Selection for Professional Training: The English and the American Experience

Summary Of the many issues arising from the Vyas case in England andthe Bakke case in the United States those of positive discrimination,selection on racial grounds, the nature and purpose of professionaltraining and the nature of fairness in selection for such training,are considered.     

Selecting for Social Work

Summary Social work courses need to spell out the characteristics andconsequences of particular selection procedures, as a prerequisiteof improvement. This article reports a survey of applicantsfor a postgraduate social work course, where entry is determinedby two independent, individual interviews. Previous social workexperience and the candidate's degree subject emerged as importantcorreiates of selection. Paired interviewing appeared to operatein an impartial fashion, with a high degree of consistency betweeninterviewers of different kinds, and an absence of hierarchyin resolving conflicts. However, the outcome of interviewingwas partially contingent upon the degree of agreement betweeninterviewers on their initial, individual assessment of thecandidates' suitability.     

Placing Children on Child Protection Registers: Risk Indicators and Local Authority Differences

Correspondence to Dr David Gordon, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK. Summary Wide variation in rates of children on protection registersin different authorities has led to doubts about the reliabilityof local decision making. A study of 1,752 referrals, for suspectedabuse or neglect in eight English local authorities, found thatindicators of child and family vulnerability were more importantthan local area in explaining selection for initial child protectionconference and placement on registers. There appeared to beagreement on ‘common-sense’ risk indicators butstronger measurements of risk would enable child protectionprocedures to be better targeted.     

Behavioural-Cognitive Groups for Adult Psychiatric Patients: A Pilot Study

Correspondence to Patricia McAuley, Social Services Training Centre, 34 Station Read, Antrim, N. Ireland, BT41 4AB Summary This paper describes a pilot study of a behavioural-cognitivegroup programme for adult psychiatric patients who presentedwith a variety of problems. The time-limited groups aimed toteach behavioural analysis skills through the selection, observationand treatment of a target problem by each group member. Resultsof ten such groups are analysed and indicate that members couldoperationally define a problem and implement behavioural changewhich was maintained at six month follow up. However, deficitsin formal behavioural analysis skills were evidenced.     

Family Structure as a Factor in the Adjustment of Adopted Children

Summary An analysis of the relationship between five types of adoptivefamily structure and the adjustment of adopted children, whenseven to seven and a half years of age, indicates that the presenceof a natural child born after adoption to a previously childlesscouple is associated with serious behavioural dysfunction inthe adopted child. In this type of family the proportion ofboys so maladjusted is 10 times greater than in the modal familytype comprising adopted children only. In terms of specificmanifestations, a greater proportion show habit and sleep disturbance,and problems of behaviour and eating. The findings are discussedcritically, and potential fertility is suggested as a criterionfor the selection of applicant couples who should be counselledto defer their adoption.     

Strategies for the Management of Stigma through Social Work

Summary Stigma management should be part of social work practice, inaddition to attempts to combat stigma by social policy initiatives.The objectives of stigma management are to reduce awarenessand length of dependence on social services, to demonstrateclients' contribution to society, and to reduce social and spatialdistance between clients and others. Strategies are identified,which include the selection of various combinations of targetsfor intervention from three aspects of stigma (the attribute,the stereotype and the relationship between them) and from thepossibilities of work with the audience, both public and professionaland the stigmatised person, or both. Factors to evaluate inassessment; methods of intervention, including help in passing,group identification, social exchanges, public reviews, theuse of agents, benefactor relationships and elevation ceremonies;and reducing stigma at the end of social work intervention areconsidered.     

Participation Strategies of Activist-Volunteers in the Life Cycle of Community Crisis

Summary The aim of this paper is to propose a strategy for the managementof activist-volunteers' participation in the cycle of a communitycrisis. The proposal, as outlined in the paper, is based ona nominal group process of 45 activist-volunteers, employeesand directors along the confrontation line with Lebanon on thenorthern border of Israel. Participants were all veterans ofprevious crises. The nominal group process examined eight participationcharacteristics: areas of participation, level of influence,selection of activist-volunteers, definition of the organizational-politicalsystem, level of decentralization, participation forum and itssize, use of tactics and intensity of participation. These werematched to four phases of community crisis (warning, shock,organizing and change). The findings of the study show thatthere is a need to build a variable participation strategy,composed of a different mix of components of the selected participationcharacteristics.     

The Clayhangers: Father and Son

Summary This paper was written to demonstrate the value of creativeliterature in giving body to the abstractions of psychology,thus promoting insight and empathy.     

What kind of people are we? 'Race', anti-racism and social welfare research

Summary This article argues that, to provide reliable and nationallyrelevant information on which to base policy and practice andto afford the Black population equal access to knowledge aboutits social realities, social welfare research needs to includeaccurate representations of minority ethnic groups and theirchanging needs. Using child welfare and community care as examples,a brief research review indicates the continued scarcity ofsuch research and its potential benefits. The methodologicalsupports available to researchers seeking to include minorityethnic populations and anti-racist perspectives are considered,and it is concluded that such supports are limited and patchy.In exploring the reasons for this, the author identifies someof the political, personal and technical challenges an anti-racistapproach presents. The terms 'experiential affinity' and 'experientialinterdependence' are introduced to help conceptualize the knowledgeand power differentials which may impede researchers pursuinganti-discriminatory aims, and a 'costs and benefits' frameworkis suggested to help understand and confront these issues. Then,drawing on existing research and theory, the article considersin detail some of the technical challenges to be overcome, withparticular reference to sample identification and selection,fieldwork processes and data analysis and suggests practicalways in which some of these challenges might be met.     

Competing Orientations in Child Abuse Management

Summary This case study illustrates some of the problems which occurwhen different professionals are involved in the managementof child abuse cases.     

The Social Environment--A Model for Exploring Service Interventions with Mentally Handicapped Adults

Summary Using a model derived from systems theory, the needs of mentallyhandicapped adults are examined. Interventions are generatedwhich have implications for social workers in implementing normalizationprinciples.     

Statistical Considerations in Social Work Research

Correspondence to David Goda, School of Computing and Information Technology, University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1SB. Summary Guidelines are presented in an attempt to assist those consideringsubmitting to this Journal papers containing quantitative data.     

Social Workers' Orientations: an Action Perspective

Summary The established sociological approach to social workers' orientationshas led to a restricted picture of the day-to-day conduct ofsocial workers. Adopting a different perspective, the work discussedhere resulted in an ideal typology of eight orientations. Thearticle describes these types and refers briefly to some propositionsand conclusions that arise.     

Literature Review: An Abuse of some Substance?

Summary The intention in this review is to examine a small selectionof the literature on substance abuse and to assess to what extentit is a new phenomenon and a problem calling for legislativeaction. This intention accounts for the slightly capriciouschoice of title for the contribution.     

A Problem for Law and Social Work: Social Enquiry Reports on People Pleading Not Guilty

Summary This paper examines the background to pre-trial enquiries, theirpreparation and some of the problems involved, with particularreference to not guilty pleas. It is based on a dissertationpresented for the Diploma in Social and Administrative Studiesin 1972 and a more detailed version is available     

Social Policy and the Prevention of Suicidal Behaviour

Summary This paper is an attempt to answer the following questions.Can we, and should we, try to prevent suicidal behaviour; howsuccessful are the efforts at suicide prevention of lay andmedical agencies; and what social policies could be employedto prevent suicidal behaviour?     

Using a Unitary Approach in Student Placements

Summary This paper is an attempt to think through the use of a unitaryapproach in the supervision of students, in particular withinstudent units. It considers separately the beginning phase ofany placement, first and second placements and develops theconcept of a team model by which to run the unit.     

Letters from a Kangaroo: A Third Object Technique for Working with the Young Child

Summary The author looks at the use of letter writing as a third objecttechnique and considers its value in working with under fives.She also touches on early language development in the pre-schoolchild and the relevance of the theory for social workers.     

Accommodation and Homelessness on Release from Prison

Summary This paper presents some of the results of a Home Office sponsoredresearch project in which men discharged from prison were interviewedbefore and after release. The findings compare pre-arrest andpost-release accommodation and demonstrate than many men arelikely to be in poorer accommodation after release than theywere before arrest.