Understanding and negotiating identity: Children from cross-community families in public care in Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, most research on the impact upon children of living through the ‘troubles’ and in a divided society has assumed that children are from either the Catholic or Protestant community. There has been very little research with children from cross‐community families who have one parent from a Catholic background and one from a Protestant background. It is known, however, that these children are over‐represented in the public care system in Northern Ireland. The study reported in this paper addresses this gap in knowledge by exploring the experiences and views of children from cross‐community families who are in public care in Northern Ireland. The study has key messages for the development of services for looked after children from cross‐community families, if these are to be delivered in accordance with legislative duties in Northern Ireland and in an anti‐sectarian manner.     

Lone Parents in Northern Ireland: The Effectiveness of Work Incentives

In recent years social policy in relation to lone parents has placed heavy emphasis on increasing the participation of this group in the labour market. If anything, the newly elected Labour government appears to be more committed to this objective than its predecessor. This paper details some of the findings from a focus-groups exercise with lone mothers in Belfast conducted in 1995. The data underline the limitations of many aspects of the measures taken to encourage lone parents to work and raise questions about the appropriateness of current policy.     

Adoption in South Africa: trends and patterns in social work practice

This paper reports findings from a research study on adoption in South Africa conducted in 2009. The research included secondary data analysis of the South African National Adoption Register to establish trends and patterns of adoption in South Africa between 2004 and 2009, and primary data collection through qualitative interviews with key informants in public and private social welfare services to explore attitudes, knowledge and experiences of social work practice related to adoption. The quantitative findings report the number of national and international adoptions along with trends and socio‐demographic patterns of national adoptions. Qualitative findings report on social work practice, systemic barriers and social worker attitudes as barriers to improved social work practice around national adoptions. The paper highlights comparisons to adoption literature in the USA, a country with a similar legislative framework and cultural complexities, but significantly more resources for implementation. Recommendations are offered for social work practice, national data collection and policy implementation efforts to support efforts to increase adoption.     

Adoption by foster carers: a profile of interest and outcomes

This paper looks at the issue of adoption by foster carers and in particular its financial aspects. The findings stem from a wider study of remuneration and performance in foster care. Drawing on a survey of 1181 foster carers, this paper examines the characteristics of those who have considered adoption. The outcomes of such consideration, including the part played by financial concerns and anticipated loss of support in decisions to proceed with adoption or not, are also examined. The findings reveal a significant level of interest in adoption on the part of foster carers, to which three particular sets of characteristics are found to be associated. First, interest is greater among those more extensively involved in foster care in terms of experience, specialisms and range of placements offered. Second, it is associated with relatively less concern with payment and less ‘professional’ views of foster care. Third, there is evidence that adoption is more commonly pursued by those who feel less valued by social workers. Fears of losing financial help and support were cited as reasons by more than half of all foster carers who had considered but not pursued adoption.     

Learning from the Experiences of Ethnic Minorities Accessing HIV Services in Ireland

Since the mid-1990s, Ireland has become a more culturally diversesociety. To ensure equitable, culturally sensitive services,social workers need to consult with and listen to views of serviceusers. This paper reports on findings of two recent studiesby social workers in Ireland with migrants living with HIV.It highlights how many of those newly diagnosed with HIV arefrom sub-Saharan African countries and still in the asylum processand discusses barriers to accessing support and integratinginto Irish society. The paper points out that unless properlysupported, those living with HIV may find it difficult to disclosetheir HIV status and highlights the importance of tackling HIVstigma. It concludes with the need to provide training for healthcare workers to provide culturally appropriate services, andargues against immigration policies which inhibit integration.     

The Integration of Health and Social Care: The Lessons from Northern Ireland

Mechanisms for the integration of social services with health have come to dominate the debate on providing a more seamless provision of health and social care. Working together at the health and social care interface has been strongly promoted and endorsed in government documents since the late 1990s. Moves towards integration have been treated with suspicion and scepticism in the academic literature, with many authors highlighting the many barriers and challenges presented by this method of working. Yet these proposals do not represent a paradigm shift in culture in all parts of the United Kingdom, as Northern Ireland has had an integrated health and social care system for over thirty years. Based on an empirical study of senior health care professionals in Northern Ireland, this study identifies and discusses the key issues associated with integration. It concludes that the experiences in Northern Ireland have to date been overlooked or misrepresented and could prove extremely valuable in gaining an understanding of the challenges and benefits of integrated arrangements.     

Unsettling the 'social' in social work: responses to asylum seeking children in Ireland

The ‘social’ context in which social work is located is becoming increasingly unsettled by emerging patterns of mobility. Mobility is constrained for many social work service users who are trapped within disadvantaged areas, while for others it has become a forced necessity to cross national boundaries and inhabit uncertain status in their nations of destination. This article explores the responses of the social work profession to children seeking asylum in the Republic of Ireland. These children's complex needs, produced by the conditions of mobility they have encountered and by the conditions of arrival/settlement in Ireland, force social work practice to be orientated beyond the boundaries of the national welfare state. In order to explore the varied responses of the social work profession in the Republic of Ireland to asylum seeking children, three different groups of children are considered: children seeking asylum who have been separated from their parents; children who are seeking asylum with their parent(s)/family; and young Irish citizens whose asylum seeking parents are in danger of being deported. It argues that the provision of appropriate services for these children requires the development of post‐national forms of social work practice.     

Adoption in Korea: current status and future prospects

This article examines the current status of adoption in Korea and discusses the issues that must be addressed for future development. The nature of adoption has changed dramatically in the last 50 years, and continues to change in Korea. If the first half of modern adoption history were about finding and providing permanent homes for war orphans and children abandoned out of destitution, the second half saw increasing demand for adoption to function as a key component of the continuum of child welfare services providing care for children who need protection and care outside their home. However, responding to this change has been a challenge over the years. Based on the analysis of recent trends of the child welfare system and adoption in Korea, this article reveals that there are significant barriers in the path to improving adoption, especially domestic adoption, so that it can be considered a realistic placement option for children who need protection and care in Korea. Suggestions for the future direction of reforming adoption policy and practice are given.     

Adults who grew up in care: constructing the self and accessing care files

Past research on care leavers has, understandably, tended to focus on those who are in their mid‐ to late‐teens or early 20s. This reflects the profound impact of central and local government policy on those young people. It also reflects their prominence in contemporary analyses of most of the indicators of social exclusion among young people in the UK – unemployment, homelessness and lack of educational qualifications among them. However, some issues affecting adults who grew up in care apply across the life course. One such issue is the access that former care adults have to their child care files. Indeed, as we shall see, this issue has particular importance for many older adults (in their 30s and upwards). Policy and practice in this field has changed significantly during the past 20 years and there is a growing awareness of the needs of former care adults in this area. Access to such files can be a significant element in the process of seeking to address identity concerns centring around family and childhood experiences. This paper explores some of these identity concerns and analyses how access to care files both reflects such concerns and attempts to address them.     

No longer a one-man job?: On day activities in mental health care in Sweden

Swedish psychiatry is organizationally in line with the international development of closing down the old large mental hospitals. As in other countries, problems of provision of care for severely mentally ill people can be observed. An organizationally new field focusing on the activities of daily living is developing, however. This was surveyed nationally (spring 1991) and parts of these results are presented and discussed. The field is characterized by profound uncertainty manifested in the fact that psychiatry is no longer doing the work alone. Local social services take on a growing responsibility trying to make claims on how to define the work even if psychiatry is dominant, both in organizational and discursive power. Promising characteristics in joint venture units set up between psychiatry and local social services opens up for discussions on who, in what ways and with what means these new forms of care are going to be pursued.     

Factors affecting the development of social work and its professionalisation process: the case of Greece

This article discusses some of the factors that have shaped the development of social work in Greece and analyses its present level of professionalisation. There were four main factors: (i) the familialist-statist social care model in which social work operates in Greece; (ii) reluctant state support related to a complex set of specific political, social and economic conditions; (iii) the pressure of new needs in recent years as a result of the aging population, family changes and increasing numbers of immigrants; and (iv) the European Union's financial support and regulatory role in various social policy sectors. The present status of the profession indicates a satisfactory protection of professional rights, a slow but steady improvement in the educational process, but also limited occupational control.     

To be or to be trained to be: On emerging and diverging ideological traditions in organizing day care activities for people with severe mental disorders in Sweden

Organized activities for people with severe mental disorders have until recently been the societal task of one human service organization, the medical speciality of psychiatry. With former psychiatric impatients moving out into the local community and with heavier dependence on outpatient polyclinic care, the situation is slowly changing. Day care activities for people with severe mental disorder are organized with an increasing involvement of the social services. The aim of this article is, using data from a national survey carried out in 1991 in Sweden, to describe and categorize how day care units interpret their task. Results show that claims-making activities still adhere largely to a therapeutic paradigm in spite of the outspoken social character of the work of organizing everyday life activities.     

The social networks of young people in Ireland with experience of long‐term foster care: some lessons for policy and practice

This paper presents findings from the first study of the social networks of a group of young people in Ireland who have experienced long‐term foster care. The study group was composed of two groups of young people, a group who were currently in care and a group who had left the care system. The central focus was to examine the impact of foster care on the social network experience of the young people. Findings indicated that foster care impacts on the young people's social network experience in the following ways: losing contact with extended family; a greater challenge in making and sustaining friendships; an impact on education; and an inability to maintain contact with groups and activities that are of significance. This paper also presents recommendations in relation to policy and practice, including the raising of awareness of the importance of a social network approach in working with young people with care experience.     

Informal care in Sweden: a typology of care and caregivers

This study describes and analyses the types of informal care provided in Sweden and whether it is possible to distinguish different types of carers. Data were collected in a Swedish county in 2000, by means of telephone interviews. The net sample consisted of 2,697 individuals 18–84 years old, and the response rate was 61 per cent. The results showed that there were large differences in the numbers of male and female carers when the data were divided into a typology of care categories based on different caring tasks. Women were much more likely than men to be involved at the 'heavy end' of caring, i.e. providing personal care in combination with a variety of other caring tasks. Men were more likely to provide some kind of practical help for a mother or a neighbour/friend. Even though the Swedish welfare state has been described as universal and characterised by an extensive system of benefits and services intended to cover the entire population, the results here indicate that informal care plays an important role and that the gender role patterns are similar to those observed in other types of welfare state. When discussing support systems it is important for social policy to develop programmes that take into account the support needs of both caregivers and care recipients, and not to see their needs in isolation from the social care system as a whole.     

Links between social environment and health care utilization and costs

The social environment influences health outcomes for older adults and could be an important target for interventions to reduce costly medical care. We sought to understand which elements of the social environment distinguish communities that achieve lower health care utilization and costs from communities that experience higher health care utilization and costs for older adults with complex needs. We used a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach. We classified community performance based on three outcomes: rate of hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions, all-cause risk-standardized hospital readmission rates, and Medicare spending per beneficiary. We conducted in-depth interviews with key informants (N = 245) from organizations providing health or social services. Higher performing communities were distinguished by several aspects of social environment, and these features were lacking in lower performing communities: 1) strong informal support networks; 2) partnerships between faith-based organizations and health care and social service organizations; and 3) grassroots organizing and advocacy efforts. Higher performing communities share similar social environmental features that complement the work of health care and social service organizations. Many of the supportive features and programs identified in the higher performing communities were developed locally and with limited governmental funding, providing opportunities for improvement.     

Supporting young people from care to adulthood: International practice

This paper explores practice examples relating to young people's transitions from care to adulthood. It discusses examples drawn from young people's pathways to adulthood, leaving care law and policy and participation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the research evidence on promoting the resilience of young people from care to adulthood, by proposing a framework for evaluating the impact of practice. It is suggested that practice should be interrogated in respect of the contribution made to stability and continuity, educational achievement, involving young people, preparation and support into adulthood, and health and well‐being.     

We care about care: advice by children in care for children in care,foster parents and child welfare workers about the transition into foster care

Twenty children in foster care, ages 8 to 15 years, provided advice to children in care, foster parents and child welfare workers about ways to assist service delivery during the transition into foster care. The children discussed the importance of tending to experiences such as foster home expectations, the importance of time and information, the new foster/parent–child relationship, coping with stress, the ability to be engaged in decision‐making, the benefits of foster care and the need to build a trusting and personal relationship between children in care and their caregivers. The importance of listening to children's experiences of the transition into foster care and incorporating their advice into future research, policy and practice will be discussed.     

Youth in foster care: developmental assets and attitudes towards adoption and mentoring

The present study explores the relationship between the characteristics of youth in foster care and youth attitudes about mentoring and adoption. Using a positive youth development framework, the study examines the relationship between youth risk and resilience variables (youth risk scores, youth assets and youth perception of control) and youth attitudes about mentoring and adoption. Data were collected from 54 youth, ages 10 to 17 years, through intake interviews and surveys. Participants were 25 male and 29 female adolescents; 33 were Caucasian and 21 were African American. Overall, the youth had positive attitudes about both mentoring and adoption, with Caucasian youth having more positive attitudes than African American youth. A 2 × 2 (Gender × Race) analysis of variance revealed greater feelings of control for male and Caucasian youth. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the youths' perceptions of their strengths and assets were related to how positively they viewed mentoring and adoption.     

Foster care assessment: an exploratory study of the placement assessment process in Flanders and the Netherlands

Family foster care placement decision‐making has a weak scientific underpinning. The identification of clusters of foster children (groups of foster children with similar characteristics) can help improve decision quality. In this study, we investigated if foster children could indeed be clustered, which problems were identified at the time of placement and what might be the influence of placement history. Two clusters of foster children were found: (i) young children with coinciding parental child‐rearing incapacity and familial problems, and (ii) older children with child problems. At the time of placement, familial problems were more often identified in younger children with a placement history. These findings stress the importance of approaching foster care assessment as part of a dynamic decision‐making process. It is key to finding the most appropriate situation for the child. At the same time, it must be decided how the desired situation can be realized, wherein placement decisions are based on an appraisal of whether or not a foster placement is an appropriate solution. In conjunction with this, it needs to be decided how the parents can be supported towards reunification, or whether or not long‐term foster care is the best option for the child, and if so what conditions need to be met.