Family support in practice: voices from the field

This paper revisits core family support messages for social work practice in working with children and families, linking to findings from high-profile child protection cases in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Drawing on a comparative study where these identified practice messages were explored through the lens of testimony of family support workers in the UK and Ireland, these core messages are examined. Operating with hard-to-engage children and parents, we hear how families and family support worker colleagues now view the core functions of child and family work across both jurisdictions (Ireland and England). The authors argue that by naming a more detailed set of practices that are deemed as most useful by families, based on the benefits and challenges of intensive family support work, key messages arise that have major resonance for social work and multiagency practice into the future. A basic message from this study is that valuable lessons on engagement and intervention with families can be drawn for professionals by examining the practice elements of this group of paraprofessionals in the child and family arena. This paper adds to debates on the role of support and intervention in social work and family support work.     

The case: voices

Six caregivers comment on the aftermath of a patient's disabling stroke. Their remarks about the patient and his family situation reveal much about the dynamics of the hospital hierarchy--and, incidentally, the difficulty of uncovering the "facts."     

Organizational Innovation: Lessons from Military Organizations

Sociological Forum -     

Lessons from Erikson

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine issues related to autonomy across the life span and to draw comparisons between a young child's search for autonomy and an older adult's efforts to maintain autonomy. The paper includes an introduction of the challenges for young children and older adults as related to autonomy. A definition of autonomy and an explanation of Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development are included. Each of Erikson's stages is reviewed with consideration given to traits, characteristics, and needs of the young child and older adult. Similarities and differences between young children and older adults in their search for autonomy are examined. The paper concludes with implications for caregivers regarding their practices with young children and older adults.     

Board Accountability: Lessons from the Field

Accountability has become a major issue in the nonprofit sector. Numerous external and internal approaches to strengthening performance in this area exist, and many nonprofit boards expect their executives to account foruse of their organizations' resources. However, few boards apply any such expectations to themselves. Qualitative analysis of records from interviews, consultations, and meeting observations with 169 board members of thirty‐four diverse nonprofit organizations revealed six sets of practices that foster board accountability. They include setting clear expectations and standards for the group and for its members, actively using policies regarding conflicts of interests, identifying and staying focused on priorities, maintaining strong two‐way communications directly with constituency groups, conducting assessments of meetings and board performance, and experimenting intentionally with new approaches to their work. The experiences of these boards provide numerous examples of practical steps that others may consider when they seek to increase the value they add to their organizations as well as to strengthen public trust.     

Land,territory and commons: voices and visions from the struggles

ABSTRACT

All over the world, financial capitalism and extractivism are appropriating land as if it was nothing more than a commodity, a mere ‘factor’ of production that can be exploited to generate financial returns. Movements and activists are organizing, resisting, protecting and promoting life-giving visions against this continuous enclosure of living beings and paces: they use their bodies, laws, educational projects, histories and visions to regain control over territory as a political space, self-determine and create solidarities. In the act resistance, they are the target of moral, physical and legal violence. They and their ideas are criminalized, disciplined, punished and in some cases exterminated. In this contribution, activists from the Basque Country, Guatemala, Kenya and the Six Nations and a group of academics get together to learn from each other, support the ongoing search for common vocabularies and identify possible milestones of a coordinated and international strategy for a life-enhancing future.     

Supporting foster parents: caring voices

This article reports the responses of foster parents to a mailed questionnaire on the supports needed to maintain their caring role. An overarching finding was the need for respect and recognition, manifested in many ways, which appeared to be in short supply. In addition, the presence of several ambiguities in the relationships between agency, children in care, and the foster parents was revealed, requiring acknowledgment and discussion between the parties.     

Binge Gambling: A Neglected Concept

It is argued that there exists a relatively neglected distinct sub-group of pathological gamblers, described in the clinical literature, who display intermittent episodes of uncontrolled gambling superimposed on a background of prolonged intervening periods of abstinence. This sub-group is characterised by intense bouts of impaired control over gambling that meet core diagnostic features for pathological gambling during such defined episodes. However, they are unlikely to display significant symptoms of pathological gambling if screened during intervening periods of abstinence and report no persistent or progressive urges or preoccupation with gambling between episodes. This article discusses the concept of binge gambling with reference to illustrative case studies and by comparison to two other recognised binge behaviours, binge drinking and binge eating.     

Lessons from Marrano Beach: Attachment and Culture

SUMMARY

Clinical experiences, research within the American Indian/Alaska Native and Latino/a Los Angeles community, consultation with colleagues, and reflections on professional development indicate that cultural material exerts profound influence on individual, family, and community development. Reflections on practice are discussed that emphasize the role of theory, the significance of culture, and the importance of consultation in all levels of social work practice. In particular, the discussion notes that the prevailing paradigm on cultural competency can be expanded by integrating concepts from attachment theory in the analysis of why culture exerts such a profound influence on human development and behavior.     

Confronting Uncertainty: Lessons from Rural Social Work

Abstract

Communities in Australia and internationally are experiencing massive change. Climate variability is an aspect of change that social workers in Australia, particularly in rural areas, are grappling with. Vulnerable populations will be at increased risk as extreme weather events increase in frequency. Communities will be facing social challenges hitherto unknown. The experience of uncertainty and fragmentation as characteristics of postmodernism has exposed the ambiguous and contested nature of much of social work practice and contributed to a crisis of confidence for the social work profession. The move towards rationality and linear approaches in the postwelfare state is often at odds with the complexity and uncertainty of human situations that has always been social work terrain. It can be argued that social work, with its ethical base, person-in-environment approach, expertise in ambiguity and complexity, and recognition of context, is well-placed to manage postmodern uncertainty. Using the 2009 Victorian bushfire example, I argue that an uncertain future is an opportunity for social workers, those working in rural areas in particular, to reassert social work's moral purpose in working with communities facing change. Implications for social work policy, practice, and education are briefly explored.     

Modeling Social Processes: Some Lessons from Sports

Sports events can provide helpful models for thinking about social processes. DiMaggio's hitting streak in baseball, for example, raises serious questions about how the causes of relatively uncommon social events are typically studied. The hitting streak also directs our attention to considering models that generate a distribution of outcomes in a population of social units. The series of games leading to a football championship is relevant for approaching the role of complex chains of events in leading to a given outcome (where each individual sequence itself has a low probability of occurring). A model of changing templates suggests a more realistic way of thinking about the linkages over time from an initial starting point to a given outcome. Another sports example, based on the application of a binomial model to the outcome of a series of games, suggests that we should think of chance as a dependent variable that is influenced by—among other factors—the nature of the social structure. Also examined are the special problems in explaining any specific outcome.     

Child neglect: practitioners' perspectives

The research described here is an exploratory study of child neglect which focuses on practitioners' perspectives. The study was conducted in two stages. The first stage was a practitioner workshop from which data were obtained about perceptions of neglect. The second stage consisted of a sample survey of 20 cases registered in the category of neglect. Key workers of these cases were interviewed using semi-structured interview schedules based on material derived from the workshop. Major findings are that neglect is multifactorial and long term. Factors relating to parents/caregivers emerge as being integral to the way practitioners define neglect. Emotional/relational factors are seen to be central to practitioners' understandings of how children come to be neglected and the association between deprivation and neglect is underlined. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Children and Watergate: Some Neglected Considerations

Abstract

Existing theories of political socialization and discussions of the impact of Watergate on children which have been based upon them have over-emphasized affective orientations and have paid comparatively little attention to political cognition. Data are presented which suggest that this has resulted in not only incomplete theories of Watergate's influence on youth but has perpetuated a limited theoretical approach to political socialization. The approach has been consistent with the continuation of educational practices which defeat their own purpose.     

VIA's visual voices: the awareness of a dedicated audience for voices in patient video narratives

First the authors examine the concept of ‘voice’ in one model of participant media research (PMR) giving special attention to parallel variables of hearing, begging questions about the ‘listening’ component of any communication process. Second, they describe the use of a research programme entitled Video Intervention/Prevention Assessment (VIA) and a series of ongoing video narrative projects with chronically ill young people at Children's Hospital Boston. Young people were asked to show how they see their own illness-centred lives by using videocam technology. Third, ‘visual voices’ as found on the videotape results are examined through Thompson's five kinds of voice used by participants living with spina bifida, cystic fibrosis and, in one case, obesity. We conclude that knowledge and anticipation of what we have termed ‘a dedicated audience’ is one of the primary variables in the elicitation of voice and the overall value of participant media research.

… [one] main characteristic of illness narratives is that they formulate and express a central aspect of being ill in modern society, namely the difficulty of giving voice to both suffering and to the lifeworld context of illness. (Hyden 1997 Hyden, L. 1997. Illness and narrative. Sociology of Health & Illness, 19(1): 48–69. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 64)     

Lessons from American Social Work Education: Caution Ahead

Abstract

Similar trends are occurring in Australian and US social work education, as universities increasingly adopt a rigid market orientation to tertiary education. This marketisation shapes social work education in manifold ways, including the pressure to increase revenues (and effect greater efficiencies) by expanding the size of social work programs. The unregulated growth in social work programs leads to lowered admission standards, as programs are forced to compete for students. An oversupply of social workers will also drive salaries downwards as supply eclipses demand. These issues are examined in the context of a “big” versus a “small” (fewer but more highly trained social workers) model of social work. Emphasis is placed on the lessons that Australian social work educators can learn from the challenges facing US social work education.