recovery in terms of both quantity and quality, and having access to more sources of formal and informal social support.

Transparency in Social Work: A Critical Exploration and Reflection

Abstract Social work is a mostly discursive practice, comprised of the verbal and written interactions between service users, social workers, social work managers and supervisors and numerous external agencies. The words used to describe service users and service delivery are therefore important. These words change over time, and new words come into use. With the introduction of New Public Management, new concepts and ideas were introduced to social work service delivery and practice and new words became embedded in the social work lexicon. One of the new words that emerge in both the authors’ research with social work agencies is ‘transparency’. In this article, a critical thematic analysis of the meanings of transparency as it is used in recent social work research literature and commentary is presented. Transparency is explored in relation to how it is used, when it is used, by whom and in relation to what (and who), from the macro-level of social work agencies and governments to the micro-level of individuals as practitioners and service users. In problematising transparency, a rationale for future research is proposed about what transparency means, and could mean, in the context of social services provision and, in particular, for service users.

Professional identity construction among social work agencies

Summary Social work agencies in China are encountering issues like lack of social perception, social recognition, and public participation and insufficient competitiveness of their professional services. To discuss solutions to these problems, this study adopts a different perspective than existing studies, focusing on professional identity construction among social work agencies. It provides an effective theoretical framework that includes value, contextual, and symbolic identity construction embedded in the Chinese administrative institution. Findings Positive and negative factors influencing the construction of professional cultural, status, and brand identity among social work agencies and approaches are identified. In the context of government purchasing of public services, the professional cultural identity of Chinese social work agencies can integrate with traditional Chinese culture and Western social work values to enhance the cultural consciousness and introspection of agencies. Professional status identity helps agencies access government resources and establish professional authority. Professional brand identity can increase the identification of the agencies under the political features of party construction. The combination of the three can promote the development of Chinese social work. Applications Professional identity construction offers a new perspective to improve the credibility, competitiveness, and public recognition of social work agencies in China to attract social participation and perform the function of social governance more effectively. Social organizations can improve their professional status and brand identities by refining their professional cultural and promotional systems, fostering the development of institutional credibility, and cultivating professional service projects.

Evaluating Medicare Performance: Perceptions of Performance Pre- and Post- ACA

Medicare is a national single-payer system that provides health coverage for the elderly, disabled, and terminally ill in the United States. Rising enrollment, costs, and decreases in financing options may affect the way Medicare performs. This study aimed to investigate participants’ perceptions of Medicare performance before and after the Affordable Care Act. A 3-part questionnaire was created and validated for use in this study. Respondents affiliated with several social work agencies were invited via email to participate in this study. 287 out of 519 invited questionnaires were used in data analyses. 27.5% of respondents reported being currently enrolled in Medicare, while 33.2% reported lifetime enrollment. Overall, retired/disabled, elderly and low-income participants reported currently or ever using Medicare. One’s perception of Medicare performance was determined by their status as a Medicare beneficiary. Medicare service efficacy was rated more positively over-time by current and life-time enrollees; additionally, Medicare performance was determined to be better in 2013 than in 2009. Ultimately, this study showed that health service and financial fairness factors are indicative of Medicare performance. Additional research should explore possible implications for the healthcare field as well as formulate a broad range of possible management and/or improvement strategies. Lastly, differences in performance across years can inform decision-makers and bolster the fundamental foundation of health policies at the state and national level.

A Qualitative Study on the Judicial Social Services for Juvenile Delinquents

Juvenile delinquents have become one of the groups that gained much attention from society currently. The present situation and the changes attached to this group have become a significant social topic as well. Through the advance and improvement of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China for the group of juvenile delinquents, the Department of Juvenile in many areas has applied the idea of "less arrestment and less litigation” to juvenile delinquents in the procuratorate system as a result of making more effort to provide the future development of juvenile delinquents. And based on this idea, more needs of judicial social services emerged in doing social inquiry reports and following-up monitoring to juvenile delinquents from government departments. This passage is based on the interview with the manager of Department of Juvenile of People's Procuratorate of Enshi City Hubei Province and one of the social workers in Siyecao Social Work Agency in Jingzhou City Hubei Province, and the analysis for the current situation of the judicial social services. And the corresponding suggestions offered in the passage are partially drawing on the experiences of previous studies and cases from other districts.

Experiences of Agency Social Work Supervisors in Gaborone

Agency social work supervisors contribute to the learning experience of students during field practicum, but little is known about the knowledge these supervisors have on the expectations of the social work practicum, the challenges they face in supervising students and how they can be supported to provide effective and efficient supervision. A study to identify the supervisory gaps, problems, and inadequacies in social work fieldwork practicum was conducted in Gaborone to complement the body of knowledge. This qualitative study triangulated the exploratory, explanatory and descriptive research designs to appreciate the supervisors’ experience. The researcher interviewed 20 agency based supervisors in the health settings, Social and Community Development Departments and Non-Governmental Organizations. Huberman and Miles (1994) framework was used to analyze data following the purposive non-probability sampling technique to get data from the respondents. It was established that some agency supervisors lacked supervisory skills and were ineffective to engage diversity in practice. Moreover, they were unable to deliver according to the Department of Social Work (UB) expectations. It was further discovered that there are three other challenges agency supervisors encountered, which are; lack of social work student passion to learn, negative attitude/behavior of students, and short duration of fieldwork. It was recommended that there is need to train agency supervisors to upgrade supervisory skills to maximize the benefits for social work students. The key terms are; supervision, agency, fieldwork, and social work.

"What's Actually Going on in Our Nursing Homes": An Interview with Shantonia Jackson

The category that the Census calls "health care and social assistance" is the largest sector of employment in the country, accounting for about one in seven jobs nationwide. It encompasses hospitals, clinics, labs, long-term care facilities, home care, and social work agencies. This sector makes up an enormous proportion of low-wage employment growth in the United States over the past several decades: in the bottom quintile of the wage structure, according to sociologist Rachel Dwyer, a majority of new jobs since the 1980s have been care jobs of some kind. This labor market draws heavily on the most economically marginal sections of the working class. For example, the Bronx commits one-quarter of its entire workforce to health care and social assistance, making that dispossessed borough the leader among the most populous counties in the United States on this measure.

Complex and conscious. Case study of a change programme in a UK local authority adult care service through a complexity and psychoanalytical lens

ABSTRACT This paper offers a case study of a large UK local authority adult care department as it introduces a new practice model. The change programme is examined through a lens of complexity theory. Complexity offers a way of understanding constantly changing systems and uses concepts such as ‘feedback loops’ and recognition of ‘emergent’ behaviours to offer a means to anticipate patterns of change in otherwise unpredictable systems. In this study, complexity is found to offer a helpful understanding of behaviour across the complex adaptive system of a large organisation but it falls short at recognising the cause of behaviours that can be obstructive. The author suggests the use of psychoanalytic theory to acknowledge the emotion that might be the driver for resistance to change and notices how effectively the two theories applied together can bring rich understanding as well as strategic oversight to a complex social care system. This study provides a useful, theoretically informed insight into change management and leadership within a social work agency that is moving away from transactional practice and promoting creative, autonomous, relationship-based practice. The study advances understanding of how complexity and psychoanalytic theory can be used in tangent to support organisational change within social care.

Voting is Social Work: Voices From the National Social Work Voter Mobilization Campaign

ABSTRACTThe National Social Work Voter Mobilization Campaign, also known as Voting is Social Work, involved social work faculty, field educators, practitioners, and students in a nonpartisan voter engagement drive. Following the 2018 elections, researchers surveyed Campaign participants in social work schools and agencies to document their voter engagement activities.The study reported extent and amount of their involvement. The survey distinguished between the voter engagement participation of school- versus agency-based social workers, which has not been studied elsewhere. Participants also reported the benefits of political participation to individuals, communities, and the profession and perceived barriers such as organizational constraints, fears of appearing partisan, and distrust of politics. Presented in historical context, the findings highlight the need to mainstream voter engagement throughout social work education.

Voices of refugee children in Korea

Little is known about refugee children in Korea, making it challenging to work with this population for social work and human service agencies. Employing thematic analysis method for individual in-depth and focus group interviews, this study examined difficulties of refugee children's past in their mother land, refugee camps (pre-displacement) and current experiences in Korea (post-migration) to draw implications for social work policy and practices. Five children for individual in-depth interviews and 10 children (five each from two separate ethnic groups) for focus group interviews were recruited. Their ages were between 9 and 18 years. Five main themes emerged: chaos, daily hassles, changed life, helping hands, and dreams along with their displacement process. This study addresses partnership between the Korean government and private agencies to meet basic and psychosocial needs of refugee children based on United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Identifying Youth at Risk for Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) in a Foster Care Clinic

Background: Youth in foster care are at increased risk for the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC), however most do not identify themselves as exploited. Mandates in New York State require child welfare workers to screen and classify all foster care youth for CSEC based on specific indicator tools. Despite being co-located with agency social workers, our medical providers may be unaware of a youth’s CSEC risk classification because the database is not integrated with our electronic medical record and cross disciplinary communication may fail to make all team members aware of this risk …

Teaching Note—Partnering Macro Social Work Students and Agencies Addressing Youth Homelessness: A Model for Service Learning

ABSTRACTIn addition to direct practice skills, social work students need to become familiar and competent with macrolevel approaches to addressing youth and transgender youth homelessness. Service-learning courses provide an effective approach for students to learn the necessary knowledge and skills. In two sections of an upper-division social work macropractice course, teams of students worked with nonprofit organizations that addressed the needs of homeless youths and transgender youths. A three-pronged approach—community forum, fund-raising, and advocacy campaign—allowed a range of activities and learning experiences that benefited the students and agencies. This three-pronged service-learning model engaged the community, spread the message about youth and transgender youth homelessness, and consisted of projects that people can easily implement in their own communities.