Importance of Research in Social Work Practice: A Pilot Study From Turkey

Abstract

It is highly important that social work practice be guided by scientific research and the resultant practices introduced to the literature. Social work research in Turkey is carried out by social work academics and practitioners. This dual position they occupy has not been thoroughly investigated in recent years; therefore, the aim of this research was to scrutinize the relationship social workers take when completing research in Turkey. Within the scope of this research, data were collected by conducting an online survey of 365 social workers. Results of the study show that 45.8% of the social workers have conducted research before. Nonetheless, 93.7% of the social work practitioners do feel the need to carry out scientific research in order to shape their professional practices. Considering these results, future research should concentrate on social work practitioners’ problems taking into account their dual position as both the producer and consumer of the research.     

Compassion Satisfaction Among Social Work Practitioners: The Role of Work–Life Balance

Abstract

Previous research has established that social work practitioners are especially vulnerable to work-related psychological distress and burnout due to the high-stress nature of the profession, yet less research has focused on examining factors are associated with social worker retention. Emerging research on compassion satisfaction suggests that this factor could mitigate professional burnout, yet there is a gap in research focusing explicitly on examining compassion satisfaction among social workers. To address this gap in knowledge, this quantitative study collected survey data on practicing social workers who were alumni from a large southeastern university (n?=?120) to examine individual and organizational factors associated with compassion satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses revealed that higher levels of emotional intelligence, perceived work autonomy, and perceived work–life balance were associated with an increase in compassion satisfaction among experienced, licensed social work practitioners. Findings have implications for how social work employers can promote compassion satisfaction through cultivating emotional intelligence among practitioners, allowing social workers autonomy in decision making, and providing supportive work environments. Recommended directions for future research include longitudinal studies with large sample sizes that expound research on compassion satisfaction by examining the role of additional factors, such as client population, job role characteristics, and supervisor support.     

Raising awareness of transformative ecosocial work: Participatory action research with Australian practitioners

This article reports on Participatory Action Research with social work practitioners who collaboratively explored the effects on professional practice when practitioners raise their awareness of an ecosocial work approach. Although contemporary research in the profession has contributed to the ongoing development of ecosocial work, there is a notable lack of collaboration with social work practitioners. Using a transformative ecosocial work model of practice, researchers together with social workers from a range of practice contexts met as co‐inquirers to plan, implement and evaluate ecosocial work interventions. As part of a larger international study, this article reports on research outcomes within the Australian context. Overall, results indicate that practitioners incorporated interventions across personal, individual, group and organisational levels of practice, but were constrained by structural elements at broader levels. Continuing the development of ecosocial work requires further collaborative exploration with practitioners, which takes into consideration communities and broader social and political systems. Key Practitioner Messages: ? This research endeavours to contribute to the evidence‐base for progressing transformative ecosocial work in professional practice; ? Using Participatory Action Research (PAR), this research was done in collaboration with social work practitioners as co‐inquirers to develop ecosocial work interventions; ? A range of ecosocial work interventions were implemented at the personal, individual, group and organisational levels.     

本土社会工作实务的伦理困境与伦理抉择——基于上海青少年社会工作实践的质性研究

社会工作在实践过程中面临的最大困境是人与文化互动过程所形成的多元可能,这种多元可能往往使实务工作者在提供专业服务过程中遭遇价值抉择的两难。本研究运用质性研究的方法,以上海青少年社会工作者的实践为研究对象,着力探讨当下本土社会工作伦理实践中的困境及抉择。研究发现,本土社会工作常见的伦理困境包括:保密与否、案主自决、利益冲突、专业界限、公平分配、价值冲突、同事关系。而社工在进行伦理抉择时,遵循三大基本原则:案主生命优先原则,法律规定、机构规范优于个人价值,人际关系取向。此外,研究以"人在情境中"的概念为框架基础,提出个体因素(即社工个体对伦理抉择的影响)、问题因素(即伦理困境本身对伦理抉择的影响)、情境因素(即外部环境对伦理抉择的影响)这个三维分析架构来系统分析社会工作伦理抉择中的影响因素及其过程。最后,研究建议要建构本土的社会工作伦理体系,即建构本土导向的社会工作伦理原则、建立操作取向的社会工作伦理机制。     

Social Work and End-of-Life Care

Abstract

This paper reviews the professional literature with respect to the social work profession's involvement in end-of-life care. The search process was conducted by entering key words in various combinations to electronic databases. Eligible articles were required to address one of the following: roles and activities of social workers in providing end-of-life care; core principles valued by social workers in the provision of end-of-life care; and barriers to provision of effective end-of-life care. The literature from 1990 through July 2004 was searched most rigorously. Based on this review, suggestions for where the profession of social work should focus its energies are offered. These key areas include focusing on generating empirically-based knowledge for practice and policy analysis and developing a system of social work education that addresses the unique knowledge and skills needed to participate in end-of-life practice as competent and informed professional practitioners. Current initiatives with regard to critical areas are summarized.     

Spirituality in Social Work Groups: Practitioners Speak Out

ABSTRACT

The attitudes of experienced clinicians regarding the inclusion of spirituality in social group work practice and education are examined. Using a focus group format, practitioners concurred that wholistic treatment of clients must embody spiritual issues and that spiritual content should be covered in group work courses. Clinicians identified additional issues including: (a) need for spiritual assessment; (b) necessity of practitioner self-awareness; (c) usefulness of spiritual beliefs and communities as resources; (d) creation of a safe environment; (e) promotion of spiritual diversity in groups; and (f) collaboration with clergy and spiritual leaders. Implications for practice, research, and education are discussed.     

Crossing Boundaries: Comparing Group Work in the United States and Australia

ABSTRACT

This article compares the teaching and practice of group work in Australia and the U.S., including data on both students and practitioners, group work content in selected schools of social work, the types of groups offered and client populations served. Implications for cross-cultural social work are discussed as are areas of future international collaboration and research.     

Evaluating a Scale to Measure Student Competencies in Macro Social Work Practice

ABSTRACT

This article outlines the development of an evaluation tool for measuring student competency in macrolevel social work practice. Researchers followed a multistage process that incorporated the wisdom of experienced field instructors in identifying key competencies for practice, ranking performance levels in each competency, and evaluating the reliability and validity of the scale. The resulting Macro Practice-Based Evaluation tool includes six skill domains (learning and growth; behavior and relationships; leadership; critical thinking, analysis, planning, and implementation; professional communication; and values and ethics), each of which has five levels of student competence ranging from unsuitable for practice to exemplary. Evaluation in an experimental setting, by comparing student evaluations on the new tool and previous tools, demonstrated promising reliability and validity. Implications for social work education and future research in actual practice environments are discussed.     

Visioning the Future of Gerontological Digital Social Work

ABSTRACT

Gerontological Social Work education has been substantially altered by the advancement of today’s digital technologies, influencing both the training and tools required to ensure student success in social work research, policy, and practice. The goal of this paper is to present the state of the science on gerontological digital social work education, identify implications for emerging technologies, and define areas for social work student competencies and proficiencies to advance the field of gerontological digital social work. This paper underlines the role of gerontological digital social work education in preparing future researchers, practitioners, and policymakers when engaging in Digital Therapeutic Teams. We provide insightful considerations pertaining to emerging technologies which present unique opportunities for innovation. Furthermore, this paper presents training and education opportunities for social work education in preparing future gerontologist practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to engage in multidisciplinary team efforts and leverage digital technologies and digital therapeutics.     

How Creative Group Work Helps Adolescents Create Relations with Self and Peers

ABSTRACT

Practitioners often face questions about how to approach adolescents to join a group where they can develop healthy relationships with themselves and their peers. A growing number of practitioners and researchers value creative—nondeliberative—forms of working with such groups. This article discusses the artful, actional methods the authors use in their work with time-limited small groups of adolescents (age 14–17) who experienced behavioral challenges. These creative methods were used in settings such as secondary schools, counseling centers, and nongovernmental organizations in Lithuania during social skills training groups facilitated by the social workers.     

Cultivating students’ reflective capacity through group-based mindfulness instruction

ABSTRACT

Cultivating critically reflective practitioners is a vital professional competency for social work students. However, few reflective models support undergraduate students to foster nonconceptual skills important to developing reflective capacity. This article presents a group-taught mindfulness teaching intervention applied in a professional practice course to facilitate reflective capacity of social work students preparing for their first placement. Trial data derived from pre–post course administration of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire show significant gains in awareness were produced on two of the questionnaires’ five mindfulness facets of describe and nonjudgment. A developmental model detailing these shifts and its implications for group-based learning is outlined.     

RAP Therapy: A Group Work Intervention Method for Urban Adolescents

ABSTRACT

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) places a premium on the development of cultural competence among practitioners. To this end, the present study highlights how social work practitioners, specifically group work leaders, can utilize elements of the culture of urban adolescents to develop effective group work intervention strategies. The article compares adolescent participants' perceptions of usefulness of traditional group therapy and similar group work sessions using RAP music as a conduit to support prosocial skills development. A nomenclature of three adolescent groups was tested: violent offenders, status offenders, and a control condition of high school students with no criminal history. Findings were unequivocally in favor of the RAP therapy as a tool for advancing prosocial behavior.     

All Aboard

Abstract

Social workers in all practice areas have the potential to contribute to the National Agenda for Social Work Research in Palliative and End-of-Life Care. The purpose of this article is to invite social work practitioners and researchers to identify research needs and work with others to address them. We offer a conceptualization of the broad scope of social work's involvement in end-of-life issues, and articulate the difference between end-of-life care and end-of-life issues in social work. Suggestions are offered to advance the national research agenda.     

社会工作课程理论教学与实践教学的整合优化研究

21世纪我国社会工作教育已经进入新的发展时期。社会工作教育的发展,说明它在协调社会关系、防止社会冲突、解决社会问题方面显示出重要作用。但是,通过对社会工作专业学生、教师以及机构社工进行调查,本文认为,在社会工作教育发展中存在两大主要问题:教学中的"重实践、轻理论"和实践中的"重书本、轻操作",针对此情况,进一步提出从加强社会工作专业的理论意识和建立社会工作专业实践教学的操作平台两方面着手解决,为后社会工作专业的教育教学提供较为客观和现实的指导和建议。     

Bridging the gap between clinical practice and research: An integrated practice‐oriented model

Abstract

This paper addresses the gap between clinical practice and clinical research. Adopting a postmodern neopragmatic position, a practice‐oriented research model is proposed. This model cuts across the division between paradigmatic and narrative approaches to clinical practice research and integrates quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. Four guiding principles are operationalized: (1) clinical research should focus on practice‐oriented questions, with the practitioner involved in agenda setting and research question formulation; (2) the division between empiricist and constructivist positions and that between quantitative and qualitative methods can be resolved through epistemological and methodological pluralism; (3) clinical research should be guided by a developmental perspective; and (4) collaboration between practitioners and researchers has to take place both on the program and the institutional levels.     

Education for the Group Worker's Reality: The Special Qualities and World View of Those Drawn to Work with Groups

SUMMARY

Within the social work profession, one's world view, one's beliefs and values based on one's experiences, strongly influences one's practice and comfort with groups. This paper will examine some of the different ways of viewing the world held by practitioners and students in relation to the likelihood that they will be able to work effectively with groups. Such examination, and the identification of the differences among social workers that results from it has implications for both teaching and supervision in social work. These implications will be discussed and specific principles and techniques for teaching social workers, in education and in supervision, based on their world views will be described. This paper aims to enrich education for group work so that the community of social group work practitioners can grow and continue to thrive.     

The sub-structure and subjectivity construction of social work development in China

ABSTRACT

Under the structural changes during the reform and opening-up, social work education has been re-established for 30-year in China with the efforts from different actors. It develops rapidly, and even the effects may be unbalanced. As the re-established subject and career, social work education and practice are sub-structures in nature. Their developments are affected strongly by the economic-social transformation and political system. The process is a sub-structural development. The re-establishment of social work is a process of multi-subjects construction: It is led by government policies while the government and academic groups collaborate for it. The groups of social work educators and practitioners facilitate the process. The overseas academic groups support and cooperate for it. These actors facilitate the development of social work education and profession. The social work develops the path with its characteristics. It is compatible with reform and development. The reflection on professional development is also be required.     

Ascertaining the wishes and feelings of young children: social workers' perspectives on skills and training

The research was undertaken in the context of the ongoing debate about child care social work training and children's participation. Its aim was to explore the views of qualified child care social workers about their skills in eliciting the wishes and feelings of younger children and the relevance of social work training for this task. Questionnaires, focusing on their skills and training, were completed by 70 UK child care practitioners from the Children and Families Court Advisory and Support Service, voluntary agencies and local authorities. On average, practitioners felt able to ascertain the feelings and wishes of children as young as 4 years old. Nevertheless, at qualifying level, only 30% had training in communicating with young children, 16% in ascertaining children's feelings and wishes, and 66% in child development. Many had subsequently relied on in‐service training and their own initiatives to acquire further skills and understanding. In conclusion, most participants were experienced practitioners working in supportive organizations and had developed considerable communication skills. However, concerns remain because they identified deficits in child care social work qualifying and post‐qualifying training. Consequently, more effective training at all levels is required if social workers are to engage younger children successfully and facilitate their participation.     

Social Work Education: Tackling The Theory--Practice Dilemma

Summary The integration of theory and practice has long been a topicfor debate and concern amongst social work educators. A longitudinalparticipant observation study of one cohort of social work studentsconfirmed that the ideal of theory—practice integrationwas also high on their own list of self-established priorities.Students' efforts towards attaining this goal were also hamperedby the perspectives which they themselves brought to bear ontheir training. Attempting to resolve the conflict between theirown perspectives and their perceived demands of professionaleducation students appealed to and reconstructed afresh variousmodels of theory application endorsed both by social work educatorsand practitioners. These models, however, are essentially contradictoryand pose serious problems for the development and maintenanceof social work standards.