Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-123) Also available in print.

Thesis--University of California, Berkeley. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Anthropology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed April 26, 2007). PDF text: viii, 185 p. : ill. UMI publication number: AAT 3230063. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

L’objet de cette recherche est de décrire de manière détaillée la façon dont les travailleurs sociaux élaborent leur jugement de la nécessité d’aider. Le travail s’intéresse plus particulièrement aux admissions en Centre d’Hébergement et de Réinsertion Sociale (CHRS). En effet, face à une demande croissante d’hébergement, les travailleurs sociaux de ce secteur se voient dans l’obligation de faire un choix entre plusieurs candidats. Or, les critères définis par le droit sont loin d’être suffisants pour construire un ordre de priorité. Les trois premières parties présentent le cadre théorique et permettent de formuler les hypothèses directrices. Les trois autres parties sont consacrées à la présentation des résultats de trois enquêtes empiriques menées auprès de travailleurs sociaux qui exercent en CHRS et d’étudiants en travail social. La recherche met en lumière les critères d’admission utilisés par les travailleurs sociaux pour élaborer leur évaluation de la nécessité d’accueillir une personne en CHRS d’insertion. Elle hiérarchise ces critères et montre que certains d’entre eux définis par la loi ont moins d’importance que des informations intra subjectives. Elle vérifie si la formation professionnelle participe ou freine à ce phénomène. Cette thèse permet de comprendre comment les travailleurs sociaux participent inconsciemment à la mise en place de dispositifs qui aident en priorité les personnes les moins en difficulté de la catégorie ciblée. / The purpose of this research is to provide a detailed description of how social workers reach a decision with regard to the need to provide help. The work is of particular interest for admissions in Centres for Emergency Housing and Social Reintegration. In fact, faced with an increasing demand for housing, social workers in this field are forced to choose from among several candidates. However, the criteria defined by law are far from being sufficient to determine an order of priority. The first three parts discuss the theoretical framework and enable the main hypotheses to be set out. The other three parts are devoted to the presentation of the results of three empirical inquiries conducted with social workers in Centres for Emergency Housing and Social Reintegration, and with students in social work. The research explains the admission criteria used by social workers to determine the need to provide housing for a person in a reintegration centre. It prioritises these criteria and shows that some of them, defined by law, are less important than intra-subjective information. The research determines whether professional training plays a role in or acts as a curb on this phenomenon. This thesis provides an understanding of how social workers unconsciously participate in the development of systems which give priority to helping those persons in the target population who are least in need of help.

Youthful offenders are usually persons who are struggling with severe social and emotional problems; who are either isolates or associate mainly with anti-social persons, and as a consequence, cut themselves off, and are cut off from persons who could assist them to identify with more normal social goals and values. This thesis is a descriptive analysis of a programme developed for such "clients", giving specific attention to the introduction of group work and related social work services at the Young Offenders' Unit, a correctional institution in British Columbia. The original leisure-time programme hoped to gain the interest and cooperation of youthful offenders; instead, they withdrew into their housing units. In response to this, a social group work service is provided, and counsellors (both men and women) are assigned to work directly in the housing units. The transitional aspects of such a programme, in a correctional setting, presents peculiar problems; therefore, descriptive detail is given in order to highlight two major shifts in focus: (1) The function of the counsellors; (2) The diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of activities, over and above their leisure-time value. The essential group work task of gaining the acceptance of delinquent youths is analyzed, and specific examples are given which illustrate how group activities of all kinds provide the tools whereby counsellors observe, study, and diagnose the interaction in each group and between groups. As a result, helpful roles emerge which make it possible for counsellors to assist the groups and their individual members towards socially acceptable behaviour. Because the youthful offender will eventually return to the community, the study points out how the delinquent is able to gain a growing trust in adults as he identifies with his counsellor, and how this furthers his eventual integration into society. The kinds of activities which are helpful to this end are illustrated. The study recognizes that segregation of youthful offenders in a separate building, and assigning counsellors to work directly with groups, helps the delinquent to substitute patterns of mature social relationships in the place of immature, anti-social patterns of relationship. But the traditional institution of concrete and stone, with steel bars and gates poses serious limitations, in that it perpetuates, arid sometimes re-inforces the youthful offender's emotional isolation from the community. The concept of a more 'open type' institution is presented, as one answer to this problem, facilitating the whole process in bridging the gap between the institution and the community, after-care, etc. The need for trained staff continues as an essential part of such a programme. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study was undertaken (a) to examine some areas where the activities of the social work profession and the ministry overlap, (b) to throw light on the attitudes of one profession toward the other and (c) to exemplify instances of collaboration. Because the subject is very large and extensive, limits were set by confining it to the relationships between social work agencies and ministers of Protestant denominations. After a brief discussion of the historical background of the subject, areas of common concern and areas of difference between the two disciplines are outlined. Examples are given of the role of the clergyman as an institutional chaplain, as a pastoral counsellor in a social agency and as a counsellor in his own parish. Other areas in which the roles of the clergyman and social worker show similarities are found in the institutional church, the church-sponsored social agency and the independent, religiously-oriented agency. The lay volunteer movement in both church and social work is given some attention. Research projects which relate to both fields, and special activities where there is active collaboration between social work and the ministry, are discussed. This section, which draws its material from Canada and the United States generally, concludes with some mention of the education of each profession in terms of what it teaches about the other. To gain information from social workers and ministers actually concerned with welfare matters in the Vancouver area, a questionnaire was sent out to both groups. The one to the clergy was organized by the Vancouver Council of Churches for a somewhat different purpose but its results were made available to the writer. As its focus was specifically on mental health, further opinions directly related to social work were secured by interviewing a small group of ministers. In the final chapter, the findings from the questions and from the literature are summarized. General implications are easier to draw than specific directions for particular problems or kinds of collaboration. The interest on the part of each profession in the work of the other is clear; there is also awareness of the contribution the other can make in meeting individual needs, and a desire for further understanding. The ministry is found to be making more use of the resources offered by social work agencies than vice versa. Some suggestions are made arising from these findings and a number of areas for further investigation outlined. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

There are several important reasons for considering the use of case-aides in welfare programs. One is the shortage of professional personnel and the need for trained workers. Further, citizen participation is essential in order to gain the understanding and feel the responsibility to support the agencies which are dependent upon the lay public for their life-blood. Moreover, modern social work emphasizes the value of personal relationships in the helping process. Experience in the use of case-aides, paid or volunteer, is studied from a review of existing manuals and agency programs which are either currently or recently in practice In the welfare field in the United States and Canada. A canvass of the directors of selected casework agencies in Vancouver provides viewpoints and information for comparative use in the study. Current practices are summarized to suggest standards and opportunities for further development of this trend in social work. Both problems and values are outlined. It is the conclusion of the study that a well-formulated case-aide program can utilize the helpfulness of the volunteer without risk to the profession of social work. The success of the endeavor, however, is dependent upon careful selection, training and supervision of the case-aide, with detailed care in planning. Case-aides can not only supplement the work of the professional caseworker, but can extend the services of the agency, performing many tasks needed by the client but not appropriate for the professional. The crux of the situation is "job analysis” which will lead to systematic sharing of responsibilities with case-aides, paid or volunteer. In Vancouver, paid case-aides are being used to a limited extent. Volunteer case-aides are not being used as a part of a formulated program by agencies, singly or co-operatively. The need of the services is recognized by several directors and staff members but no programs have yet been inaugurated. Areas which might utilize such services include the aged, the handicapped, needy children, immigrants, chronically ill, mental patients, and clients and families of medical social service departments. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

"Relationship" is the term commonly but loosely used in social casework, to refer to the inter-action of personalities which occurs between the caseworker and the client in need of help. The exact constituents of "relationship", and the part which it plays in treatment, and in an improved adjustment, are as yet far from having been precisely determined. The present study examines a carefully chosen set of cases with the object of exploring the way to a more definitive analysis. To take account of the range of the problems encountered, the cases are grouped according to three degrees of difficulty. The assessment of the client's level of ability in relationship is approached through a series of six criteria: his concept of himself, his ability to see his own real feelings, his ways of coping with reality, his ability to endure frustration, the quality of his affect tone, and the pattern of his ways of responding to people. The essential background of each case is summarized. Each group of cases is then reviewed with special attention to differences in the clients' ways of responding to persons and situations, the attitudes and performance of the caseworker, the development of the case, and the elements in the client which either facilitate or retard growth in maturity and adaptation. The study reveals the emergence of patterns where the promise of relationship was good or limited or poor according to the extent that the basic needs of the individual had been met. It shows that the understanding and acceptance of the client by the caseworker enables the client to modify restricting attitudes, and to develop more constructive responses to situations. Where these attitudes do not prevail the caseworker cannot contribute to the growth process of the client. The study shows the need for greater precision in recording, in diagnosis, in the selection of treatment methods, and the ways in which the criteria can be used to help in these processes until measurement techniques become possible. Careful selection of applicants for social work, improved training for supervisors, smaller and more selective case loads, and a greater awareness on the part of agencies of the importance of relationship, are seen as the means of improving the effective use of relationship in treatment. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate