The effectiveness of services marketing: perceptions of executive directors of gerontological programs

Interest in marketing services, as opposed to products, has gained considerable momentum in recent years. The author conducted a survey of human service executives in six metropolitan areas to gauge the current status and efficacy of marketing efforts in programs for the aged. Findings confirm that the majority of health and social service organizations now employ marketing strategies of some kind, although somewhat insensitive and inadequate. The most common indicator of marketing success has been increments in the number of clients served. Health organizations are significantly more likely to measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts than social service agencies. Agencies commonly employ multiple marketing strategies, with face-to-face approaches proving to be the most effective. Least effective are public service messages and commercials on television/radio. The author suggests recommendations for mounting more efficacious and sensitive marketing programs in the human services.     

Assessing families and other client systems in community-based programmes: development of the CALF

Programmes providing services to children and families often face the challenge of assessing not only the child referred, but also the child’s family system and its individual members. Recognizing that household/family members can cause, contribute to or affect a child’s problems requires that human service agencies utilize assessment tools capable of assessing family members across the lifespan. The literature references many assessment tools used by clinical programmes in mental‐health settings that are not well suited to use in social service agencies with multidisciplinary staff at different skill levels. As a response to this dilemma, the authors have developed the Collaborative Assessment of Life Functioning (CALF), a user‐friendly tool that assesses various areas of life functioning. Based on Maslow’s motivation theory, person‐in‐environment and systems theories, the CALF can be used with various client systems. This paper describes the development of the tool, its purpose and use, the importance of assessment tools in the helping process and considerations for agencies wishing to use an assessment tool like the CALF. The authors also discuss the applicability of the CALF in human services and social service agency settings and with diverse client populations.     

Implementing child mistreatment risk assessment systems: lessons from theory

Over the past ten years, public child protective services (CPS) agencies have adopted risk assessment systems in an effort to improve the quality of service delivery to children and their families. Various reviews of the impact of these models suggest that they have not lived up to their expectations and have had little or no impact on broad system indicators of service delivery. Foremost among the findings of existing studies is that these models have not been implemented and used as intended. The risk assessment field has not taken advantage of theoretical principles suggested by the organizational change literature. The researcher applies Lewin's Force Field Analysis to identify the forces for and against effective implementation of risk assessment systems in public agencies. The author suggests that lessons from theory could improve the effectiveness of the implementation of change in CPS agencies.     

Packaging effective community service delivery: the utility of mandates and contracts in obtaining administrative cooperation

Voluntary agreements, mandates, and contracts integrate networks of social service organizations, allowing them to function as coordinated wholes. The author reviews the history of contracting and mandating in the public sector. It is hypothesized that contracted relationships formalize agreements between local organizations dependent on others. Mandated relationships are perceived to be important by policy-makers at a state or federal level. The differential acceptance and rejection of these relationships in the community is explored. Data from social service agencies are used to compare administrators' assessments of the effectiveness of mandated and contracted relationships used to coordinate a group of agencies delivering services to children. When a mandated relationship has been formalized into a contract by a local administrator the perceived effectiveness of that relationship is higher than any other relationship in the community. If the mandated relationship has not been formalized by a contract this relationship is perceived to be the least effective. Important mandated inter-organizational ties without monetary incentives are less likely to work. Local administrators having developed the contracted ties see these ties as producing a higher level of performance.     

Social Work Tomorrow: Towards a Critical Understanding of Technology in Social Work

Correspondence to Bob Sapey, Department of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE Summary This paper makes use of theoretical ideas that have been developedto understand the impact of new technology on organizationsand applies them to its use within social work agencies. Thesedeveloping theories employ ideas that are familiar to socialworkers—organization theory, decision making theory, andcommunication theory. The paper therefore argues that socialworkers are in a good position to understand and influence theuse of computers within welfare agencies and do not need tobe inhibited by a lack of technological knowledge. It is furtherargued that, unless social workers do become involved in theways in which new technologies are used within organizations,they will fail to influence its impact upon their clients andmay further fail to control the way in which computers affectthe nature of social work itself in the future.     

Why We Need a Biopsychosocial Perspective with Vulnerable,Oppressed, and At-Risk Clients

This article considers why we need to take a biopsychosocial perspective in assessment and treatment of individuals. Using psychological concepts drawn from drive theory, ego psychology, object relations, attachment theory, self psychology and relational theory, the author makes explicit the need to connect these ideas with social and biological contexts. Arguing that psychodynamic theories contain the social as well as the psychological, the author traces Freud's social commitments, the role of critical race theory, the importance of social contexts in shaping development while also considering the effects of neglect, trauma and abuse on the developing brain. Holding in mind all of these positions, is what makes clinical social work truly the impossible profession.     

Service users' knowledges and social work theory: conflict or collaboration?

Summary So far, service users have not been systematically involvedin social work theorizing. However, disabled peoples's movements,mental health service users/survivors and other service usershave developed their own knowledges based on direct experienceand they have generated their own conceptual frameworks andbodies of theory. There are fundamental problems in social workseeking to interpret service user knowledges. Their developmentsand interpretation require the direct involvement of serviceusers and their organization in social work theorizing. Thereare strong practical, philosophical and political argumentsfor involving the knowledges and theories of service users andtheir organizations in the process of social work theory-building.This paper considers an inclusive approach to social work theorizing.While highlighting the importance of service users and theirorganizations being effectively included in social work theorizing,it also argues the need for them to have support and opportunitiesto develop their own prior and separate discussions about theory,including social work theory.     

The impact of declining resources and purchase of service contracting on private, nonprofit agencies

The increasingly precarious and vulnerable position of the private, nonprofit social service agency in an environment of government contracting and declining funding has been the subject of a number of articles over the past few years. Nonprofit agencies have been characterized as being controlled by powerful government agencies that dictate the terms and conditions of contracts, the types of services to be provided, the methods of delivery, and the price to be paid for services. One would expect to find nonprofits anxious to terminate their relationships with various units of government, and return to a more independent status. That is not happening. If anything, purchase of service contracting (POSC) with nonprofit agencies is increasing. This national study of nonprofit agencies explores the impact of declining funding from all sources (including POSC), and seeks to determine its impact on clients, staff, and organization.     

The Impact of In-service Training within Social Services

Summary In-service training within social service agencies is recognizedas a key means through which staff are provided with the necessaryknowledge and skills to improve overall agency performance andachieve the objectives of social policy. Furthermore, reportsof training expenditure within social services departments inthe UK suggest increasing amounts of monies are invested insuch activity in order to meet the changing demands placed onsocial care and greater expectations for higher standards inservice delivery. Yet to what extent is the faith placed inmuch of this training by social service agencies actually justified?In short, how much do we know about the actual impact of in-servicetraining within social service organizations in terms of itachieving the aims set by policy makers? This article attemptsto answer this question in order to assist in the developmentof a far more empirically based framework for understandingtraining processes within social service agencies. A reviewof the literature for studies published between 1974 and 1997detailing an evaluation of in-service training programmes withinsocial service agencies identified only 20 such studies. Problemsassociated with both the evaluative criteria utilized and theresearch methodologies employed in these studies meant thatin many instances conclusions regarding the actual impact oftraining could only be tentatively judged. As a result, an analysisof these studies found that although training may have an impacton trainees in terms of satisfaction or knowledge gain, resultsregarding impact on behaviour are far more inconclusive. Inaddition it is not at all certain that such training will necessarilyresult in changes in performance back in the workplace. Thefindings from the review suggest far more research is requiredof sufficient rigour to underpin our knowledge in this importantarea.     

Keeping the Faith: The Impact of Human Services Restructuring on Catholic Social Welfare Services

Church related agencies are major providers of community services in Australia (Lyons, 2001:34‐35). While the history of church related welfare service provision is not well known in Australia it is asserted that many have a long tradition of outreach and service provision to marginalised groups regardless of the government social policy of the day (ACSWC, 2000; Mendes, 2003). This paper examines the current environment of human services restructuring and the impact of the shift to contractualism on one church related provider: Catholic social welfare provision in Australia. It explores the significance of the church's social teachings and history on concerns that service innovation, diversity and advocacy are currently under threat. Finally it calls for greater appreciation of the distinctive contribution of church related agencies and what they have to offer in service delivery and as contributors to the social policy discourse.     

Digital by default? A qualitative study of exclusion in digitalised welfare

Digitalisation reforms have become increasingly pervasive across European welfare agencies and public sector institutions. As welfare provision becomes premised on the use of digital technologies, often in the form of “self‐service” solutions, new demands are imposed on citizens, including already disadvantaged groups. Although existing research has showcased how digitalisation often reproduces existing lines of stratification, little to no work has been conducted on such processes in the context of welfare provision and public administration. Through a study of citizen service centres in Denmark, based on ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews, this article analyses the new exclusionary mechanisms that emerge at the frontline of the digital agenda. The article argues that digitalised welfare agencies simultaneously sustain existing lines of social stratification and enhance these by producing new forms of digital exclusion. Taken together, the article contributes with new knowledge on the impact of digitalisation policies and their exclusionary consequences for disadvantaged citizens.     

Middle‐Class Political Activism and Middle‐Class Advantage in Relation to Public Services: A Realist Synthesis of the Evidence Base

Since the late 1960s social policy scholarship has been concerned with the distribution of the resources or benefits across social gradients. This article presents a review of the literature on one mechanism by which inequity might be produced – activism by middle‐class service‐users enabling them to capture a disproportionate share of resources. The review used the methodology of realist synthesis to bring together evidence from the UK, the USA and Scandinavian countries over the past 30 years. The aim was to construct a ‘middle‐theory’ to understand how and in which contexts collective and individual activity by middle‐class service‐users might produce inequitable resource allocation or rationing decisions that disproportionately benefit middle‐class service‐users. The article identifies four causal theories which nuance the view that it is the ‘sharp elbows’ of the middle‐classes which confer advantage on this group. It shows how advantage accrues via the interplay between service‐users, providers and the broader policy and social context.     

The Sufic Paradigm for Stress Management and its Contribution to a Model of Social Work Practice

This article presents Sufism as a model for helping to alleviate human miseries. As the instability, contradictions, and stress of the socioeconomic structure create a frantic search for relevant modes of treatment, the theories and methods espoused in Sufism present an alternative approach to be taken up in the interest of more effective practice; especially in the field of social work, psychology, and counseling. Sufic masters or teachers, by the nature of their work are social workers; hence, their role in helping stressed people is discussed. Existing tools of measurement that can test stress levels are used in order to present Sufism as being compatible with the mode of scientific inquiry. The article shows that sticking to traditional psychoanalytic, behavioral, transactional and analytical practices, to name a few, limits the avenues of help that can be offered to those in need. Social workers and human service agencies have to work in collaboration with religious institutions and other spiritual organizations in order to better serve the population.     

The chain is never stronger than its weakest link: implementing a model of collaboration among agencies serving vulnerable children and adolescents

This article analyses agency collaboration to help vulnerable children and adolescents with complex social and psychological problems, examining the implementation of a formal collaboration model for these groups. This model, implemented in Västra Götaland, Sweden, involves five municipal agencies and five county council agencies in 49 different municipalities. Data were collected using two questionnaires sent to 355 lower managers and 424 professional representatives in the concerned organizations. The analysis demonstrates that there are differences in implementation results between the agencies, and that the differences are largely explainable by organizational self-interest and top management prioritization of collaboration model implementation. The main barriers to collaboration are factors modifiable by the agencies themselves, and perceived barriers decreased when the policy was working. The study suggests that managers of human service organizations must assume responsibility when implementing collaboratively, and that accountable professional and political leaders must rise above organizational interests to protect vulnerable citizens.     

Secure Attachment to Family and Community

ABSTRACT

Disproportionately large numbers of high risk clients from Multiple Problem Families (MPFs) utilize a disproportionately large percentage of Medicaid, Health and Human Services. Clients from these families are involved in domestic violence, addiction, child abuse and neglect. They are over represented on the caseloads of state protective service agencies. The approach outlined in this paper is based on social attachment theory models. It stresses the use of long-term, home-based therapy, and community support agencies to establish and maintain safe secure attachment for these fragile families. The therapeutic goals are to foster attachments that lead to increased mentalisation, and to decrease the crisis-driven behavior that often results in high cost utilization of state services. A placement prevention model, outlined as an alternative “mentalising social system” approach, is proposed for treating disruptive MPF children. Family oriented, in-home, community-based treatment is found to be more cost effective and therapeutically helpful for these children than costly inpatient psychiatric admission followed by residential care.     

For an integrative theory of social behaviour: Theorising with and beyond rational choice theory

Most sociologists are not content with merely relating macrosocial phenomena to preceding macrosocial causes in their causal explanations of social phenomena. Instead they are seeking to provide (non‐reductive) microfoundations with which they can corroborate and make understandable the connection between macrosocial phenomena. In order to do so a theory (or theories) of human action is required. One such theory, rational choice theory (RCT), has long been viewed with strong suspicion in sociology. I show such suspicion to be partially justified. RCT cannot be a general theory of social behaviour. Nonetheless, there are important insights in various versions of RCT that should not be discarded. In order to improve upon RCT and move toward a more unified or integrative theory of action social‐psychological research has to be taken note of. I demonstrate how dual‐process theories and the research on heuristics can help sociologists move beyond RCT without contradicting some of its more basic insights.     

Service Delivery for the Community Elderly:

Effective service delivery should be based on the interpretation of social research theory into an operational plan. This paper reports on the demonstration and study of an innovative service model which integrates the theories of social roles, life space, and organizational participarion. Through the development of informal support systems on a neighborhood basis, linkages between the elderly person and his environmenr have been effectively strengthened or re-established. It is suggesred that the model be replaced in more rural and urban areas.     

The topic of subjectivity in psychology: Contradictions,paths and new alternatives

This paper draws a picture of how topics related to subjectivity have appeared in different psychological theories, such as psychoanalysis, Gestalt and post‐structuralist approaches, discussing in depth a specific proposition from a cultural‐historical standpoint. I argue that, in most of these theories, subjectivity has been used to refer to specific processes and phenomena without advancing a more general theory about it. The way in which subjectivity was treated within the Cartesian/Enlightenment tradition, taken together with the individualistic tradition of psychology, led critical psychological theories to reject the concept. In this way, such critical theories have omitted the heuristic value of subjectivity to study processes that can neither be exhausted by language, nor by discourse. A new proposal of subjectivity is highlighted, based on the cultural‐historical tradition in psychology. From this perspective, subjectivity is defined by units of emotions and symbolical processes generated throughout human experience. On the basis of such definition, I discuss how institutionalized orders can be subverted by subjective productions that represent new social pathways. Far from being a remnant of Modernity, in this way subjectivity is defined as a human production, capable of transcending the apparent objective limits of human existence.     

A typology of child protective service cases: design and implementation issues for social work administrators

Case typologies can help to delineate client problems and needs, inform the design of service delivery, and measure service outputs and outcomes. The author describes the development of a typology of the child protective services cases of one large public department of social services. To assist social work administrators develop and apply case classification schemes within their agencies, this typology is used to illustrate the following key conceptual and methodological issues: (1) reasons for case typologies: (2) identifying and selecting case attributes: (3) re-organizing and reducing the number of attributes: and (4) forming groups.     

Towards a Legal Definition of Social Welfare

The author formulates a definition of the term ‘social welfare’. This definition, he claims, is necessary if there are to be controls imposed both on the activities of private social welfare agencies, and on the benefits given to such agencies by the community in the form of exemptions, concessions and rebates. The author advocates a definition which reflects current community views about social welfare and proposes ways in which the definition can be interpreted to avoid the rigidities of the legal system. Finally he argues that the exemptions and concessions should be given to a more restricted range of private agencies than at present.