社会工作督导反思:学习成为有效的社会工作督导老师

有效的社会工作督导老师是社会工作实习教育成败的关键,但也成为内地社会工作实习教育发展的一大瓶颈。本文从这一历史现实问题出发,综合考察了有效的社会工作督导老师的职责、角色、素质要求及其发展基要,从成为有效实习督导的发展阶段的视角,着重从承担督导职责、澄清督导目标、建立督导关系、发展督导模式以及勇于督导反思五个方面探索了如何做一名新的专业实习督导老师及其持续发展。     

Challenges in Rural Social Work Practice: When Support Groups Contain Your Neighbors,Church Members,and the PTA

Rural social work occurs in unique practice environments with challenges and rare opportunities. Strong social ties, commonly found in rural communities and often missing in urban areas, can serve as sources of resilience for group members facing adverse life circumstances. Therapeutic formal and informal support groups, bolstered by this support and led by social workers in rural communities, can face numerous challenges due to locale, lack of transportation, and potential worker burnout. This article highlights ethical considerations rooted in a theme of rural group work while providing helpful hints based on the IASWG Standards for Social Work Practice with Groups.     

A Definition of Social Work for Practice

Australian and international discussions of the broad mission of social work, of its underlying premise that the personal is political, that it is responsive and able to take a leadership role from a clear value base, are sophisticated debates that demonstrate the vitality, dynamism, and enthusiasm of a profession cognizant of changes and challenges occurring outside it. However such developments and considerations are possibly most meaningful for those social workers who are either very clear about what social work is or who are not daily confronted with challenges to explain or account for their profession in performance-driven agency contexts. This article proposes a simple definition of social work which, while cognizant of the theoretical developments occurring both in and outside the profession, presents the profession in a way that clearly articulates what it is that social workers do.     

Mutual Aid: A Contribution to Best-Practice Social Work

This keynote speech, delivered in French and translated to English with minor adjustments for publication, presents some of the author's ideas about mutual-aid practice as best-practice social work. The author discusses the etiology and centrality of mutual aid in social work with groups, presents five characteristics of mutual-aid practice that reflect best-practice social work and identifies four key characteristics—joy in sharing, faith, courage, and curiosity—of mutual-aid practitioners. Similarities between mutual-aid practice and evidence-based group work, practice evaluation and participatory-action research are discussed as well. The author presents group work as inherently evidence based and challenges the idea that subjective measures alone may not be valid in reaching this determination.     

Using Social Work Theory for the Facilitation of Friendships

Positive friendships are essential to human development and resilience. In spite of the importance of friendships, few social work models have been developed to help clients establish or maintain friendships. This article explores how clinical theories of social work, and their associated practice interventions, can guide social workers in helping their clients improve their friendship relationships.     

History of the Standards for Social Work Practice with Groups: A Partial View

This article provides a historical and first-person narrative about the development of the IASWG Standards for Social Work with Groups by someone intimately involved in their germination and development. Beginning with review of early roots of standards for social work with groups, this article presents a journey through the formation of the Committee for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups in 1979, framing ideas that found their way into the first edition of the AASWG Standards of 1998, and the process of developing the second, current edition. It provides a rare look into how a professional organization struggled to create a seminal document.     

Social Policy for Social Work: A Teaching Agenda

Though social justice is a central goal of the social work profession,the actual involvement of social workers in social change isvery limited. Moreover, training in social policy and policypractice in schools of social work is minimal. As such, practitionerslack the tools needed to analyse existing social problems andpolicies and to enable them to intervene in the policy processin order to better serve the needs of service users. This articleseeks to further social policy teaching within social work educationby engaging in a survey of the existing literature on the subjectand by offering a detailed programme for integrating this subjectinto the social work training system. The literature surveythat serves as a basis for this programme includes a reviewof studies on the dilemmas linked to social policy teaching,on the goals and content of social policy courses in socialwork and on preferred teaching methods in this field.     

Beyond Assessment: Social Work Intervention in Family Court Enquiries

Most parents or carers who separate or divorce are able to makearrangements themselves about where their children will resideand how the children’s contact with the non-resident parentwill be managed. A further group of parents or carers are ableto come to agreement with the assistance of community- or court-baseddispute resolution/ mediation services. There are times, however,when disputes cannot be resolved without recourse to the courtsand, when this happens, the court will normally request thata welfare report be prepared by a CAFCASS (Children and FamilyCourt Advisory and Support Service) practitioner. While theboundary between assessment and intervention in social workis often less than clear, the commissioning of a court welfarereport in family proceedings strongly suggests an assessmentfocus and appears to carry little expectation that the practitionershould intervene in order to meet the needs of the childrenor adults involved. This article presents recent research findingsthat illustrate ways in which CAFCASS practitioners do go beyondthe assessment role expected of them in the course of the enquiriesthey undertake. Implications for policy and practice in thisarea of social work are then discussed.     

Group Work and Social Justice: Designing Pedagogy for Social Change

In this article the authors explore the gap between education and action in putting the social work core value of social justice into practice. Describing how their School of Social Work has taken up this challenge, the authors analyze how a new social action course helps bridge this gap and draw on student reflection on their experiences and assignments in the course to show how students concretize and interiorize the meaning of social action and social justice. Learning by doing social action through a case study, group work becomes the vehicle through which students act on social issues and work for social change.     

Alzheimer's in the Workplace: A Challenge for Social Work

It is estimated that 5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease or a related disorder (ADRD) with approximately 500,000 of these persons younger than 65. Moreover, the number of people affected by the disease will increase 350% by the middle of this century. Although research exists on organizational policies with regard to caregivers, very little is known about how organizations deal with employees themselves who show symptoms of ADRD. This article reports on a pilot study of employers' responses to dementia as it impacts both caregiving employees and employees who themselves show signs of cognitive impairment.     

The Response of Schools of Social Work to the Return of Uniformed Service Members and Their Families

The following article is designed to provide an historical overview of the role that the Smith College School for Social Work has played in serving U.S. service members and their families throughout the past 91 years. Particular attention is paid to the building momentum of interest and activity at the School since 2005.     

The Understanding and Use of Reflection in Family Support Social Work

ABSTRACT

Previous research emphasizes the need for reflection in complex, dynamic practices, like social work. However, increased governance of the public sector and welfare state has caused a reform, which in turn has affected the layout and conditions of work. Private sector control ideals and ideas from the auditing system have led to a new focus. It is argued that we should subordinate practice approaches – characterized by reflection, proven experience, and tacit knowledge – to manual-based treatment, evaluations, and assessments. This study aims at understanding the role of reflection in social work by investigating its use and valuation by family support social workers. Opportunities and resources for reflection are another focus. Focus group interviews (n = 40) were used to produce data. The need for reflection to conduct highly qualitative social work became evident. The question is not whether to reflect or not, rather how this best can be done, given current time constraints. Reflection was considered a coping mechanism, offering a sense of professional legitimacy. Organizational changes seem to impact on time for reflection. However, when enabling process, learning, and development, it can be argued that reflection is beneficial for several parties. Therefore, reflection requires continued emphasis, highlighting its potential benefits.     

Emotional Support for Health Care Professionals: A Therapeutic Role for the Hospital Ethics Committee

Hospital ethics committees (HECs) are typically charged with addressing ethical disputes, conflicts, and dilemmas that arise in the course of patient care. HECs are not widely viewed as having a therapeutic role for health care professionals who experience psychological distress or anticipatory grief in the course of discharging professional duties. A case is presented in which an ethics consultation was requested, chiefly, to secure emotional support for health care professionals who had been asked by a patient to discontinue life-sustaining treatments. As the case demonstrates, HECs may be called upon to provide emotional support and reassurance to health care professionals who willingly carry out psychologically difficult actions, even though these actions may be ethically uncontroversial. In providing this service, the HEC may not necessarily engage in its customary activity of deliberating an ethics issue and resolving a conflict but may still provide valuable assistance, as in the case presented.     

社会工作理论与实务课程设计建议——以某大学社会工作系大四学生的研究为例

本文主要通过定量研究的问卷法和结构式访谈法分析某大学社会工作专业4年级学生关于如何将社会工作理论与社会工作实务联系起来的调查,在其中寻找到存在的一些问题,同时也试图运用整合教学模式为该系的课程设计提出一些自己的见解。     

Social Work Practice for Social Development in Bangladesh: Issues and Challenges

Social work addresses social issues that constrain the betterment of a community. However, social work practice is struggling to deal effectively with the development challenges of Bangladesh. Based on a literature review and the experiences of the authors, this paper explores the emerging issues where social work practice is anticipated as a promising alternative for bringing sustainable social development in Bangladesh. Simultaneously, the paper discovers the limitation of social work practice in Bangladesh addressing these challenges.     

Living Close to a Person With Cancer: A Review of the International Literature and Implications for Social Work Practice

To help family caregivers (FCs), social workers need to understand the complexity of FC’s experiences and challenges. For this systematic review, several relevant, multidisciplinary electronic databases were searched. Of 1,643 titles identified, 108 articles met the inclusion criteria and are included in this review. Various experiences, symptoms, and burden related to caregiving responsibilities are described and discussed. The understanding evolving from this study about the FC’s own health risk, caregiver burden, and experiences over time can enhance a social worker’s awareness of an FC’s challenging situation and the potential impact this has on the FC’s ability to provide care to the patient.     

Social Work,Siblings, and SIDS: Conceptual and Case-Based Guidance for Family System Intervention

ABSTRACT

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a tragic loss event within the family, impacting adults as well as children. This article uses three case illustrations to discuss the role of a SIDS event on the family system with a special focus on the emergent challenges for surviving siblings of various ages. Practice application examples are woven throughout the review to illustrate the age-specific grief responses which may occur following a SIDS event. The article also presents a theoretically supported intervention matrix that integrates models of bereavement support and family system responses, taking into account children's varying developmental needs and tasks based on sibling age.     

中国社会工作伦理本土化对社会需求的回应

社会工作本土化是社会工作引入中国以来一直备受重视的问题。文章选择了社会工作伦理的角度,结合社会工作伦理面临的现实困境,探讨社会工作对社会需求回应的路径,提出通过在吸收中国传统文化的基础上改造西方社会工作伦理、调整社会工作者与服务对象的关系并促进双方能力建设、优化评估机制以确保专业服务的质量和重视社会工作伦理教育等四个方面回应社会需求,对社会工作伦理的专业化和本土化进行了思考。     

Supporting Family Carers Through Telephone-Mediated Group Programs: Opportunities For Gerontological Social Workers

ABSTRACT

Telephone-mediated group programs are an important but under-utilized medium for reaching frail or disabled older persons' family carers who are in need of support. The primary purpose and style of group programs can range across a broad spectrum–encompassing educational, supportive and therapeutic types. Gerontological social workers are the members of the multidisciplinary care team whose training, experience and supervision makes them most suitable for facilitating this broad range of group types. Drawing on the experience of training a number of group facilitators, this article provides suggestions for social workers contemplating the use of telephone-mediated groups and highlights groupwork skills peculiar to conducting group programs via the telephone.