Values and cultural issues in social work

This article examines issues of culture in English social work, with particular reference to current policy and practice in the treatment of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME), migrant and minority faith groups in England within the child protection and Youth Justice Systems. Several themes are explored: · cultural differences and the effects of policies and attitudes towards such differences · the types and scale of discrimination due to such differences · the role played by professional decision makers and · the overall impact lack of appreciation of cultural issues has on policies and practices. It moves on to consider our understanding of the role that ethnicity cultural factors and the theory of ‘Otherness’ play in the structures and outcomes of child protection and youth justice systems, and subsequent issues arising for professionals within their work roles. The article sets out how social workers have an ethical duty to understand these issues, and how to work positively with such difference in order to avoid unfair discrimination against such culturally different groupsPeer reviewedSubmitted Versio

Review Paper: ‘Discourses on the Place of Mothers Rights where They Are Subject to Domestic Violence within Child Protection Work in England’

© 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).This article examines the place of gendered relationships between parents with regard to child protection work in England, and the effects of this on mothers who are abused by their male partners. These areas are discussed within an emotionally, socially, and politically charged set of issues concerning to what extent the State should intervene, why, and how between parents and their children in terms of parental rights and child protection. In this way, the article examines fault lines in the Western world’s ideology of the family, and concepts and realities of parental, mothers’ and children’s rights. In examining dominant and competing discourses on parental rights in child protection work, the case is made for the need to disaggregate concepts and approaches away from parental rights per se, to viewing the possibility of needing to see fathers and mothers needs and rights as at times being in conflict. This becomes particularly problematic in relation to mothers’ rights to their own protection from abuse, and how this relates to professional interventions when both the mother and the children are being abused. It considers the need to acknowledge and foreground taking account of how the mother and child(ren) are experiencing the abuse, not how society and professionals might like to view the situation by way of an idealized view of families through a particular ideological lens.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Managing violence, aggression and conflict in social work

This thesis examines the causes and effects of violence against social workers. In particular, it addresses issues of conflict arising from certain social workers' roles, and the nature, extent and effects of aggression and violence against social workers in both probation and child protection work. The management of these issues is also examined in depth. The thesis contains critical reviews of the literature available at the time of the preparation of the publications, which drew out key issues for theory, policy and practice. It also contains three empirical research reports, which utilized a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The first piece of research was undertaken within a probation service, and the last two pieces were carried out with child protection social workers and managers in a large social services department. The work highlights the importance of incorporating the experiences and views of social workers and managers concerning the management of aggression and violence from service users within their agencies' policy development. The issues addressed within the research reports include the effectiveness of support available for staff and managers, and how policy and practice relate to the dilemmas and problems raised for workers and managers dealing with threats within what can be ambiguous roles, particularly within child protection work. The work within the thesis addresses how policies and practice relate to the protection of children when parent service users display violence and aggression. It analyses the place of risk assessment both in relation to threats to workers and in the potentially negative effects on the protection of the child(ren) and others involved. The possible effects on the protection of children as a result of such threats, particularly within the Developing Violent Scenarios identified within the thesis, are also explored. The work incorporates possible ways of dealing with those clients who present aggressive and violent behaviour, within a consideration of how issues of power, control and gender affect the nature and effects of threats to workers. On the basis of original research and analysis of the relevant literature, the work offers a model of how issues of under-reporting, effects on victimized staff, and support for staff individually might most effectively be incorporated into the development of agency policies and risk assessment procedures to reduce risk to both children and staff

Social Work in England and Wales

Estudi dels punts clau de la política, la teoria, la pràctica, l’educació i la investigació sobre el treball social a Anglaterra i Gal·les. Hi ha un cert debat sobre els mètodes que s’usen i els grups de clients que contracten als treballadors socials. Els punts clau que influeixen en la política i la pràctica del treball social són la sensibilitat cultural i la pràctica antiopressiva, la personalització de serveis en relació amb el consumisme i la implicació d’usuaris en els serveis. Tanmateix, parlarem breument de les influències recents en la pràctica actual del treball social. No podem entendre en quin punt ens trobem ni valorar com hem de procedir sense abans comprendre com i d’on venim.Estudio de los puntos clave de la política, la teoría, la práctica, la educación y la investigación acerca del trabajo social en Inglaterra y Gales. Hay cierto debate sobre los métodos que se usan y los grupos de clientes que contratan a los trabajadores sociales. Los puntos clave que influyen actualmente en la política y la práctica del trabajo social son la sensibilidad cultural y la práctica antiopresiva, la personalización de servicios en relación con el consumismo y la implicación de usuarios en los servicios No obstante, hablaremos brevemente de las influencias recientes en la práctica actual del trabajo social. No podemos entender en qué punto nos encontramos ni valorar cómo debemos proceder sin antes comprender cómo y de dónde venimos.This chapter examines key areas in social work policy, theory, practice, education and research in England and Wales. There is some discussion of the main methods used and the client groups with whom social workers engage. Key areas which currently influence social work policy and practice in England and Wales are cultural sensitivity and anti-oppressive practice; personalisation of services, linked to consumerism, and issues of service user involvement in services. Nevertheless, we will look briefly at recent influences on current social work practice. As some would have it, we cannot make sense of where we are, and how we might judge how to go, if we do understand where we came from, and how

Applying Universal Principles of ‘Best Interest’: Practice Challenges across Transnational Jurisdictions, Cultural Norms, and Values

© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).This article sets out key issues in determining and upholding the best interests of children, in need of social service support, who have family networks that span outside of the UK. These issues are then analysed against whether and how child protection professionals take these into account along with an overall consideration of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’s (UNCRC) ‘best interests of the child’, when assessing and planning for those needs in kinship care cases. Building on these themes, the findings of an exploratory study on international kinship care cases carried out by Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB), the UK branch of the non-governmental organisation, International Social Service, as well as CFAB’s associated Freedom of Information Requests to the UK government, are examined. These are then analysed in relation to legal and policy documents in England. Agency case records are analysed to identify a range of factors for children placed with ‘kinship’ carers across national borders, relating to the cultural relativity of the ‘best interest’ principle, the availability of family support in different social service structures, the understanding and application of legislation and policy in transnational contexts, and the availability of markers to track and analyse the scale of children crossing borders to join family.Peer reviewe

Social work education in the United Kingdom

This chapter examines key areas in social work education theory, practice, and research in the UK, including the main methods used and the client groups with whom social workers engage. The chapter sketches the origins and development of social work education and identifies key features currently framing social work education (SWE). The latter include factors associated with higher education systems and policies as well as those specific to social work in its organisational frameworks and as a profession. The staffing of social work programs and the role of research in relation to theory and practice development are discussed. A major section presents the predominant practice models, methods, theories and perspectives and their associated histories and epistemological challenges. Mention is made of contributing disciplines (e.g. sociology and law) and the key teaching and learning strategies utilised, including in relation to issues of cultural relativism and understanding, and international influences. Conclusions are drawn regarding the health of the discipline in the UK

Living with young onset dementia: Reflections on recent developments, current discourse, and implications for policy and practice

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.Recent research on young onset dementia (formal diagnosis at age <65) evidences emerging work around pre-diagnosis, diagnosis and the need to improve post-diagnostic support for this group. An increased awareness of young onset dementia has led to the establishment of peer-support groups, support networks and the involvement of people affected by dementia in research. However, the need to join up services at the systems level persists. Third-sector organisations that offer post-diagnostic support at the communitylevel rely heavily on volunteers. Implications for policy and practice are that community-based commissioning of integrated services between health care, social care and the third sector would go a long way to providing the continuity and stability required in dementia support and care along the illness trajectory. This discussion document was written in collaboration with diagnostic services, the charity sector and conversations with people living with, and affected by, dementia.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Recovery approaches in mental health : A qualitative evaluation of the Whole Life Therapy programme for persons with schizophrenia

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International LicenseThe recovery approach within mental health services has in recent years been influential in promoting more active participation from service users concerning their treatment and progress, within a move towards models of interventions based on social models and ideas of service user empowerment. Although mental health recovery models are often heralded as ideological goals, comparatively little has been documented about the means of achieving these. This article sets out the nature and content of the Whole Life Programme, used within the Hertfordshire NHS Partnership Foundation Trust, and the results of qualitative research into the programme that set out to analyse the impact of its delivery from the perspectives of service users. The research examined the experiences and views of participants receiving treatment several months after the completion of the programme, and also of those who withdrew prematurely, in order to learn from these experiences, adding to our understanding of how one recovery based approach, the Whole Life Manual, can be applied in practiceNon peer reviewedFinal Published versio

The quality of life of hospitalized and outpatient oncological patients

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Patricia Dobrikova, Dana Stachurova, Miriam Slana, and Brian Littlechild, ‘The quality of life of hospitalized and outpatient oncological patients’, Kontakt, Vol. 20 (1): e57-e62, March 2018. Under embargo until 6 October 2018. The final, definitive version is available online via DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kontakt.2017.09.006The quality of life of sufferers of chronic and serious diseases is a phenomenon which has come to the attention of contemporary medicine, nursing and other supporting professionals working with cancer patients. This research set out to determine whether there is a difference in the self-perception of the quality of life of hospitalized cancer patients and cancer outpatients. This study deals with the comparison of quality of life in 128 outpatient and hospitalized cancer patients in the curative stage of cancer. The QLACS (Quality of Life in Adult Cancer Survivors) “How do I live with the disease?” questionnaire was used in the survey. To ascertain the total value of the quality of life we used scoring with a potential spread of responses from 1 to 7 in the QLACS questionnaire. Using this scale, various items in the questionnaire measured the level of each frequency of problems (1 = never, 7 = always). The resulting value of quality of life of the patient was higher when the final score was lower. A significance level of 0.005 in the resulting value of quality of life (sig. = 0.000) in the study group of patients confirmed the hypothesis, which assumed that the quality of life of hospitalized cancer patients is significantly lower than the quality of life of cancer outpatients. The quality of life of hospitalized cancer patients is significantly lower than the quality of life of cancer outpatients (sig. = 0.000) since admission to hospital with all the accompanying negative factors for the patient – the separation from family and loved ones, unfamiliar environment, undergoing often difficult and invasive diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, which amongst others, are very stressful for the patient, with a potentially negative impact on the patient's quality of life.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Workplace Stress in Paediatric Intensive Care Units in Saudi Arabia: A Mixed-Method Study

© Sciedu Press. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, to view a copy of the license, see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Workplace stress, as experienced by nurses working in intensive care units, can affect health, quality and delivery of nursing care and healthcare costs. However, no studies have purely focused on Paediatric Intensive Care Units [PICU] and specifically considered workplace stress within a Saudi Arabian context. This study addressed this omission. This study explored workplace stress amongst nurses working in PICUs in Saudi Arabia. A mixed-method research was conducted in two phases. In Phase One, (n = 172) nurses from six PICUs completed a questionnaire; in Phase Two, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 of the original 172 participants. The quantitative data revealed that workplace stress was associated with workload (2.29 ± 0.81), followed by death and dying (2.07 ± 0.77) alongside patients and their families (2.02 ± 0.79). Most nurses suffered from medium levels of workplace stress; this was associated with tangible personal characteristics, including nationality and academic nursing qualifications. Six key themes emerged from the qualitative results: Sources of workplace stress, consequences of workplace stress, individual characteristics that help to manage workplace stress, work characteristics that help to manage workplace stress, motivation to work in PICUs in Saudi Arabia and suggestions for workplace stress management. The Dynamic Model of Workplace Stress was developed, highlighting the interactions between the sources and consequences of workplace stress. Despite reporting a medium level of workplace stress, the nurses perceived their workplace to be a highly rewarding environment.Peer reviewe