Challenges and Opportunities in HIV/AIDS Counseling: A Case of Jharkhand

The study highlights the challenges and opportunities in HIV/AIDS counseling. The major challenges are recruiting the right individuals and their capacity building and retention. The finding shows that most of the counselors are not befitting in terms of qualification and experience besides motivation, remuneration, and other issues. The study suggests that to ensure the effective counseling to reverse the epidemic, it is important to focus on such issues through appropriate policy interventions.     

论心理疏导是大学生思想政治教育的有效途径——大学生眼中的思想政治教育效果调查

大学生思想政治教育工作的成效不高,主要表现在人文关怀缺乏、工作方法的有效性差、忽视受教育者的主体性需要、不尊重学生的个性发展、师生之间缺乏情感交流、教育者不了解大学生的特点,不能满足学生的个体差异性需要等方面。心理疏导作为一种工作理念和方法 ,在大学生思想政治教育中发挥重要的作用,是思想政治教育的有效途径。     

Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe im betrieblichen Alltag von Frauen

Support of self-support in the workplace of women. Examples of the work of the gender equality unit of the City of Munich The structures of organizations and of co-operation in the workplace are gendered. To plan successfully their career advancement, women should analyze the gendered framework of their workplace and include the facts in their strategic considerations. Women who visit the gender equality unit of the City of Munich with problems in the workplace are oriented in this direction. This paper gives a short introduction in the idea of counselling. The implementation is illustrated by four examples. Case work is complementary to a strategic approach developing employment equality for women.     

The emerging role of Financial Counsellors in supporting Older Persons in financial hardship and with management of Consumer‐directed Care packages within Australia

The role of financial counsellors as providers of information, support and advocacy for those in financial difficulty is a well established mechanism in the mainstream welfare landscape in Australia. In general, the role of financial counsellors is in helping people alleviate or resolve their financial difficulties through improvement of their financial literacy. It is recognised as an important component of policy responses to assist low‐income households and individuals in financial stress. The use of financial counsellors for older persons (i.e., those aged 65+ years), however, appears to be underutilised. Financial hardship and abuse of older persons within our community are becoming key issues as the population of Australia “ages”. Existing evidence also suggests that service providers alone do not have adequate skills to address these issues. This paper firstly examines the development of financial counselling in Australia. It then examines the newly emerging role of financial counselling in supporting older persons in addressing barriers to financial literacy and then in navigating the complex landscape of aged care service provision. The current financialisation, marketisation and complexities of consumer‐directed care are identified as key contextual factors. The paper will then discuss an evaluation study of the provision of financial counselling to the older person population designed to support financial hardship and navigation of the complex aged care services system. The findings of the paper are based on an evaluation of the Financial Consumer Rights Council (FCRC), Victoria: Dignity and Debt Financial Difficulty and Getting Older initiative. This pilot initiative included older persons from both community‐based and aged care residential facilities in one regional area of Victoria. The initiative, conducted over 2016, was designed to assess the effectiveness of one‐on‐one financial counselling sessions with older persons that provided consumer advocacy and information about support services and entitlements (including hardship protections) associated with ageing. The evaluation found that the provision of financial counselling to the older person population could be a key mechanism in improving overall financial literacy, avoiding periods of financial hardship and in maintaining financial well‐being, quality of life and positive ageing. Findings also demonstrated a need for an expanded outreach financial counselling model to better service older persons in more isolated living environments and/or with mobility impairments living in the community, and the potential to situate offices of financial counsellors within medical centres (a space often visited by the ageing population), to co‐situate financial health check‐ups as an overall element of health and well‐being. As such, financial counselling was viewed as well placed to support older persons in improvement of financial literacy and in supporting navigation of the increasingly complex marketised and consumer‐directed care (CDC) landscape of aged care service provision in Australia.     

Most Successful Intervention Strategies for Abused Older Adults

ABSTRACT

In this Project CARE study, intervention plans for 83 cases, with a total of 473 strategies, are analyzed in a qualitative content analysis method. The 473 strategies are designed and implemented by an abuse-trained, multidisciplinary, health and social service agency, home care team. Each strategy is rated by the team for its acceptance/refusal by clients and levels of success. The most accepted and successful strategies for abused older adults are concrete: nursing and other medical care and homemaking assistance, followed by empowerment strategies, such as support groups for abused older adults, information about rights and resources and volunteer buddy/advocates. Less successful strategies for abused persons are referrals to general community activities and programs. For caregiver abusers, the most successful and accepted interventions involve individual supportive counselling to reduce anxiety, stress and depression and education and training. Abuser-oriented strategies are most accepted and successful in the study. Thus, it would seem pertinent for intervenors to focus services and strategies on abusers and not only on abused older adults, in particular offering them supportive individual counselling to reduce anxiety, stress, and depression. For abused care receivers, home-based services can offer the necessary support to move out of their abuse situation with the help of volunteers and support group activities.     

高校心理咨询发展现状调查研究

本文以北京等地区高校心理咨询机构为调查对象,对心理咨询相关工作情况做了深入调查与统计分析。在总结高校心理咨询特点的基础上,发现心理咨询工作中存在一些问题。认为要有针对性地制订合理的工作计划和安排,选择适合的咨询形式和途径,从而避免工作中的盲目性,促使高校心理咨询工作科学、有序地开展。     

School counsellors and cultural diversity management in Spanish secondary schools: the role of relations with other educators and intervention models used in care of immigrant students

During the last 20 years, the influx of immigrant pupils in Spanish schools has taken up much of school counsellors’ agendas. This leads us to reflect upon the status and role of educational guidance in terms of cultural diversity management, particularly focusing on two elements that may potentially help understand the situation: relations with other educational agents and the intervention model applied. The field work for this study was carried out during an academic semester in four secondary schools in Huelva. In addition to the analysis of official school documentation, remarks and field notes, semi-structured interviews were carried out and a discussion group was held with the four counsellors. Counsellors are trying to overcome an intervention model that is mainly therapeutic in nature and make space in their schedules for a way of working that is more focused on prevention and advisory services, incorporating the participation of other educational actors. But this is not an easy task. The possibility of generating changes would encourage better integration of cultural diversity in the life of schools, rather than treating it as a negative/deficit view, as an occasional issue, individual and isolated from the sum of school activities and other members of the education community.     

Male Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Qualitative Study and Issues for Clinical Consideration

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study explored the effects of childhood sexual abuse with 10 adult male survivors. The men who participated in the research were largely motivated by their perception that North American society does not acknowledge the sexual abuse of boys. They described the abuse as having significantly affected their sexual identity, as well as their emotional and sexual relationships as adults. The implications of these issues for clinical intervention are described.     

From counselling to community work: Developing a framework for social work practice with displaced persons

Abstract

This paper represents the outcome of a process of reflection during and following a practice experience with 400 displaced persons from Kosova who were accommodated in southern Tasmania in 1999. Engaged to provide counselling services, the authors experienced misgivings from the outset that this alone would be an effective and appropriate response to people in circumstances of continuing displacement and uncertainty. The paper describes the evolution of services from counselling to community work, discusses emergent practice issues and identifies key principles for future practice.     

Presence and competences of social workers in Spanish educational centres. Laws vs. reality. A research approach

ABSTRACT

In Spain, School Social Work has had an uneven, non-linear record, with periods of stagnation. This situation still takes place nowadays, partly due to the lack of regulation of their competences and functions, and, above all, due to the fact that the figure of the social worker is not well settled in educational centres yet. The purpose of this article is to find out whether the figure of the social worker has been correctly incorporated into the educational system, as well as to assess the regulation of their competences and functions for the best development of their professional duties. The base of this article is the information obtained from a national ad hoc research, using as data collection technique a structured and self-administered online questionnaire designed by the author and distributed to social workers through 36 professional associations, thanks to the coordination with the Social Work National Council in Spain. Finally, a sample of 146 cases has been obtained. The conclusions show an approximation to the current actual reality of the professional exercise of social workers within the Spanish educational system and, in particular, to the strengths and weaknesses for an effective exercise of their competences and skills according to regulations which include and protect their professional activity.