scholarly journals The Occasional Evil of Angels: Learning from the Experiences of Aboriginal Peoples and Social Work

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindy Blackstock
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
White Noise ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Negative Outcomes ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Noise Barrier ◽  
Aboriginal Children

This paper explores how the propensity of social workers to make a direct and unmitigated connection between good intentions, rationale thought and good outcomes forms a white noise barrier that substantially interferes with our ability to see negative outcomes resulting directly or indirectly from our works. The paper begins with outlining the harm experienced by Aboriginal children before moving to explore how two fundamental philosophies that pervade social service practice impact Aboriginal children: 1) an assumption of pious motivation and effect and 2) a desire to improve others. Finally, the paper explores why binding reconciliation and child welfare is a necessary first step toward developing social work services that better support Aboriginal children and families.

scholarly journals Storytelling among child welfare social workers: Constructing professional role and resilience through team talk

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 968-986
Author(s):  
Laura L Cook
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Professional Role ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
Child Welfare Social Workers ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
Cautionary Tales

Child welfare social work is emotive and demanding work, requiring highly skilled and resilient practitioners. In a context of austerity, increased public scrutiny and accountability, defensive practice has been identified as a feature of professional practice. However, little is known about the processes through which social workers develop resilience or come to adopt a defensive stance in managing the demands of their work. This article focuses on professional storytelling among child welfare social workers. It examines how social workers construct their professional role through team talk and the implications of this for our understanding of professional resilience and defensiveness. Drawing on an in-depth narrative analysis of focus groups with social work teams, eight story types are identified in social workers’ talk about their work: emotional container stories, solidarity stories, professional epiphanies, professional affirmation stories, partnership stories, parables of persistence, tales of courageous practice and cautionary tales. Each story type foregrounds a particular aspect of child welfare practice, containing a moral about social work with vulnerable children and families. The article concludes with the implications of these stories for our understanding of both resilience and the pull towards defensiveness in child welfare social work.

Practising attachment theory in child welfare

2019 ◽  
pp. 63-82
Author(s):  
Sue White ◽  
Matthew Gibson ◽  
David Wastell ◽  
Patricia Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Attachment Theory ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Medical Opinion

This chapter discusses how attachment theory is used, or not, in professional practice and decision making. Attachment theory is now a standard subject on social work qualifying programmes and many employers provide training for their social workers in attachment theory, ensuring that most practitioners are familiar with the theory. As the discourse of attachment theory has influenced medical opinion and doctors have the power and privilege to diagnose children, a range of ‘attachment disorders’ has been created and these disorders are used to categorise children. Afforded with greater power and status, such diagnoses by medical practitioners feed into the attachment theory knowledge base of social workers, influencing and framing how social workers think about the children and families they work with. The chapter then considers Matthew Gibson's recent study, which took place in the child and family social work service in an English local authority.

Head Start and Social Work

1997 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur J. Frankel
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Head Start ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Service Component ◽  
Work Involvement ◽  
The Social ◽  
Head Start Programs

The author states that the social work profession is not sufficiently involved with Head Start. Data from a representative sample of Head Start programs shows the minimal role professional social workers play with Head Start even when ample financial resources to hire BSWs or MSWs are available. Evidence suggests, however, that Head Start is open to increased professional social work involvement. The author presents reasons social work professionals are underrepresented in Head Start and recommendations for increasing professional involvement and influence. The author also discusses the history and current status of Head Start, including a thorough description of Head Start's social service component.

scholarly journals First Nations Women Workers' Speak, Write and Research Back: Child Welfare and Decolonizing Stories

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Reid
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Women Workers ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Meaningful Work ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Holistic Health ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
First Nations Women

This research is a similar study to Gold’s (1998) study on the promotion of physical and mental health of mainstream female social workers in child welfare. Six First Nations women Child and Family Service (CFS) Social Workers (FNWCFSSW’s) who work in First Nations agencies gathered with me to share individual and collective stories about our CFS experiences. First Nations women and I discussed the impacts of our work on our holistic health, how we coped with the work, and strategies to deal with the issues that we face. This study outlines the research process that we engaged in, and, essentially weaves together the challenges, resilience, innovations, and unique experiences of First Nations women CFS Social Workers in a First Nations setting under a delegated authority model. As a result of these discussions five major themes were identified. The five themes that emerged from this study include the stress of dual accountability, the stresses of unrealistic expectations and multiple roles, the emotional costs and benefits of the intensity of the relationships, the fact that meaningful work gives strength and how the women coped and maintained their holistic health. This study reveals the important need for future participatory research to be conducted with FNWCFSSW and First Nations peoples. Ultimately, this paper speaks to the importance of changing the nature of along-term colonial relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples within the child welfare system and in dominant mainstream research processes.

scholarly journals Evidence-based practice in social work: Who are the critics?

2020 ◽  
pp. 146801732095513
Author(s):  
Joakim Finne
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Evidence Based Practice ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Social Sector ◽  
The Social

Summary The aim of this study is to analyse attitudes towards and the utilisation of evidence-based practice among social workers in Norway. The data were collected in 2014–2015 from social workers in four Norwegian counties. The sample consists of 2060 social workers registered as members of the Norwegian Union of Social Educators and Social Workers. Findings The main findings in this study indicate that social workers in child welfare are generally less critical of evidence-based practice than those within social welfare. Higher education and knowledge about evidence-based practice are seen as predictors for less critical attitudes towards the concept. The findings further suggest that social workers who use manuals and standardised procedures are less critical of evidence-based practice. Applications Understanding social workers’ attitudes towards evidence-based practice is important in order to facilitate the best possible practices. This study emphasises the importance of increasing knowledge of evidence-based practice in the social sector, and the need to further investigate how research methods and evidence-based practice concepts are translated into practice.

Meditation, Mindfulness, and Social Work

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadye L. M. Logan
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Spiritual Disciplines ◽  
Helping Professionals ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Contemplative Practices ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Effective Change

Research has shown that social workers and other helping professionals can make use of the contemplative practices from religion and spiritual disciplines. These practices can be utilized as tools that help social workers become more intentional and effective change agents as helpers in their work with individuals, families, children, and communities. This entry discusses the evolution and emergence of the practices of meditation and mindfulness within the helping context, starting with the historic roots in different religions to its usage in the early 21st century with children and families. Additionally, it addresses the limitations and benefits of meditation and mindfulness as practice tools.

Occupational Social Work

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Kurzman
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Work Organizations ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Occupational Social Work

Occupational (industrial) social work, one of the newest fields of policy and practice, has evolved since the mid-1960s to become a dynamic arena for social service and practice innovation. Focusing on work, workers, and work organizations, occupational social work provides unique opportunities for the profession to affect the decisions and provisions of management and labor. Despite the risks inherent in working in powerful and often proprietary settings, being positioned to help workers, their families, and job hunters enables professional social workers to have the leverage both to provide expert service and to become agents of progressive social change.

Gender, Parenting and Practices in Child Welfare Social Work? A Comparative Study from England, Ireland, Norway and Sweden

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Nygren ◽  
Julie C Walsh ◽  
Ingunn T Ellingsen ◽  
Alastair Christie
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
The Uk

Abstract This article explores ways in which gender equality, family policy and child welfare social work intersect in four countries: England, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. Over time, conditions for gender equality in parenting have improved, partly due to family policy developments removing structural barriers. These changes, however, vary between countries; Sweden and Norway are considered more progressive as compared with the UK and Ireland. Here, we draw on focus group data collected from child welfare social workers in England, Ireland, Norway and Sweden to compare these different contextual changes and how these are reflected in related social work practice decisions. The focus group discussions were based on a vignette, and thematic analysis was applied. Overall, welfare social workers are aware of the need to support gender equality in parenting, there is a heavy focus on mothers in child welfare practice decisions, and fathers are largely absent. Uniquely, we show that this is influenced by both a strong child-centred perspective, and a gendered risk perspective, in which fathers are seen to pose more risk to the children than mothers.

scholarly journals Building the Social Work Workforce: Saving Lives and Families

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine Briar-Lawson
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Workforce Development ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Improved Outcomes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Workforce Needs

This article depicts a journey over the decades to address some of the needs of children and families in the child welfare system. Recounting a few key milestones and challenges in the past 40 years, it is argued that workforce development is one key to improved outcomes for abused and neglected children and their families. Major events and several turning points are chronicled. Emerging workforce needs in aging are also cited as lessons learned from child welfare have implications for building a gero savvy social work workforce. Funding streams involving IV-E and Medicaid are discussed. It is argued that workforce development can be a life and death issue for some of these most vulnerable populations. Thus, the workforce development agenda must be at the forefront of the social work profession for the 21st century. Key funding streams are needed to foster investments in building and sustaining the social work workforce.

scholarly journals Networks of power and counterpower in social work with children and families in England

2021 ◽  
pp. 026101832110347
Author(s):  
Joe Hanley
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Network Society ◽  
Turn Of The Millennium ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Type ◽  
Manuel Castells

This article applies the work of Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells to contemporary children and families’ social work in England. Castells’ work suggests that the intractability of many of the issues facing the profession is the result of the new type of society that emerged around the turn of the millennium: the network society. Within this society, the interests and values of dominant networks are imposed upon those who are selectively excluded. Several challenges for the social work profession stemming from this analysis are posed, including in relation to challenging networks and promoting transparency. However, it is suggested that the most significant contribution Castells’ work has for social work lies in shifting the discussion from an analysis of dominant networks, as has been undertaken elsewhere, towards an understanding of how social workers can, and do, build networks of counterpower capable of effectively challenging dominant networks in the space they occupy.

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