Strengths and Pathological Perspectives in Community Social Work

ABSTRACT

Current social work theory distinguishes between the traditional pathology-oriented perspective and the strengths perspective. This paper posits that the working model of community social workers is grounded in a strengths perspective, which, in relation to community work, is compatible with and supplementary to empowerment models, providing a methodological base for the values and practice of the macro method of social work. The current study aimed to assess the prevalence of each of these two perspectives towards community activity, and to examine the differences between them regarding the sense of empowerment and professional skills acknowledged by community social workers in Israel. The findings revealed that while the majority of community social workers adopt a strengths perspective in their work, they experience a greater sense of empowerment and of professional skills when adopting a pathology-oriented perspective.     

Spirituality and social work practice at historically Black colleges and universities

ABSTRACT

In 2011 the Council on Social Work Education Religion and Spirituality Work Group was organized “to promote social workers’ knowledge, values, and skills for ethical and effective practice that takes into account the diverse expressions of religion and spirituality among clients and their communities.” In this article we discuss how the mission, charters, and goals of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) addressed the domains of religion and spirituality from their inception. More specifically, the focus of this discussion is the epistemology of spirituality and religion at HBCUs from historical and contemporary perspectives. Content on the exploration of the related themes, religion and spirituality, as manifested in the curriculum, cultural milieu, and social environment of HBCUs will be described. Additionally, we document the role and influence of the African American community, church, and political insurgency. These forces, coupled with the inability or unwillingness of established social service agencies and other social institutions to address issues of inequality and marginalization of African Americans, influenced the essence of the content offered in HBCU schools of social work. Spirituality, advocacy for material aid, and critical race theory are themes that were prevalent in HBCUs curriculum. Finally we show that this “unique HBCU curriculum” was brought about primarily by environmental factors such as racism, segregation, and financial uncertainty, leading to what Du Bois referred to as a double-consciousness.     

Including Spirituality in the Social Work Curriculum: Perspectives from South Asia

This article is based on a study of 1,084 social work educators from six South Asian countries on their perspectives on including spirituality in the social work curriculum. Findings revealed that all educators across countries felt that a course on spirituality was desirable. They differed however in aspects such as level of course introduction (undergraduate or postgraduate), the nature of the course (optional or compulsory) and the curriculum content (evidence based or experiential). Further educators construed varied meanings of spirituality (transcendence, mind-soul discourse, relational) and spiritually sensitive practice (actively using spirituality and mindfulness as methods of practice for intervention and drawing upon the spiritual strength and potential of the clientele/group/community to plan intervention). Four log regression models also determined predictors of educators' perceptions on spirituality for micro practice, macro practice, level of course introduction and curriculum content. Country, educators' religious background, years of service and scores on Spirituality Assessment Scale emerged as key predictors. Based on educators' responses, this article provides a suggestive frame for the curriculum. With spirituality and its plausible settings of applications, a case is also made for giving credence to indigenising and decolonising approaches in social work education in South Asia.     

Social work training in Central and Eastern Europe: Experiences in Bulgaria and Slovakia

The authors draw on their experiences as members of EU-funded projects for training social workers in post-communist countries to reflect on developments in social work education there and in the United Kingdom. They argued that the emergence of social work in Central and Eastern Europe has a double agenda—to improve professional skills and values in the public services, and to contribute to the strengthening of a democratic and participatory civil society. Hence it is concerned both with changing the organizational culture and practices of the official social services, and with promoting voluntary organizations, community associations and service-user groups. Training in partnership, negotiation, networking and empowerment is as relevant as the teaching and learning of professional competences. This double agenda leads to tensions, both within universities and in various parts of the organizational systems in which social workers are employed. But these issues are not fundamentally different from the ones still being struggled over in the UK context. Similar issues over the respective roles of official social control and the authoritative enforcement of responsibilities, and empowerment and participation among excluded and deprived communities, are central to British social work education also.     

Substance Abuse,Homelessness, Developmental Decision-Making and Spirituality: A Women's Health Issue

ABSTRACT

A qualitative methodology was used to examine the relationship between homeless women's spirituality, substance abuse, moral reasoning and developmental decision-making. Findings indicated that a lack of development in spirituality and the ability to make decisions in childhood is related to homeless, addicted women's inability to maintain abstinence and achieve social independence. Spirituality impacted decisions to abstain from substance abuse and increased the women's social independence. Findings suggest that treatment needs to incorporate spirituality, family of origin, and the development of skills for independent decision-making. The authors propose that childhood maltreatment, homelessness and substance abuse impede spiritual development. Therefore, substance abuse treatment needs to include a focus on spirituality and moral reasoning in the recovery process.     

Guest Editorial―An Update to the Role and Status of Women in Social Work Education: Past and Future Considerations

ABSTRACT

Spirituality and religion predicted the development of social justice orientation (SJO) among young adults in a previous study (Chenot &; Kim, 2013). The current study explores the manner in which the effects of spirituality and religion on social justice orientation vary depending on the career aspirations of young adults. The longitudinal data (two waves) used for this study was gathered from 14,527 students at 136 universities in the USA. Results of structural equation modeling analyses revealed that spirituality significantly predicted projected SJO behaviors among those who aspire to join the helping professions and the SJO attitudes of those who sought to join other professions. The implications of the findings for social work and social work education are discussed.     

Students’ views on expanding contours of social work practice through spirituality

ABSTRACT

This article surveys the views of 15,067 social work students across 12 countries on social work practice and spirituality. Responses were elicited on precoded binary response categories as derived from literature. Results of the logistic regression analyses, as embedded in the original study design, showed that students from Australia, European countries, and the United States; women; postgraduate students; Christians; and those with higher self-reported spirituality scores saw mindfulness-based spiritually–sensitive interventions as the core mode of micro–level work with individuals and groups. Spirituality was seen as philosophically expanding the contours of practice by laying newer ways of assessment, intervention, and change.     

Factors Affecting Subjective Weil-Being for Rural Elderly Individuals

Abstract

A cross-sectional survey design was used to examine the relationships between spirituality, religiousness, social support, and the subjective well-being in a sample of 215 elderly individuals in the rural counties of West Virginia and North Carolina. The Brief Multidimensional Measures of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS) was used to measure various domains of religiousness/spirituality, including daily spiritual experiences, values/beliefs, forgiveness, private religious practice, religious/spiritual coping, and religious support. Multivariate analyses found social support was positively related to life satisfaction and spirituality/religiousness was inversely related to depression. These findings provide health/mental health care providers and social workers with information that can increase their awareness of and sensitivity to services or programs that are congruent with religious/spiritual values and beliefs in order to enhance quality of life among rural elderly individuals.     

Magic happens: Revisiting the spirituality and social work debate

Abstract

The social work profession is currently undergoing a resurgence of interest regarding the issue of spirituality in social work. This article attempts to summarise and explore the debate so far and to discuss the implications of this in a practice context. Current issues including definitions of spirituality and the key concerns in the areas of both practice and education are addressed. The article concludes with an overview of a model of spiritually sensitive social work practice, and poses options for further professional reflection on the place of spirituality in social work practice.     

Social Work,Spirituality, and Diasporic Communities

Abstract

The discourse surrounding the role of spirituality in social work practice has been expanding exponentially in recent years. Similarly, the discourse surrounding the role of spirituality among diasporic communities has expanded in recent times as well. In this paper, we will consider the linkages between social work, spirituality, and diaspora. We will focus our discussion on a particular diasporic spiritual community, the Sathya Sai Baba movement and its social service activities. We will then consider the implications of such spiritual movements for the social work profession. Among the key issues explored in this paper are the change in the social construction of populations that have moved between two countries as 'immigrant communities' to 'diasporic communities' and the implications of these changes for social work. Another critical issue we discuss is how working with spiritual movements may help address the 'spiritual deficit' concern that some social work academics have referred to, and indirectly at least, we begin to address 'the social work crisis' issue that has negatively affected the social work profession over the last few years.     

Disability and Spirituality in Social Work Practice

Abstract

In working with social work clients, issues of religion and spirituality are sure to arise. Religious views on disability can have both positive and negative effects on the individual. In our increasingly pluralistic society, these issues must be approached with sensitivity and patience since it is common to work with adherents of minority or non-traditional religious groups or groups whose values conflict with the social work profession. The purpose of this article is to enhance and develop sensitivity to diverse religious views in order to respect the values and life beliefs of the client while enhancing the development of adaptive religious and spiritual views.     

Tailoring Organizational Characteristics for Empowerment

ABSTRACT

Empowerment is an important value orientation and intervention approach in social work and other disciplines. Viewed from an ecological perspective, a good fit between organizational characteristics and the life circumstances of individuals should provide empowerment benefits. By studying interaction effects of material resources and organizational characteristics on empowerment, this research sought to extend understanding of empowerment dynamics in community organizations. Using hierarchical regression analyses to investigate socio-economic status (SES) in a moderator model, findings of the study demonstrated that, among a diverse group of participants in two different faith-based community organizations, perceptions of organizational characteristics were more strongly related to empowerment for participants of lower SES. A substantive implication of the study is that community practitioners should attend to the fit between specific organizational processes and economic circumstances of community based organization participants. Strategies weighted toward attention to relationships among members linked to availability of and participation in a variety of organizational roles may be more salient for empowerment of the disadvantaged. Our findings are consistent with an ecological orientation to empowerment, and they add further support to the importance of ecological specificity in empowerment theory.     

Women's Spirituality: A Proposed Practice Model

SUMMARY

The values and spirituality of clients are an important area for social workers, counselors, and other mental, health professionals to consider in their work. This article addresses the need for professionals to be sensitive to this aspect of growth and development for all clients. Noting that until recently, religious writings have tended to reflect a male-centered bias and patriarchal values, issues related to women's spirituality are identified, implications for therapeutic interventions are discussed, and a model for understanding and facilitating women's spirituality is proposed.     

Vedanta and social work practice

Spirituality holds an important place in the lives of social workers and their clients. It informs our understanding of the world, our morals and values, and our conduct. Spirituality is a powerful tool of guidance and healing. Recognizing its importance, efforts have been made to integrate spirituality into social work practice. A gap in these efforts is the inclusion of epistemological foundations of key Eastern religions and spiritual practice. Concepts such as yoga and meditation have been adapted as healing methods; however, the knowledge base that informs them has been neglected. This article addresses this gap with an exploration of Vedanta and how it can be integrated into social work practice. Vedanta is the body of knowledge that informs the traditions of yoga, Ayurveda, and Hinduism. This article explains key concepts of Vedanta including Advaita Vedanta, the five sheaths (ways of knowing), pathways to Vedanta (methods of obtaining knowledge), dharma, karma/reincarnation, the nature of reality, and the lineage of Gurus. The second part of the article focuses on the application of Vedanta to social work practice within existing literature and identifies areas for further research.     

A STUDY OF BACCALAUREATE SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS' BELIEFS ABOUT THE INCLUSION OF RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL CONTENT IN SOCIAL WORK

This exploratory quantitative study employs a 4-page Religion/Spirituality and Social Work Questionnaire that focuses on the beliefs and perceptions of 324 undergraduate social work students in 7 Council on Social Work Education–accredited schools of social work in the state of Texas about the role of religion and spirituality in social work practice and education. The vast majority of students in this sample (80.6%) are practicing Christians who have strong personal religious/spiritual beliefs and are relatively open to incorporating at least some religious/spiritual content into their practice with clients. More than 82% indicate that they want their social work courses to include content on religious/spiritual diversity, and 87.6% indicate interest in content on how to effectively deal with religious/spiritual issues in practice.     

Computer Diffusion and Worker Empowerment

Abstract

Much anecdotal material describes various human impacts of computer adoption within the social work profession, however, there is scant research which confirms or challenges these assumptions. This article describes a study which investigates the diffusion of computers into the social work profession in terms of empowerment as an individual outcome for workers. A questionnaire returned by 520 social workers provided data on organizational computer diffusion, organizational centralization, and the Social Worker Empowerment Scale. Workers in organizations where computer diffusion was more advanced, and those in more decentralized decisionmaking environments were found to be more empowered.     

Merging Micro and Macro Intervention: Social Work Practice With Groups in the Community

Clinical or micro intervention predominates in social work education and practice. The prevailing assumption in social work practice and education is that one engages in either micro or macro intervention. In this article, we describe how these interventions may be merged into an integrated whole through social work practice with groups. The conceptual and evidence base of community work is summarized, as are efforts to identify practice skills that overlap both approaches. We assert that group work is ideally suited to promote individual empowerment and community change. Case examples illustrate the relative ease with which tasks and skills of group work at the micro level can be used in group work practice in the community. Implications for social work education are discussed.     

Spirituality as a Form of Functional Diversity: Activating Unconventional Family Strengths

SUMMARY

Increasing attention is being given to the role of spirituality in understanding family process. Concerns often focus on the type of clientele for whom spirituality may be of importance, the role of spiritual beliefs in helping to sustain family problems and the sometimes conflicting dynamics between religious identification and spiritual awareness. Assumptions about “what needs to change” dominate literature regarding interventions within spiritual belief systems. This article suggests that consideration for what needs to stay the same also has significant implications for effective practice. If “what needs to stay the same” is inherent in unconventional family strengths we are called to see what may not otherwise be apparent when using traditional ways of knowing. Spirituality emerges from a well-spring of deep culture that is reflected in roles, rules and patterns integral to family life and family survival.     

Teaching Characteristics and Student Satisfaction: Impact on Social Work Students’ Interest in Policy

ABSTRACT

Social work educators are charged with the important task of preparing students to carry out the noble mission to focus on the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty. Educators, particularly those who teach social policy, understand that to achieve this mission, it is imperative for social workers to be trained to engage in structural and policy change efforts, regardless of interest in clinical or macro practice. This study explored the characteristics, if any, that make policy instructors in social work effective, as well as instructor characteristics that promote interest in policy work in social work professional practice.