Spirituality and Social Care

In this paper I discuss the main theoretical ideas in the book and the way in which the author applies them to social casework. I consider the relevance of these ideas to contemporary social work in terms of their contribution to the knowledge base of social work and social work methods. I argue that Kleinian ideas can make an important contribution to understanding the interpsychic and intrapsychic aspects of human experience with which social workers come into contact. I suggest that the author writes about the casework relationship with little regard to the social and political contexts in which social work is undertaken and that in contemporary social work, there needs to be a relationship between three different elements, namely: the client--as an individual within their social context; the emotional dynamics of the client-worker relationship; and the integration of theory, social policy and the legal framework.     

'She Wasn't Tall Enough and Breasts Get in the Way': Why Would a Woman Bullfighter Retire?

In 1999, the first Spanish woman bullfighter, Cristina Sanchez, retired after performing as a full-fledged torero for only three years. In this article, I examine the circumstances of her success and of the curtailment of her short career as a case study in how an emergent feminine identity can be created and established through the conscious actions of a woman in the public sphere. Through an analysis of ethnographic and media materials, I will demonstrate how in this context of changing Spanish gender Cristina Sanchez's career and retirement made the Spanish gender debate public and explicit through a performative and media manifestation of women's agency. This work is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Spain from 1992-1994, media analysis, and a series of return visits since that time.     

Social work and hospitality: An oral history of Edith Stolzenberg

ABSTRACT

Edith Richman Stolzenberg (1913–2004) was the first woman to be hired as a social worker in Hartford Public High School in Hartford, Connecticut. In a career that spanned 60 years and much of 20th-century social welfare history, she was motivated by the social justice tradition of her Jewish upbringing and the religious value of hospitality to advocate for children and families. As we enter a harsh new era for social services, this oral history explores the radical possibilities for integrating social work goals and religious values.     

Spirituality and Ethics in Long-Term Care

Abstract

The issues of spirituality and ethics are evoked in a case of an 89-year-old woman resident in a nursing home who refused nutrition and hydration. Clergy representing Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam were asked to respond to questions regarding the choice to end life and spiritual resources to help the patient. The clergy agreed that the patient is in a spiritual crisis but her autonomy should be respected, and spiritual resources should be expended to enhance meaning. The ethical dilemma for the social worker, as for the clergy, is whether to support the patient's freedom to end her life or persuade her to continue to live. The dilemma is based on conflicting social work values of self-determination and the preservation of life. Three ethical principles are in conflict: respect for autonomy, the duty to prevent harm, and beneficence. At the end of the process of ethical deliberation, the social worker must be prepared to accept the patient's decision.     

A case for psychodynamic social work

Abstract

Psychodynamic casework is not as popular in social work theory and practice as it once was. It is considered by some to be impractical, unscientific, and not suitable for those customarily receiving a social work service. Task-centred casework, behavioural approaches, the newer psychotherapies, and family therapy have all taken over as major paradigms of social work method. This is especially so, I think, for the social worker working in a psychiatric setting, where many clients stay only for a short time and where emphasis is placed on assessment and short-term intervention.

In this paper I shall argue that a psychodynamic approach in social work is still relevant; that it is important for its humanizing qualities, for understanding and working with people with severe problems and for, perhaps, helping us to locate the position of social work vis-a-vis other mental health professions. I shall do this by focusing on a particular case I had as a social work student on placement in a psychiatric day hospital.     

The Changing Face of Public Adoption Practice

ABSTRACT

A study analyzing the workload of California's public adoption workers revealed how much adoption practice in the public sector has changed in recent years. Using focused discussion groups, this study found that compared to practice of an earlier time, (1) children available for placement come from more problematic families and are more difficult to place; (2) some decisions traditionally with the domain of adoptions are now being made by other social workers; and (3) increased oversight by the judicial system has had several unanticipated consequences, including adoption work taking on a “paralegal” quality and judges making traditional casework decisions.     

Achieving Shared Meaning in Cross-Cultural Dialogue

Abstract

Based on a qualitative study of the Twin Cities Hmong community, this paper offers a case study of a Hmong family's response to a situation in which a woman who is a member of their family has been chronically physically abused by her husband. The case illustrates the challenges of understanding the family's reactions in light of their cultural context as well as the implications for social work practice. An excerpt of a verbatim interview between the author and a subject from the study is provided. The specifics of the cultural values, protocol for handling conflict and communication patterns that contribute to understanding what has occurred are discussed. The author then discusses the challenges for the social work practitioner of simultaneously maintaining the ethical values of honoring diversity and protection of the oppressed.     

Teaching social work is teaching to ask questions: an inter-subjective approach to social work practice

Abstract

This paper sets out to provide examples of how quotations from literature can come to and work on a therapist's mind when engaged with clients. A consideration of Sylvia Plath's poetry and writings provide a number of examples of how some knowledge and understanding of her material has contributed to and enhanced work with distressed and disturbed clients. Work with a woman who had made allegations of Satanist abuse is then discussed with particular reference to the relevance of Hamlet to the work. Examples from a therapeutic group are provided which illustrate how literature can function as a communicator of feeling at an unconscious level. Consideration is then given to the wider social and political relevance of subjective feeling with reference to the work of Franz Kafka. There is also acknowledgement of how recourse to literature could be used as a defence against painful material rather than contributing to an understanding of it. The paper concludes with an attempt to understand why it is that claims are made for the healing value of literature and the arts and how these healing processes can operate in the therapeutic encounter.     

Disability studies as a framework to design disability awareness programs: no need for ‘magic’ to facilitate children’s understanding

Abstract

This paper presents and critically discusses a disability awareness program that was addressed to non-disabled children aged between 6-8 years old in Cyprus. The main aims were to explore how disability studies and anti-oppressive pedagogies could inform decisions on structured activities and materials to support children understand disability as condition of life, and recognize disabling practices. Artefacts from children’s work and narratives are presented throughout the paper to inform decisions and choices in relation to the program. The discussion draws on international literature and critically examines: a. how disability feminists’ focus on experiences of disability can have a central place in awareness raising programs, and can be further strengthened by a social model understanding of disability, b. the local context and the use of language as raised by postmodernists/poststructuralists, and c. the use of cartoons as a form of art that can help recognize and challenge dominant disability stereotypes.     

Sex,Drugs, and Love Among the Middle Aged: A Case Study of a Serodiscordant Heterosexual Couple Coping with HIV

ABSTRACT

HIV infection attributable to injection is growing, as is the incidence among heterosexual persons. Some of the people affected are over 50, and we can anticipate a growing number of older people with substance use and HIV as primary concerns. Therefore, we need to know more about the intersections of age, addictions, and HIV. This article uses narrative analysis to examine a research interview with an African-American woman and her African-American HIV-infected male partner in order to gain insight about how a middle-aged serodiscordant drug-affected couple might struggle and succeed in the face of HIV. Implications for social work, policy and research are provided.     

The Dutch “National” Curriculum Computer Applications for Schools of Social Work

Summary

This paper describes the current situation of computer education in the schools of social work in the Netherlands, new policy in curriculum development, and the development of a new comprehensive curriculum on computer applications. The basic philosophy of the curriculum and a firm relation to social work practice are discussed. To illustrate these developments, an outline of the curriculum for social casework is presented as a kind of status report.     

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.     

Power of Teen Motherhood in Predicting Later Educational Attainment

Abstract

This article investigates the power of teen motherhood in predicting later educational attainment. Data for mothers are extracted from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79). Findings show that teen motherhood is inversely related to later educational attainment. Poverty, welfare receipt and the number of children have a direct influence on later educational attainment. Employment, the age of the woman at the time of her first marriage, and being married currently, had a direct positive influence on educational attainment. The implications for social work practice are discussed.     

Minority parents’ coping efforts to improve their children’s academic achievement: the Tanodas in Hungary

ABSTRACT

Our paper is based on a study carried out among students of Hungarian tanodas – second chance educational institutions in Hungary – and their parents. The findings of the interview research did not support deficit models and suggest that schooling is a vital issue for both Roma/Gypsy families and their children. All families have limited resources and opportunities to achieve desired goals, and despite their strong intent and determination, they often seem to lack a clear vision of the steps to be taken. Our results show that children have to cope with negligence, stigmatization, exclusion, discrimination, etc. Turning to tanodas for help has become a sort of coping strategy in and of itself. We could identify, as common parental strategies, the ‘squeezing out’ of the maximum available scarce opportunities, building on social networks, and monitoring their children’s studies. Students’ coping mechanisms regarding identity-threats were more varied and ranged from confrontation via proxy control and social support, to disengaging from school and taking on a negative identity or, the opposite, taking up positive roles.     

Dangerous Liaisons: The Time Is Out of Joint

ABSTRACT

Anne is an older woman, with a history of severe, complex trauma, including abandonment and multiple rounds of sexual abuse, which started in her early childhood and was followed by sexual exploitation in a previous experience of therapy. In this article I discuss her treatment with me in the context of the #MeToo movement and the rest of the current troubling sociopolitical constellation. I argue that when tanks crash into our bedrooms and transform them into battlefields, seismic psychic change occurs: catastrophic or healing or both. I also contemplate the nature of the psychoanalytic contract between patient and therapist, as well as the limits of the psychoanalytic endeavor in the face of massive social and historical trauma, “when the time is out of joint” (Shakespeare, “Hamlet”).     

Social work in a multi-racial and multi-cultural environment

Abstract

Managing race and culture in social work is a matter of conceptualising and incorporating these dimensions in basic, sound casework, and in the structures of support and supervision which enable individual workers to provide this service.     

Adjustment to Disability

Abstract

This article will focus on the biopsychosocial challenges encountered when an individual is disabled at an early age as well as when an individual acquires a disability later in life. Two case examples will focus on the adaptations/life choices that are necessary to adequately meet psycho/social/developmental needs and enhance individual self esteem. The case of Rita, a woman who lost her hearing at age two, highlights the importance of integrating a biopsychosocial approach to understand the multiple challenges and adaptations of individuals who are disabled at an early age. Laureen, a woman who acquired a spinal cord injury during her late teen years, described her struggles as a young adult adapting to a physical disability. Both cases highlight the importance of integrating an ecological/systems framework focusing on a biopsychosocial perspective, emphasizing the interrelationship between biological, psychological, social, technological, cultural and political factors.     

Psychotherapy In Social Work With The Inarticulate

Abstract

Casework with the inarticulate and socially inadequate may be absorbing, require skilled attention to unconscious processes, and be deeply rewarding. Where it concerns itself in a major way with unconscious processes, such casework is a near relation of psychotherapy, but differs from psychotherapy in its use of concrete practical help and in the relative rarity and modified character of its interpretations.     

A therapeutic social work team in practice

In 1996, as a result of interagency collaboration between social services and health, Leeds Social Services Department brought together three groups of social workers undertaking therapeutic work into a centrally managed team. Continued inter-agency working together has ensured that the Therapeutic Social Work Team has become an established service for children and families. This paper describes the work of the team by focusing on four areas: the context of interagency collaboration, therapeutic work in the child protection process, managing different theoretical approaches in one team, and evaluating practice.     

Cancer as a Life Transition: A Relational Approach to Cancer Wellness in Women

Receiving a diagnosis of cancer is a traumatic event and changes one's life forever. The period of initial diagnosis and treatment is indeed a life transition, regardless of the prognosis. It precipitates a change in self-perception, physically, emotionally, and interpersonally. It changes how a woman sees herself, her family, and her world. Simultaneously the woman is confronted with many decisions to make regarding treatment options and the management of personal, familial, and work related responsibilities. People have the opportunity to reflect on old decisions and to make new decisions. Inevitably one is confronted by mortality. The management of this illness is done in the context of a complex network of relationships with family, friends, coworkers, doctors, other medical personnel, and clergy. Often it is the clinical social worker who is in the position of facilitating access to and participation in resources for care. Many women join healing communities or wellness centers to find a model of care and achieve a state of well-being that utilizes and encourages the support of these relationships. Understanding the importance and impact of these relationships can help clinical social workers facilitate cancer wellness in their clients and advocate better on their behalf. The intent of this paper is to understand the concept of cancer wellness as a relational approach and to promote its place in integrative clinical social work practice.