Showing papers in "International Social Work in 1989"

Street children of Juarez: A field study

Abstract: million street children worldwide; 25 million of them are found on the streets of Latin America (Tacon, 1982; UNICEF, 1981 ). Within the Latin American region perhaps Brazil and Columbia have been most affected by the problem, yet at least 1.5 million street children live and work in Mexico where the problem is growing rapidly (UNICEF, 1985). In Mexico City, for example, there are about 650,000 children who work with no legal protection, 200,000 of whom work on the

American influence on social work education in India and its impact

Abstract: 'ECONOMIC development of a country is usually accompanied by expansion of knowledge. Britain and America, being the previous and present leaders of the developed capitalist countries respectively, also occupied the leading position in the various branches of knowledge. Thus, in the spread of western education in the third world countries, British and American influence is very prominent. Britain, being the past colonial master and America, being the present mentor of most of the third world countires, further facilitated this process. Professional social work education in India, which primarily followed the American model is not an exception in this regard. The present paper attempts to explore the nature of this American influence on social work education in India. The paper consists of two sections. The first section attempts to document American influence on the professional social work education in India. The second section discusses the impact of American influence on social work education in India.

Social work, religion and the global challenge of fundamentalism

Abstract: as a whole, the recent ascendancy of militant religious orthodoxy within different world religions has been particularly marked. Radical Shiite Islam in Iran is currently attracting widespread international attention because of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s call for vengeance on the author Salman Rushdie, for his alleged slander of the Islamic religion in the novel The Satanic Verses. But the situation in Iran is only one of several manifestations of a revival of religious fundamentalism in the contemporary world. Similar expressions of religious fervour have emerged among Protestant evangelicals in the United States, the Islamic dakwah in Malaysia, Gush Emunim settlers in Israel, Theravada Buddhists in Sri Lanka, militant Sikhs in India, Wahabis in Saudi Arabia, Pentecostals in Latin America and similar groups elsewhere. Although social work has been influenced by religion throughout its development, there are many aspects of fundamentalist teaching that clash with the profession’s values, scientific knowledge base and practice approach. Fundamentalist movements have, for example, advocated methods of dealing with social problems that are contrary

Social pedagogy as a meta-theory of social work education

Abstract: 1. A pedagogical tradition, in which the social connection with the educational sciences is emphasized and the theory of education is perceived from the viewpoint of social processes underlying child rearing practices or upbringing and education. 2. A branch of study, where knowledge of a good life (ethics), knowledge of the conditions for good growth, upbringing and education (educational sciences) and knowledge of the conditions for social good and welfare (social sciences) are combined. 3. A strategy or tendency in social work, where the basis of orientation of the work is based on the elements of tradition and the

The value and knowledge bases of the normalization approach: implications for social work

Abstract: Normalization is the latest conceptual and practice development within the range of community care approaches throughout the First World. It is applied in particular to people with physical, psychological and developmental handicaps. Its connotations and implications are relevant to other client groups too, such as children in care and elderly people. So far, the values, knowledge and skills required for the implementation of this approach have not received systematic and explicit attention in social work, despite some promising beginnings (Anderson, 1982). In part, this results from the assumption that social workers already possess the necessary tools for normalization work. This assumption is reinforced in the comparison with other helping professions which, for once, leaves social workers with a justified sense of superiority. In part, it reflects on the unclarity concerning the meaning of normalization, and hence what its implementation should mean and require.

Making a virtue of necessity: hospital and community care for the mentally ill in China

Abstract: As far as it is possible to judge, psychiatric illness appears to be a universal phenomenon, although there are undoubted differences in the frequency with which some sorts of illnesses are diagnosed. Some Communist regimes have claimed that mental illnesses are a product of bourgeois society and a capitalist economic structure. Indeed, China followed this line to some extent during the period of the Cultural Revolution. However, it is apparent that even with a socialist framework of society, mental illness shows no sign of abating. The World Health Organization undertook a study of schizophrenia in 1973’ and made a follow-up study in 1979 which seemed to demonstrate that incidence rates for major psychotic disorders were roughly similar throughout the world. Obviously, not all figures kept are reliable in the sense that countries with few

The nature of casework practice in India: a study of social workers' perceptions in Bombay

Abstract: Social work in various countries must acknowledge, respect and examine its indigenous characteristics if it intends to be culturally responsive and effective. India is among those developing countries that have become critical of their professional goals and education, in the attempt to forestall the importation of dominant western ideas Mukundarao, 1969; Roan, 1980). However, in this pursuit of indigenization in India, the role of casework has received little attention. The emphasis seems to have shifted to meeting social development needs (Brigham, 1982; Midgley, 1981; Resnick, 1980). Besides its economic and developmental problems India, and especially urban India, is beset with familial, personal and social problems (Jamshidi, 1978). Social work, and particularly casework, attempts to resolve such problems. To be effective as a form of social treatment, social casework therefore must incorporate the cultural elements and nuances that influence the life of people in India. Research on the indigenization of casework in India is meagre (Bannerjee, c. 1972; Mathew, 1981). There is some unpublished material, based less on scientific research inquiry than on practice wisdom and experience (of faculty and students), which is used as informal teaching aids in the schools of social work. Recognizing this lack, this study contributes to the need for scientific research inquiry in the area. The purpose of the study was to gain some understanding of the nature of casework practice in India, from the point of view of social casework students and practitioners.

Health in a high-tech society: pesticide poisoning

Abstract: Social work practice is on the cutting edge of new developments in technology since workers respond to crises in the target populations affected by scientific advances. This paper brings together a broad range of pesticide issues with which social workers will be confronted in micro and macro policies. Pesticides have been applied in the billions of pounds over the last forty years. Now not only are they being studied for the cumulative

Quality of life in terminal care with institutionalized ethnic elderly people

Abstract: Canada in issues related to the provision of social and medical services to the ethnic elderly population (Gelfand and Barressi, 1987; Driedger and Chappell, 1987). This professional interest in ethnicity and ageing reflects the demographic reality that the children of immigrants of the first two decades of this century and the actual immigrants of the 1950s, 1960s and the 1970s are now reaching the age of 65 years. An even greater proportion of ethnic elderly people

The rights and status of children: international concerns for social work

Abstract: clients’ rights and social justice poses special challenges when the clients are minors. Within the larger context of the human rights of children, all societies face questions about the balance of interests and power between juveniles, their parents and the state. Those questions are the focus of this article, which addresses how the legal position of children differs from that of adults in selected western democracies.

Riding the new wave: social work and the neo-conservative challenge

Abstract: As the 1980s draw to a close, neo-conservative ideas continue to be a major presence in the world of social welfare in the West. This is particularly true of Great Britain and the United States, two major English-speaking countries which form the basis for the principal arguments and conclusions of this paper. There is little doubt, however, that the rise of neo-conservatism is a general phenomenon confined neither to the above countries nor indeed to the Englishspeaking world. Neo-conservatism, in the context of social welfare, is not simply a question of cutbacks in social expenditure and general restraint in public spending. That has happened quite generally throughout Western countries. It is one thing when economic growth stops, resources are in short supply and governments find that they have to economize on social as on other forms of public expenditure. It is quite another thing when economic recession or other difficulties become the occasion for a general attack on the basic principles and practices of the postwar welfare state. This is where neo-conservatism comes in.

Professional - paraprofessional relationships in four countries: a comparative analysis

Abstract: The research on which this paper is based was carried out in response to a number of fairly universal conditions in the social services, including the fact that, in most countries, the bulk of front-line or face-to-face helping activity is carried out by persons who are not professionally trained but by people (often local community residents) who may have had little or no formal preparation for their helping roles, that is, by paraprofessionals. These are a very diverse group of workers who perform a variety of functions under a broad range of titles, the following being fairly typical: community service worker, social welfare assistant, health auxiliary, community development worker, mental health worker, family welfare worker, nutrition aide and health education assistant. Their activities range from carrying out simple routine tasks to the performance of relatively sophisticated procedures that are hard to distinguish from the work normally done by highly trained professionals. In developing and developed countries alike, there has been in recent years increasing recognition among government officials, administrators of social welfare services and social work professionals that widespread use of front-line paraprofessional personnel cannot be viewed as a transitional expedient until sufficient professionally-trained personnel become available but is likely to be a long-term or even permanent state of affairs (United Nations, 1969, 1980). Based on our earlier studies in Israel and the USA (Brawley, 1975, 1980; Schindler, 1977,1980,1982) and the responses we received to an international survey we carried out in 1983 (Brawley and Schindler, 1985, 1986), we were aware of the mixed reaction of professionally-

Open files and data protection: serving the client's best interests?

Abstract: users (patients and clients) as citizens has re-emerged, necessitating the attention of politicians and all those working in the public sector. Various initiatives have arisen to consider the problem, a part of which concerns how to protect those who are unaware or unable to take advantage of their rights as, for example, in the case of ill or elderly people and children. But legitimate access to information and its reconciliation with the individual’s right to secrecy has not been given full consideration in many Western countries (Cigno and Gottardi, 1988). The ’right to information’ movement grew during the 1970s, challenging the traditional closed, paternalistic pattern of organizing services characteristic of the public administration towards its users, whether the latter were ’voluntary’ or not. Despite this movement, many individuals and groups, particularly those on the margins of society, did not experience great changes in the system. Today, although new policies directed at localizing services and making every aspect of them more accessible to the public have been laboriously developed, in some countries and in some areas the treatment of its users by the public adminstration still falls far short of

Politics, welfare and corporatism: teaching social policy in Hong Kong

Abstract: entrenched that in many universities provision is made for specialization in the study of social policy, in higher degrees both by coursework and by research. However, the maturity in course development has not been paralleled by an equal level of maturity in the development of the subject matter itself. Social policy as a discipline of study has always been criticized as lacking sufficient theoretical foundation and placing too much emphasis on borrowed concepts from other social science disciplines, such as sociology and economics, making it a hasty conglomerate of the ad hoc! Others have argued that because of its relatively youthful nature as a social science subject, it would be premature to criticize its development at such an early stage, and much still remains to be seen (Mishra, 1986:28). No matter on which side of the fence one finds oneself, it

On Swedish social policy

Abstract: In an international perspective, Sweden has been considered one of the leading welfare states. Indeed, Sweden has been described as an archetype of the welfare state. But maybe the picture has changed in the last ten to fifteen years. If so, the change can be explained partly by developments in Sweden and partly by general shifts in ideology and politics in the industrialized world. To put it simply, during the 1970s critics of the welfare state came from the Left. They showed that the ’good society’ was not a good society for everyone. Although the standard of living had improved for the majority, there were groups that were excluded from the good society. The other side of the coin showed that concentration of capital had gone far a small

Colonially inspired child welfare legislation and the dilemmas of reform in Papua New Guinea

Abstract: relic foisted upon the nation by a now departed administration. Drawn from existing Child Welfare legislation in Australia, it took very little account of customary law and traditional Melanesian community based social support systems. The unsuitability and consequent failure of such colonially inspired welfare legislation, delivery systems and methods in other developing nations has been well documented elsewhere Goldstein (1986: 14964). The Papua New Guinea Child Welfare Act follows this familiar pattern. Legislation and government social policy define young people in three different ways. The National Constitution defines minors as being under the age of eighteen years. Government-inspired policies for youth such as the National Youth Movement Programme define youth as being between twelve and twenty-five years of age. In law, the Child Welfare Act of 1961 defines a child as being under sixteen years of age.

One-parent families under stress: curriculum guidelines:

Abstract: in both the academic and the public media. This increased concern with single-parent families has, however, often manifested itself as a concern about a growing ’problem’, a problem that may threaten the family (Gongla and Thompson, 1987). On many occasions, single-parent families are viewed as abnormal and broken. They are blamed for their inadequacies and problems in living because the families are assumed to contain within themselves

A group approach to aftercare service for drug supervisees

Abstract: non-institutional, or community-based care on a one-to-one and/or group basis. In Malaysia (Ma, 1983), a scheme known as ’Follow-up Voluntary Para-Counsellors’ has been established to offer aftercare follow-up services through the twin concepts of ’friendly peers’ and ’adoption families’. The purposes are to give the support and motivation of a ’family’ and to alleviate drug-related problems, as well as to provide peer-group guidance and assistance. In Hong Kong, a self-help and mutual support system has been created in its aftercare service for ex-drug addicts (Chien and Yang, 1983). However, according to Chien (1983), references on social education and environmental manipulation or improvement are scarce or almost non-existent in western countries. In Singapore, since 1977, a few thousand volunteer aftercare officers (VAOs) have been trained to be befrienders and paracounsellors to ex-drug addicts who are under a two-year compulsory supervision order. However, only about two-thirds of these drug supervisees were able to receive this aftercare service (Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association (SANA), 1982: 25, 1983: 25). Because of the shortage of VAOs, a pilot project on group counselling was initiated in August 1984 and the writer was requested to formulate and design a group counselling programme for ex-drug addicts, to train volunteers as group leaders, to implement the scheme and to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme. This article will discuss the development of the programme and evaluate its effectiveness.

The American immigrants' response to Ethiopian refugees in Israel

Abstract: country organized a variety of activities for the new Ethiopian immigrants. Perhaps the most heart-rending chapter of modern Ethiopian Jews is the story of the trek of Ethiopians to the safety of the Sudan, and the dramatic airlift to Israel. Just as the history of the West has influenced people from that culture, so too the history of the Ethiopians has to be understood in order to understand its impact upon their integration into Israel. Similarly, any attempt to help them with this process must also be seen within the framework of their past. Unlike the nature of the American immigration to Israel, for Ethiopian Jews the trek out was filled with danger and fear and limitless physical and spiritual obstacles. In this paper I discuss the story of what has often been called ’the lost Jewish tribe’ suddenly arriving in Israel from Ethiopia, and how they benefited from the AACI’s mobilization of volunteer services. As a social worker employed by AACI, I assisted in developing AACI’s volunteer support and assistance for Ethiopian immigrants based on my training, knowledge, values and skills. I also present historical information regarding the identity of the Ethiopian Jews, the differences between American immigrants and Ethiopians, the stages which both are experiencing in their absorption, and the stresses involved in the meeting of the two cultures.

Ideal models for social policies during the transitional period

Abstract: was launched in 1954 and a ten-year development plan to raise the population-hospital bed ratio was formulated in 1963. The 1970s saw the development stage of our social policy planning, highlighting the ten-year housing plan introduced in 1972 as well as the White Paper on Social Welfare Development in 1973. Since the beginning of this decade, Hong Kong’s social policies have entered the era of consolidation, with a series of policy reviews conducted and long-

Book reviews : Man Keong Ho (1987) Family Therapy with Ethnic Minorities. London: Sage, 285pp:

Abstract: to be of mterest both to those mterested in workforce dynamics, and to those concerned with inter-group and inter-ethnic relations. There is a wealth of factual material in the book, drawn from a wide selection of literature, research and previous studies, including some original research findings. The book is made even more helpful by the inclusion of a chapter concentrating on immigrants in the steel industry and in a specific Ford factory. A number of new concepts and categorizations are offered within a context which examines Marxist theory in relation to labour and capital. One of the limitations of the book is that it, admittedly, deals primarily with male immigrants. Since, however, the data from other sources also concentrate on men, it

Book reviews : Jenkins, Shirley (ed.) (1988) Ethnic Associations and the Welfare State. Columbia University Press. 300 pp

Abstract: topic, while there is a lack of examination on the relevant instruments when treating the topic of evaluation. Actually this is quite a common and understandable phenomenon for any small scale publication with an all-embracing coverage. Besides this, the book also appears to be rather eclectic. Readers can easily find quite a number of ideas that they may have seen elsewhere, e.g. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (pp. 64-5), Force Field Analysis (pp. 115-18) and the stages of group development suggested by Garland, Jones and Kolodny (p. 79). However, it is good to see that most of these ideas are well used and amalgamated into the text. The title of the book reflects the author’s intention of making it meaningful in a variety of group settings. However, the price paid for this ’for-all-seasons’ approach is obviously the lack of attention to the uniqueness of specific group settings which may be quite different in terms of nature and value orientation. For mstance, running