Personal Beliefs and the Experience of Problems: A Study in Adolescence

Summary This paper presents the results of a study of the views of across-section of young people in the 14–15 year old agegroup. It indicates how personal views and attitudes can beeffective in increasing or reducing the impact of the normalproblems of adolescence. The vital importance of a healthy relationshipwith parents is emphasised by the results.     

Literature and the Therapeutic Imagination

Summary The therapeutic imagination is closely related to the literaryimagination and is concerned with similar issues of the relationshipof the self to society. The study of literature needs to bean integral part of social work education if workers are tobe helped to confront the dilemmas faced by the social worksensibility.     

Opiate Dependent Women and Their Babies: A Study of the Multidisciplinary Work of a Hospital and a Local Authority

Correspondence to Patricia Kearney, 11 Wickham Gardens, London SE4 1LY. Summary The study examines a multi-disciplinary approach to the treatmentof opiate dependent pregnant women and their babies, with particularregard to statutory child protection responsibilities. It reviewsthirteen births with a follow up period of three years.     

The Problems of Managing the Family Contacts of Children in Residential Care

Summary The study explores the problems of managing the family contactsof children in residential care. It focuses on the family linksexperienced by two children undergoing a two month long periodof observation and assessment. It is seen that the family linksof these children take a low priority, particularly as socialwork plans change and the informal world of the institutionbecomes pervasive. The outcomes of the two cases are charted.     

Organizational Research and Social Work: Issues in Application Illustrated from the Case of Organic and Mechanistic Systems of Management

Summary An increasing number of social workers are concerning themselveswith the organizational context of social work and with theapplication of organizational research material to their sphere.This article focuses upon a particular industrial study andcritically examines the recommendations by three writers, ofthe introduction in social services departments of an organizationalform identified in the study. As well as suggesting some implicationsof the study for social work, the discussion illustrates thekinds of issues and complexities which can arise in the applicationof such material     

The Effects of Group Living in a Residential Home for the Elderly

Summary The group-living system of care is becoming increasingly popularin residential homes for the elderly. This study examined purposefulactivity, as measured by engagement, in one such home beforeand after changeover to group living. It was found that engagementwas significantly increased after the changeover. In addition,life satisfaction was increased and orientation unchanged bythe changeover in a small sample of residents. These resultsare interpreted as supportive for the effectiveness of groupliving.     

Critical Incident Reporting -- an Approach to Reviewing the Investigation and Management of Child Abuse

Correspondence to Chris Mills, Information and Research Officer, Middlesex Area Probation Service, 4th Floor, Glen House. 200 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9LA. Summary It is argued that the technique of critical incident analysiscan profitably be applied to the study of human errors in theinter-agency management of child abuse. Suggestions are madefor a basis on which reporting could take place.     

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.     

'Don't shake the baby': towards a prevention strategy

Summary This paper reports on the findings of a study on the extentto which carers felt like shaking, and shook, their babies andyoung children and the circumstances surrounding the feelingsand/or actions of shaking. The research was designed to informa 'Don't Shake Your Baby' campaign planned by the preventionsub-committee of the London Borough of Newham's Area Child ProtectionCommittee. The main findings from interviews with 83 mothers,and self-completion questionnaires completed by 152 secondaryschool students, are discussed. Recommendations for a preventionprogramme are suggested in light of the findings.     

Coping with Chronic Renal Failure

Summary This paper presents the findings of a small-scale study in whichtwenty renal patients on home dialysis were interviewed. Thedata are analysed in relation to coping strategies, coping stylesand illness roles. Some implications for theories of coping,illness roles and social work are examined.     

Do Nothing but Do Something: the Effect of Human Contact with the Parent on Abusive Behaviour

Summary This study examines whether a mere human contact, which is notaccompanied with any definite treatment goal or technique, canbring about a change in the behaviour of abusing mothers. Resultsindicated that after three months of social contact betweenthe layman, intervening woman and 40 abusive mothers, significantchange could be seen in the abusive behaviour. This change didnot last when the contact with the mother was terminated. Threeelements inherent in the contact were mentioned by the mothersas an explanation; social control, attention, and easing theburden. The paper ends with a discussion of the use of humancontact as a method of treatment, its advantages and disadvantages.     

Perceptions of Staff Supervision in the Probation Service

Summary This study collates and comments upon the views of main-gradeprobation officers in West Yorkshire on the subject of staffsupervision. It shows that a majority of officers hold positiveopinions about supervision, provided that it is related to assistingthem in their main task of helping clients. The use of supervisionas a means of administrative control over standards of workis acceptable only to a minority of officers. The article includesa detailed analysis of the content of officers' own definitionsof supervision from which many examples are quoted. It showsalso the degree of importance accorded to supervision in relationto other probation officer and senior probation officer functions.     

Bridging the divide: elders and the assessment process

Summary At the heart of needs-based assessment is an uneasy tensionbetween agency-centred and user-centred objectives. Using casematerial from an ethnographic study of the process of assessmentfor older people, this paper looks at what happens when practitionerstry to understand the needs of individual elders through a processdominated by agency agendas. By marginalizing the older person'sinsights, the risk of unwelcome or inappropriate interventionmay increase. A user-centred approach, by contrast, requiresinformation gathering and provision that is meaningful to theolder person and sensitive to their efforts to analyse and managetheir situation. These efforts are often revealed in narrativeform as the person tells their story which, in an agency-centredassessment, is easily overlooked or even ignored.     

The Place of Knowledge in Social Work Activity

Summary This study considers whether a small sample of social workerswas using theoretical knowledge as a basis for activities inpractice. The findings indicate that the use of this type ofknowledge was minimal. They also bring to light a number ofquestions related to the development of knowledge for use insocial work practice.     

Group Living in Homes for the Elderly: A Comparative Study of the Outcomes of Care

Correspondence to Tim Booth, Department of Sociological Studies, Joint Unit for Social Services Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN. Summary This paper traces the theory and practice of group living inhomes for the elderly in the literature and in the field. Itreviews the current state of research and calls for more workon the comparative evaluation of outcomes. It describes andpresents the results from a longitudinal study of matched samplesof residents in group homes and traditional homes which assessedthe relative changes in their personal functioning over time.The findings suggest that group living arrangements have beenoversold—in so far as they promise more than they deliver.     

Staff Attitudes and Caring Practices in Homes for the Elderly

Correspondence to Tim Booth, Joint Unit for Social Services Research, The University, Sheffield S10 2TN. Summary This article presents the findings from a major survey of staffattitudes and caring practices in homes for the elderly in Fife.The survey was carried out in the wake of the Wagner Reportto examine the diffusion of good practice ideas among residentialstaff and to see how far these ideas are reflected in actualcaring routines. The study points to the existence of a ‘coolingeffect’ whereby adherence to good practice lessens thecloser one gets to operational reality. Finally, the implicationsof these findings for staff training are discussed.     

Short Term Care for the Elderly in Residential Homes: A Research Note

Please address requests for reprints to Dr. D. Boldy, Division of Health Sciences, Centre for Advanced Studies, Western Australian Institute of Technology, Kent Street, Bentley WA 6102, Australia. Summary Short term care for the elderly has expanded rapidly in thelast five years. The study evaluates short stay care in fourresidential homes using interviews with 42 clients, their main‘carers’, officers-in-charge of the homes and socialworkers. Whilst the service worked reasonably smoothly and provideda break for family carers there remains further potential forimproving the quality of service in the context of a full rangeof services for elderly people.     

An Examination of the Determinants of Positive Outcome in Child Guidance Social Work

Summary A sample of 50 cases carried by four Child Guidance Social Workerswere monitored over a period of three months and their outcomesassessed from the standpoint of four different assessors; practitioners;researchers; clients; and referring agents. These assessementsof outcome were compared and analyzed in an attempt to identifywhat factors contributed to those interventions evaluated ashaving a positive outcome. The study revealed high levels ofinter-rater agreement with respect to assessment of outcomeand certain factors emerged as contributing to positive outcomeincluding aspects of the problems and children referred andaspects of the interaction between worker and client. Attentionis drawn to the implications of these findings for practice.     

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.     

The Use and Significance of School Reports in Juvenile Court Criminal Proceedings: a Research Note

Summary This research note examines the significance of a serendipitousfinding, arising out of a small research study into the makingof care orders in criminal proceedings in one juvenile court,that school reports may have a greater influence on courts decisionsthan has hitherto been realized, and questions the protectiongiven to defendants under the Magistrates Courts (Children andYoung Persons) Rules1 when such reports are regarded as confidentialto the court.