Social Work as Management

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the utilization of corporate management functions, such as planning, organizing, coordinating, motivating, advocating, and monitoring and evaluating, by social work care managers. Method: The sample included 122 care managers in 13 urban hospital settings. Each care manager chose two completed cases, one judged by them to be a good and one a poor case. They then completed an open-ended questionnaire about each case. Results: Content analyses indicated that themost frequently utilized goals and interventions were traditional corporate management functions. Logistic regression analyses indicated that the presence versus absence of 5 management outcome variables (planning, organizing, coordinating the interdisciplinary team, coordinating hospital and community resources, and advocacy), taken together as a scale, correctly predicted 89.1% pre-designated good cases, and 83.8% poor cases. Conclusion: Successful social work cases required the use of corporate management functions.     

浅谈动画巨匠宫崎骏作品中的人文关怀

宫崎骏是第一位将日本商业动画上升到人文高度的思想者,同时也是日本三代动画家中承前启后的精神支柱人物。本文探讨宫崎骏成长经历对其作品的影响和其人文思想的形成。     

FACTORS AFFECTING THE POST-HOSPITAL CARE PLANNING OF ELDERLY PATIENTS IN AN ACUTE CARE SETTING

Post hospital care decision making is an issue for a vast number of elder persons and yet has received little attention from social work professionals. This paper reviews literature regarding attitudes of professionals, family members and patients themselves toward decision making in a hospital context. Furthermore, an exploratory study involving 40 hospitalized elderly patients highlights the potential risk in limiting patient involvement and identifies implications for practice with the elderly.     

Overcoming Obstacles to Cooperation in Interdisciplinary Long Term Care Teams

This paper outlines several common problem areas in long term care interdisciplinary teams: the team's institutional context, leadership, goals, communications, and relationships within the teams. Suggestions made for circumventing or overcoming identified obstacles include: assessing organizational support, adopting a more constructive conceptualization of leadership, exercises for reaching goal consensus, and several team development activities addressing communication and relationships among team members.     

Parents' Perceptions of Services for Children and Youth with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Increased concern about the pervasive problems children and youth with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) experience has led to the planning and development of alternative approaches to serving these individuals and their families. One alternative approach includes the development of a comprehensive, community- based system of care. This study encouraged parent participation in a county-wide needs assessment designed to facilitate the development of a system of care. Parents were surveyed to gather their views regarding their experiences with various service agencies as well as their input into how comprehensive services could best be developed and implemented. The survey focused on (a) family needs, (b) existing barriers to comprehensive individualized care, and (c) specific service priorities for system development. Suggestions for future research and implications for developing such services are discussed.     

Children Act 1948 and 1989: similarities, differences, continuities

The paper comments on the Children Acts of 1948 and 1989. The 1989 Act was broader but built on the 1948 one. The legislative contexts had some important similarities.     

Historical Analysis of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997

Congress enacted the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) in 1997 in an attempt to provide safety, stability, and permanency for maltreated children. To help provide a historical context, child welfare legislation preceding ASFA is reviewed. In this historical analysis, the precipitating events that led to the creation of ASFA are assessed. In addition, a detailed review of congressional hearings related to this Act is given. The key components and goals of this policy are outlined. Finally, revisions made to ASFA are discussed, and its influence on proceeding legislation is presented.     

Mortgage and Lending Instruments Designed for the Elderly

This paper explores the elderly homeowner's need for maintenance/rehabilitation-of-dwelling loans and outlines potential mortgage instruments for which the elderly might qualify in order to obtain modest, modern homes. A delineation of lifestyle, income and psychological factors contributive to the housing-inadequacy of the nondestitute elderly, is presented. This is followed by a discussion of location change stimulated either by housing-dissatisfaction or a desire for family closeness and the resultant financial burden of mortgage payments, taxes, utilities, and assessments. The final section presents mortgage plans available through HUD to address the problems presented and recommendations concerning mortgage plan policy. Key concepts: -Mortgage -Elderly Homeowner -Reverse Annuity Mortgage -Housing-inadequacy -Housing-dissatisfaction -Adult Child Elderly Parent Interaction     

Stratified structural and epistemic aspects of the care manager's discretion—a theoretical approach to social work related to older people's potential relocation to a residential home

By applying a theoretical point of departure, the overarching aim of this article is to describe, analyze, and try to understand why care managers in their everyday occupational practice normalize the restrictive approach when older people consider relocation to a residential home. While earlier research to a large extent has drawn attention to how the care managers carry out the restrictive approach, this article pays attention to the circumstances paving its way. The focus is on influences from different sociological levels, thereby ‘stratified’, and from two aspects of discretion, where ‘structural aspects’ refer to choices between permitted alternatives and ‘epistemic aspects’ to practical reasoning under conditions of indeterminacy. With this combination, a multitude of circumstances contributing to the restrictive approach is revealed. Thus, the theoretical model includes levels as well as discretionary powers where formulas constitute the foundation at each level, subsequently related to multidisciplinary references in order to get the practice into perspective. The findings show that the priority given to home-based care in contrast to residential care is repeated and confirmed at each level and besides in an interchange between structural and epistemic aspects.     

KinCareTech: Interactive,Internet-Based Software to Support Kinship Caregivers

Kinship care has advantages over traditional foster care, but kinship caregivers have fewer resources and receive less support or training. Technology may be one way to evaluate needs and provide support. KinCareTech is a collaboratively developed, single-session Internet-based program designed to promote early reading and/or parenting skills through an interactive, caregiver-focused brief intervention. KinCareTech was used by a group of 10 kinship caregivers who then provided quantitative and qualitative feedback regarding the acceptability and helpfulness of the software. Feedback from these kinship caregivers suggested that they saw the software as easy to use, helpful, and relevant to their concerns.