Coming Together: Factors that Connect Social Workers to Group Work Practice

Group work is an effective method to intervene with various populations in multiple settings. However, research has demonstrated that social workers are often not prepared for the realities of group work practice. In this study, the lens is turned on professional social workers that identify as group workers about the motivations and factors that contributed to their practice of group work. The goal of this research is to provide data and related insights that will enhance the preparation of social workers for the realities of contemporary group work practice. The study also identified factors that would enhance group work education in both the classroom and field education settings.     

“We felt completely left to ourselves.” Foster parents' views on placement disruption

The purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons for unintended placement disruptions in foster care. Based on a semistructured survey, the paper presents the views of 132 Norwegian foster parents who have experienced placement disruption between 2013 and 2015. Foster parents rated several relevant causes of placement disruption: the child's behaviour, the need for care, concern for the well‐being of their biological children, and lack of support from the Child Welfare Service (CWS). Although the child's behaviour was the cause most frequently reported in the quantitative data, CWS‐related factors such as poor collaboration, not being valued and listened to, insufficient support and follow‐up, and a mismatch between the child's needs and the foster carers' capacity were reported most frequently in the qualitative data. Placement disruption appears to be caused by the sum and interaction of several coexisting causes. It may not be the child's behaviour per se but rather the combination of challenging behaviour, concern for one's biological children, and insufficient support from CWS that lead to disruption. Good collaboration with the CWS in the form of respect, recognition, support, and follow‐up appears to be of the utmost importance in reducing the risk of placement disruption.     

Youth‐focused active labour market programmes in a constraining welfare regime: A qualitative reading of programmes in Egypt

Active labour market programmes (ALMPs) are at the core of welfare regimes in many countries across the world. This study addressed youth‐focused ALMPs in Egypt, a country with high youth unemployment and a plethora of programmes ostensibly addressing this issue. Building on interviews with implementers, programme documentation and a publically accessible inventory of programmes in Egypt, the analysis locates ALMPs within the country's overall welfare system and the politics of programme targeting, design, governance and implementation modalities. The legacy of state ‘protective’ policies and the fragmented multiplicity of players within the field constrain the effectiveness and outreach of these programmes. Analysis of implementation modalities also shows that there is a pervasive lack of programme coordination, activity documentation, management for results, and pathways to achieving sustainability and programme institutionalisation. Key Practitioner Message: ? Egypt's fragmented ALMPs field must be integrated and coordinated within the country's broader welfare system ? Programme documentation, management of results, rigorous evaluation and sustainability plans must be seriously addressed     

Case Management in the Law Office

Abstract

This study examines the assumption that including Black-Americans with larger samples of White-Americans produce an accurate picture of the predictors of nursing home use by Black-Americans. Using the Longitudinal Study of Aging (1984-1990), Cox proportional hazard models are estimated for Black-Americans and White-Americans. This study finds that in fact the models for Black-Americans are not the same as for White-Americans. For Black-Americans, living below the poverty line, problems of functional status, age, and not having the potential for care for a few weeks from relatives (in or out of the home) are predictive of a higher risk of nursing home use while, for White-Americans, age, lower versus higher income, being female versus male, poor evaluation of self health care, poor functional status, lower levels of community activity, and living alone compared to living with a spouse or children were predictive of a higher risk of nursing home admission. The implications for policy and case management practice are discussed regarding these findings.     

Public/Private Pension Mix,Income Inequality and Poverty among the Elderly in Europe: An Empirical Analysis Using New and Revised OECD Data

Prior studies have suggested that higher public pensions are associated with lower income inequality among the elderly, whereas the reverse is true for private pensions. Van Vliet et al. ( 2012 ) empirically test whether relative shifts from public to private pension schemes entail higher levels of income inequality among the elderly using panel data from the OECD SOCX and the EU‐SILC databases. Contrasting earlier empirical studies using either cross‐sectional or time‐series data, they do not find evidence that shifts from public to private pension provision are associated with higher levels of income inequality or poverty among the elderly. The aim of the current article is to extend the analysis of Van Vliet et al. by: (1) adding additional countries; (2) adding additionally available years; and (3) using revised OECD SOCX data. In contrast to Van Vliet et al., we find that a greater relative importance of private pensions is associated with higher levels of income inequality and poverty among the elderly. A central explanation of the difference in conclusions stems from the revision of OECD SOCX data.     

建立适应市场经济的用人制度

目前世界各国有关国家工作人员的任用大体有四种制度,即委任制、聘任制、选任制、考任制.委任制和事实上的终身制都不适应市场经济.改革用人制度,建立适应社会主义市场经济的、竞争性的考任制用人制度势在必行.     

“高收益债券”兴起对银行贷款市场的冲击——对我国上市公司债权融资偏好的探讨

针对高收益债券在公募市场初现倪端这一问题,运用决策树模型进行理论框架的构架,建立数理模型,对企业选择"高收益债券"和银行贷款融资时的期望收益进行比较,从理论上对企业融资偏好进行探讨。研究发现,当企业发行债券利率不超过一定值时,企业发行高收益债券进行融资要明显优于向银行贷款,然而现今企业对银行贷款却表现出过分依赖的趋势,随着社会发展,经济转型、产业结构升级在即,债券市场将扮演重要角色,公募"高收益债券"市场的兴起也将会给银行贷款市场带来冲击。     

Problematising international placements as a site of intercultural learning

This paper theorises some of the learning outcomes of a three-year project concerning student learning in international social work placements in Malaysia. The problematic issue of promoting cultural and intercultural competence through such placements is examined, where overlapping hegemonies are discussed in terms of isomorphism of social work models, that of the nation state, together with those relating to professional values and knowledge, and the tyrannies of received ideas. A critical discussion of cultural competence as the rationale for international placements is discussed in terms of the development of the graduating social worker as a self-reflexive practitioner. The development of sustainable international partnerships able to support student placement and the issue of non-symmetrical reciprocation, typical of wide socio-economic differentials across global regions, is additionally discussed.     

The strategic uses of race to legitimize ‘social mix’ urban redevelopment

ABSTRACT

This article contends examines how racialization – the strategic employment of racial discourses to both define- and legitimize-specific social and spatial changes – serves as an adaptive and strategic means for city leaders and developers to control, define, plan and implement efforts to reshape impoverished neighborhoods. The deployment of racial tropes and narratives, such as diversity and ‘social mix’, organize and make legible redevelopment and its consequences of displacement for communities of poor minority residents. Urban development initiatives are imagined, worked out, legitimated and reconciled in an urban politics that relies on the deployment of racialized discourses of colorblindness, inclusivity and diversity. Drawing on a case study of redevelopment of Regent Park in Toronto, Canada, the paper examines how minorities are placed in the position of combatting socioeconomic and spatial inequalities, including displacement, on racial terms set by white elites.     

Social Background and Placement Course – The Case of Denmark

The scope of this article, founded on a nationwide survey in Denmark, is first to describe the social characteristics of families with a child placed outside home, and, further, to examine whether differences in regard to the parents' social background are correlated with different placement courses. A range of hypotheses on the correlation between social background and the course of placement are examined. It appears, for example, that children from low-resource families come into contact with the social system earlier, and are placed outside the home at an earlier age than children from high-resource families. Low-resource children are more often placed in foster care, and are more often subject to contact restrictions. The article discusses whether these differences reflect a socio-cultural discrimination. Secondly, a discussion is raised whether the supportive measures available are adequate in relation to the serious problems of the families concerned.