The Quality of Life in the 'Independence' Curriculum

The move towards community care as a humane alternative to institutional provision has brought complications in its wake. Integration, both into community living and into mainstream education, has generally entailed an elaborate process of the selection of those most easily assimilated. I am concerned to examine the opportunities available for those young people who are often rejected within the integration movement, yet who find themselves the recipients of training for independent living in the community. My hypothesis is that such a training can actually impoverish their quality of life.     

International News

3rd International Congress of Family Therapy Tel Aviv, Israel
FAMILY THERAPY IN THE COMMUNITY LA TERAPIA FAMILIARE NELLA COMMUNITA
Second International Conference in Florence, June 21–24, 1978     

Child Poverty Measurement in the UK: Assessing Support for the Downgrading of Income-Based Poverty Measures

Social Indicators Research - In 2016 the UK’s Conservative Government radically changed the official approach to child poverty measurement, scrapping targets for income poverty and material...     

External supervision for social workers in another socio-political context: a qualitative study in Shenzhen,China

External supervision of local social workers has become a common practice in Shenzhen, China as the development of social work as a profession reaches break-neck pace and when the shortage of experienced social work supervisors also becomes acute. Hence, many supervisors have been recruited externally from Hong Kong to fill the gap. However, for external supervisors working in another socio-political context they will need an awareness and sensitivity of cultural issues, and cultural dynamics in supervision. Based on a qualitative study conducted in Shenzhen of 16 in-depth interviews with supervisors and supervisees in eight supervisory dyads, as well as a focus group meeting with three external supervisors from Hong Kong, this study finds that the institutional hierarchy, ruling culture and traditional Confucian values which place great importance of harmony, reciprocal relationships with others, effective self-control and respect for hierarchy have impacted the day-to-day practice as well as the interactions between social workers and their external supervisors in Shenzhen. The implications of this study is that in achieving successful supervisory practice the further development of intercultural competence is one of the key directions for professionalising social work in the Chinese Mainland.     

A Shared Presentation: Two Disabled Women on Video

In this paper we share our collaborative experience of making a video in which disabled women present their lives as they wish to portray them. We undertook what we hope will be perceived as emancipatory research, in which disabled and non-disabled women work together to create audio-visual teaching materials. We include a preliminary discussion about the representation of disability on British television broadcasts between October 1991 and March 1992. We look at negative imagery, charity fund raising, and positive images. The paper uses comments by disabled broadcasters and disabled academics, and reflects on their work.     

Social Work Practices for Young People with Complex Needs: An Integrative Review

The aim of this integrative review is to investigate research of social work practices for adolescents and young adults with complex needs. The research questions are: What are the major themes in studies of practices for young people with complex needs? How do studies suggest that complex needs can be met in ways that are beneficial for young people? A young person with complex needs is in this review defined as an adolescent or young adult who, due to mental ill-health in combination with different types of social vulnerabilities, is receiving assistance from multiple welfare services. Searches were conducted in seven databases. These searches resulted in a sample of 1677 records, published 2007–2016, which in the screening process were reduced to 24 publications, all peer-reviewed articles. The participants in the studies in the articles consisted of young people, parents and professionals from mainly Anglo-Saxon countries. The articles were analyzed with qualitative summative content analysis. Three empirically generated themes were found in studies of work practices targeting young people with complex needs: collaboration-, relationship- and empowerment-oriented practices. In conclusion, the practices contain a wide variety of features, but with the joint aim of acknowledging young people’s needs. The results can be used by practitioners and policymakers to further the development of services for youth with mental ill-health and social vulnerabilities, who use multiple welfare services.