Social Work as an Aspect of Primary Health Care: The Social Workers' View

Summary This study is based on an analysis of social workers' viewsof their work with 168 clients referred over a six month periodin 1977 in a health centre setting. A wide range of referralswas made and there was close collaboration with other primaryhealth care professionals as well as outside agencies. Far morepsycho-social problems were encountered by the social workersin the course of their intervention than were apparent on referral,although most of the work was short term. Social work with theindividual predominated and a variety of traditional socialwork skills were employed, although the elderly received relativelylittle help with emotional problems and were offered mainlypractical help. Social workers' perceptions of their clientsare discussed in relation to their choice of methods of interventionand feelings of efficacy. The attachment scheme emerges as generallyfruitful both in terms of social workers' job satisfaction andclients benefitting from a multi-disciplinary approach; howeverthe need for closer inter-professional collaboration in meetingthe needs of the elderly is highlighted.     

Two Post-Qualifying Courses in Social Work: the views of the course members and their employers

Correspondence to Alan Rushton, Course Tutor, Southwark Social Services, Fieldwork and Community Services, The Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AZ. Summary Social workers who had completed two practice oriented post-qualifyingprogrammes were sent questionnaires asking them to evaluatetheir courses and to report on their subsequent careers. A selectedsub-sample was then interviewed and their current line managerscompleted questionnaires on their views of the training. Findingsare presented on their evaluation of both academic and practiceaspects of the programme. Levels of satisfaction were foundto be linked with the characteristics of course members. Somedifficulties were experienced in applying the new learning onre-entry to full-time work.     

Long Term Social Work in a Primary Health Care Setting

Summary This study was designed to explore which factors characteriselong term clients and to investigate the relationship betweenthe burden on medical and welfare resources in a general practicesetting. Two groups of clients were studied; 135 long term clientsreferred over a five year period, where contact was maintainfor a minimum of one year and 157 cases referred during a sixmonth period, in all of which the duration of social work interventionwas less than 12 months. Few differences were found betweenthe characteristics of the two groups, nor did any individualsocial worker emerge as being particularly predisposed to maintainlong term contact However, a significant change in the proportionof referrals which became long term was found over the fiveyear period under consideration, and policy regarding the handlingof cases was therefore felt to constitute a major influenceon the length of contact with any particular client Relationshipswith other members of the primary health care team were generallyfound to be good, especially in relation to the long term clients.Moreover, the OPs' workload with regard to these clients wasfound to be reduced following social work intervention. Theseclients' consultation rates dropped significantly after receivingsocial work help, and continued to drop when the case had beenclosed.     

The Supervision of Child Protection Work

Correspondence to Alan Rushton, Course Director, M.Sc. in Mental Health Social Work, Social Work Department, The Maudsley Hospital, 101 Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AZ, UK Summary It has frequently been recommended that statutory child protectionservices in Great Britain need greater provision of specialistsupervision to support front line social workers. This qualitativestudy, based in social services departments in London, usedthe focus group method to explore the provision of supervisionby team managers in a very pressurized work environment. Thestudy highlights the difficulty of protecting adequate supervisiontime but shows how supervisors can use their skills to conductcase related discussion concerned with developing professionalskills. ‘Inquisitorial’ and ‘empathic-containing’functions are identified and an approach is proposed for combiningthem in training courses for child protection supervisors. Thepaper recommends that supervision training needs to be expanded,to be more precisely targeted, and that outcomes need to berigorously and appropriately assessed.