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

Mental health rights pioneer of social work Greenland dies

Social workers in the UK as old as me will remember the name of Cyril Greenland, who has died in his adopted country, Canada. In an inspiring obituary, the Globe and Mail reminds people of his humanity as a director of social work taking over a psychiatric unit.

Greenland learned that the patients on 2B refused to wear clothes because all available clothes were size extra large and since the patients could have no belts or suspenders, they could not keep their pants up. He obtained well-fitting clothing for patients and eventually oversaw the release of most of them into the community.

A pioneer of concern for the rights of the people we serve, he was the author of an influential text: Mental Health and Civil Liberties, in the UK before going to Canada.

The obituary here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/cyril-greenland-helped-move-psychiatric-patients-out-of-hospitals/article2307546/page1/

Occupy movements and critical social work

A tweet from James picks me out but asks anyone about the connections between the occupy London, Sydney and elsewhere movements and critical social work.

james_scwk James

How to mix radical or critical #socialwork with #occupyLondon #ows #occupySydney? @MalcolmPayne? Anyone? thoughts? yfrog.com/hwplfscj

This is James’s profile: he is based in Sydney.

James @james_scwk Sydney

A tweeter who tweets about social working without tweeting on behalf of my employer. Seeking a balance of social, work & existential...ness.

Twitter doesn’t give me the space for a full answer, hence this more extended post.

I think the occupy movement (which aims to draw attention to the responsibility of financial institutions for the austerity programmes of many Western governments and the damage this is doing to the well-being of many people across the world, especially people  inn poverty or vulnerable to economic and political pressure) connects with critical social work in three main ways.

First, it draws our attention, as critical social workers, to an important, taken-for-granted aspect of our capitalist societies: the role of financial institutions. They are self-important and politically important because of the money they make in taxes for the exchequers. As usual, the issue is not a simple one; there are tensions here. The UK, which is particularly dependent on the finance industry for the success of our economy, replies significantly on taxes from this source, and this has helped to pay for a lot of social improvements over the past few years. But any sector that pays for public services is liable to gain too much political power; its interests become too important in the political reckoning. Their taxes are only an instrument for public betterment; they’re not entitled to special consideration; if they become corrupt, if their use of power is overweening, they should be slapped down just like anyone else who becomes too big for their boots. Nicely, courteously but surely. We should all know that if our expectations step over the boundary of reasonable reward for our contribution that our true value will be asserted by the people around us.

Second, radical, rather than critical, social work places a special focus on alliance with mass movements that truly represent submerged strands in the power structures of our societies. We usually can’t do this as part of our social work jobs, because these are usually for governments and the people that elect governments are entitled to a reasonable degree of personal neutrality in how we pursue our jobs. But we can as part of our personal lives and as part of other allegiances, such trade unions and community groups.

Third, critical social work values public movements that help to make our clients aware of issues hidden in the taken-for-granted aspects of our society. If we can find the space to talk about the occupy movements with clients, we can engage them in understanding a bit better what is happening to them and helping them make appropriate decisions about how to react. We might do this is young people in care, with women coping with family stresses, unemployed people, especially those who are disabled or recovering from mental illness, with older people coping with reduced flexibility in their incomes, all as a result of the global economic crisis. This might help them make decisions about how to act, how to manage their money, to see whether they need to change their life strategies. Awareness of what might be happening in a world that is a bit distant from their everyday struggles can help them to make sense of what is happening to them, and ‘making sense’ is a really important aspect of the personal help that social workers can offer people who struggle with the everyday. Movements such as ‘occupy’ can dramatise and focus answers to a feeling of ‘not-understanding’ that excludes many clients from living their lives satisfactorily.

I believe Murdoch: too rich to bother with lawyers wittering about a paltry half million

I believe Murdoch that he didn't take in what he was being told. How many times have you sat telling a manager something important, when his mind has been on his own agenda? With his pay packet, Murdoch probably thinks a paltry half mill is not worth the lawyers wittering on about.



The point is: if he wasn't listening, he should have been, but he's too inexperienced a manager to focus on the small things (just half a million - sign it off).

Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

Former News of the World legal manager Tom Crone has told MPs he was "certain" he told James Murdoch about an email which indicated phone hacking at the paper went beyond one rogue reporter.

Giving evidence to the committee, Mr Crone said: "It was clear evidence that phone-hacking was taking place beyond Clive Goodman. It was the reason that we had to settle the case. And in order to settle the case we had to explain the case to Mr Murdoch and get his authority to settle.

It was at that meeting that James Murdoch authorised him to reach a settlement Mr Taylor, who was eventually paid £425,000 over the hacking of his phone, the committee heard.

Following Tuesday's proceedings, News International released a statement in which Mr Murdoch said: "My recollection of the meeting regarding the Gordon Taylor settlement is absolutely clear and consistent. I stand by my testimony, which is an accurate account of events."

Mr Murdoch wrote to the committee on 11 August to expand on the evidence he gave that he was not shown or informed of the "for Neville" email. Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

 

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Are you a carbon addict? Probably yes: and children are dying

Do you have carbon dependence syndrome?

Take the CAGE test - do you need a regular carbon fix, by taking a bath or a long shower, by updating your mobile phone while it's still functioning, or by going on an overseas weekend break or by buying new food instead of using up what's in your fridge?

I've been enjoying the website Carbon Addict, which treats irresponsible carbon use as a disease, which needs managing.

Remember: the World Health Organisation estimates that 150,000 people have already died from climate change, and they are mainly non-addicts in developing countries - another word for this social group is 'children in poverty'.

Try it: http://www.carbonaddict.org/

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

Why do people expect the truth from case records?

Garfinkel's obituary: I often find obituaries one of the most attractive parts of newspapers, because, with the odd exception when the Guardian prints a critical obit on someone every right-thinking leftie hates, they are usually positive, and they look at the whole of someone's life and achievements, rather than just the currently newsworthy snippet of their lives.



I have often cited with pleasure Garfinkel's paper on clinic records, in which he points out that health and social care professionals are bound to write records which show them in a good light, because they know what really went on, when they read the note, so it reminds them of what they need to know, but anyone else who reads it is likely to want to criticise them, so they will always present the best of what they did. It's so obvious, and we all know this, so why do people expect the truth from case records?

Amplify’d from www.guardian.co.uk

Harold Garfinkel, who has died aged 93, was professor emeritus in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was based from 1954 until his retirement in 1987. In the 1950s, he coined the term "ethnomethodology", literally meaning "people's methodology".

Ethnomethodologists showed how the formal methods and procedures that take place in courtrooms, scientific laboratories and workplaces are underpinned by everyday understandings, argumentative practices and embodied skills. Garfinkel challenged the idea that sociological methods were grounded in a specialised scientific rationality that was independent of the irrational and subjective basis of ordinary social conduct.

Garfinkel sought to probe the presumptive existence of social order with a series of idiosyncratic investigations that disrupted commonplace routines in households and public places. Even apparently mild disruptions, such as acting the part of a polite stranger at one's own family's dinner table, provoked explosive reactions laden with indignation. This demonstrated the moral accountability infused within even the most mundane of routines. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

 

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