Supervision und Organisationsentwicklung in der Arbeit mit alten Menschen

Zusammenfassung Der Zuwachs der ?lteren Bev?lkerung wie auch der für sie bereitgestellten Versorgungseinrichtungen stellt die in der Altenpflege T?tigen vor vielf?ltige und schwierige Aufgaben. Vor dem Hintergrund einer verbreiteten, unbewu?ten aversiven Konnotation des Alterns stellt die Autorin das Spektrum von fachspezifischen Schwierigkeiten in der Supervisionsarbeit dar. Es wird aufgezeigt, dass feldspezifische Anforderungen im Umgang mit ?lteren in den Supervisionsprozess mit einzubeziehen sind und in weitere Schritte der Organisationsentwicklung münden k?nnen.

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The increased numbers of elderly and old people within our society as well as the growing number of institutional facilities for their support confronts those who work with them with manifold and difficult problems. Considering the background of a widespread, mostly unconscious negative connotation of age and ageing the author presents the spectrum of specific difficulties related to the specialised field of supervising work. It is shown that field-specific requirements in the relation with elderly have to be included and recognized in the supervising process and can lead to further organizational developments.

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Dr. phil. Gabriele Junkers ist Psychoanalytikerin und Lehranalytikerin (DPV/IPA), Generalsekret?rin der Europ?ischen Psychoanalytischen F?deration (EPF) Gerontologin. Supervision und Organisationsberatung.     

Supervision und Organisationsentwicklung in der Arbeit mit alten Menschen

Zusammenfassung  Der Zuwachs der ?lteren Bev?lkerung wie auch der für sie bereitgestellten Versorgungseinrichtungen stellt die in der Altenpflege T?tigen vor vielf?ltige und schwierige Aufgaben. Vor dem Hintergrund einer verbreiteten, unbewu?ten aversiven Konnotation des Alterns stellt die Autorin das Spektrum von fachspezifischen Schwierigkeiten in der Supervisionsarbeit dar. Es wird aufgezeigt, dass feldspezifische Anforderungen im Umgang mit ?lteren in den Supervisionsprozess mit einzubeziehen sind und in weitere Schritte der Organisationsentwicklung münden k?nnen.

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The increased numbers of elderly and old people within our society as well as the growing number of institutional facilities for their support confronts those who work with them with manifold and difficult problems. Considering the background of a widespread, mostly unconscious negative connotation of age and ageing the author presents the spectrum of specific difficulties related to the specialised field of supervising work. It is shown that field-specific requirements in the relation with elderly have to be included and recognized in the supervising process and can lead to further organizational developments.

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Dr. phil. Gabriele Junkers ist Psychoanalytikerin und Lehranalytikerin (DPV/IPA), Generalsekret?rin der Europ?ischen Psychoanalytischen F?deration (EPF) Gerontologin. Supervision und Organisationsberatung.     

Paternal supervisor gatekeeping: How supervising fathers hinder other fathers at work in their uptake of flexible work arrangements

This study explores the role that supervisors play in the low uptake of Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) among fathers in France. We draw on 28 interviews with fathers who had requested access to FWA and reported on the reaction of their supervisors. These supervisors were all fathers themselves and had previously benefitted from such arrangements themselves, but did not grant such policies to other fathers. To understand these unexpected findings, we conducted an additional 16 interviews with supervising fathers in organizations who had previously enjoyed similar FWA. The findings show that supervising fathers can act as barriers to other fathers in their organizations who try to push for more gender equality. We identified four ways in which supervisors tend to dissuade fathers from accessing policies to which they are entitled: gender-role confirming discourses; career threats; practical reasons as a justification; and a lack of paternal workplace support. The findings highlight the role of men (in this case, supervising fathers) in the lack of increasing gender equality at work. By showing that fathers can function as ‘paternal supervisor gatekeepers’ for other fathers in their organizations, we open up new fruitful ways for studying gender equality in organizations.     

Notes on Supervision

I am honoured that you wish to include my “Notes on Supervision” in the issue of the Journal dedicated to Miss Parker. Re-reading them calls back the pleasure and stimulation of working with her and those of you who were supervising social work students then, and of being a part of the struggle we all were making to identify problems in field instruction and to overcome them.     

Placement Educators’ Experiences and Perspectives of Supervising International Social Work Students in Australia

International social work students in Australia have reported difficulties in finding quality placement opportunities and dealing with issues such as language and cultural barriers. While placement issues have been mostly investigated from a student perspective, this study explores the experiences and perspectives of placement educators towards supervising international social work students. It draws on an online survey of 83 placement educators working for an Australian university. The majority of placement educators reported that they supervised international students differently to domestic students. These differences were negatively framed as challenges involving students’ language competence, their understanding of cultural norms, and knowledge of Australian welfare systems. This framing implies that cultural and linguistic differences between international students and placement educators are viewed in terms of student deficiency rather than as a positive opportunity for mutual learning and professional development.     

Abuse of elderly male client: efforts and experiences in rural and urban adult protective services

Elder abuse has not been viewed as seriously as child abuse because of the emotional sensibilities attached to child abuse. Although elder abuse is experienced disproportionately by women, men also are in need of protection and engagement. An important factor for understanding the work with elderly men is the social construction of manhood. Both urban and rural settings recognize this as a significant starting point to engage men in services. This paper describes the efforts in both rural and urban Adult Protective Service agencies to identify and work with abused elderly men from a strengths and solution-focused perspective.     

INTEREST IN WORKING WITH THE ELDERLY: A CROSS-NATIONAL STUDY OF GRADUATING SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS

The article presents a cross-national study of social work students' interest in working with the elderly, based on a sample of 679 graduating BSW students from 7 countries: Australia, Brazil, England, Germany, Hungary, Israel, and the United States. The findings among all the national cohorts show that the motivation to work with the elderly was lower than motivation to work with any other age group and, moreover, that it was equally low in most of the countries. They indicate that low motivation to work with the elderly is not limited to 1 or 2 countries but exists in various parts of the globe. The findings support the growing concern that the social work profession may not be able to meet its obligations to the aging society.     

Education in Gerontological Social Work: Application of the Task-Centered Model

There is an increasing need both for effective interventions with the elderly and for social workers trained in clinical gerontology. This paper discusses an attempt to integrate gerontological knowledge, clinical knowledge, and clinical experience in a master's-level curriculum and to develop the task-centered model as an effective base for social work with the elderly.     

The international field placement: a reconciliation of identity

The international field placement is a site of both identity confusion and identity development for the social work student. Aiming to develop their professional identity they are faced with a challenge: the presence of two dominant identities, the tourist identity and the student identity. Whilst the embodiment of the tourist identity has often facilitated the student’s motivation to undertake the placement experience, the student identity is what both university staff and agency field educators perceive as integral to student engagement in this remote educational setting. Social work educators perceive this identity challenge as an impediment to learning. In contrast, students report feeling that their tourist traits strengthened their personal and professional capacity, natural curiosity and ability to engage with the local community. By analysing the roles of university staff as liaison support, and field educators as agency supervisors, it is possible to explore a teaching and learning relationship that is student-centred, grounded in the immersive international experience. Through privileging the student’s voice social work educators involved with organising, supporting and supervising international field placements are able to understand the placement as a continuum of learning. On this continuum identity reconciliation is viewed as a crucial element in the development of a professional identity.     

Safe and shealthy integration into semiskilled jobs: does gender matter?

Women report fewer injuries than men when they are young, but report a higher proportion of professional diseases later in life (35 years +). Understanding early work conditions that lead to postponed health outcomes is necessary if we are to prevent women's injury as well as men's. Introduction to work and safe integration programs are often put forward to prevent injuries among youth. This paper aims to illustrate some differences in the job introduction / integration process for men and women and to discuss some gender-based Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) implications. Data come from two waves of interviews with 31 students enrolled in vocational training for a semiskilled trade. Results demonstrated differences between men and women: trades chosen, OHS complaints, supervising patterns, integration to work, etc. Women often choose customer service jobs, have less formal supervision and are often left to themselves when learning to do their job. Men declared more accidents while women reported more musculoskeletal symptoms. Findings from this research suggest young women's OHS issues should not be trivialized and that specific youth prevention programs for sectors where women are more present, such as customer service, should be developed.     

The individual dimension

Looking at the individual dimension in relation to the care of the very frail elderly, the writer recognises the exploitative elements connected with caring, which is defined and experienced as predominantly women's work. She sees in recent awareness of the importance of the relational aspect, a more sensitive and realistic understanding of the process. Social work literature has at last begun to take account of the individual biography of elderly people; by according the same courtesy to the care attendants, we are likely to begin to understand the complex dimensions of the caring task, and place an appropriate value on it.     

Supervising self-supervision: constructive inquiry and embedded narratives in case consultation

The development of self-supervision has been suggested as a universal supervisory goal. However, the principle of isomorphism suggests that supervisors from different orientations will view this practice quite differently. This article elaborates an approach to self-supervision that is consistent with constructive therapies, though the intention is to provide flexible guidelines that can accommodate a range of supervisory activities. Case consultation is viewed as an "embedded narrative" involving the case story, the therapist story, and the supervision story. A process of "constructive inquiry" is used to connect these stories in order to construct the identity of a self-sustaining therapist. This process requires a conceptual shift from supervising practice to supervising self-supervision.     

Whither practice-near research in the modernization programme? Policy blunders in children's services

In this article, we lament the effects of practice-distant research and associated policy initiatives on contemporary children's services in England. In the last decade, as a result of high profile inquiries into non-accidental child deaths, statutory children's social care services in the UK have been subject to a wide-reaching ‘modernization’ programme. We studied decision-making in the high blame environment of local authority children's services. Our research sought to examine the relationship between performance management and the impact of anticipated blame within the decision-making practices of those providing, supervising and managing these services. We show that systems and technologies can be developed which both assist the users in their daily work and achieve desired organizational goals, but without an ethnographically informed, practice-near approach, unsafe work regimes and practices can ensue.     

Computer Games for the Frail Elderly

Summary

The benefits of computer use by the elderly are named in this article. Described here is a project instigated to determine feasibility of computer use with frail institutionalized elderly. The four games used in this project are presented, as are participant reactions to these games. Computer use was found to be not only valuable as a learning tool, but a diagnostic one as well The author looks to practitioners in the future to investigate the possibilities of using computer games in their work with the elderly.     

Differential Use of Social Work Manpower

In this paper the authors report on a research, training, and demonstration study that dealt with the interaction of law and social work graduate students in delivering services to the elderly poor. Data suggested more similarities than differences in roles and tasks performed. Attitudinal measures indicated stereotypes toward the disciplines and the elderly. Confusion of roles and stereotypic attitudes accounted for a low referral rate within a project highly skewed toward interdisciplinary practice. Confrontation education is suggested as a means to modify stereotypes, clarify roles, and encourage the integrated service delivery needed by the elderly. Implications for higher education are drawn.     

How to work with elderly patients on a general psychiatric unit

Currently, there are specialized geropsychiatric units being used for elderly psychiatric inpatients. However, these units are not always available to the growing elderly population. The general inpatient psychiatric unit seems to be well suited for treating the medical and mental illness of elderly psychiatric patients (Billig, 1989; Conwell, 1989; Liptzin, 1987). As identified earlier, nurses may not be enthusiastic about adding this population to their unit. Our society is youth-oriented and the elderly tend to be viewed as slow, needy, and sick. It is essential for nurses to explore their own feelings regarding aging and what it means to be old. If the nurse has not dealt with issues such as her own mortality and that of her parents and close friends, it may be difficult for her to understand and work with the elderly. The ability to understand the feelings of another and to communicate this understanding has been identified as a crucial variable related to positive therapeutic outcome (Kirk, 1982). Inservice programs and groups that give the staff opportunities to explore their attitudes and feelings toward the elderly may result in more effective therapeutic interventions (Farley, 1983). To many elderly patients, nurses are seen as supportive figures, interpreters of the unknown, and potential allies who have an empathic regard for them (Davis, 1968). The nurse can use these impressions to initiate interventions. This, along with coming to terms with one's own feelings about aging, can result in a greater understanding of these patients. This article has given a very brief overview of the many issues related to the care of the elderly psychiatric inpatient.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

A Social Problems Approach to Gerontology in Social Work Education

This paper proposes a social problems emphasis to gerontology in social work education which acknowledges the fact that the elderly are handicapped and discriminated against by social values, attitudes, and practices. The traditional integrative approach has been ineffective in educating and sensitizing students to problems and needs of the aged. The social problems emphasis is discussed as related to future manpower needs, enlightened social workers as citizens, and advocacy for the elderly. A proposal for schools is presented, with implications for practice, fieldwork settings, research, and classroom instruction.     

Activity Theory as a Framework to Analyze Technology-Mediated Elderly Care

This article presents a field study of technology-supported elderly care analyzed from an activity theory perspective. Leont’ev’s hierarchical structure of activity is used to analyze how elderly people learn new technology-mediated care practices. We also used Engeström’s activity system in studying particular work contexts. We combined activity theory with Corbin and Strauss’s trajectory concept to represent a time line perspective on technology-mediated elderly care. This combination made it easier to focus on transitions between the stages in the trajectory. Our analysis of technology-supported care emphasizes providing for increasing levels of automation in care and shifting relations between the subject and the tool as a way to maintain the stability of the object of activity.     

Accounts of professional and institutional tension in the context of Swedish elderly care

This article describes need assessment dialogues, the circumstances surrounding care, and the provision of residential care and in-home support for the elderly in Sweden, as seen from a communicative perspective. The purpose was to systematically describe and analyse the accounts of welfare officers concerning elderly care. The research questions were: How is the internal care context perceived and constituted through discourse? How do welfare officers manage the daily demands, expectations, tasks, and dilemmas in the encounter with the individual citizen? What significance do the welfare officers give their work and their professional tasks?Eleven interviews with welfare officers from elderly and handicapped care organisation of three municipalities were held, and a discursive analysis was made from the collected data. Four characteristic discursive phenomena in the welfare officers' accounts were observed: (I) the rights of the elderly, (II) living at home, (III) good relations, and (IV) the complaisance. The study shows that the dialogues with elderly contain communicative dilemmas and mixed loyalties. The welfare officers navigate between different perspectives and double approaches. She/he uses the navigating as a strategy and proficiency in their work. However, these proficiencies remain largely unnoticed and unreflected as techniques, strategies, or tools for attaining favourable care.     

Factors That Impact a Social Worker's Capacity to Supervise a Student

With sector constraints and higher education economic imperatives increasingly impacting the provision of social work field education, university programs lack an understanding of the factors that enable or prohibit field educators’ capacity to provide placements. Despite the significance of field education in the curriculum, it remains unclear what the experiences and motivations of field educators are to provide universities with student placements. This research addresses this gap through surveying 101 field educators that attended statewide Victorian field education training. Results indicated that although field educators recognised the benefits of supervising students, workload relief, additional training, and further student placement preparation by the university were emphasised as the primary factors that would enable them to respond positively to placement requests. Payments for placements did not necessarily ameliorate these issues nor guarantee the provision of more placements. The implications of these findings for universities and the field are discussed.