Social Workers’ Encounters with Elder Abuse and Neglect: Giving Meaning to Their Experiences

This article examines Israeli social workers’ experiences of their encounters with elder abuse survivors and its impact on professional and personal aspects in the social workers’ lives. Participants were seventeen experienced women social workers, who intervened with elder abuse and neglect. Data were collected via in-depth semi-structured interviews. Data analysis revealed three main themes: (i) ‘Sensing the Pain’: Exposure to the Complexity of Clients’ Life-Long Suffering; (ii) Taking Home the Pain: Social Workers Dwelling with the Sensitivity of the Encounter with Elder Abuse and (iii) ‘Caring for Them, and Letting Them Be Part of My World’: The Encounter as Resonating in Social Workers’ Professional and Personal Life Domains. Social workers’ experiences of complex, sensitive encounters with elder abuse survivors appear to be a multidimensional challenge, involving both burden and growth. This notion can leverage the client–helping professional relationship, thus enriching and shaping social workers’ personal and professional worlds.

Social work as protest: conversations with selected first black social work women in South Africa

Radical and critical social work has existed since the start of the profession. Still, the history of social work education in South Africa does not put prominence on black women social workers like Ellen Kuzwayo and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, among others. Remarkably, these women also participated in the national women’s protest against the pass laws in 1956 by the apartheid government. The authors espouse radical perspectives, such as feminist, human rights and social justice frameworks, embedded in an Afro-sensed approach. Expressly, the authors argue that, in its very nature, social work is protest, which can be used to restore ravaged history, as well as to influence the teaching and practice of social work.

Déjà Vu and the Gendered Origins of the Practice of Immigration Law: The Immigrants’ Protective League, 1907–40

Donald Trump's administration has provoked crisis after crisis regarding the United States’ immigration policy, laws, and their enforcement. This has affected millions of immigrants in the U.S. and those hoping to immigrate. Stemming from this, immigration lawyers are providing extraordinary amounts of direct pro bono legal services to immigrants in need. Yet the history of the practice of immigration law has been largely understudied. This article closely examines Chicago's Immigrants’ Protective League between 1910 and 1940. The League provided free counsel to tens of thousands of poor immigrants facing a multitude of immigration-related legal issues during a time when Congress passed increasingly strict immigration laws. The League, always headed by women social workers, created a robust model of immigration advocacy at a time when only a handful of women were professionally trained lawyers. The League's archival documents, manifests how Trump's immigration policies have a long and painful history. U.S. immigration law and its enforcement have consistently been cruel, inhumane, arbitrary, and capricious. Told from the ground up and focusing upon the day-to-day problems that immigrants brought to the League, one dramatically sees how immigration laws and practices were like quicksand, thwarting the legitimate expectations of migrants. The League, in response, participated in creating what would become the practice of immigration law, engaging, and quickly responding to changing laws, rules, policies, and the needs of migrants.

Resilience as a moderator of stress and burnout: A study of women social workers in India

It is well acknowledged that social workers encounter a considerable amount of work stress. Besides dealing with service users in complex life situations, social workers in India work in a context characterised by organisational constraints, poor pay scales and larger issues relating to the lack of recognition of, and ambivalence relating to, its status as a profession. This quantitative study explored issues such as the experience of stress, resilience and the professional quality of life in women social workers in Tiruchirappalli, South India, by administering standardised instruments. Implications for intervention have been discussed in the light of the findings.

Predictors of empathy in women social workers

Summary This study explored the manifestation of reflective ability, emotional intelligence and empathy in 120 women social workers in Tiruchirappalli, India. A cross-sectional quantitative design was used and the Emotional Intelligence Scale, Groningen Reflective Ability Scale and the Empathy Assessment Index were administered to assess the manifestation of these dimensions. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify predictors of empathy. Findings Based on mean scores, the majority of respondents were classified as being ‘high’ in terms of emotional intelligence and reflective ability. Respondents of different age groups showed a significant difference in terms of the manifestation of empathy. Age, self-reflection and appraisal and expression of emotions were extracted as significant predictors of empathy. Application The article discusses the importance of these professional attributes for effective practice and the role of academic institutions and social work organisations in fostering the development of these dimensions in social work practitioners.

Women Social Workers

Research continues to demonstrate that female social workers earn less than their male counterparts and experience significant barriers to professional advancement. Yet, little has been written about factors promoting women’s progress within the structural barriers that disadvantage women social workers. The combination of ethic of care, risk and resilience, and ecological theories informs the conceptual model outlined in this article. This model provides a roadmap for understanding national and organizational impediments to the success of women social workers and offers strategies for empowering women in the profession in the United States. Social work practitioners and administrators must engage in frank discussions about sexism, nurture leadership skills, and advocate for the elimination of gender discrimination and for the promotion of equal opportunity in social service organizations.

Native Americans: Overview

First Nations Peoples, the original inhabitants of what is now the United States, are diverse and growing populations. There are approximately 5.2 million First Nations Peoples within the boundaries of the United States, accounting for 1.7% of the general population (Norris, Vines, & Hoeffel, 2012). First Nations people tend to be younger, poorer, and less educated than others in the United States. The contemporary issues faced by these peoples are intimately intertwined with the history of colonization and current federal policies that perpetuate dependency and undermine self-determination. Social workers must overcome the negative history of the profession with First Nations Peoples, in particular social work involvement in extensive child removals and coercive sterilization of Indigenous women. Social workers have the power and ability to make important differences in enhancing the social and health status of First Nations Peoples, but this must begin with an awareness of their own attitudes and beliefs, as well as an awareness of how social workers have contributed to, rather than worked to alleviate, the problems of First Nations Peoples.