Putting the parity into service‐user participation: An integrated model of social justice

Models of service‐user participation have derived from citizenship or consumerist agendas, neither of which has achieved the structural reforms important for the most marginalised social work clients. This article proposes Fraser's model of ‘parity of participation’ as an appropriately multifaceted frame for capturing the social justice aspirations of service‐user participation. A qualitative case study compared the experiences and expectations of people who had used Australian mental health services with a sample who had used Australian homelessness services to examine their expectations of participation at individual and representative levels. The findings reinforce concerns from Fraser's research about the tendency for identity‐based consumerist notions of participation to reify group identity. This leads to tokenistic service‐user involvement strategies that have little impact on participation at a structural level. Fraser's parity of participation is shown to have untested potential to reshape service‐user participation to meet the social justice aspirations of social work clients. Key Practitioner Message: ● Innovative, service‐user driven strategies for collaboration will be those which challenge existing power structures; ● Service users want their contributions to decision making to generate identifiable change in the system of social services; ● The success of service‐user participation strategies might be the extent to which political, economic and cultural opportunities are enhanced.     

Participatory community organizing revisited: political involvement and social development in two post-socialist villages in north China

The paper, based on seven months of intensive ethnographic fieldwork in two neighbouring villages in north China, describes a more complicated relationship between members' political involvement and community social development than is generally perceived in literature. The intriguing mechanisms and contents of political participation presented call for a close examination of grassroots political economy, local authority, democratic institutions, and community organizing in the specific social contexts of post-socialist rural China under reforms. The study argues that a context-sensitive understanding of participatory democracy and community development is necessary for the success of macro social work practices, and therefore needs to be built into the curriculum of community organizing and international social work and addressed in social work professional training.     

Pediatric palliative and end-of-life care: the role of social work in pediatric oncology

Pediatric oncology social workers are often engaged in the psychosocial care of dying children and their families. Despite their participation on the interdisciplinary team, the role for social work in pediatric palliative and end-of-life care has not been clearly defined. This survey of 131 pediatric oncology social workers identified current and best social work practices for care of children and their families at the end of life. Implications for practice, education, and research are discussed.     

Unemployment compensation and the use of social assistance among second-generation immigrants in Sweden

Previous studies have shown that the participation of first-generation immigrants in the Swedish income security system deviates from that of the native population. However, so far there has been no research that has focused on this issue where second-generation immigrants are concerned. This study shows that the rates of participation in different parts of the income security system vary considerably between different groups of second-generation immigrants. Second-generation immigrants whose parents come from Western Europe have low participa-tion rates in all the studied parts of the income security system. Their participation rates are even lower than for natives with both parents born in Sweden. Second-generation immigrants with parents from southern Europe and from outside Europe, on the other hand, have very high participation rates in especi-ally social assistance. The differences between the groups are of course to a great extent explained by differences in their labour market situation. According to the findings of the study, there are reasons to be concerned about the future labour market integration of second-generation immigrants with parents of non-European origin.     

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.     

The political activities of social workers in the context of changing roles and political transition in Hong Kong

The article reports on a fourth study on the political participation of social workers based on a methodology developed by Gray and Collett van Rooyen (2000). Thus far studies have been conducted in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The present study examined the political activities of social workers in Hong Kong. It begins with a review of the politicisation of Hong Kong's social workers, tracing developments from the 1960s onwards. It then examines the literature on political participation in social work, particularly various typologies of political activity, in order to add to theory relating to this important aspect of social-work practice. Thereafter, it outlines the conceptual framework and methodology used in the study, the results of which provide the basis for the discussion of the political activities of social workers in Hong Kong. It ends with an in-depth discussion of the implications of the findings for the political role of social workers in Hong Kong's changing political context.     

Child care social work and the role of state employees

Provision of statutory social work services to children and their families has a long and contentious history as conflicting ideas about appropriate interventions, in what is still largely characterized as the private sphere of the family, define the terrain for practice. More recently, staff in social services departments have had to meet the challenges of contemporary practice at a time of major restructuring. Implementing the National Health Service & Community Care Act 1990, and meeting the demands of Audit/Social Services Inspectors, leaves departments struggling to meet externally imposed criteria focused on particular interpretations of the nature of economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the public sector. In general staff have had to respond to competing imperatives as they offer services in ways that reflect shifting priorities, priorities that are inevitably shaped by ideological, political, economic and technological agendas as well as by professional concerns. In the process the role and task for social work is once again being redefined. This paper seeks to challenge dominant narratives, through exploration of the contemporary context for practice, and reassert the importance of social work input even as individuals' working lives change around them.     

The political participation of social workers: a comparative study

This article reports on a comparative study that examined the political participation of social workers in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa, the state of New South Wales (excluding the Hunter region) in Australia, and New Zealand. Each of these contexts had roughly the same number of social workers, that is, approximately 1,200. It was found that social workers in New Zealand tended to be more politically active than their counterparts in New South Wales and KwaZulu-Natal, and the reasons for this are examined. In the process, New Zealand is presented as a case study of the way in which social work has responded to its political context. Finally, conclusions are drawn as to the engagement of social workers in the policy cycle and of the need for them to become more active politically.     

Enthusiasm crushed by apathy: the survival condition of the NGOs under a social management system in Mainland China

The Chinese government is currently endeavouring to establish a new social management system, with the participation of the government and different parties in society, among whom NGO participation in social management is considered the essential approach for social management system innovation. The post-disaster relief and reconstruction of the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 left an indelible mark in the developmental history of Chinese NGOs, and provides an opportunity for us to examine the survival condition of NGOs. For this paper, we use a qualitative research method to trace the four-year relief and reconstruction process of a severely afflicted township in Sichuan Province during the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, and examine the work of NGOs at different stages of the post-disaster operation, the role that NGOs played during the relief and reconstruction process, and the survival conditions of NGOs in China's contemporary social management pattern. By analysing the obstacles that NGOs have encountered in the participation of social management, this paper offers suggestions for the innovation of the social management system.     

From parental engagement to the engagement of social work services: discussing reductionist and democratic forms of partnership with families

Social work has moved from a child protection discourse towards a child welfare discourse that views the relationship between social workers and families as a partnership. Partnership with families in the field of child protection and child welfare, however, mirrors diverse ideological motives of social policy, civil society and practice. We engage in a theoretical discussion of different interpretations of partnership. We draw a primary distinction between reductionist and democratic forms of partnership with families. In a reductionist approach, social workers activate parents in order to realize the goals set by social work. A democratic approach to partnership refers to a shared responsibility between social workers, parents and children. In this approach, effective partnership is not something to be realized as an outcome, but a point of departure that implies a joint search for meaning and an experiment with which social workers engage. This engagement presents ‘non‐participation’ not as problematic but as an essential element of participation. The focus then shifts from a methodical approach to partnership – how to activate people to participate in the care process – to the question of how the engagement of social workers can be constructed together with families.     

Impact of older adults' mobility and social participation on life satisfaction in South Korea

South Korea has been experiencing rapid population aging. In an aging society, the need for healthy lives is greater. Two of the fundamental factors to enable independent and active life for the elderly are mobility and social participation. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between older adults’ mobility, social participation, and quality of life in South Korea. We used data from the 2017 National Survey of Older Koreans conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and applied hierarchical regression. The major finding was that older adults’ mobility had a positive impact on their life satisfaction. After controlling for older adults’ mobility, social participation was positively associated with life satisfaction regardless of the place of residence. The findings of this study not only make a valuable contribution to further research on mobility and social participation but also provide new insight into improving older adults’ quality of life.     

The Emperor's new clothes: South Africa's attempted transition to developmental social welfare and social work

This article critically interrogates the depth and quality of change of post‐apartheid welfare policy and social work practice towards a social development paradigm against the background of inequality and poverty in South Africa. It asks several questions: what kind of welfare system has the current welfare dispensation created? How far has it moved from a residual, ameliorative system to an institutional developmental system, in keeping with the developmental welfare paradigm? To what extent can residual provisions be transformed into developmental processes? What conditions are necessary for this to happen? The answers to questions such as these provide the basis for assessing South Africa's new developmental processes. The article highlights the fundamental contradictions in social development policy imperatives, which call for a marriage of economic and social considerations, and the internal contradictions across and within various welfare policies. Further, it argues that the government does not have the political will to bear the costs of the substantive change that the move towards developmental social work requires, choosing instead limited, individually targeted and ameliorative measures, such as increased social security spending. Thus, it suggests that ideological critique, consciousness raising and participation in public policy debates remain crucial for those who seek long‐term solutions to inequality and poverty in South Africa.     

Social participation and transnational engagement among Korean residents in New Zealand: issues and implications for social work practice

Social work practice involving migration issues requires a good understanding of migrants' social engagement within their embedded context. The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of social participation and transnational engagement among Korean migrants in New Zealand. The findings from the study show that ethnic-based groups provide Korean residents with the opportunity to actively engage in social and civic practices. Korean migrants are also involved in transnational activities, promoting networks and interactions between the host society and the homeland. This paper suggests that social work with migrants should take into account migrant social capital in the present-day migration context.     

Mental health practice in primary care: Some perspectives concerning the future of social work in organized delivery systems

Abstract

The rise of managed care as the dominant form of healthcare delivery in the U.S. clearly has dramatic implications for the profession of social work. Thus far and for good reasons, the professional dialog about managed care has largely focused on . the threats posed to the professional agenda of social work by managed care in its various forms. This article considers some of the more positive aspects of the transformation from fee‐based to population‐based healthcare systems, in particular the vigorous trend toward multidisciplinary primary care and collaborative mental health practice in primary care settings. It is argued that the market forces behind this trend also promote the emergence of models of social work practice that better integrate historically dichotomized aspects of health and mental health practice. Also considered are implications for social work education and the division of labor among the healthcare professions.     

The social work services in screening process of compulsory treatment interventions in addicts in Iran: A content analysis study

Compulsory treatment has had a detrimental impact on drug abuse treatment policies and programs in Iran. Physicians are currently required to conduct initial treatment screening. Social workers are a part of the treatment team but have no authority to initiate a compulsory drug treatment plan. For this reason, the present article investigates social work service participation in the process of compulsory drug treatment. The study methodology is content analysis. Nine social workers participated in seven focus group discussions. Overall, 110 codes were extracted from the sessions and were categorized into five main themes: interview and initial assessment; referral; investigation of ineligibility criteria; report to judicial authority; and follow‐up and advocacy. The results of this research suggest amending executive bylaws based on a social work approach to the screening process for compulsory drug treatment.     

Is there a field of social work?: Trainees evaluating social problems and social work

My aim was to study the experiences and priorities of two age groups of social work students practicing in client-centered social work. This article is based on the research on rationality and language games in social work. The target groups of the research project as a whole were the actors: the heads and social workers or activists in public social welfare and health care agencies and institutions and in voluntary associations and action groups, and finally, two subsequent classes of students from a school of social work, during their practicing periods. This article concentrates on the trainees. At first, the trainees wrote essays and kept diaries. Secondly, they marked their standings on graphs visualizing different types of information contents and social relation structures. Thirdly, they made their choices of reasons for and solutions to social problems on a problem wheel. The trainees' study, using different data gathering techniques, partly confirms the results of the research of the other actor groups, in which the data were derived using questionnaires and interviews. The trainees' study shows variation in the respondents' priorities within and between specified social problem categories. Qualitatively analyzed, however, the characterizations of social work, both those who currently act in and those aiming to enter this field, resemble one another.     

Rhetoric vs. reality in social work supervision: the experiences of a group of child care social workers in England

Whilst the contribution of good supervision to high‐quality social work practice is widely recognized, research exploring practitioners' experiences of supervision is surprisingly limited. Set within the context of the supervision framework for employers of social workers in England, this small‐scale survey, using an extended questionnaire, examined the experiences of supervision of a group of child care social workers. The aim was to find out what aspects of supervision worked well and where there was room for improvement. The findings suggest that whilst the majority of employers had appropriate supervision policies in place, day‐to‐day practice varied enormously, frequently falling well short of national standards, with the quality of supervision often depending more on the characteristics of the supervisor and the agency context than the needs of the worker. Supervision sessions typically focused predominantly on case management, with much less attention paid to the worker and opportunities for them to reflect on their practice. Only a quarter of the social workers in this survey could be considered to be satisfied with their current supervision, with a much higher proportion clearly dissatisfied.     

Family support, social capital, resilience and adolescent coping

All too often young people are excluded in practice from the general policy and professional consensus that partnership and participation should underpin work with children, young people and their families. If working with troubled and troublesome young people is to be based on family support, it will require not only the clear statement of that policy but also demonstration that it can be applied in practice. Achieving that involves setting out a plausible theory of change that can be rigorously evaluated. This paper suggests a conceptual model that draws on social support theory to harness the ideas of social capital and resilience in a way that can link formal family support interventions to adolescent coping. Research with young people attending three community‐based projects for marginalized youth is used to illustrate how validated tools can be used to measure and document the detail of support, resilience, social capital and coping in young people's lives. It is also suggested that there is sufficient fit between the findings emerging from the study and the model to justify the model being more rigorously tested.     

Economic perspectives on social exclusion

In this paper some economic perspectives on social exclusion are presented. The perspectives come from traditional areas of economics, especially human capital theory, and from the new area of behavioural economics, especially present bias and the status externality. They show that happiness, human capital and individual choice can yield insights for the study of social exclusion. The economic perspectives discussed in this paper can help respond to the suggestion by Mary Daly and Hilary Silver to move beyond the concept of social exclusion to a “fully‐articulated theory” of social exclusion. Furthermore they support the judgement of Ruth Levitas that in the public debate there is inadequate pressure for redistribution, excessive moral blame placed on the socially excluded, and an excessive concern for labour force participation at the expense of non‐market activity, as expressed in her development and discussion of the RED‐MUD‐SID framework of discourses.