Addressing Substance Use Disorders Among System-Involved Girls.

The indigenous child welfare system and transitions to independence: a scoping review

When services are no longer voluntary: Exploring child protection workers experiences with Black families and (in)voluntary services.

Leveraging court appointed special advocates to improve outcomes for children involved in the child welfare system with prenatal alcohol exposure

This article analyzes the intersection of urban security, preventive policing, and drug control policies in Türkiye with particular emphasis on the growing challenge of synthetic substances. The study examines how rapid urbanization, socio-economic disparities, and migration flows have reshaped the dynamics of drug-related crime in metropolitan areas. Drawing on criminological theories such as social disorganization, strain theory, and community policing, it situates the Turkish experience within global debates on urban crime and preventive security governance. Methodologically, the paper relies on policy reports, official statistics, and comparative analysis to evaluate multi-level preventive initiatives including Narkotim patrol units, school-based safety programs, family-centered projects, and technology-driven applications such as UYUMA. The findings demonstrate that preventive policing strategies in Türkiye have shifted the focus from reactive interventions to proactive community engagement by integrating law enforcement with education, health, and social welfare systems. Furthermore, the sharp increase in synthetic drug use and seizures highlights the urgency of adaptive, data-driven, and multi-stakeholder frameworks. Overall, the study concludes that Türkiye’s preventive policing experience represents a valuable model for understanding how contemporary states can design inclusive, sustainable, and technologically supported drug control strategies that simultaneously enhance national security and reinforce urban resilience.

This paper explores how Bosnia and Herzegovina’s fragmented welfare system responds to the needs of transnational labour migrant families, a problem of growing significance as the country transitions from an emigration context to a destination for low-wage foreign workers. Gaps in access to healthcare, education, and family services generate social inequalities that risk long-term exclusion. The objective of the study is to identify the administrative, legal, and political barriers migrant families face and to provide recommendations for improving institutional responses. Methodologically, the paper relies on narrative policy analysis and legal-institutional review, with a theoretical grounding in transnational social protection, governance studies, and intersectionality. The sample consists of relevant legislation, strategic policy documents, and public discourse, complemented by regional comparisons with Croatia and Serbia. The findings demonstrate that access to social rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina remains tightly linked to employment contracts and residency permits, leaving many families without adequate protection. Moreover, public and political narratives o!en racialise migrants or reduce them to purely economic actors, overlooking their broader social vulnerabilities. The paper concludes that Bosnia and Herzegovina must develop a centralised, rights-based welfare framework to address the structural exclusion of transnational families. Recommendations include strengthening institutional coordination, depoliticising migration in public debate, and adapting social services to the needs of migrant workers and their children.

Aotearoa New Zealand has wide disparities in health outcomes between indigenous and non-indigenous groups, which are strongly associated with inequitable access to determinants of health by ethnicity. Experiences of health determinants culminate in higher rates of diabetes, asthma, kidney disease and other chronic diseases and worse outcomes for Māori. This paper explores the relationships between health determinants and chronic disease from the perspectives of Māori patients and healthcare providers. Using a Kaupapa Māori methodology and qualitative methods, six semi-structured focus groups with 21 Māori living with chronic disease and semi-structured consultations with 130 healthcare providers across the Waikato region were undertaken between 2021 and 2023. Participants identified five key health determinants shaping the everyday experience and management of chronic disease, including employment, welfare support, income, access to information and racism. Access to economic resources had significant impacts. Those in situations of economic insecurity experienced significant complications to everyday disease management and had fewer resources to mediate their effects. Chronic disease also reduced access to economic resources through increased health costs, reduced earning power and the impacts of dealing with the welfare and health systems. Comparatively, stable access to economic resources, such as health insurance, enabled disease management. Everyday experiences of health determinants are shaped considerably by economic circumstances. Claiming welfare support continues to be difficult for eligible participants, and welfare payment inadequate. The health system needs to re-design healthcare delivery so people with poor access to economic resources are actively supported to access health determinants.

Non-traumatic stress-related illnesses are associated with considerable functional impairment and costs for both individuals and societies. In Sweden, the national diagnose Exhaustion disorder (ED) is one of the most frequently diagnosed disorders in this category. Despite the major negative consequences of illnesses such as ED, there is no clear evidence on successful treatments or effective interventions to enhance return to work outcomes for this population. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore how individuals who had returned to work after sick leave due to ED experienced the process of returning to work, including facilitating factors, significant challenges and needs of further support. Participants were recruited from three clinics in Stockholm specialized in rehabilitation for Exhaustion Disorder. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 participants and the transcribed interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The results yielded three themes - Struggling to adapt sustainably to change, Being supported or hindered by the context and Being part of a larger societal system. The first theme revolves around individual processes of change, such as gaining insight in one's own behavior, and rethinking one's perceived identity. The second theme focuses on how practical and emotional support, or lack thereof, affect the experience of returning to work. The third theme addresses hindering or facilitating factors on a more societal level, such as social norms or conditions of the social welfare system. The results indicate the relevance of further and prolonged support for individuals returning to work after sick leave due to ED. The workplace and overall organization plays an important role in providing this support. In a clinical individual context, the support given may include programs designed to facilitate behavioral maintenance, sustainable psychological flexibility and renegotiation of values. However, further research is needed on how such programs should be best designed and delivered. Not applicable.

It is now widely accepted among sustainability scholars that only a postgrowth future, involving a voluntary, democratically negotiated, equitable downscaling of societies’ physical throughput can succeed in addressing the environmental crisis. A significant challenge for proponents of such a change is the maintenance of human wellbeing in postgrowth Global North societies, where welfare systems are closely tied to economic growth. Policies, like Universal Basic Income (UBI) and Universal Basic Services (UBS) have been proposed using needs-based criteria to operationalize wellbeing but face political resistance due to financing concerns—their requirement for significant redistributive taxation reducing affluent groups’ consumption. This article explores a potential solution to this problem: a broadening of need conceptualizations beyond thin approaches, associated with Doyal and Gough’s work, to systematically incorporate thicker eudaimonic understandings. These highlight more fully non-material needs affecting a broader cross-section of the population. The article focuses on the world of paid and unpaid work to show that such an approach can successfully highlight non-material needs affecting a wide range of the population. However, using illustratively the popular postgrowth social policy option of working time reduction (WTR), it also shows that responding to such needs could generate significant trade-offs with other wellbeing goals and is likely to require a much broader postgrowth social policy agenda, if strongly entrenched growth and consumption norms are to be challenged. This would involve more detailed consideration of the wellbeing role of provisioning system elements other than the traditional welfare state.

IntroductionThe hypothesis underlying this research is that a participatory/co-design research experience, within a specific territorial context, can foster interaction between the social actors involved, enabling interesting mechanisms for transforming the infrastructure network.MethodsWe applied social network analysis methodology. We evaluated two interaction systems and observed how actors connect and how behavior is influenced, with an impact on the infrastructure network.ResultsOur results show that a participatory research/co-design experience can create an engagement strategy and a network infrastructure capable of implementing local wellbeing.DiscussionWe can conclude by stating that the Mapping project was able to actively involve, in both cases, organizations and associations/cooperatives, consolidating and sharing a common vision on community planning. A local welfare system does not exist in isolation or as something simply imposed from above.

ABSTRACT This study examines the intricate nexus between cultural values and fiscal spending multipliers. Leveraging quarterly panel data spanning 37 countries from 1974 to 2021, we scrutinize the impact of the six Hofstede cultural dimensions on fiscal spending multipliers. Through the application of panel structural vector autoregressions, our analysis reveals several key findings: (i) Individualism, indulgence, and masculinity cultural values amplify fiscal spending multipliers, whereas power distance, long-term orientation, and uncertainty avoidance cultural values dampen their effects; (ii) The presence of a robust welfare system diminishes the magnifying impact of individualism and masculinity on fiscal spending multipliers; (iii) Corruption mitigates the diminishing influence of power distance cultural values on fiscal spending multipliers; (iv) Anticipations of future inflation weaken the constraining effects of uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation cultural values on fiscal spending multipliers. These discoveries shed light on the nuanced relationships between cultural values and fiscal outcomes, offering valuable insights for policymakers and researchers alike.

Kinship care placements are significant for meeting the need for alternative care in child welfare systems worldwide. This qualitative evidence synthesis develops a comprehensive understanding of the role of the Child Welfare Service (CWS) in kinship foster care from the perspectives of kinship caregivers. We reviewed 14 qualitative empirical studies that explore caregivers' perspectives on contact with- and support from the CWS. Our synthesis indicates that most kinship caregivers encounter challenges when interacting with CWS. Three overarching themes were identified: 1) CWS’ role when becoming a kinship carer; 2) common concerns and how these are met by CWS, and 3) expected to manage on their own, afraid to seek help. Findings show that kinship carers often feel unprepared to be caregivers. They face financial constraints, challenges related to their children's needs, and struggles with their own health, all of which can make the responsibilities of caregiving overwhelming. Additionally, many new caregivers fear reprisals from CWS if they seek help and support, so they are left to deal with difficulties on their own. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Under the conditions of a large-scale, protracted war and the mass forced displacement of Ukraine’s population, research on the resilience of the state and the impact of migration processes on individual and societal resilience is of exceptional relevance. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to analyze the interrelationship between resilience and migration in the specific historical context of Ukraine. To achieve this goal, general scientific methods of cognition were applied: systemic, structural-functional, comparative, and historical. The novelty of the results lies in identifying the relationship between migration and resilience and formulating recommendations for migration policy measures aimed at strengthening the resilience of individuals and society as a whole in the context of migration. The article demonstrates the ambivalent impact of migration on resilience, which acts both as a challenge and as an instrument of individual and societal resilience. It highlights that forced population displacements generate considerable social, economic, cultural, and political risks, yet simultaneously protect individuals from threats to life and health while creating opportunities for rebuilding lives and pursuing further development. At the individual level, migration is associated with the loss of social ties, marginalization, and psychological trauma, but it also facilitates the formation of adaptive strategies and resilience. At the macro level, for countries of origin, population outflow reduces pressure on labor markets and social welfare systems, provides remittances that are vital for households and national economies, and contributes to the development of human capital through knowledge and skills acquired by migrants abroad, while simultaneously entailing risks of demographic decline and brain drain. For host countries, the inflow of migrants supports economic growth and labor force renewal, yet also generates challenges for social cohesion, potentially fueling societal radicalization and strengthening far-right movements. Migration’s influence on cultural and political resilience is ambivalent. For Ukrainian war refugees, the preservation of national identity, language, and culture has become both an act of resistance and a source of resilience, as well as a means of promoting Ukrainian culture abroad. At the same time, the cultural resilience of Ukrainians abroad — particularly among children and youth growing up in foreign cultural environments — faces significant challenges. Politically, Ukrainians abroad act as agents of public diplomacy, shaping public opinion in host societies and thereby encouraging governments to support Ukraine. Despite its negative consequences, the mass presence of Ukrainians abroad enhances the international legitimacy of the Ukrainian state and establishes new channels of influence on international relations through the diaspora. The study concludes that resilience is a socially significant phenomenon and should therefore be recognized as a key objective of political action. Migration policy, as a tool of crisis management — particularly in addressing the destructive effects of mass forced displacements caused by armed conflict — should aim not only to mitigate risks but also to harness the potential of migration as a resource for Ukraine’s recovery and sustainable development during the war and throughout the post-war reconstruction process. Among the directions of such a policy are finding a sustainable solution to the problems of internally displaced persons in the interests of both the displaced and the host communities, creating conditions for the return of war refugees to their homeland, and strengthening ties with Ukrainians abroad as part of the Ukrainian nation.

This essay engages with Haggerty and Ericson's concept of the "data double" to examine how contemporary surveillance practices have produced increasingly powerful yet fundamentally flawed representations of individuals. While the surveillant assemblage remains central to modern life, today's data doubles are characterized by a paradox: they wield immense decision-making power in determining access to housing, employment, credit, and healthcare, yet are too often built on inaccurate, incomplete, and inaccessible information. Three U.S. case studies frame the contemporary data double as financial risk through big data credit scoring, as housing and employment applicant, and as vulnerable subject in health and welfare systems. These cases demonstrate how prioritization of data volume over precision has created "artificially unintelligent data doubles"—a systematically distorted abstraction that serves institutional profit and control rather than accurate representation. Opacity in these systems makes challenging one’s data double practically impossible, creating profound stratification as individuals face two untenable options: accept inaccurate representations that deny them opportunities, or actively construct manipulated data doubles designed to pass algorithmic screenings.

The term “neoliberalism” is an attempt to specify the scope of the definition of “liberalism,” which meaning has become so broad and ambiguous that people who declare themselves to be liberals often have diametrically opposed views on key aspects of social reality . This applies in particular to desirable socio-economic policies, against the backdrop of which differences emerge regarding the scope of market autonomy and state intervention in the economy and social benefits. Supporters of neoliberalism advocate for market regulation to the greatest extent possible and for maximum limitation of state intervention in the socio-economic sphere. The dispute between supporters of neoliberalism and their opponents, has been going on for years on philosophical (e.g., Nozick versus Rawls) and economic (e.g., Hayek, Freedman, Rothbard versus Keynes, Stiglitz, Sen) level, and one of the axes of the dispute is the effective and efficient way to combat poverty. The discourse on neoliberalism extends beyond the narrow circle of specialists involved in interpreting the "organization" of collective life, with politicians and publicists also particularly eager to participate in it. Often, in the heat of ideological disputes, interlocutors use the concept of social care/assistance, treating it as an emanation of the modern welfare state, either worthy of defense from an anti-neoliberal position or criticism if they adopt a neoliberal position. It does not matter much to them whether they use the term social welfare or social assistance, even though the two terms have different meanings (Zalewski 2005). With the establishment and development of the welfare state, social assistance is only one component of the social protection system, and it is not the most important one (Flora, Heidenheimer 1995: 27). From the perspective of public spending, social assistance constitutes a small part of the social protection compared to, for example, the pension system, and we cannot equate social assistance with the entire sphere of social transfers by the state.I would assume that social assistance is an institution not only accepted by neoliberals, but also consistent with their ideological credo, provided, however, that social assistance is limited to a narrow set of low social benefits that do not discourage people from taking up employment. Of course, contemporary social assistance is not limited to benefits paid to the poorest, and the noticeable effects of neoliberalism on social assistance do not necessarily have to be accompanied by similar effects in other elements of the social security system, and vice versa. A good example of this can be seen in Polish social policy in the second decade of the 21st century, with its emphasis on the conditionality and contractualism of social assistance benefits (Poławski, ed. 2018), clearly inspired by neoliberal ideology, accompanied by a withdrawal from the neoliberal pension security project (Zalewski 2014).The aim of the author was to identify manifestations of neoliberal ideology in Poland after 1989 based on the functioning of the social assistance system. The analysis of the functioning of the social welfare system provides evidence not only of the impact of neoliberal ideology, but also of anti-neoliberal ideology on the shape of social policy in Poland after 1989. This is particularly evident when family support policy is included in the analysis, which was done, although only the "Family 500+” (“Rodzina 500+”) program was taken into account.The following text does not contain any assessments of whether it is good or bad for the development and prosperity of Polish society that neoliberal ideology dominated the process of economic transformation and was an important factor in shaping the social structure in Poland after 1989. It focuses on capturing the links between neoliberal ideology and specific solutions adopted in the area of social assistance and family support, pointing to the presence of both neoliberal and anti-neoliberal elements.

ABSTRACT The Nordic countries are often portrayed as inclusive welfare states marked by equality, the absence of poverty, and universal access to services. However, closer examination reveals a group of invisible outsiders—individuals excluded de facto from welfare provisions. Though present, they remain overlooked in society, policy, and research. These individuals grapple with interwoven economic, social, and health challenges that often hinder their access to welfare services. Drawing on explorative qualitative research, this study seeks to amplify their voices by asking: Why have they opted out of the welfare state, and what insights can be drawn from their implicit and explicit forms of resistance? Using Johansson and Vinthagen’s concept of everyday resistance alongside the ‘good worker’ norm, we explore how such resistance emerges and what drives it. Findings show that these individuals resist through tactics shaped by experiences of stigmatization and injustice during encounters with the welfare system. Their resistance extends beyond reactions against direct structural and intersectional oppression. It also targets a third and subtle form of power – a discursive power of normative ideals embedded in the good worker norm – and how they themselves are constructed in relation to it because they are unable to meet the underlying ideal of being or becoming active, working citizens. Responses include strategies of invisibility, voice, and exit, revealing everyday resistance as opposition to disciplinary power.

ABSTRACT In Sweden’s welfare system, social services face growing challenges related to employee well-being, staffing shortages, and the sustainability of the work environment. This qualitative study examines how municipal politicians and municipally owned company (MOC) board members – who are politically accountable for governance and bear employer responsibility via delegation – describe job demands and resources, and the actions they take to promote a balanced psychosocial and organizational work environment. Using the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model as the analytical framework, interviews were conducted with 17 municipal board members across 12 Swedish municipalities. The findings indicate that, although board members acknowledged a range of job demands (e.g. high workload, staff shortages, organizational change), their descriptions often lacked specificity and contextual nuance. Personal and lifestyle-related factors were frequently emphasized, with limited recognition of how political decisions shape structural working conditions. Similarly, job resources, such as social support, feedback, and HR practices, were noted in general terms, without clear alignment to specific demands. Strategies for improving the work environment were predominantly reactive, with resource allocation and monitoring shaped by routine processes rather than proactive governance. Overall, while board members expressed awareness of key challenges, their actions often fall short of addressing structural imbalances between demands and resources, underscoring the need for more informed, strategic, and equity-oriented governance practices in Swedish social services

Purpose This article examines how European Union member states expanded and adapted their social protection policies over the first 14 months of the Covid-19 pandemic and how their approaches varied based on their welfare regimes, legacies and institutional path dependencies. Design/methodology/approach To examine the social protection measures adopted by EU member states over the first 14 months of the Covid-19 pandemic (March 2020–May 2021), this article draws on two datasets: the World Bank's Social Protection and Jobs Responses to Covid-19 database and the International Monetary Fund's Fiscal Policy Database, which tracks the announcement and implementation of key fiscal measures (January 2020–September 2021). Findings EU countries largely adopted social protection measures aligned with their broader welfare regimes, though intra-regime variation highlights the influence of national policy legacies. Social democratic and continental welfare states relied on their tax-benefit systems and labor market policies, while liberal, Mediterranean and some post-communist states were compelled to expand social assistance given their fragmented welfare systems and structural issues, including persistent unemployment, poverty and in-work poverty dating back to the Great Recession. Although nearly 70% of the measures drawn from the World Bank database were classified as “new” at the time, their design reflects incremental expansion rather than fundamental reform of social protection systems. Research limitations/implications The article contributes to the literature on welfare states by showing that, although crisis responses were shaped by existing institutional logics and welfare traditions, the rapid and transboundary nature of Covid-19's spread prompted rapid social learning and policy adaptation, revealing flexibility that exceeded European countries' path-dependent constraints. Originality/value The article contributes to the literature on welfare states by showing that, although crisis responses were shaped by existing institutional logics and welfare traditions, the rapid and transboundary nature of Covid-19's spread prompted rapid social learning and policy adaptation, revealing flexibility that exceeded European countries' path-dependent constraints.

ABSTRACT Early childhood education and care providers play a key role in identifying and responding to child maltreatment. The Norwegian Stine Sofie’s Kindergarten Package is a train-the-trainer intervention designed to strengthen kindergarten educators’ ability in this regard. We evaluated its effectiveness on five self-reported individual-level outcomes related to knowledge, competence, and attitudes. Kindergartens were assigned to either an intervention or wait-list control group using a cluster randomized controlled design. A total of 1363 educators from 163 kindergartens participated at baseline, with two follow-up assessments. Educators in the intervention group reported (a) increased knowledge about maltreatment, (b) improved action confidence related to responding to concerns about maltreatment, and (c) greater trust in the child welfare system. These effects persisted at four to six months follow-up. Results for the two remaining outcomes were statistically non-significant. We conclude that the intervention had positive effects on educators’ self-reported ability to identify and respond to maltreatment.

ObjectiveThis study examines the prevalence and predictors of first pregnancy and the use of long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) among adolescent girls aged 12–17 involved in the child welfare system.MethodsThe study leverages linked longitudinal administrative data from the child welfare, juvenile legal, and Medicaid claims systems of Pennsylvania. The sample comprised 28,016 girls born between 2000 and 2005 who received Medicaid and were involved in the child welfare system during adolescence. Survival analysis was used to predict onset of first pregnancy and uptake of LARC.ResultsBy age 18, 17% percent of adolescents had experienced pregnant, with 18% having a healthcare encounter to receive LARCs. Foster care placement was not associated with pregnancy but was associated with increased use of LARCs. Substance use disorder, juvenile legal involvement, and recent suspected sexual abuse victimization were positively associated with pregnancy. There was a reciprocal association between LARCs and pregnancy; although any previous encounter for LARCs was negatively associated with pregnancy, uptake of LARCs also increased following a pregnancy.ConclusionsDespite broad reductions in teen pregnancy over time, adolescent girls with exposure to sexual abuse or engagement in substance use or delinquency face a persistently high risk for very early pregnancy. Medical providers and child welfare agencies need to coordinate service provision to address the sexual and reproductive health needs of at-risk teens.