<p>Military families face a unique lifestyle that brings with it a series of stressors not experienced by the general civilian population. These include frequent moves, adjusting to the military subculture, and family separations. Family separations are especially stressful, as military spouses and parents are deployed for peacetime missions and training. However, the resilience and strengths-based literature has shown that most families are able to successfully cope with adversity. Further, structural changes to the military and family environment can increase family resilience. This is the crux of 'Occupational Social Work' in the military wherein lies the responsibility to baiance the needs of the individual, families, or other groups, with the needs of the military. In addition, policy development that is informed by research needs to form a significant part of 'Occupational Social Work' practice. This thesis is an exploratory work to further Occupational Social Work knowledge and practice and to stimulate further research on the effects of deployments on military families. This study also examines how Canadian military families cope with the deployment of their spouses by utilizing the Deployment Resilience Scale created by Major Adrian Van Breda on the South African Defence Force and by engaging in personal interviews in an attempt to explore family resilience in the Canadian military, and the usefulness of the Deployment Resilience Scale as a predictive tool. Findings show that, overall, Canadian military families have an average level of resilience. The area of lowest resilience appeared in family 'financial preparation' and military 'family-oriented management'. Military social workers need to be alert to potential difficulties with military deployments on the individual, family, and organizational levels. Historically military families relied on each other, friends and neighbours for support, usually only in dire circumstances. Currently, it appears that military families rely more on military formal and informal services, however, dissatisfaction with the gaps in service, and the military system of service delivery may be a indication that families are moving away from the 'rugged individual' ethos. It appears that military families acknowledge the mutually interdependent relationship between families and the military as an employer. Military occupational social workers need to encourage a healthy balance between employer and employees by using an ecological, strengths based resiliency model of practice, and by developing appropriate assessment tools to track progress and identify areas of both health and concern.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>Within Canada, the HIV/AIDS community is an extensively researched population where people living with HIV/AIDS (PHA) are minimally included in the research process. Community-based research (CBR) has become a widely recognized framework with which to engage in HIV/AIDS research in a response to the need for research frameworks that promote equitable collaboration between community members and community researchers. Coupled with a CBR approach, the Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GIPA) principle can be incorporated into the research process so that the research is reflective of and responsive to community needs. Drawing on the experiences of five HIV/AIDS community researchers, this study seeks to better understand the tensions and challenges community researchers experience when facilitating CBR with participants with whom they identify with based on race, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, and HIV status. Within the findings, several themes were explored by participants. The concept of multiple identities was predominately explored as well as the complexities regarding insider and outsider status. Participants also explored the tensions associated with maintaining confidentiality as well as discussing coping and self care practices. Expectations of community members and the research team were highlighted, and participants provided advice or recommendations based on their reflections of their personal experiences of engaging the CBR process. The themes explored by this particular group of community researchers demonstrate the complexities associated with their unique positioning within the research process. As the CBR approach is increasingly being utilized and recognized as an effective tool within a community research context, it is important as practitioners to be mindful of the challenges and benefits of facilitating CBR.</p> / Doctor of Social Work (DSW)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1978. / Typewritten.

Resilience refers to the capacity to quickly return to normal levels of functioning in the face of adversity. This capacity has previously been linked to social support. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of social networks in the association between resilience and social anxiety in a clinical group with social anxiety disorder (n = 41) and a control group of university students (n = 40). The results showed that controls were significantly more resilient than the clinical group. Controls had significantly larger, more diverse and active social networks than the clinical group. Resilience was negatively associated with social anxiety in both groups. In the clinical group, there was a significant partial mediation effect of resilience on social anxiety through the size of the social network, a x b = –0.33, 95% CI [–0.718, –0.111]. Potential clinical applications of these results were discussed.

Patients receiving dialysis treatment experience immense changes in their health and well-being, therefore receiving adequate social support services is an integral aspect of their care plan. Thus, the purpose of this study was to gain an understanding about social support services offered by social workers to patients receiving dialysis care. Furthermore, this study sought to develop awareness about additional services need to assist social workers in providing social, emotional, and physical support to patients. This qualitative study used data from a non-probability snowball sample of 10 social workers that work with patients receiving dialysis care. Findings of this study are significant to social work practice as the analysis provided insight that may enhance current practices in dialysis centers. Furthermore, the qualitative analyses gathered through the one-on-one interviews led to the emergence of seven central themes. Themes anticipated by the researchers included the perception about the ability to provide social, emotional, and physical support, as well as to highlight the role of social workers in this healthcare setting. Additional themes identified during this study focused on reasons for patients lacking social support, the scarcity of resources, and recommendations corroborated with first-hand experiences in the field to better serve patients. Recommendations included increased focus on providing therapeutic services within dialysis, additional transportation options for patients, and greater availability of resources to meet the various needs of patients.

This paper will focus upon the value positions underlying two social work models: the traditional or psychodynamic and that of behavior modification. It is recognized that there are areas in which those two approaches do not seem far removed, e.g., with some neo-behaviorists and/or some ego psychologists. However, to the extent that the lines become very blurred, so does the clarity of position or practice. Like many practitioners who claim to be “eclectic,” it becomes extremely difficult to find out where they are and what they do value at a given point in time. Why do social workers become so caught up in treatment facts? Because they have not clearly defined what they value and where those values lead them. In order to demonstrate that the profession of social work has moved from position to position, this paper will first sketch briefly the early history of social casework. Second, the paper will focus upon some of the basic dangers involved in "borrowing" from the knowledge of other disciplines. Finally, two major practice models, the traditional model and the behavior modification model will be described both in terms of their nature and development and in terms of their conflictual value positions. Social workers need to be cautious not only to identify the values from which they are operating, but also to be certain that their positions are not too narrow or simplistic for the effective dealing with life.

Social capital is a relatively new concept compared to welfare, though debates on the advantages of different welfare regimes and the links between state provision and social participation are tentatively connecting the two areas. Esping-Andersen classifies welfare regimes into three types - market-focused liberal, status-focused corporatist, and equality-focused social democratic regimes. Each has been well studied with regards to the effects of commodification (market dependency), stratification (inequality and stigma), and familialisation (paternalistic family dependency). However, such focus largely upon economic rather than social concerns. This thesis examines the proposition that welfare can ???build society??? by promoting these social aspects otherwise known as social capital. The social capital concept has definition and measurement problems with causality and the capture of social activities rather than just norms. Acknowledging, this, social capital is preferably defined from the literature as norms of trust, networks of association membership, and practices of volunteering and socialising. A critical reading highlights the importance of separating bonding social capital, as captured in Bourdieu and Coleman???s exclusive networks, from bridging social capital, more akin to Putnam???s civil society and thus closer to social welfare. This thesis examines numerous empirical measures of bridging social capital, by looking at norms and networks through the World Values Survey, and practices through the Multinational Time Use Study across nine OECD countries. Results show that social democratic welfare regimes do promote social capital, with high levels of trust, membership and social activity. Corporatist welfare regimes show low but constant levels of social capital, whilst liberal welfare regimes have experienced declines in trust. Increasingly means-tested liberal regimes register high levels of commodification, with poor work-leisure balances, and are also more stratified with higher levels of inequality, whilst attitudes stigmatising immigrants and the poor are apparent amongst all less trusting countries. Familialisation is explicit in corporatist values and male/female work imbalances, and implicit in liberal values and poor family payments, with reduced social capital contributions from women as a result. Overall empirical testing of relations between welfare regimes and social capital show that both are linked most positively under universal rather than meanstested conditions.

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<p>Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur anställningen av personal inom äldreomsorgen går tillväga samt vilka personer söker enhetscheferna. För att klargöra syftet har vi använt oss av två frågeställningar. Vilka metoder och strategier använder enhetschefen för att hitta lämpliga personer, samt vilka kvalifikationer söker enhetscheferna hos de personer som ska anställas?</p><p>Vår studie baseras på kvalitativa intervjuer med sex enhetschefer inom äldreomsorgen. Det resultat som efter bearbetning och analys framkommit har vi valt att redovisa i olika kategorier. De kategorier som som presenteras i analys och resultatdelen representeras av de metoder, strategier samt kvalifikationskrav som enhetscheferna tillämpar vid anställningar av personer inom äldreomsorgen.</p><p>I studien kom vi fram till att de metoder enhetscheferna tillämpar vid anställningsförfarandet för att finna lämplig personal är arbetsgruppen, referenser och anställningsintervjun. Lagen om anställningsskydd (LAS)är en strategi som enhetscheferna använder sig av vid anställning. De kvalifikationer som enhetscheferna lägger vikt vid i anställningsförfarandet är bemötande, empati, människovärdet, samarbetsförmåga,flexibilitet, etisk medvetenhet, kommunikationsförmåga samt utbildning.</p><p>I slutet av denna uppsats förs en diskussion kring de metodet och strategier som används samt de kvalifikationer som eftersöks av enhetscheferna.</p>

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