Social Work as Uncommon Sense

Summary Social work needs to resist pressures to identify itself solelyat a superficial level of common sense responses to social problems.It has to go beyond this to recognize its use of ‘uncommonsense’ as the means by which social workers cross therelationship gap and respond to their client's needs. The importanceof doing this in the early stages of relationship, as in crisisintervention, are considered, and stress is placed on holdingtogether both the explicit task-related aspect of the relationship,and the less obvious emotional interchange. By means of theiruncommon sense, social workers are enabled to reflect for, andshare with clients their areas of pain, in such a way as torender them more tolerable.     

Addiction severity predictions using client network properties

By statistical analysis of client data it is shown how past or current network information together with other knowledge assesses treatment needs. The main findings are as follows. The client's previous exposure to addicts in the family has almost no influence on his or her present contacts with addicts in daily life. About 30% of the clients have experienced addicts both in family and among friends, about 30% have only family exposure, about 20% have neither kind of exposure, and about 20% have no family exposure but have current exposure to addicts. Exposure to addicts in family implies a higher risk of severe need for professional intervention than no such exposure. For the clients with no family exposure but with current exposure to addicts there is, somewhat surprisingly, a lower risk than for the other three categories of clients. This effect seems to be mainly because the psychiatric status of these clients is somewhat better than for those in the other three categories. The effect disappears if we look solely for drug addiction intervention needs; then there is a clear increase in relative treatment needs for the categories with previous or present addiction exposure compared to those without.     

Being in two places at once: renegotiating traumatic experience through the surplus reality of psychodrama

This article continues the dialogue started by Skolnik 2018 about the synergistic union of social work and psychodrama group approaches. The theoretical and clinical alignment of psychodrama and sociometry with social work with groups will be described. A practice illustration from Mirmont Treatment Center will be presented and discussed to explore some of the dynamics of psychodrama and, in particular, the therapeutic value of surplus reality. Surplus reality is a creative tool used to provide a therapeutic corrective emotional experience. Integrating insights from neuroscience, this article advocates for psychodrama as a valuable modality for clinical social workers engaged in group work.     

Institutionalized strategies in face-to-face encounters: focus on immigrant clients

The aim of this article is to explore how officials' institutionalized patterns of acting can be useful for understanding encounters between immigrant clients and representatives of a welfare organization. The data indicate that there are two fundamental social mechanisms at work: the materialization of the organizational ideology, and the cultural filter. Both have an impact on the type of action strategy chosen by an official in handling client problems. An analysis of the strategy outcomes according to the social mechanisms shows that: 1) The outcome will depend on the client's consent to the organizational ideology. Immigrant clients more often than other clients are assumed to have different views on, for example, sickness, work capability and retirement age; 2) Comparing clients to the image of an ideal-typical long-term sick person can lead to the definition of clients with different cultural backgrounds or those of immigrant status as deviant, and therefore problematic to deal with; 3) The cultural filter through which the officials interpret their clients' situation can be an important obstacle in understanding the responses of immigrant clients.
The study was conducted at a local social insurance office in a suburban area of a major Swedish city. Immigrants represented approximately 60% of the long-term sick people. The empirical material consists of observations of encounters and interviews with the officials working with rehabilitation of the long-term sick.     

Quality function deployment for developing a customized social medical service

This article describes the use of quality function deployment in orienting clinical social medicine to a quasi-market situation. The study shows that different customers had different requirements. For example, the social welfare office asked for close investigation followed by treatment in which time was not a critical factor, whereas the social insurance office asked for rapid and superficial investigations of a client's ability to work. General needs for improving the provision of information were identified, both for clients and the type of services that could be provided. The conclusion is that quality function deployment can be used as a method of defining and developing social services. However, a strict accommodation of the demands from the quasi-market would lead to contradictions with the theories used today as the basis for sociomedical services.     

Information technology in social security offices: Changing relations between caseworkers and clients

In this article possible implications of introducing information technology (IT) in social security administrations for their relationship with clients are discussed on the basis of a study on its effects in Netherlands municipal social services departments on clients'bureaucratic competence and caseworkers'discretion the accessibility and susceptibility of the administrations to the influence of clients, and the congruence in the definition of the bureaucratic situation by caseworkers and clients. Results show an increase in hierarchical authority and programming of work processes, a decrease in caseworkers'discretion and information monopoly, a growing discrepancy between caseworkers'and clients'definition of the bureaucratic situation, and an emphasis on verbal communicative aspects in the concrete interaction between the two. It is concluded that IT has paradoxical effects on the relationship between administrations and clients. On one hand the distance between them seems to diminish through an emphasis on direct, physical contacts with street-level officials. On the other, the accessibility and susceptibility of administrations to clients'influence seems to decrease because street-level workers become more embedded in the organization. It becomes more difficult for clients to bring their individual situation to the fore.     

A Role for Anyone? A Description of Social Work with the Elderly in Two Area Offices

Summary This article analyses information from Case Review Forms completedby social workers on 199 allocated elderly clients. These peoplewere very frail, most were considered to be ‘at risk’and to require regular, reliable and frequent care. The questionof the client moving to a tafer setting arose in two-thirdsof the cases, concerning which there was often some dispute.It is argued that social workers require a high level of professionalskill in dealing with clients, and others involved, faced withsuch questions and that this requirement will remain with thedevelopment of ‘community social work’.     

就业市场中间人行为分析:基于社会资本视角

本文基于中国综合社会调查数据（CGSS）对劳动力市场上中间人行为进行分析，具体考察影响其分享就业信息、提供就业帮助和最终成功匹配的因素。研究表明，就业信息的分享体现了社会资本的“运作效用论”而非“地位效用论”。社会地位和教育水平较高的中间人并不热衷于信息分享，而就业帮助体现了趋异性交往原则。中间人倾向于向教育水平低于自己的求职者提供实质性的就业帮助。此外，间接关系比单一的强关系或弱关系更能预测人情资源。教育水平较低和有迫切就业需求的劳动者对社会资本依赖较大。与女性相比，男性更依赖关系渠道。企业设立固定金额的推荐奖金可促进员工分享就业信息概率，但不影响成功匹配的概率。     

From Official Supervision to Self‐monitoring: Privatizing Supervision of Private Social Care Services in Finland

In October 2011, a new Act on Private Social Care Services came into force in Finland. The Act included a provision on a ‘self‐monitoring plan’. According to the provision, providers of private social care services are required to draw up a self‐monitoring plan and to follow its realization. The plan must be kept publicly on view so that clients and their relatives can also keep an eye on the realization of self‐monitoring. In this article, self‐monitoring is first explained and then briefly analyzed against the background of a wider theoretical discussion on accountability. It is argued that the introduction of client involvement in the supervision of private social care services represents a new mechanism of accountability that is typical of the Post‐Keynesian welfare state. Because public authorities are no longer able to supervise the growing number of private social care service providers, the responsibility has been partly shifted to service providers themselves as well as to clients. However, it is argued that the idea of self‐monitoring lends itself poorly to ‘delegated’ private social care services, i.e. to services that are outsourced to private service suppliers. Supervision of private social care service providers should not be too eagerly delegated to service providers themselves, or to clients, because we are here dealing with the constitutional right to adequate social care services. Client involvement also involves numerous practical problems, as shown at the end of the article.     

Group Work Practice with Asian Clients

While considerable interest has been given to the social work with Asian-Americans, little attention has been paid to the Asian group work practice. This article suggests a sociocultural approach in working with Asian groups, including a knowledge of the sociocultural heritage of the Asian clients, the proper respect for the members of the family on group process, and the group worker's, awareness of the significance of role expectation and its meaning for clients. In dealing with these sociocultural aspects, the social worker's role in Asian group treatment is that of a culture broker and enabler.     

The Act of Understanding

Summary Attention is drawn to experience that much social work has beenundertaken on a base of common sense, personal intuition andfeelings that the client's situation has been 'understood'.Medical, sociological and psychological sources for theory whichhave given status to objectivity and implicitly deterministicways of thinking are criticized as sometimes contrary to usefulunderstanding and not supportive to constructive change. Itis claimed that a goal of social work theory should be to disciplinethe 'understanding' which exists in the practice and it is suggestedthat this might be based upon the investigation of the meaningwhich people give to the world in which they live and to theirself within that world. This phenomenologkal approach placessubjectivity and the role of the self-concept at the focus ofattention. As a working philosophy it incorporates the formativeinfluences of past experiences whilst also asserting the primacyof the person who may impose a new significance upon both thosepast events and his immediate situation. It is claimed thatsuch an approach might be the source of a discipline which couldrelate more intimately than hitherto the theory and good practiceof all concerned with social welfare and social change.     

电子商务发展的智能化需求

电子商务的智能化是指利用数据仓库、数据挖掘技术对客户数据进行系统的储存和管理,并通过各种数据统计分析工具对客户数据进行分析,提供各种分析报告,如客户价值评价、客户满意度评价、服务质量评价、营销效果评价、未来市场需求等,为企业的各种经营活动提供决策信息.电子商务的智能化主要体现为电子商务管理的智能化、电子商务存储的智能化、电子商务检索的智能化、电子商务系统的智能化.智能化电子商务借助互联网服务平台,为企业快速地实现信息流、资金流和物流的全方位管理和监控,同时将上下游的供应商、企业、经销商、客户等进行全面的业务协同管理,从而实现高效的资金周转.它将彻底变革传统的上下游商业协同模式,成为电子商务下一个十年的关键词.     

USE OF GROUPS AT INTAKE

In 1976, Children's Center, like many public mental health centers, had long waiting lists for service. In response to this need, a group intake and orientation program was developed. After screening, clients with mild to moderate problems were assigned to "Group Intake," where a general orientation is presented and simple screening tests are administered, followed by a diagnostic conference. The majority of clients then proceed to the "GO Group, " a structured group designed to deliver immediate problem-solving assistance. The impact of these group therapy projects on clients, staff, and overall outpatient programming has been dramatic: waiting lists were almost immediately eliminated, clients expressed positive responses about the program, staff experienced increased group practice, and graduate students benefited from the training. Specific procedures used and experiences of the staff are presented as well as a review of of the history of other agencies establishing the program.     

A New Structure for Intake and Allocation in a Field Probation Unit

Summary From a background of practice and a post-qualifying fellowship,the author draws on the experiences of other Senior ProbationOfficers, as well as his own and his team members. In this article‘intake’ within the probation setting is taken asinitial agency impact as well as that part of team strategywhich has a bearing on allocating new work. Allocation and theconsequential deployment of resources are then seen as centralto the professional lives of team members. A structure is presentedwhich in practice pervades the totality of the team's life;most radical is the author's notion of allocating ‘workepisodes’. The model provides a structure for team membersto specialise in different forms of social work, and at thesame time allowing clients choice to be supervised without being‘sentenced to social work’. It also depends uponthe active use of a team as a group of interacting, interdependentprofessionals who share their work.     

Activation,Public Employment Services and their Clients: The Role of Social Class in a Continental Welfare State

This article fills a gap in the existing literature by investigating how public employment service (PES) staff actually deal with their clients under a continental regime of activation. The results reported here are based on interviews both with PES staff and their unemployed clients in Germany. We argue that due to its Bismarckian origins as an insurance‐based system of ‘unemployment protection’, Germany's system of unemployment compensation is attractive not only for the marginalized, but also for core workers. As a result, PES staff deal with clients from very heterogeneous class backgrounds. We demonstrate that social class is a significant factor in client outcomes, and that earlier research has perhaps overemphasized the role of frontline staff as ‘street‐level bureaucrats’. While staff do have considerable power, the result of the encounters between the administration and clients also depends on the capabilities of the clients, which, in turn, are strongly related to social class.     

The Ethical and Clinical Implications of Utilizing Cybercommunication in Face-to-Face Therapy

Information and communication technology has created a new way for individuals to communicate and has entered a number of professional practices, including clinical social work. This article explores the potential ethical and clinical implications when cybercommunication is used in conjunction with traditional face-to-face clinical social work practice. Specific challenges addressed include confidentiality, professional boundaries, effective and competent practice, and unanticipated contact. The authors discuss how information and communication technology is emerging as an inevitable component of the therapeutic exchange, influencing in-person social work practice and the ways that practitioners interact with their clients.     

Behavioral Social Work with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

The symptomatology of obsessive-compulsive disorder is described and its negative impact on daily functioning is noted. The outcome of the application of various forms of behavioral treatment, including systematic desensitization, imaginal exposure, aversion treatment and thought-stopping is discussed with reference to theoretical formulations of the function of obsessions and compulsions vis-ô-vis anxiety. Behavioral treatment via a combination of exposure to feared situations and response prevention or blocking of ritualistic behavior has proven to be the treatment of choice for this disorder. It is described here in some detail and suggestions regarding clinical issues in conducting this treatment are given. Factors identified as possible predictors of outcome include depression, anxious mood state, patients' beliefs in the probability of feared consequences, social functioning, motivation level and therapist characteristics. It is concluded that exposure and response prevention has substantially improved the prognosis of clients with obsessive-compulsive disorder but that programs aimed at maintenance of gains over time are needed.     

The Effect of Contingency Contracting on the Completion Rate of Behavior Assignments in Assertion Training Groups

In this study clients in six assertion training groups were assigned extragroup homework assignments at each session to complete by the beginning or the following session. Assignments consisted of keeping a diary, rehearsing a situation at home, reading a chapter on assertion training, contacting a buddy, monitoring one's own behavior, and/or performing a new behavior outside the group. The average number of these assignments per person per meeting was four. The assignment completion rate per group was recorded at every session. In each group, contingency contracts were introduced at either the second, third, fourth, or fifth session and continued in each group until the last session. In five groups an increase in the rate of completion followed the introduction of contingency contracts. The findings suggest that contingency contracting is an effective addition to the treatment package in assertion training groups.     

Social Work in a Managed Care Environment

Managed care has created a new service environment, eliminating distinctions that have sustained social work ideology and the profession throughout its history. This paper reviews important features of managed care, considers changes it has brought to practice ideology, the practitioner/client relationship, and the practice environment, including social work employment. The paper discusses the new opportunities, challenges and problems that have emerged with this approach.
While social workers should not embrace managed care, they should not run from it or blindly oppose it. They need to aggressively pursue it, fighting its major drawbacks, while adapting to a competitive market place. Given the current managed care market, the social work profession is now in the right place, at the right time, with the right skills, and available at the right price. It must now take on a leadership role to maintain its competitive position, protect its clients and insure quality practice.