Social work practice toward enhancing competence in family planning

Competence in family planning possessing the ability to limit conception so that children are produced by choice. More attention must be directed toward family planning by social workers because of its importance in family welfare. They should help clients know that family planning might help in preventing family problems and promoting family health. The workers should determine whether their clients use or have ever used family planning, and who takes responsibility for it. Discussion of the physiology of the various methods can help alleviate many unwanted fears. The subject of family planning is also important in dealing with adolescent groups. As social work practice incorporates family planning as an integral part of its profession, it will become more effective.     

Patterns of program development in family planning

The author urges the contribution of the field of social work to the development of family planning services. She believes that the new legislation will make it clear that Congress wants family planning services to be developed and wants Federal funds used to help with this development. Social services to pregnant women may well be the best source of highlighting the potential significance of family planning services as a vehicle for social work intervention. This intervention must involve participation in the planning of programs from the earliest possible stage to include the total design of the service. Constant attention to the social problems which interfere with effective use of family planning services, and the indications for social service intervention is needed. Ideally, family planning services should be a part of the maternal and child health programs.     

Family Planning and Social Work Practice

During the past five years increased concern about family planning has appeared in many English-speaking countries. National policies in certain countries lately have included family planning. Social workers have not been in the forefront of active, programmes in this field. The role of social work in the area of family planning is discussed, and the major indications for family planning in our society are briefly reviewed.     

The Role of Family in Career Choices among Social Workers in China

Abstract

High turnover rate affects social work workforce development in China. Few empirical studies have been conducted to explore the factors that have influences on turnover intention among Chinese social workers. This study used data from China General Survey on Professional Social Workers to examine the influence of job satisfaction and family attitude on social workers’ career choices. The findings reveal that both job satisfaction and family’ attitude toward the profession have significant effects on social workers’ turnover intention. Family’s support or disapproval of the social work profession has moderate effect on the negative correlation between job satisfaction and turnover intention. The findings could be explained by the familyism culture of Chinese society and unique challenges of professional development experienced by social workers in China. Future studies should consider the influence of family to develop a more comprehensive research framework. Management in social service agencies should help family of social workers to learn and embrace the profession to gain their support of choosing social work as career.     

Biased abortion counseling laws and abortion demand

Since the U.S. Supreme Court's 1992 Casey decision many states have enacted biased abortion counseling laws. These laws mandate that abortion providers furnish to women with unwanted pregnancies state-approved medical information about possible side effects from having an abortion that are false. The most egregious falsehoods are that abortion is linked to mental health problems (e.g., suicide, postabortion traumatic stress syndrome, and depression), breast cancer, infertility and fetal pain. This paper investigates whether these four biased abortion falsehoods have an impact on the demand for abortions in the year 2000. The empirical results find that these four biased abortion falsehoods have no significant impact on the abortion demand of pregnant women of childbearing age (15–44 years), adult pregnant women (18–44 years) or pregnant teen minors (15–17 years). The findings remain robust even after controlling for regional differences in antiabortion attitudes.     

Primary prevention of adolescent pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy is associated with many health, emotional and socioeconomic problems including higher rates of anemia, labor complications, mortality, legal and social struggles and hhigher divorce rates. Professional social workers need strategies to help teenagers avoid early, unwanted pregnancy. This paper offers promising experential and research backing for a primary prevention group work strategy for all adolescents. Social and health programs overlook educational, cognitive anc interpersonal factors biasing youths' ability to comprehend and regulate contraception. Primary prevention to assist adolescents in thinking analytically about their sexual behavior must stress problem solving and decision-making as well as facts about human reproduction and birth control. To implement decisions, youths also need interpersonal communication skills. Small groups are ideal for delivering cognitive-behavioral primary prevention. This approach is based on the premise that youths become pregnant not because of a lack of relevant information, but because they lack cognitive and behavioral skills necessary to use information. Group work involving role-playing helps develop communication skills. Results from 2 field studies describe short-term and longitudinal benefits of the prevention strategy. Professionals can reach significant numbers of youth in this way. By treating sexual issues and the risk of pregnancy as normal in adolescence, social workers can introduce information and pertinent skills to all teenagers. No one is singled out as deviant and the group format enables young people to discuss taboo topics, discovering what the norms are and gradually learning how to deal with peers, family members, techers and others. Adolescents in primary prevention groups gained knowledge, cognitive skills and communication acumen. Improved attitudes toward family planning, increased regular contraception and less unsafe sex resulted from this cognitive-behavioral approach. Primary prevention should begin early to be most effective. Other personal and social issures such as a alcohol and drug abuse, delinquency, marital and family conflicts, parenting difficulties and money management may be dealt with effectively using a cognitive-behavioral approach.     

Social protection systems and the future of work: Ensuring social security for digital platform workers

Digitalization is transforming societies and economies worldwide at an unprecedented scale and pace. In the wake of automation and digitalization, new forms of employment have been emerging in various occupations and sectors, such as the digital platform economy. The emergence of new forms of employment, such as work on digital platforms, requires that existing social protection systems adapt to the specific situation and needs of such workers, as to realize the human right to social security for all. Current social protection coverage for workers on digital crowdwork platforms reveals significant gaps in social security coverage. Where such coverage exists, it is often provided through the workers’ previous or additional jobs, or indirectly through their spouses or other family members. This raises questions about digital platforms free riding on the traditional economy with regard to the financing of social security. How can social protection systems adapt to changing forms of work to ensure full and effective coverage for workers in all forms of employment, including those in “new” forms of employment? How can workers in all types of employment, including those on digital platforms, be protected in an adequate and comprehensive way, combining contributory and non‐contributory mechanisms and based on equitable and sustainable financing mechanisms, so as to ensure adequate social protection to all?     

Assessment processes in social work with children at risk in Sweden and Croatia

The aim of this article is to compare Swedish and Croatian social workers' assessments and protection of a 4-year-old child exposed to risk in its own family. The data were collected from 87 Croatian and 72 Swedish social workers by means of a questionnaire, which incorporated a vertical vignette. Effects of the participant's country of residence were investigated with respect to: (i) risk assessments; (ii) perception of the main problems; (iii) tolerance of corporal punishment; (iv) judgements about appropriateness of interventions. The results suggest that Croatian social workers have a more child-protective approach than their Swedish colleagues. Swedish social workers have a more supportive approach than Croatian social workers. Despite fundamental similarities in assessments between the countries, significant differences were found in preferred interventions. The Swedish social workers were more in favour of keeping the child at home with the support of social services. The Croatian social workers were more in favour of removing the child from home by means of a care order. This might primarily be attributed to the differences in availability of family support services and to different discourses in Sweden and Croatia.     

Teenage Awareness of Family Planning Matters

Despite the rhetoric surrounding the adequacy of existing sex education/or young persons, little attempt has been made by local researchers to quantify teenage sexual awareness. While previous researchers have used Likert-type inventories to quantify sexual knowledge indirectly, the ‘perceived adequacy’ approach does not provide a realistic basis for evaluating sexual awareness. A 24-item multiple choice Sexual Knowledge Inventory was therefore developed by the author and administered in group form to 447 teenagers sampled from six private schools in the Brisbane Statistical Division. Data indicated that the family unit has failed to provide many young persons with reliable information about family planning matters. Multiple regression analysis revealed exposure to a formal school-based sex education program to be the most powerful predictor of awareness, with birth order, family size and social status background also emerging as significant predictors of family planning knowledge.     

Understanding Adolescent Female Prostitution: A Literature Review

Correspondence to Dr Jill Jesson. Aston Business School, Aston Triangle, Birmingham B47 7ET. Summary Sexual behaviour and sexuality are currently topical issuesof concern for child care social workers. Social workers arespending more and of more of their time with children who comeinto care because of sexual abuse, or who have an involvementin the ‘rent’ scene or Prostitution. In additionmany teenage young women come into care because of social orparental concern over their lsquo;promiscuous’ behaviour.The review of research on adolescent prostitution offers severalexplanations for involvement in prostitution. which vary accordingto the discipline of the author. Explanations vary from pathologicaland personal psychology factors to the wider social aspectsof the family and local environment. This literature reviewwas used as a basis for research which examined the incidenceof female prostitution for a social services department. Thisis a relatively new field of interest and consequently thereis very little British research published on the issue of adolescentprostitution, or on under age (16) prostitution. There is nopublished research on girls in care and prostitution. We needto know much more about the reality of young people's livesbefore social workers can offer a meaningful response.     

Role of industries in family planning

There is a new generation of urban workers who do not have traditional attitudes toward having large families, and are amenable to the idea of birth control. The industries at which these workers are employed also have a stake in promoting family planning in that workers with large families are usually more prone to accidents and alcoholism. Some industries have medical facilities at which workers and their families can be given family planning services. Even those without clinical facilities can employ a lady medical officer to visit women in their homes to promote family planning. Additional incentives and disincentives could be provided to encourage birth control. For example, new workers could be recruited, in part, on the basis of their family size, with those having fewer children being given preference; priority in workers accomodations could be given to those with 3 or fewer children; contraceptives could be provided free of charge; free scholarships, free uniforms, and attractive increments could be made available to those practicing birth control.     

Empowerment in social work: an individual vs. a relational perspective

Social workers with only an individualistic understanding of empowerment will easily end up as moralising agents rather than as facilitators for their clients. It is in the complex interaction between a given socio-material situation and the individual capacity to interpret and act that one finds the key to an empowerment worthy of its name. This presupposes two things: that social workers have as a part of their education theoretical knowledge about organisational structures, and that they themselves have been empowered in ways that give them practical competence to act in relation to situations. They need the competence to identify the complexities of interests and power relations in society. The implication of such a recogni-tion should be clear for the education of social workers: the ideology of empowerment has to be contextualised . To discuss this topic the author makes a distinction between an individua-listic and a relational perspective and between social problems conceived of as a 'lack of money' vs. a 'lack of meaning'.     

Mental Health Problems and Behavioral Disruptions in Nursing Homes:

This paper describes a study that examines knowledge of mental health problems and management of behavioral disruptions by social workers in nursing homes. Since a significant number of nursing home patients have mental health problems (estimates range from 50 to 80 percent) which present behavioral disruptions, this knowledge is critical. Results indicate that social workers are not prepared to provide needed services because they do not have adequate knowledge about the management of behavioral disruptions or the identification of mental health problems of nursing home patients. Recommendations are that social workers employed in nursing homes should have gerontological training and that national policy changes are needed to develop guidelines for qualifications of nursing home social workers. Nursing homes are not meeting the needs of older adults with mental health problems when social workers do not have the knowledge needed to provide nursing home services.     

XI. Neurotic children: Mandel clinic Michael Reese Hospital 1

Social workers who treat children of deployed servicemembers may feel poorly prepared to work competently with military families and will benefit from understanding the immediate and long-term effects of parental deployment upon children. This review consolidates a substantial, shifting knowledge base and establishes a coherent theoretical framework for social workers to learn about the effects of war-specific deployment cycles for servicemembers, and the relationship among family members' and children's experiences with deployment separation. The author considers important lessons learned during the Vietnam War and the unique experiences specific to current wars. This article compares the Vietnam War and the more recent wars' characteristics of military deployment, demographic characteristics of service members, servicemembers' family characteristics, and research findings about the psychosocial effects of deployment on children. A case vignette is presented to clarify how an understanding of deployment and reintegration is necessary for the treatment of servicemembers, families, and children by social workers.     

Women's responses to abortion: implications for post-abortion support groups

Family planning and abortion clinics are starting to recognize the importance of providing postabortion counseling as part of the overall follow-up procedure. The literature on the psychosocial consequences of abortion reveals that abortion is a positive, growth-producing experience for the majority of women. However, abortion can be a stressful and emotionally difficult experience for other women as a result of ambivalence over the pregnancy or abortion, lack of positive support from significant others, feelings of guilt and loss, and inadequate coping skills. This paper reports a model for postabortion support groups aimed at clarifying feelings, reducing alienation and isolation, facilitating appropriate mourning, increasing self-esteem, and bringing appropriate closure to the abortion experience. Since 1984, such groups have been offered by the University of Washington Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) Abortion Birth Control Referral Service in Seattle, Washington. The groups, which meet weekly for 6 sessions and include 2-8 women, use discussions, role play, art therapy techniques, and psychodrama to alleviate abortion-related stress and effect changes in problematic ideas and feelings. Plans for the group developed out of the leaders' observation that women who returned to the Service for a second abortion often had not dealt with feelings or issues from the first procedure. Nonjudgmental acceptance of abortion as an individual choice has empowered many group participants to raise their consciousness about women's social status and take a more active role in decision making about their reproductive life.     

Between Tradition and Transition: Workers With Family Responsibilities

This paper briefly summarizes the demographic and social changes in Australian families that have focused attention on the interconnections between work and family life. The impacts that employment has on family functioning and the pressures of family life that impinge on the work environment will be discussed. The main theme of the paper explores the apparent confusion and lack of consensus on the part of government and the community at large toward the appropriate roles of men and women in the family and the boundaries that should exist between work and family life. Finally, policy implications of the ambivalence about work and family roles as reflected in government and corporate responses to workers with family responsibilities is addressed.     

“Build a friendship with them”: The discourse of “at‐risk” as a barrier to relationship building between young people who trade sex and social workers

Young people in statutory care and protection interact with social workers, who hold potential to provide a supportive adult role in their lives. Many however, run away at an early age and end up on the street trading sex for money or other favours. There is potential to improve outcomes for young people in care if the relationship between young people and their social workers is better addressed. This paper uses data from a qualitative study of 14 young people who traded sex and who had experienced interactions with social workers. A thematic analysis identified three themes: the rigidity of social work practice; contesting the family situation; and resisting the at‐risk label. We argue that to have any impact on outcomes for young people in care, social workers need to prioritise relationship‐building above the need to conform to organizational protocols and guidelines. Such guidelines assist the social worker in assessing whether family situations pose high risk for a young person, but the “at‐risk” label is contested by young people, which results in a lack of trust and a barrier to relationship building.     

Long-term planning and decision-making among midlife and older gay men and lesbians

This article examines the issues of long-term planning and decision-making among midlife and older gay men and lesbian caregivers. Using a qualitative methodology, in-depth interviews were conducted with 19 gay men and lesbians over 50. Participants reported on their long-term planning and decision-making processes. All but four persons reported that their partners had advance directives, but the majority of caregivers did not have advance directives for themselves. Concerns about informal family dynamics and interactions with formal systems were expressed, along with financial and ownership issues. It is important for social workers to intervene across individual, organizational, and community levels in advocacy for the needs of older gay men and lesbian clients.