The Effective Social Worker

Abstract

Client and worker interchange is at the core of the social work effort. The practitioner, in using the self as a tool, must manifest a fundamental grasp of the treatment configuration that is empirically based, relevant, and guided by a professional code of ethics. Successful therapeutic outcomes in psychosocial treatment depend on a number of variables, such as, client and worker characteristics, worker efficacy regarding the structure of treatment, length of therapy, behavior acquisition procedures, treatment technologies, and level of intervention. Behavioral therapy is a proven valuable interventive tool. A profile of the relevant skills along with a brief aggregation of empirical support provides the behavioral social worker with an understanding of the essential elements of the behavioral treatment structure in addition to empirically appropriate interventive methods.     

Substance Use and Abuse and the Role of Social Workers in Germany

SUMMARY

The paper outlines major trends in consumption patterns of alcohol and other drugs in Germany with special focus on the use of cannabis among young people. It discusses primary prevention efforts and describes the current treatment system with its two branches: one for people with alcohol problems and the other for those with drug problems. It highlights the developing role of social work and identifies the research topics that are influenced by social workers and that will influence the debate regarding the future role of the profession.     

Social Worker’s Use of Self

Although social worker’s use of self has been conceptualized in different ways throughout the literature, there appears to be a lack of research regarding how social workers describe and involve the self that they bring to their therapeutic and non-therapeutic work. Accordingly, seven social workers were interviewed about their experience of self. Participants described the self that they brought to their work as individualistic, though at the same time stressed the importance of self when interacting with others. The processes involved in the use of self were highlighted, which related also to the different ways clinicians had of being self-aware.     

The Impact of the Worker: How Social Capital and Human Capital Influence the Job Tenure of Formerly Undocumented Mexican Immigrants

Using the 1992 Legalized Population Survey, I focus on employment matching processes of formerly undocumented Mexican immigrant workers in the United States. As in earlier studies, I show that employment characteristics are related to the job tenures of immigrant workers. However, my contribution is that I specifically analyze how formerly undocumented Mexican immigrant workers' attributes and social networks influence their job tenures. In general, increases in human capital are associated with shorter job tenure, apparently in an effort to improve employment conditions, while the use of social capital is positively related with job tenure. It appears that acquiring employment is a social process, and those using personal networks find longer lasting jobs. Although prior studies have minimized the role of supply-side characteristics such as employees' skill level and social networks in influencing job tenure, my research confirms the significance of workers and the resources they bring to the labor market.     

Analyzing HIV/AIDS and Alcohol and Other Drug Use as a Social Problem

Most prevention and intervention activities directed toward HIV/AIDS and alcohol and other drug use separately as well as the combining of the two (e.g., those who are both HIV/AIDS and using alcohol and other drugs) comes in the form of specific, individualized therapies without consideration of social influences that may have a greater impact on this population. Approaching this social problem from the narrowed view of individualized, micro solutions disregards the larger social conditions that affect or perhaps even are at the root of the problem. This paper analyzes the social problem of HIV/AIDS and alcohol and other drug abuse using three sociological perspectives—social construction theory, ethnomethodology, and conflict theory—informing the reader of the broader influences accompanying this problem.     

Women's Job Loss and Material Hardship

SUMMARY

This research uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to explore the relationship between unemployment and material hardship for women who were employed at the beginning of the 1996 survey panel. Using two-stage logistic regression analysis, we find that, controlling for demographics and initial poverty status, having been or currently being unemployed increases the relative odds of experiencing one or more of six hardship measures by half and doubles the relative likelihood of lacking telephone service or failing to receive needed medical care. Experiences of food insufficiency, inadequate dental care, and loss of or inability to pay for housing increase more than sixty percent with unemployment. Those previously or currently unemployed are also substantially more likely to have difficulty maintaining utility service than the continuously employed. The article concludes with a discussion of policies that would enhance employment tenure and help avoid hardship during unemployment.     

Fate and Agency in Job Loss Narratives

While sociologists have emphasized the social sources of autobiographical narratives, there has been relatively little sociological reflection on the way that autobiographers themselves make selective use of accounts of social forces and pressures to explain their actions. This paper examines the way individuals' use of social pressures as explanations of their behavior are related to the structure of autobiographical narratives as a whole. The paper draws on empirical examples from interviews with people who are unemployed. Focusing on heroic and tragic narrative structures, I argue that the overall narrative structure is shaped by a number of factors, including the events of historical experience, the rhetorical intention of the autobiographer, and the structuring effects of social location.     

What Is Valued in Gay and Lesbian Specific Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment?

Little is known about what gay and lesbian clients value about culturally specific alcohol and other drug treatment programs. This study involves a sample of clinical staff and former clients (N = 40) of four culturally specific alcohol and other drug treatment programs to clarify what is addressed and deemed valuable for the specific needs of gay and lesbian clients. Through the lens of the recovery capital conceptual framework, this qualitative research emphasizes resiliency and the supports necessary for long-term recovery. Results indicate three major themes that make this type of treatment valuable: (1) a separate treatment unit or facility, (2) a safe and supportive therapeutic milieu, and (3) specific tailored treatment approaches. Findings are discussed to include implications for ways to improve services for this all too often understudied population of potentially vulnerable individuals who can benefit from culturally sensitive care.     

Integrating Work-Related Issues on Gay and Lesbian Employees into Occupational Social Work Practice

Social workers in employee assistance programs are increasingly being asked to assist employers in responding more fully to minority group members. This paper reviews the current state of governmental and corporate policies and business practices involving gay and lesbian workers. It also proposes practice interventions and change strategies for the workplace to respond more fully to the needs of such a client population.     

Human Behavior and Biodiversity Loss: A Theoretical Analysis

Diversity of genes, species, and ecosystems altogether constitute biodiversity. Biodiversity is essential for our survival. Anthropogenic biodiversity loss is due to reasons such as unsustainable production and consumption, human population growth, and poverty. Despite various efforts undertaken for conserving biodiversity, nothing significant has been achieved. This study focuses on human behavior for biodiversity loss. The goal of human life is genetic survival through reproduction. The driving force for reproductive success can be explained through natural selection. From an evolutionary perspective, resources acquire intrinsic utility when they enhance the inclusive fitness, called reproductive success. Human behavioral change is required for conserving biodiversity.     

The Political,Social, and Public Health Problems of Binge Drinking in College

Abstract

Despite extensive efforts to decrease alcohol abuse among college students, prevention approaches have had limited success. This study attempted to clarify reasons for this limited success and to identify directions for future interventions by directly interviewing college students on this topic. Five issues were discussed in the focus group interviews: (1) reasons for drinking alcohol, (2) reasons for not drinking alcohol, (3) circumstances surrounding overconsumption of alcohol, (4) topics and methods for prevention, and (5) gender differences in drinking patterns.

The focus group interviews were found to be a valid tool for elucidating sensitive aspects of these issues and the relative importance of these issues to each other. The students revealed how susceptible they are to societal pressures to drink alcohol and how the limitations of their intrapersonal skills affect their alcohol consumption, most notably regarding sexuality issues. The authors contend that improving intrapersonal skills should be a major focus of programs to prevent alcohol abuse.     

Job matching and return to work: Occupational rehabilitation as the link

Return to work after injury or illness is important for the worker and the employer. Medical providers manage and treat the worker with the illness or injury. Except in cases of focused specialists, the medical professional's role is to take care of a patient, rather than empower a worker. As much as there is promotion of the workers compensation health care system to be similar to sports medicine, there are significant dissimilarities. One major barrier is that the medical caregivers do not know the demands of jobs as they would know the details of sports. Thus, there is a gap in returning a worker to function as the medical professional cannot accurately match the worker to specific jobs. A new model of job function matching, based on research and skills of occupational rehabilitation professionals, is proposed to bridge the gap between the medical community, the employers and the workers.     

Bringing Technology to School: An Online Resource Guide for the School Social Worker

SUMMARY

The Internet can assist social workers and other human service professionals to obtain information that may potentially benefit both themselves and their clients. There is little doubt among those who are familiar with the Internet that this electronic medium has revolutionized the way we communicate and access knowledge. This article provides school social workers and other human service professionals with links to resources that can be incorporated into practice by offering specific Web pages related to school social work practice.     

Profession and Workplace Expectations of Social Workers: Implications for Social Worker Subjective Well-Being

The expectations people have of social workers, and those that social workers hold of themselves, can negatively affect social worker's perceived well-being, via work stress and strain and other negative workplace experiences. This qualitative research presents findings that help to better understand what aspects of these expectations have the greatest impact on the well-being of a sample (n = 19) of social workers with reported low levels of workplace and profession satisfaction. Our data support a conceptual framework of social worker's expectations that relate to outcomes of practice, social worker roles, the perceived functioning by other health-related professionals, conflict in direct practice with social worker identity and having to work in adverse situations, as all contributing to the well-being of social workers. Findings are discussed in relation to social work practice and the role and function of professional associations and educational programmes in addressing these issues that emerge in practice.     

Foreign Policy and the Domestic Worker

In 2009, following numerous high profile abuse cases, the Indonesian government placed a moratorium on its citizens taking up employment in Malaysia as domestic workers. From the perspective of feminist International Relations, the emergence of migrant domestic work as a foreign policy concern between these two states is significant – exposing a relationship between foreign policy and the webs of transnationalized social relations of reproduction that underpin the development prospects of middle to low income states. In this article I utilize the example of the Malaysia–Indonesia dispute in order to develop some tentative suggestions concerning the possibility of integrating an analysis of transnational social relations of reproduction into foreign policy analyses. The article initially overviews how the dispute is widely understood in relation to Indonesia's turn to a more democratic foreign policy. The inadequacy of such a reading is explored further. The article suggests that the above-mentioned dispute should rather be understood in relation to the specific configurations of productive–reproductive relations that underpin migratory flows and the role of Indonesia and Malaysia as ‘regulatory’ states involved in the establishment of return-migration systems in which women migrants are viewed as economic commodities and policed via a range of state-sanctioned practices (including commitments to anti-trafficking).     

Social Support and Loss During Adolescence

Abstract

This article describes perceived differences in social support between adolescent boys and girls who have experienced the death of a friend or relative in the last year. The article also evaluates the relative contribution of five sources of social support on adolescent girls' and boys' reports of their self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and disruptive school behavior. Boys and girls do report different levels of social support from different sources. However, the results suggest that the sources of support needed to maintain mental health and school functioning in the face of a loss are the same for boys and girls.