The MySocialworker app system – a pilot interview study

An app system was developed in Denmark by caseworkers and clients from three municipalities, a software company, and a University College. The app system enabled young clients to track their wellbeing, positive behaviours, disturbances in their lives, and their experiences of interventions on smartphones. Statutory caseworkers could follow the change in their client’s situation and have an overview of all their clients on a web interface. This article describes the system and the results of a pilot qualitative interview study with six young clients. Clients used the app to reflect on their lives, to set specific personal goals and to remember their goals. The young clients also used the app to monitor changes in how they had been doing overall and as a reminder to keep up specific behaviours that were counterintuitive. The app became an integral part of the young clients’ relationship with their caseworker. The app was a lens that the client and the caseworker used to explore specific aspects of the client’s life. The app itself also became a joint venture, a shared point of interest. The app strengthened the young persons’ relationship with their caseworker, but there was also concern about whether they might become too close.     

Kinship care or upbringing by relatives? The need for ‘new’ understandings in research

This article addresses knowledge production on formal kinship foster care. In spite of growing interest in this phenomenon, little attention has been paid to how kinship care should be understood in research – as a service under child protective services or as upbringing by relatives. Each of these understandings leads to different research questions and creates guidelines for what falls into or outwith the focus of research. In kinship care research, this phenomenon has primarily been studied as a service. Research that seeks to evaluate the effect of kinship care compared to non-kinship care is used as a case to discuss the implications for the type of knowledge that researchers produce. While we acknowledge the importance of this research, we demonstrate the many challenges it involves and why this should not be the primary focus in kinship care research. On the background of these limitations, we argue in favour of approaching kinship care as upbringing by relatives – as ways in which family life can be organised and structured. This can lead to relevant knowledge that will enable us to obtain a better understanding of what kinship care is and involves.     

Is aspiration and sclerotherapy treatment for hydroceles in the aging male an evidence-based treatment?

Symptomatic hydroceles are commonly treated with surgical repair. They are associated with sexual dysfunction in the aging male. Patients who are not fit for surgery often undergo aspiration and sclerotherapy of the hydrocele. There is a range of sclerosing agents used in the literature. I performed a literature search to assess whether one sclerosant was better than the others. STDS is the sclerosing agent with the best cure rate after a single injection and low side effect rates. The cure rates of sodium tetradecyl sulphate (STDS) after a single aspiration and injection were 76%. After multiple treatments 94% achieved a cure. Patient satisfaction rates at mean 40 months were 95%. Complication rates were generally low and much lower than surgical repair. Aspiration and sclerotherapy have a role in treating symptomatic hydroceles. This literature review shows that this is over and above its current use in the UK, where it is used for patients unfit for general anaesthetic. If the patients are carefully selected for this procedure, they can have a good outcome and avoid the higher complication rate and longer recovery rates of surgical repair. Patients should be counselled about aspiration and sclerotherapy as part of the informed consent process.     

Associations Online: Barriers for Using Web-Based Communication in Voluntary Associations

Despite the high adoption level of Facebook and other social network sites (SNSs) in Norway, local level voluntary associations have not embraced SNSs to the same degree. Regular websites are the main web representation, and information provision is the main function of the associations’ web representations. Using quantitative data on website content and organizational characteristics we have analyzed which factors hinder SNS adoption. The results point to size and complexity of associations and to age-based digital divides among members as important factors for having a profile on a SNS. It seems that a certain numerical point must be reached in terms of organizational and community size, for SNSs to be useful. Also, older members, smaller economy and a low degree of formalization in associations might hamper the implementation of SNSs in associations. Using Norway as a critical case, this article contributes new knowledge about web communication in voluntary organizations, an increasingly important field of research internationally.     

The reform of the welfare services in Norway: one office – one way of thinking?

This paper discusses the professional role of social workers in the new Norwegian Nav system. The Nav reform merged the state social insurance office, the state employment office and components of municipal social services. The aim is to include clients in the work force by making the services more holistic and efficient. The paper presents a discussion of the introduction of the ‘Nav reform’, drawing on a qualitative multi-method study. The material sheds light on a social worker's role under pressure to work in a more standardised and ‘simplified’ way. Social workers at the Nav offices must adjust to expectations that require a general, basic and common competence for all employees, as one type of comprehensive, but simplified and non-specialised, approach. The study describes the dilemma of how to combine one-stop service and specialist principles. The paper attempts to criticise ‘the flexible system’ related to Whole of Government perspectives and one-stop service principles as a generalist ‘light’ approach, as opposed to the generalist approach in social work. The findings provide a basis for raising questions about the development of the social worker's role in light of the post-New Public Management (NPM) reforms and the potential threat to the professional basis of social work.     

The Voice,Language, And The Gendered Self

This paper examines the intersubjective cocreation of gender ambiguities, identifications, and defensive disidentifications as they emerged out of the vicissitudes of an erotic transference–countertransference in the analysis of a man who stutters. The author posits that the patient's ruptured speech provides an entryway into exploring the problematics of gender. For this man, embracing his masculinity placed him in severe conflict with powerful feminine identifications. The author experienced transferentially the embodiment of different gendered states: receptive preoedipal mother, castrating “phallic” mother, sensuous lover, sadistic penetrating male, benevolent father. She suggests that the stuttering can be understood as an emblem of the sacrifice of the lost primordial union with the mother that accompanies the transition into language.     

Sad and Lonely? Sad Mood Suppresses Facial Mimicry

The aim of the current study was to investigate the influence of happy and sad mood on facial muscular reactions to emotional facial expressions. Following film clips intended to induce happy and sad mood states, participants observed faces with happy, sad, angry, and neutral expressions while their facial muscular reactions were recorded electromyografically. Results revealed that after watching the happy clip participants showed congruent facial reactions to all emotional expressions, whereas watching the sad clip led to a general reduction of facial muscular reactions. Results are discussed with respect to the information processing style underlying the lack of mimicry in a sad mood state and also with respect to the consequences for social interactions and for embodiment theories.     

Non-minimization of source taxes on labor income: empirical evidence from Germany

The present paper analyzes the choice of tax classes by married couples under the German withholding tax on wage income. Making use of micro data from official tax returns for the year 1998 and conducting simulation analysis, it is shown that more than 20 percent of the observed households do not choose the tax class combination that minimizes withholding. In the second part of the paper, several explanations for this result are discussed. Among those explanations, transaction costs and Pareto-inefficient intrahousehold-decision-making are the most likely.     

Lesbian and gay individuals' path into foster parenting in Norway—Barriers and facilitators at the person and system levels

Growing numbers of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning (LGBTQ) people are becoming foster parents in several western countries. The LGBTQ perspective on the child welfare system has received little attention in practice, research and policy. Despite their increased rights, LGBTQ foster parents continue to face challenges related to fostering. Knowledge is needed on LGBTQ individual perceptions of the process of becoming foster parents, including barriers and facilitating factors. This paper reports on the experiences of 13 gay or lesbian foster parents in Norway. The study shows a lack of knowledge about the possibility of becoming foster parents due to lack of information directed at them as a minority group. Participants felt vulnerable and experienced “minority stress” before encountering the child welfare system, while mainly experienced the encounter with the staff as good and respectful. Although several valued being treated “like everyone else” by the system, others questioned why LGBTQ-specific parenting issues were not raised and discussed. Apart from lack of information, the process towards foster parenting seemed mostly hampered by participants' own assumptions that sexual identity would be a barrier and to some extent biological parents' refusal. The study suggests that foster care and child welfare services would benefit from information in recruitment of foster parents, aiming at being more inclusive. Furthermore, we address gender and sexuality diversity related to foster care work and highlight the strengths and challenges it may offer.