The Service Orientations of Social Service Administrators: Towards a Normative Model

The service orientations of 28 administrators of social service agencies are examined as part of a normative model of service delivery. Six service issues are identified, and their interrelationship is described and examined. The service orientation issues include: effectiveness, efficiency, responsiveness to constituency interests, agency autonomy, community involvement, and services integration. In part, the results show that, as a group, the executives rank effectiveness (or the setting and achievement of programmatic goals) as of greatest concern. Community involvement and responsiveness follow in importance. Efficiency ranks fourth and autonomy, fifth. Services integration is of least concern. Service orientation is examined in relation to five personal characteristics of the executives and four agency attributes. Important correlates of service orientation are the age, experience, and education of the executives, agency size, and the number of agency funding sources. Implications for training and education of future social service administrators are discussed. Suggestions for further development of a normative model of social service delivery are offered

An exploratory study of engagement in a technology-supported substance abuse intervention

BACKGROUND: The continuing gap between the number of people requiring treatment for substance use disorders and those receiving treatment suggests the need to develop new approaches to service delivery. Meanwhile, the use of technology to provide counseling and support in the substance abuse field is exploding. Despite the increase in the use of technology in treatment, little is known about the impact of technology-supported interventions on access to services for substance use disorders. The E-TREAT intervention brings together the evidence-based practice of Motivational Interviewing and theories of Persuasive Technology to sustain clients' motivation to change substance use behaviors, provide support for change, and facilitate continuity across treatment settings. METHODS: This study used descriptive statistics, tests of statistical significance, and logistic regression to explore the characteristics and perceptions of the first 157 people who agreed to participate in E-TREAT and the predictors of their active engagement in E-TREAT services. In addition, responses to open-ended questions about the participants' experiences with the intervention were analyzed. RESULTS: The data reveal that clients who engaged in E-TREAT were more likely than those who did not engage to be female, have children and report a positive relationship with their recovery coach, and were less likely to have completed treatment for a substance use disorder in the past. A majority of people engaging in E-TREAT reported that it was helpful to talk with others with similar problems and that the program assisted them in developing a sense of community. CONCLUSIONS: The authors conclude that technology-assisted interventions hold promise in expanding access to treatment for substance use disorders especially for women and parents. Further, the characteristics of the relationship with a coach or helper may be critical to engagement in technology-supported interventions. Additional investigation into ways technology may be useful to enhance treatment access for certain subgroups is needed

Human services in the network society

The Internet and the many applications it supports continue to transform and expand the ways in which it is possible to relate, communicate, collaborate, and perform human service work. In this book, human service researchers and practitioners explore major opportunities and challenges to well being, social justice, and human service work that technology use in everyday life has exposed. Drawing on the latest research their contributions examine issues associated with human service practices in the network society, including: the implications of an expanded capacity to share human service data across agency and national boundaries; ethical issues associated with the use of remote sensing and surveillance technologies (e.g. the satellite tracking of offenders, and telecare services for older people); the risks and benefits of social network sites including issues associated with online privacy, intimacy, and safety; and the influence of technology-mediated services on human relationships and the sense of ‘being present’ with another person. Human Services in the Network Society will be of considerable interest to human service professionals, academics and researchers who are concerned about the social impact of networked technologies

Social Work in Natural Disasters: The Case of Spirituality and Post-traumatic Growth

This study explored the role of social work in natural disasters by examining the relationship between spirituality and the post traumatic growth of people in a collectivist culture. In this case, a retrospective study was conducted among people in Taiwan who had survived a major earthquake five years earlier . The hypothesis tested was that those who reported higher levels of spirituality would also report higher levels of post traumatic growth. A concurrent triangulation mixed-methods design was employed for this study. Six hundred and forty participants completed the Post traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI). Twenty-eight others participated in semi- structured in-depth interviews. Results indicate that, in Taiwan—described here as a collectivist culture—traditional cultural narratives around suffering and adversity, many of which are voiced as spiritual beliefs, have a significant effect on post traumatic growth. In this situation, social workers need to work with or support spiritual leaders, folk healers, and indigenous religious organizations, as they provide helping services. Respect for cultural differences may require that social workers primarily act as community organizers or developers, not clinicians focusing on coordination and development of material resources

Tackling COVID-19 is a crucible for privacy [ACADEMIC PAPER]

Laws and norms around privacy take a significant amount of time to be established, but can often unravel at lightning speed. As a part of the global response to the COVID19 crisis in the United States and Western Europe, governments are relaxing carefully crafted privacy protections such as the US's Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). While the crisis is temporary, it is easy to foresee how privacy changes made in the crucible of COVID19 could have a long lasting impact on our civil liberties once we go back to shaking hands. During the current crisis, we have seen a massive uptake in the use of digital tools to engage in all manner of contacts, typically made in person. Everything from doctors’ visits, dance classes, secondary education classes as well as all the adult employment activities have rapidly moved online without considering the massive data extraction activities of these private for-profit companies. Tools such as Zoom, Google Hangouts, WhatsApp, WeChat and even TikTok are experiencing unprecedented implementations across a range of sectors that have never before considered using video as a facilitator. Uncomfortable questions around location data being shared with governmental agencies are now being asked, but the tech adoption is happening before society has had a chance to grapple with its answer. In other words, a significant portion of the general public is now reliant on digital tools that have not fully considered user privacy. Because one’s personal data is an abstract concept which exists outside of most individual’s day-to-day purview, it is difficult for citizens to conceptualize the risks of relaxing individual data and privacy protections. How does one hold onto their data responsibility, under what conditions might it be useful for consumers to offer their data for use in unintended arenas? What are the digital protections one might expect in a pandemic