Nordic social workers' assessments of child welfare problems and interventions: a common model in child welfare?

In international comparison, the Nordic countries are characterised by similar policy goals and institutional contexts in child welfare. But is it also possible to talk about a common Nordic model in child welfare at the level of social work practices? And if so, to what extent do the results match the ideal model of ‘preventive and family service oriented Nordic child welfare’? This article investigates similarities and variations in Nordic social workers' assessments concerning child welfare problems and possible interventions by using vignettes and focus group interviews in case studies in four capital areas: Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm. The results seem to confirm the assumption of a preventive and family service oriented Nordic child welfare system regarding social work practices with smaller children, but not when adolescents are concerned.     

Living with an elephant: Growing up with parental substance misuse

Although parental substance misuse is now a focus of concern in child welfare practice, we know little about what it is really like for children who grow up in families where adult drug and/or alcohol use is an issue. Set against a backdrop of research links between parental substance misuse and child maltreatment, this article examines a number of studies that focus on the experiences of children and young people in this context. Emerging themes are identified which provide insight into the world of children for whom a substance is, effectively, a family member –‘the elephant in the living room’– and the implications for practice, particularly in relation to children's visibility, disclosure and confidentiality, are considered. It is argued that a focus on the ‘elephant’ often leads to children remaining ‘invisible’ to those whose role it is to ensure their welfare.     

Social workers' attitudes towards the unemployed in the Nordic countries

Kallio J, Blomberg H, Kroll C. Social workers' attitudes towards the unemployed in the Nordic countries In recent decades, municipal social workers have become the implementers of new types of social policy measures aimed at activating the unemployed. These policies put a greater emphasis on the individual's own responsibility for being unemployed. Little is known, however, about how social workers view the unemployed – one factor that might influence how policies are in fact implemented. Therefore, our purpose was to analyse Nordic social workers' attitudes towards the unemployed and their determinants: Do social workers' attitudes correspond with a more individualistic view on unemployment? We utilised the data from surveys of professional social workers in four Nordic countries. Our analyses showed that individualistic attitudes towards the unemployed appeared to be rather rare among Nordic social workers. However, attitudinal differences were found between and within countries.     

Not intruding,not colluding: process and practice in a contact centre

This article examines process and practice in a contact centre, with particular reference to the divorce/separation context. Against the legal, and emotional backdrop in which contact takes place, it examines the complex and varied roles which workers in this setting are called on to play, highlighting the skills and knowledge required for the intervention in this particular area of family support. It concludes by arguing that, if the rights and needs of children apart from a parent are to be promoted there are significant implications for training, supervision and support for contact centre staff so that they can not only respond purposefully to the families with whom they work but also manage the difficult feelings this area of practice evokes. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial externalities and risk in interdependent security games

Individuals regularly invest in self-protection to reduce the risk of an adverse event. The effectiveness of self-protection often depends on the actions of other economic agents and can be modeled as a stochastic coordination game with multiple Pareto-ranked equilibria. We use lab experiments to analyze tacit coordination in stochastic games with two kinds of interdependencies in payoffs: “non-spatial” in which every agent’s action has an impact on the risk faced by every other agent, and “spatial” in which agents only impact the risk faced by their immediate neighbors. We also compare behavior in the stochastic games to deterministic versions of the same games. We find that coordination on the payoff-dominant equilibrium is significantly easier in the deterministic games than in the stochastic games and that spatial interdependencies lead to greater levels of coordination in the deterministic game but not in the stochastic game. The difficulty with coordination observed in the stochastic games has important implications for many real-world examples of interdependent security and also illustrates the importance of not relying on data from deterministic experiments to analyze behavior in settings with risk.     

Working with Parental Substance Misuse: Dilemmas for Practice

Correspondence to Dr Brynna Kroll, Department of Social Work, University of Exeter, Richards Building, St. Luke’s Campus, Heavitree Road, Exeter EX1 2LU, UK. E-mail: brynna.kroll{at}plymouth.ac.uk Summary The impact of parental substance misuse on child welfare isnow being increasingly recognized. Drug and alcohol problemsfeature in a substantial proportion of families where thereare child-care concerns and raise issues about engagement, confidentiality,assessment and inter-agency practice. This article exploressome of the dilemmas faced by social welfare professionals whowork with substance misusing parents. Based on a qualitativeanalysis of 40 semi-structured interviews with a wide rangeof practitioners from both adult focused and child and familysettings, in both the voluntary and statutory sector, a varietyof emerging themes will be discussed and linked to those fromother studies. The problems of working with denial, the tensionscreated by different agency objectives and protocols and theway in which children can often fall through gaps in serviceswill be highlighted, as will the way in which some professionalshave sought to resolve the dilemmas they encounter. This willthen be used as a basis for beginning to look at constructiveways forward in relation to training, interprofessional andinter-agency communication and service delivery.     

Disaster,Time, and Dialogue: A Couple Lessons from Hurricane Katrina

There is much to learn about ourselves and the worlds we fashion “when all hell breaks loose” (W. Lloyd Warner 1947:1).

This brief paper is about The Katrina Bookshelf, specifically about a couple of the contributions several of the forthcoming books on The Shelf will make to the social study of disaster. It is both a collective and an individual achievement. Imagine The Katrina Bookshelf as a composition and each book on The Shelf a movement, a part of the composition that is more or less complete in and of itself. Any one of the books could be taken from The Shelf and read alone, independent of the others. Each has its own voice and reaches its own resolution. But examined together, The Shelf reveals the phenomenal human complexity that is Hurricane Katrina.     

Exploring user experience and technology acceptance for a fall prevention system: results from a randomized clinical trial and a living lab

Background

Falls are common in older adults and can result in serious injuries. Due to demographic changes, falls and related healthcare costs are likely to increase over the next years. Participation and motivation of older adults in fall prevention measures remain a challenge. The iStoppFalls project developed an information and communication technology (ICT)-based system for older adults to use at home in order to reduce common fall risk factors such as impaired balance and muscle weakness. The system aims at increasing older adults’ motivation to participate in ICT-based fall prevention measures. This article reports on usability, user-experience and user-acceptance aspects affecting the use of the iStoppFalls system by older adults.

Methods

In the course of a 16-week international multicenter study, 153 community-dwelling older adults aged 65+ participated in the iStoppFalls randomized controlled trial, of which half used the system in their home to exercise and assess their risk of falling. During the study, 60 participants completed questionnaires regarding the usability, user experience and user acceptance of the iStoppFalls system. Usability was measured with the System Usability Scale (SUS). For user experience the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) was applied. User acceptance was assessed with the Dynamic Acceptance Model for the Re-evaluation of Technologies (DART). To collect more detailed data on usability, user experience and user acceptance, additional qualitative interviews and observations were conducted with participants.

Results

Participants evaluated the usability of the system with an overall score of 62 (Standard Deviation, SD 15.58) out of 100, which suggests good usability. Most users enjoyed the iStoppFalls games and assessments, as shown by the overall PACES score of 31 (SD 8.03). With a score of 0.87 (SD 0.26), user acceptance results showed that participants accepted the iStoppFalls system for use in their own home. Interview data suggested that certain factors such as motivation, complexity or graphical design were different for gender and age.

Conclusions

The results suggest that the iStoppFalls system has good usability, user experience and user acceptance. It will be important to take these along with factors such as motivation, gender and age into consideration when designing and further developing ICT-based fall prevention systems.