Social work strike in LA leads to promises of extra recruitment

For many social workers around the world, striking is unimaginable, partly because of the concern for professional responsibilities, but also partly because you can't imagine many governments being all that concerned if they couldn't offer their social services. However, in Los Angeles County, social workers have been on strike, partly for a pay rise, but the internet media coverage has largely been about excessive workloads. And it is broadly positive to the social workers, also unimaginable in social work-hating UK. One of the outcomes of the strike has been the promise to recruit hundreds of extra workers. Hard to imagine that happening in cuts-hit Britain, in spite of the occasional moral panic about child abuse. I see from photos of the strikers, however, that 'child safety now' is an important slogan. Perhaps this is increasingly the social work equivalent of doctors 'shroud-waving'.

Picture by  Mel Melcon, Los Angeles Times.

Press reports: LA Times; South California Public Radio

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

More creativity and funding for children: aims in Australian debate

An Australian social worker who has built up a big family and child welfare organisation uses a congratulatory press interview to press for reform of the Victorian child welfare system : no it’s not that old – the state of Victoria. She aims for:

Getting rid of the adversarial legal processes through the Children's Court … 'Investment in early years; funding for out-of-home care that matches the demand — right now it's capped; an education allowance for kids in out-of-home care, and the transferring of case management from the Department of Human Services to the community sector.

These would be recognisable aims in many countries. Adversarial legal antics is not a good way of handling children’s lives. Adequate funding that prevents children from coming into state care, supports children’s education and if possible keeps them in a community setting is an important priority to many social workers. And too often hard-pressed state social work agencies focus on government priorities and political prejudices instead of the needs of children. Better to support planning and advocacy outside the state. Of course, social workers can be creative in government services, but over-bureaucratic controls and poor finance often hold creative practice back, for children and for adults.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/repairing-broken-young-lives-20110715-1hi75.html#ixzz1SSp5O7vI

Child and alligator protection in America

It's different all over the world: American child protection social workers responding to a report of seven neglected children found a large alligator in the room with them. I've had dangerous dogs and multiple cats, but in England we don't usually get alligators. Apparently both the children and the alligator were taken into custody (but the alligator separately - its aquarium was filthy, who knows about the children - the newspaper doesn't say).

Read the news report here: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/05/10/3100717/gator-found-in-home-with-7-kids.html

The swing between children's, natural and adoptive parents' rights

An opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald shows us that concern about the experience of children who are fostered and adopted is universal, not the product of any one care system. Geoff Strong’s article is here:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/abused-and-neglected-children-need-their-own-revolution-20110206-1aibn.html

He talks about a daughter that he was not able to adopt, who had experienced significant abuse in her birth parents’ home and observed abuse closely in the care system. This was still with her many years later. But he comments how the political pendulum affected the security of children in care. The swing between focusing on natural parents’ rights and making children available for secure substitute parents reflects an important political debate. But the consequences are carried by children in care for life.