In a time when the deinstitutionalisation of mental health services has become a global and European platform and one of the main forms of care provision, a theme such as the transition of care from ...large institutions down to a more personal community level care might seem outlived, but the fact is that in some European countries the discussion has revolved for almost 35 years around the most basic question concerning the closure of large, asylum‐type mental health institutions. In this article, I provide a historical overview and analysis of deinstitutionalisation processes in the field of mental health in Slovenia from mid‐1980s onwards, interpreted in terms of achievements and gaps in community‐based care and in user participation in these processes. It demonstrates some of the innovative participatory practices and their potential to transform services. A thematic data analysis was used to analyse the data collected from various primary (a focus group) and secondary sources (autobiographies, newspaper articles, round table reports, blogs) that all bear witness to the different periods of deinstitutionalisation and the user perspective in it.
The article draws attention to the loss of contract power of people, especially those with mental disabilities. It shows a gap between policies and ideology of participation on the one hand and lived ...experiences of participation practices in the care proceedings' systems on the other. Users' participation seems to be a trademark of contemporary EU social policy or mental health policy, while children's participation is the most emphasised part of child-friendly justice discourse, but the question arises whether they really are in place. The national and European research projects conducted by the author and her colleagues in the last years are used to emphasise the most problematic points, but also innovative social work and advocacy practices. The central focus of the article is therefore the author's recent EU research project 'Access to Justice for Children with Mental Disabilities', which has addressed the participation of children with mental disabilities in all stages of the legal processes. In the case of Slovenia, these are mainly taking the place at centres of social work. The findings showed that in spite of the progress towards participation of children in general in social care decisions, children with mental disabilities remain virtually invisible.
The paper is a report on the findings of a research camp held in a village on the southern coast of Sri Lanka eight months after the Indian Ocean tsunami. The camp was part of a wider project of ...collaboration between the University of Colombo and the University of Ljubljana, and its participants were students from both universities working together as a group. The report is mainly focused on the views and experiences of humanitarian aid as expressed by people from the village. They keenly observed the distribution of aid and saw irregularities and abuses that only increased their distress. Among other issues, they questioned the methodology that caused less visible and socially excluded members of the community to be excluded once again from the distribution of aid, and they particularly resented being forced into submission. Adapted from the source document.
Spomnim se ženske z bujnimi in neukrotljivimi kodri in pronicljivimi vprašanji, ki si je res vzela čas, da bi razumela, kaj se gremo in kakšne načrte imamo. Bila je soustanoviteljica društva za ...samopomoč v duševni stiski »Poglej!« in častna sodelavka The Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Mental Health Univerze v Birminghamu (vodila jo je prof. Ann Davis). Ni bila solzava, čeprav je bilo nekaj poglavij v njenem življenju izjemno krutih; prav nasprotno, z nekakšno njej lastno skromnostjo, odprtostjo, dostopnostjo, vodnarsko duhovitostjo in občutkom za samoironijo je polagala pred nas življenjska dejstva, dogodke, razkritja in jih prepletla s svojo ljubeznijo do pripovedovanja zgodb kot sredstva, ki bi utegnil tudi nam pomagati razplesti kak nerazumljiv in zmeden material, kot se zdi včasih življenje, ali pa samo preživeti kak klavrn dan.
The COVID‐19 pandemic is compounding the distress of millions of refugees (made up of displaced persons, forced migrants, refugees and asylum seekers) throughout the world. This discursive paper ...pitches a challenge for the global nursing profession, within the multidisciplinary context, to consider its collective agency in responding to the health and well‐being needs of a priority portion of the global population. Nursing leaders are encouraged to renew their commitment to the International Council of Nurses’ Code of Ethics and consider the role of their profession in assisting global refugees, because the extent of present need has become an escalating major global humanitarian crisis. The nursing profession comprises half the world's healthcare workforce. The World Health Organization considers that nurses play a fundamental role in ensuring access to universal healthcare as a basic human right, addressing the global need for health promotion care, disease prevention and primary and community healthcare (International Council of Nurses, The ICN code of ethics for nurses; 2012). It is a human right to seek asylum from persecution, and in doing so, people should not be subjected to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or circumstances. Nurses are increasingly interested in fostering a healthy and adaptive environment in which people can thrive, despite personal, political, emotional, physical or social adversity. Nursing care is indispensable for the easement of human distress and for the promotion of comfort and coping. Nurses have an essential role in advocating for policies that will enhance immigrants’ access to health/mental health services and address barriers irrespective of migrant/refugee/asylum seeker status. These are challenging times as the world responds to the pandemic crisis, and nurses are called to rise to global and local leadership roles and join with other health and social care colleagues in addressing the universal human health, social and political crisis of our time. The global nursing collective must come to terms with the need to initiate additional compelling ways to improve and integrate health and social care processes so that nursing care, mental health and social care augment a holistic achievement of appropriate care for refugees.
Tole tematsko številko smo posebej težko pričakovali. Tema spolne in seksualne
identitete je v reviji Socialno delo redko, a vendarle kontinuirano zastopana.
Tokrat pa smo se osredotočili na izzive, ...povezane s staranjem, s katerimi se
spoprijemata LGBT+ skupnost in socialno delo. Pri tem »skupnost« razumemo
v simbolnem in političnem pomenu besede, kot nekaj, kar nam usmeri pogled
v potencial samoorganiziranja ljudi (in ga hkrati motivira), in ne kot mitološko
entiteto, ki za starejšo LGBT+ generacijo morda nima vedno oprijemljivega
pomena
The Covid-19 epidemic and associated changes in everyday life have exacerbated existing inequalities between people, particularly in the case of many invisible, vulnerable, and marginalised groups, ...and exposed systemic weaknesses in addressing their needs. The study “The needs of LGBTQ+ people over 50 during the Covid-19 epidemic” explored the impact of emergencies on the daily lives of LGBTQ+ people. In the interviews, interviewees highlighted the hardships of those LGBTQ+ people who have a small social network and/or are not in a partnership, as well as limited access to shared events and safe spaces where people can live according to their identity. Interviewees had both positive and negative experiences with health and other services and emphasised the importance of having access to services and the need for aware and trained providers who are able to accommodate to the unique circumstances of LGBTQ+ people. The findings highlight the importance of researching the experiences and life trajectories of people in times of emergencies in order to better respond to identified needs.
Substantial evidence on the adverse impact of ageing on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) populations through the lack of inclusive care services has highlighted the need for education ...and training of the health and social care workforce to enhance their skills, knowledge and capabilities in this area. We describe a cross-national collaboration across four European Union countries called BEING ME. This collaboration examined the current pedagogic environment within professional, vocational and community-based education to identify what is most valuable for addressing these needs. The World Café method enabled a process of structured learning and knowledge exchange between stakeholders resulting in: (a) identification of best practices in pedagogies, (b) generation of tailored co-produced educational resources, and (c) recommendations on how to improve the knowledge and capabilities of future care professionals in the area of LGBT+ affirmative practices. Combined with themes from the post-Café evaluation, our findings suggest that underpinning professional and vocational education with a person-in-environment perspective facilitates going some way to acknowledging the historical context of older LGBT+ people's lives. Addressing the unique needs of sub-populations within LGBT+ communities and setting these in the context of holistic and person-centred care may better enable the meeting of their unique diverse needs for ageing. Recommendations are made for learning and teaching strategies to support improved LGBT+ aged care.
Making a Case in Social Work Urek, Mojca
Qualitative social work : QSW : research and practice,
12/2005, Letnik:
4, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The central focus of the article is a case study in which the author highlights the
ways in which social workers and other helping professionals constructed a mother,
her daughter and their own ...realities through the use of authorial devices such as
moral characterization, point of view, and other techniques. This analysis is made
on the basis of oral and written accounts available in this case and focuses
primarily on some of the narrative strategies underpinning interventions in the
case. These, it is maintained, served social workers in making their representations
persuasive for various publics. Moreover, this analysis shows that social work
accounts are also deeply moral narrative strategies. The narrative materials
examined here about a mother illustrate how the character of a morally unsuitable
woman and parent are constructed in social work accounts. The analysis also
demonstrates that such moral constructions then serve as the basis for interventions
requiring justification when presented to important professional audiences.
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