Alcohol and young people in Slovakia: need for school social work

People who read my Facebook pages may have been wondering about the subject of the PhD that Natalia Holvova has been awarded, since on Facebook I concentrated on the feeling of relief and celebration that always follows the successful completion of years of work. As is often the case with PhD exams in mainland Europe, Natalia had not only to produce a thesis, but the examination was by a sizeable committee meeting in public (although unlike some I've been involved in there was no massive audience) and involved giving a lecture about the project (see the picture of Natalia in action).

Natalia's research was on alcoholism among young people, and the research project involved interviewing your people in their school setting about their experience of alcohol, providing them with some groupwork about the problems of using alcohol inappropriately, retesting them about any changed attitudes and also interviewing their teachers. One of the striking outcomes for me was how disfranchised the teachers felt in dealing with social problems faced by their students and in trying to engage parents. This made a strong case for having school social workers.

Link to my Facebook page.

School social work is quite an interest in Slovakia at the moment, probably for this reason, although provision is very patchy, not to say absent. The Journal Czech and Slovak Social Work has an English edition annually, and the 2013 edition had an article by Tatiana Matulayova and Ilona Pesatova on Social Workers in Schools, which you can access on the internet:

Link to article on social workers in Schools in Czech and Slovak Republics (click on 'download a sample' and scroll through the articles).

There was a whole edition on school social work earlier in 2013, but most of it was in Czech, and you have to buy it.

Studies of adult and child social care in Czech and Slovak republics: English edition of their journal

A newly published edition of the journal Czech and Slovak Social Work fully in English demonstrates what an interesting range of research is going in on countries that one hears little about, because they don't write in English. this one includes studies of domiciliary social care, how palliative care staff  cope with the fact that their patients die, an account of Czech and Slovak social care in the 1970s and '80s (just before the transition of Western-style democratic government) and Czech childcare policy.

The link: Czech and Slovak Social Work: English edition

Czech/Slovak social work journal

Here's a lot of titles from a journal. Look familiar; sort of thing social workers across the world are interested in? this lot come from the most recent volume of the Czech and Slovak Journal of Social Work, which I get as an international member of their editorial board. Parts of thejournal are magazine-like, with info about new legislation and news about personalities and projects. And, of course, if you don't read Czech and Slovak, you can't read the full content of the articles - neither can I. But there are English abstracts, and some articles in English on its website, which you can use to educate yourself about social work practice and thinking in those countries. What a pity language difference means that we can't read what all our colleagues are writing about their practice.

Knowledge creation in social work

Using sociological research methods in social work

Survey of approaches to social work education, especially in practice education

Self-help and support groups in the Czech Republic

Organisational identity and culture in staff working in a Czech charity

Theory and practice in working with families at risk

Case management using a postmodern collaborative approach

Complex needs assessment in problem- and solution-focused practice

Risk assessment with children in need

Citizen participation in working with families caring for disabled children

Social work with children experiencing domestic violence

Psychosocial effects of unemployment on families

Stereotypes of maternal and paternal roles in child protection practice

Rights of children with intellectual disabilities in the Czech Republic

Alternative approaches to data analysis in small samples in social work practice

Applying ethical theory in practice

Mediation in family conflicts

The key worker role in care homes for older people

Individual planning in domiciliary care services for older people

Experiences of staff as individual planning is introduced in residential care for older people

Teaching ethics in social work

Widows and widowers’ views of support from their environment

The approach to death of helping professionals in a hospice and their ways of managing stress

Volunteering and do-gooding

Volunteering to promote social inclusion

Volunteering in Slovakia – new trends

Psychological aspects of volunteering in social work

Youth volunteering as a framework to make social connections

Volunteering in hospices

 The journal English website here:  http://www.socialniprace.cz/english.php

Homeless in Bratislava: street-walking with Nota Bene

Bratislava, Slovakia. Two former students working for Nota Bene, the Slovakian equivalent of St Mungo’s, take me out on a ‘finding’ evening (as opposed to a static evening, where they serve soup at a known location and people come to them). they translated this as street-walking - I said that had other impolications. Nota Bene was founded some years ago from the Comenius University school of social work (which I am visiting) as a practical project, operating alongside their project for drug users.

Link to the Nota Bene streetwork site: http://www.notabene.sk/?streetwork

Hefting a giant medical kit, and rucksacks with flasks of hot soup and other possible needs, we find the Commander and his female friend nesting behind a barrage of large dustbins in a covered area surrounded by flats. A radio is quietly playing. Shouting ‘Good evening, Nota Bene’, as a warning several times, Pauli wheels a dustbin away to reveal them camped on the ground under a hot air vent from a restaurant.

I am introduced. ‘Ah, English’, says the Commander, remembering his smattering of many languages from a long gone sea-going career. He announces he will play a serenade for me, and a passable harmonica rendition of ‘She’ll be coming round the mountain’ assails the night air. Various local residents come by to drop in their rubbish, or walk their dogs, while Sergio unpacks the medical kit. A lady in a blue coat hovers.

Helping the Commander to pull off his boots, Sergio unpicks soiled bandaging, and re-dresses the Commander's ulcerated legs, spraying with antiseptic and smoothing in paraffin cream, while Pauli hands a mug of soup to the lady. A cheerful conversation ensues throughout the long period of dressing. Trainers are produced from a rucksack, softer than the sodden boots, which are left to dry by the air vent. They ask for a new coat, but only a sweater is offered. Nota Bene does not get enough clothes donated: the Commander already has a coat, so a new one is not a priority.

We wheel the dustbin barrage back, and the blue-coated lady engages us in conversation. She is a local resident who sometimes helps the two rough-sleepers, wanted to know what we were doing. It’s good she is positive, not everyone agrees with helping homeless people.

The Commander apparently, is a fixture with his harmonica in a local food market, making enough money to get by. They will be back in a few days to check on his legs again.

A drive through the outskirts of the capital brings us to an area of semi-derelict garages by a railway line. The laptop is extracted from its concealment, and checked: every known living site in the City for homeless people is noted with multicoloured flags in Google Earth, which gives an overhead photography view guiding them to the exact garage. the new social worker uses technology. The garage is occupied by a family who own this property, but no house or flat. A number of possibly aggressive dogs wander around, Sergio emerges from the van cautiously, morsel in hand to tempt a canine appetite.

But no, the dogs are in the control of various members of the family. A visitor from another town tries to extract a donation, but they are all drinking and invading their territory seems unwise.

Another drive, and we park nose forward for a quick getaway about 50 metres from a thriving main road, in some fields by a derelict house. Conversation is audible from an upstairs room, but the people living here do not respond to cheerful calls of ‘Nota Bene’. They are perhaps in the midst of drug-taking or glue-sniffing.

A passer-by has alerted their control centre to possible incursions in a redundant school in a nice area of town. It is in darkness when we get there, and local residents do not answer their doorbells. Eventually, Sergio and Pauli clamber over a fence, more calls of ‘Good evening, Nota Bene’, and, powerful torches in hand, search around the building, then go in. Nothing; perhaps a homeless occupant has moved on, or lies doggo or drunk.

Driving back to the main road, we see some more garage blocks, backing on to some derelict land by another railway. These are unknown to them: ‘Just the sort of place for us’. So we get out and wander round. But these garages are well-kept and locked, we progress on to some abandoned gardens, but there are no signs of nest-making.

That’s it for today: no time to visit a pregnant woman, often abused by her partner and living under railway arches some way away. She is slated for a visit tomorrow.

Bratislava has only limited hostel accommodation, prioritised for people who have had medical treatment. There is little opportunity to get people off the streets. Housing is expensive compared with local wages and the hand out of state housing at the end of the communist regime has led to a shortage of public housing.