This article is based on the premise that the Covid-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented experience in contemporary social work education, and that it presents unique challenges to all involved in ...practice teaching and require a comprehensive understanding of what has been termed as 'New Normal'. The results of a survey conducted in Slovenia are presented regarding the course of practice teaching before and during the Covid-19 epidemic, the provision of mentoring support in normal and emergency situations, and the challenges of mentoring in times of changed circumstances. The findings indicated that the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the practice teaching of social work students in terms of both the content and nature of mentoring, and that the students were less satisfied with their practice teaching than they were in the pre-Covid-19 era. Nonetheless, one promising finding was that mentors supported students in an adaptive manner; therefore, the students were consequently able to acquire the necessary practical skills.
The findings on the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and outcomes in adulthood cover a wide subject area. In order to understand the results of ACE studies and plan adequate ...measures, the role of social work should not be disregarded. This paper studies the topic of ACEs, positive childhood experiences and the association with the subjective experience of poverty, which has rarely been addressed, but is relevant to social work. The research was based on simple and extended ACE questionnaires and was conducted amongst the adult population of Slovenia (n = 4939). The results found that adverse material position is associated with a higher amount of adverse and a lower amount of positive childhood experiences (on average, people with adverse material position have 3.43 ACEs and 7.77 positive experiences, while those with better material position have only 1.75 ACEs and 9.82 positive experiences). Social work needs to provide measures on a systemic level to improve the material position of families and to develop programmes based on the poverty aware paradigm to support partnership and interparental relationships in order to decrease the incidence of ACE. In addition, people need adequate support (e.g. trauma-informed care) when recovering from ACE and to enhance their resilience.
A qualitative, mixed and partly covert research of the locally specific characteristics of deinstitutionalisation was carried out in Slovenia in 2015. The research showed that more than 20,000 adults ...with different disabilities still live in different long stay institutions and that there are not sufficient NGOs that would support community-based living. Deinstitutionalisation is viewed as a change for the worse and is therefore reduced to minor transformations of the existent long stay institutions, described in the study. The state worries that deinstitutionalisation would demand a more costly welfare system and the relatives of disabled people worry that deinstitutionalisation will increase privatisation of welfare and that the burden of care will fall on them, as is the case in many other post-socialist countries. Within the locally specific context of post-socialism, deinstitutionalisation needs to be a top-down social policy decision that will influence professional education in different areas of care work and will provide a re-training of the existing staff. The experiences of people who survived long stay institutions or still live in them need to become public knowledge, as learning from the lived experience might make the process of deinstitutionalisation more vibrant, efficient and useful for everyone. The study captured some of their experiences.
A practical introduction to qualitative research across fields and disciplines Qualitative Research in Practice offers a hands-on introduction to qualitative research design, methods, data, and ...analysis. Designed as a companion text for any course involving qualitative research, this book explores the different types of qualitative studies with relevant examples and analysis by the researchers themselves. The workbook format makes it easy to use in the classroom or the field, and the depth of information makes it a valuable resource for students of social work, psychology, counseling, management, education, health care, or any field in which qualitative research is conducted. While quantitative research is primarily concerned with numerical data, qualitative research methods are more flexible, responsive, and open to contextual information. To a qualitative researcher, a situation is defined by the participants' perspectives, making it the primary method of inquiry for understanding social phenomena through the lens of experience. This book introduces the essentials of qualitative research, bolstered by expert analysis and discussion that provides deeper insight than a traditional textbook format would allow. * Understand the fundamental nature of qualitative research * Learn how to accurately assess and evaluate qualitative research * Explore qualitative research's many forms and applications * Gain insight on qualitative research in a variety of fields and disciplines How does one codify an experience? Is it possible to measure emotion in units? Qualitative research fills the void where numbers cannot reach. It is the best tool we have for studying the unquantifiable aspects of the human experience, and it is an essential tool in a wide variety of fields. Qualitative Research in Practice provides translatable skills in a practical format to quicken your transition from "learning" to "using."
Social work in homes for older people in Slovenia has a special role since we have extremely institutionally-oriented care for older people. Characteristic of the development of Slovenian homes for ...older people is a shift in the dynamics of the orientation of the homes from a medical to a social one. Different factors influenced the shift towards a social orientation, i.e. the policy of establishing homes, the influence of sociogerontological principles, the development of social work and, recently, by their engagement with residents with dementia. In socially-oriented homes a different model of social work is used than in medically-oriented ones. The difference lies in social work methods as well as in the roles of the social worker in different areas of work with the residents, relatives and staff. By defining a model of social work in a socially-oriented home, a special field of social work with older people in the field of institutional care in Slovenia has been developed.
The article will outline the logic, parameters, and methodology of an attempt at mainstreaming ethnicity within EMILIA, an EU 6th FP multi-sites project focused on mental health and social inclusion ...over two years. Led by two social work researchers within a large multi-disciplinary group consisting of eight sites spread across Southern, Central and Northern Europe, alongside mainstreaming gender, we will look at the findings of the baseline audit, the ensuing action plans and the changes which followed. Examining the process and its outcomes for mainstreaming across the different sites and the services they provide for people experiencing mental health problems highlights the impact of country-specific policies on disclosure of information pertaining to ethnicity as well as country and site policies and practices pertaining to recognising the existence of ethnic inequality and tackling it. Issues underlying formal mainstreaming staff and users' training will be explored. The role of social work within a multi-disciplinary group will also be looked at, and the lessons for European social work will be outlined. The lessons pertain in part to the impact of the wide ranging variation in background, scope and focus on the role social work values, knowledge and skills can play in the intersection between mental health, parameters of social inclusion and mainstreaming ethnicity.
The study examines if and how social workers' personal experience with violence in the family relates to their professional responses to children's exposure to domestic violence and physical abuse. ...Four case vignettes depicting situations of physical child abuse and of children witnessing abuse of their mothers were responded to by 106 Slovene social workers. Their ratings of perceived risk to the child, responsibility for endangerment of the child and support for a range of interventions were correlated with their self-reported frequencies of receiving corporal punishment, witnessing father's violence against mother and experiencing violence from a husband/intimate partner in their private lives. While corporal punishment in social workers' childhoodswas linked to favouring children's protection, social workers' histories of intimate partner violence were associated with perceiving lower risks to children exposed to domestic violence and physical child abuse. Social workers who had personally experienced violence from their parents and intimate partners were most reluctant to suggest shelter for battered women and children, parent counselling, or notification to the police. The results highlight the importance of addressing the influence of personal experiences of violence on professional judgements, through supervision and other programmes supporting quality in social work with children exposed to violence in their families.
This paper provides a discussion about the relevance of medical terminology within the social work context. The authors use the example of dual diagnoses to argue for less stigmatised attitudes ...toward people who become, in the process of help, labelled as people with dual diagnoses. It sets out that using medical terminology in the field of social work is more often a strategy to exclude people from the system of help than as a moment of providing adequate help. It is concluded that social workers do not need the knowledge about diagnoses - knowing the diagnosis is important only as information that illustrates users' specific experience and perception of reality, the available resources and obstacles that people face in their everyday life. The planning of a social work intervention should be based on an operational definition of everyday life, e.g. how people live through the day, what are the important and valued roles they play in life, what are their wishes and needs.
Zadovoljenost materialnih, socialnih in osebnostnih potreb opredeljuje kakovost delovnega življenja. Prispevek je usmerjen na socialne potrebe, ki jih je mogoče zadovoljevati prek kontaktov z drugimi ...ljudmi. Raziskujemo jih z analizo individualizacije dela, nadzora s strani vodij in tehnologije, konfliktnosti in psihičnega napora na delovnem mestu. Subjektivni vidik kaže izraženo zadovoljstvo. V raziskavo o kakovosti socialnega delovnega življenja je bilo vključenih 400 zaposlenih v zdravstveni negi iz petih bolnišnic, ki so izpolnili anketni vprašalnik. Usmerjenost na socialne potrebe se je izkazala za ustrezno, saj so anketirani ob razvrščanju motivatorjev na delovnem mestu medsebojnim odnosom prisodili največ točk v rubriki visoke motiviranosti. Analiza podatkov še kaže, da za večino anketiranih velja srednja kakovost socialnega delovnega življenja, ob visokem deležu zadovoljstva, psihičnega napora, precejšnji konfliktnosti ter zahtevi po zbranosti in pozornosti pri delu, vendar relativno nizki individualizaciji dela in nadzoru s strani vodij.
The article gives an overview of teaching community social work in Slovenia, outlines the social context, the position of community social work within the curriculum and the importance of research in ...preparing and evaluating community field projects. Training students for undertaking proposed collective actions in a post-modern world of difference is a rather complex and long-term process which is hard to achieve in the framework of the recognized structure of a university study programme and in the existing context of social work practice. Students have to address concepts and issues of post-modern community work by researching within a broader social context and into community needs, and by establishing a 'here and now' working relationship with the community members. This method of teaching, alongside regular community social work, does not fit into the practice of the existing social services. Although the declared principles are to consider user perspectives, the users are subordinate to the professional power.
