Purchasing Power and Self-Determination: Social Worker Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Bailey ◽  
Debbie Plath ◽  
Alankaar Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Purchasing Power ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Management Approaches

Abstract The international policy trend towards personalised budgets, which is designed to offer people with disabilities purchasing power to choose services that suit them, is exemplified in the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This article examines how the ‘purchasing power’ afforded to service users through individualised budgets impacts on social work practice and the choice and self-determination of NDIS service users. Social workers’ views were sought on the alignment between the NDIS principles of choice and control and social work principles of participation and self-determination and how their social work practice has changed in order to facilitate client access to supports through NDIS budgets and meaningful participation in decision-making. A survey was completed by forty-five social workers, and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with five of these participants. The findings identify how social workers have responded to the shortfalls of the NDIS by the following: interpreting information for clients; assisting service users to navigate complex service provision systems; supporting clients through goal setting, decision-making and implementation of action plans; and adopting case management approaches. The incorporation of social work services into the NDIS service model is proposed in order to facilitate meaningful choice and self-determination associated with purchasing power.

scholarly journals Embodied Social Work Practice Within Risk Society

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 673-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Smeeton ◽  
Patrick O’Connor
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Risk Society ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Extreme Risk

This paper critically discusses the limitations of theorising social work from psychological and sociological perspectives and argues that phenomenology offers more opportunity to understand the embodied experiences of service users and social workers themselves. The paper argues that psychology and sociology have a limited analysis of being-in-the-world, which ought to be social work’s primary consideration. The paper offers an overview of the sociology of risk before embarking on an extensive description and discussion of Heidegger’s and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology applied to the lived experience of child protection social workers working within risk society. The argument is put that phenomenology is a useful tool for understanding the lived experience of social work practitioners. Findings: The authors conclude that embodied social work practice containing fear and anxiety can be thought of as akin to taking part in extreme risk sports and that this is an unhealthy experience that is likely to skew decision-making and adversely affect the lives of social workers and service users. Applications: The authors argue that phenomenology can enhance understanding of practice and decision-making and offers insights into the lived experience of social workers. Phenomenology is useful for helping social workers negotiate risk-saturated environments, through a focus on meaning.

scholarly journals The Use of Metaphor as an Important Tool for Understanding Oppression

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Hillock
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Written Assignments ◽  
Systems Of Domination

Using an anti-oppressive practice (AOP) theoretical framework and an exploratory qualitative research design, featuring semi-structured interviews and written assignments, a group of ten social workers were asked to describe their understandings of the concept of oppression. The study found that, in the case of these particular social workers, they used metaphor as a key conceptualization process to more vividly describe and understand the concept of oppression within their social work practice. This article analyzes eight categories of metaphor themes the participants used to explain their understanding of oppression: (a) pressure; (b) earth; (c) quest; (d) nature of society;  (e) seeing; (f) building; (g) dancing; and (h) water. The research findings are intended to open up dialogue and thinking about the concept of oppression, increase our knowledge base and understandings of oppression within social work practice, and assist the social work profession to build a stronger conceptual framework for understanding and naming oppression with the end goal of assisting social workers to better respond to and resist systems of domination.

Radical Hope

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Krumer-Nevo
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Critical Social Work ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Impact

This book describes the new Poverty-Aware Paradigm (PAP), which was developed in Israel through intense involvement with the field of social work in various initiatives. The paradigm was adopted in 2014 by the Israeli Ministry of Welfare and Social Services as a leading paradigm for social workers in social services departments. The book draws from the rich experience of the implementation of the PAP in practice and connects examples of practice to theoretical ideas from radical/critical social work, critical poverty knowledge, and psychoanalysis. The PAP addresses poverty as a violation of human rights and emphasizes people’s ongoing efforts to resist poverty. In order to recognize these sometimes minor acts of resistance and advance their impact, social workers should establish close relationship with service users and stand by them. The book proposes combining relationship-based practice and rights-based practice as a means of bridging the gap between the emotional and material needs of service users. In addition to introducing the main concepts of the PAP, the book also contributes to the debate between conservative and cultural theories of poverty and structural theories, emphasizing the impact of a critical framework on this debate. The book consists of four parts. The first, “Transformation”, addresses the transformational nature of the paradigm. The second, “Recognition”, is based on current psychoanalytic developments and “translates” them into social work practice in order to deepen our understanding of relationship-based practice. The third, “Rights”, describes rights-based practice. The fourth, “Solidarity”, presents various ways in which solidarity might shape social workers’ practice. The book seeks to reaffirm social work’s core commitment to combating poverty and furthering social justice and to offer a solid theoretical conceptualization that is also eminently practical.

Managing Risk in the Pro-Empowerment Era of Mental Health Care: A Cross-Cultural Study of Social Work Perspectives in Hong Kong and Sydney

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jialiang Cui ◽  
Limin Mao ◽  
Christy E Newman ◽  
Chi Kin Kwan ◽  
Kari Lancaster
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Assessment Guidelines

Abstract Risk management and empowerment have become key features of social work practice. Despite their increasing salience, relatively little is known about the perspectives of mental health social workers regarding how they navigate competing risk management approaches in modern practice that supports empowerment. The socio-cultural influences on risk management have also received insufficient attention in social work research. Focusing on these issues, this paper explored the perspectives of social workers in two geographically and culturally distinctive settings (i.e., Hong Kong and Sydney). Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with frontline social workers and were analysed using thematic analysis. Similar views were expressed by participants in both settings regarding assessment of clients’ readiness for risk-taking. Differences were identified in their practices of negotiating the perspectives of other key stakeholders and can be attributed to the influences of distinctive cultural and socio-political contexts. These insights may contribute to the development of more systematic, localised and practice-based risk assessment guidelines for mental health practitioners working towards the empowerment of clients.

Conclusion

2014 ◽  
pp. 339-350
Author(s):  
Margaret Pack
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Service Users

This chapter gathers together and synthesises the concepts used and developed throughout this book. These themes include the challenges posed for social work as a profession in relation to notions of rationality and scientific research methods when considering what constitutes “evidence” for social work practice. This critique challenges the definition and application of evidence to complex scenarios where there are no easy answers, yet the agency and systems seem to demand them from social workers. In response to these challenges, social work has developed expertise in the use of case study and action research methods, drawing from interpretive and participative epistemologies. Such research studies aim to give resonance to voices hitherto missed, marginalised, or ignored. To redress this marginalisation and to provide much needed balance in what constitutes “evidence,” narratives of service-users and their caregivers have become primary sources of evidence, which are used to guide social work practice.

scholarly journals Digital social work: Conceptualising a hybrid anticipatory practice

2021 ◽  
pp. 147332502110036
Author(s):  
Sarah Pink ◽  
Harry Ferguson ◽  
Laura Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
New Concepts

While the use of digital media and technologies has impacted social work for several years, the Covid-19 pandemic and need for physical distancing dramatically accelerated the systematic use of video calls and other digital practices to interact with service users. This article draws from our research into child protection to show how digital social work was used during the pandemic, critically analyse the policy responses, and make new concepts drawn from digital and design anthropology available to the profession to help it make sense of these developments. While policy responses downgraded digital practices to at best a last resort, we argue that the digital is now an inevitable and necessary element of social work practice, which must be understood as a hybrid practice that integrates digital practices such as video calls and face-to-face interactions. Moving forward, hybrid digital social work should be a future-ready element of practice, designed to accommodate uncertainties as they arise and sensitive to the improvisatory practice of social workers.

scholarly journals Regulation and inspection of social work: costly distraction or stimulus to improve?

Social Work ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 37-58
Author(s):  
David N. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Psychiatric Hospitals ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Experiential Knowledge ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Safety Considerations ◽  
Work Method

Has social work practice changed so much in the last fifty years that it is no longer recognisable as social work? This question is discussed and illustrated by accounts of personal experience. There has been a retrograde move from theory-based to policy-based practice, with accompanying proceduralisation, and a concentration in child and family social work on child protection, with a similar narrowing-down of work with adults to assessment. Foregrounding of safety considerations in descriptions of what social workers do has accompanied increasing numbers of care orders and formal admissions to psychiatric hospitals. On the other hand, more, although by no means enough, attention is now paid to the experiential knowledge of service users. There have been various positive developments in social work method, perhaps as reactions to the perception that previous methods were too much influenced by psychoanalytic theory. These include task-centred practice, which both requires and engenders a collaborative user-worker relationship. In the C21st there has been a shift from a deficit-based to a strengths-based approach. What has remained constant is the commitment of so many social workers to practise in accordance with the values of their profession. Whether or not collective activity and campaigning can form part of practice itself, they are greatly needed.

Constructions of young migrants’ situations in kinship care in a Swedish suburb by social workers in a non-governmental organisation mentoring programme

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 901-916
Author(s):  
Maria Moberg Stephenson ◽  
Åsa Källström
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Kinship Care ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
The Social ◽  
Youth Centre

Young migrants defined as ‘unaccompanied’ tend to be constructed as a homogeneous group with specific vulnerabilities and strengths in social work practice. ‘Unaccompanied’ young migrants placed in kinship care in Sweden are constructed with further vulnerabilities. Such constructions of these young people and their situations may have consequences for how social support for them is designed. The aim of this study is to explore how the social workers employed at a non-governmental organisation mentoring programme construct young migrants’ situations in kinship care in a Swedish suburb, and if and how these constructions change during the course of the programme. Methods used are semi-structured interviews with the social workers at the youth centre where the mentoring work takes place and analysis of the non-governmental organisation’s policy documents. The results consist of three constructions of situations the young people are in: (1) loneliness and (a lack of) support in the kinship homes; (2) alienation in the local neighbourhood and the kinship home and (3) social, cultural and family contexts creating a sense of safety. The results show variation in how the mentors describe each situation with both vulnerabilities and strengths. This highlights a complexity in the constructions that contests the image of young migrants in kinship care as merely vulnerable. These results reveal consideration of individual differences and contexts, and are used to discuss how people’s struggles and resources can be dealt with in social work.

scholarly journals ‘The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name’: The Role of Compassion in Social Work Practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 1688-1705
Author(s):  
Denise Tanner
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Emotional Health ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Education Practice ◽  
Cognitive Components

Abstract The concept of compassion has little prominence in social work literature or in social work curricula, in contrast with those of nursing. This is despite compassion being a valued attribute of social workers from the perspectives of service users. This article considers the meaning of compassion, possible reasons for its absence from social work parlance and its potential contribution to social work practice. Whereas empathy is seen as comprising affective and cognitive components, compassion is defined in terms of affective and behavioural elements. More specifically, compassion is perceived as comprising both of ‘feelings for’ the person who is suffering and a desire to act to relieve the suffering. The desire to act is distinct from the act itself. Focusing primarily on the ‘desire to act’ component of compassion, the article suggests that the emotional health and mental well-being of social workers may be enhanced, rather than jeopardised, by acknowledging, facilitating and nourishing compassionate relationships with service users. It proposes that the emotional risks to social workers emanate not from the toll of feeling compassion for those in distress, but rather from a thwarting of their desire to act to alleviate suffering. It is argued that organisations have an important role in facilitating compassionate practice and possible avenues are considered to bring compassion into the fold of social work education, practice and research.

scholarly journals Who owns the case record? Client access to case records in Canadian social work practice

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-350
Author(s):  
Marina Morgenshtern ◽  
Nilan Yu
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Case Record ◽  
The Core ◽  
Core Issue

This study looked into client access to their case records routinely maintained by social workers in the course of professional practice. An online survey and semi-structured interviews were undertaken with Canadian social workers. The study found that while the majority of the participants indicated that they granted clients access to their case records, clients were not effectively granted such access in practice. Client access to their case records is a core issue in social work, and social workers need to proactively grant such access if they are to live by the core values of social work.

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