Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / This study was made to analyze the function of the "Child Welfare Worker," who is the first caseworker in the history of social work in Japan. It is traditional for our historians in this field to describe Japanese social work practice as starting to modernize itself on a systematic scientific basis about three decadee ago, particularly during the past decade with the rise of socialism. However, we have never had caseworkers using a well-recognized social work technique before. All books and articles in magazines concerning social work were concerned with social service institutions but no, or at best casual, attention was paid to the skills of the workers who were working with their clients in connection with these institutions. This new Child Welfare Program that currently is focusing upon the metrhod, skills and techniques of the case worker is something unique, unheard of and unknowm to our traditional social work practice, even more so to the people in the community. But it seems to be growing rapidly and is receiving increased attention both from the social work profession and from the community. This study is being made to examine this new setting in the perspective of its past, present and future through a conscious and critical analysis of twenty cases carried by these new case workers.

M.A. (Social Work) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.A. (Social Work) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.A. (Social Work) / The workplace, as an arena for social work practice, demands a paradigm of service delivery, addressing needs on both a micro and macro level. The social worker is in the ideal position to facilitate organization development by addressing individual and environmental issues. Social workers are however trained in generic social work practice and therefore do not necessarily posses the required skills to work on a macro level Within the workplace. A training programme to train social workers in organization development therefore needed to be developed. During the literature study it was found that the ecological perspective provides a useful theoretical framework when bringing about organizational development in social work practice. Due to the dual focus. on the person and environment, the ecological perspective as discussed in chapter two, serves as the basis for a programme in organizational development. An overview of organization development, as intervention strategy, is given in chapter three. The functions, characteristics and underlying values are discussed, and the development process is positioned within the ecological perspective. The final chapter of the literature study focuses on an organization development programme, suitable for the social work practitioner within the workplace. The training model is described in chapter five and chapter six offers an overview of the research methodology used. An integrated developmental research model serves as methodology whereby this research is conducted. The training model is designed and a pilot test conducted to determine the social worker's attitude towards this intervention strategy in organizational development. The analysis of research data (See chapter 7) obtained from administering the questionnaires showed that social workers (westem Province Command, South African National Defence Force) found in-service training for social workers practising within the workplace as a necessity. Proper contextualisation of individual problems is essential to address issues on macro level. The final chapter deals with specific conclusions and recommendations regarding in-service training of social workers wtthtn the workplace. The value of a macro orientation to social work practice inthe workplace was found necessary for effective service delivery.

M.A. (Social Science) / The work environment in which social workers are fulfilling their duties are today demanding more and more of them. These demands are different from those demands of other professions and is the result of the distinctiveness of the helping professions. Social workers boast that they are because of their work situation always in a state of emotional exhaustion. To this the literature refers as the burnout syndrome. Articles and research reports on the topic of burnout appeared in the past on a regular basis and are new articles and reports published regularly. A research study was undertaken to determine what the extent of burnout is in social workers and to determine if there are reason for the widespread claims that they are victims of the burnout syndrome. The aim was also to determine those factors that are involved in causing burnout. A literature study were undertaken with the aim to describe the burnout syndrome. The literature showed that burnout is a syndrome characteristic of the helping professions. The literature also describes specific elements by which burnout could be recognised. It further gave some indications of those factors that are instrumental in the development of burnout. A sample were selected, a questionnaire compiled and distributed with the aim to collect information on the appearance of burnout. The results of the study showed different results. The most important result that was established was the lack of high levels of burnout in the sample. Only a small percentage of the respondents displayed high levels of burnout. The results also indicated that work dissatisfaction, a lack of autonomy, role problems (role conflict and role ambuguity) related to high levels of burnout. A sample were selected, a questionnaire compiled and distributed with the aim to collect information on the appearance of burnout. The results of the study showed different results. The most important result that was established was the lack of high levels of burnout in the sample. Only a small percentage of the respondents displayed high levels of burnout. The results also indicated that workdissatisfaction, a lack of autonomy, role problems (role conflict and roleambuguity) related to high levels of burnout in respondents. The results of the study led to certain recommendations concerning the prevention of burnout in social workers.

M.A. / Many countries have shown dissatisfaction and frustration with the formal punitive justice system. There is a resurging interest in preserving and strengthening traditional and customary justice practices, which has led to an outcry for alternative responses to crime and for social order. This requires the involvement of all parties, including the victim, offender and community, in participating and resolving conflict and addressing its consequences. This study addressed the following question: What are the roles, functions and competencies that social workers require in restorative justice? A review of the literature compared the different justice theories and, ultimately, restorative justice. Restorative justice, as a growing movement, aims to change the direction of criminal law by focusing on the needs of victims and repairing harms to the communities. The victim is afforded an opportunity in court as well as outside the court by actively participating in the outcome of the sentence of the offender. The offender, on the other hand, is directly confronted with the responsibility for the wrong and is more likely to do something positive for the victim. The community‟s susceptible, healing approach offers a new way of dealing with crime. Restorative justice programmes are, in some instances, based on local decision-making and community-building. This attitude promotes and encourages a peaceful expression of conflict, tolerance and inclusiveness which builds respect for diversity and enhances responsible community practices.

In most modern communities, a large array of health services and welfare services are at least potentially available to all. Whether any individual or family receives a co-ordinated balanced welfare service, however, depends on many factors, including the extent to which two "helping professions", social work (as represented by social workers employed in various agencies) and medicine (as represented by general practitioners) know of each other's services and actually work together. The present study is a preliminary survey of the situation. As background, the impact of industrialization and urbanization on the development and contemporary roles of medicine and social work is reviewed. Information for this qualitative study was obtained through questionnaires submitted to sample groups of doctors and social workers. The purpose of the questionnaires was to gain some definition of the concept of "reciprocal awareness and utilization". In each case, the attempt was made to evaluate the knowledge one profession had of the other's role and function, and the extent to which this knowledge was used for the benefit of the population they served. In addition, directors of three key agencies were interviewed to determine their views on the role of the agency in furthering reciprocal awareness and utilization. The findings of the study indicate that a fairly typical situation is that the doctor's awareness of the social worker's role and function is limited and outdated. Social workers, in general, are more aware of the doctor's role and function, but on the other hand, their expectations are somewhat high and perhaps unrealistic. As indicated by the test of referral patterns, the utilization of each other's resources is minimal. The doctor's utilization of social work skills and resources is hampered by two facts: (a) patients have mixed feelings about being referred, and (b) doctors believe that agency policy and procedure is ineffective and frustrating. There is evidence that besides not recognizing a modern social worker's role and function, general practitioners appear to underestimate social and emotional factors in illness. Reciprocity, the main concept evaluated in this study, is minimal. Both doctors and social workers recognized that there are gains to be realized from more co-operation and some methods are recommended; but the low degree of reciprocal awareness and utilization existing between doctors and social workers must be tackled by recognizing that rather than lack of communication, faulty and hostile communication is the issue. This does not necessarily apply to medicine and social work in institutional settings and this difference demands further exploration. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study developed from results obtained in a recent MSW thesis entitled, "Utilization of Manpower at Children’s Aid Society of Vancouver, B.C." by Adams, et. al. (U.B.C. School of Social Work, 1967). In the main, our assignment was to select and rank a wide range of tasks performed by agency staff in the field of child welfare. Using the Adams et. al. recommendation regarding "worker autonomy," we selected a panel of fifteen judges representing the three levels of employment - administrative, supervisory, and line worker, developed an adequate method of judging, and analysed the data. The Adams, et. al. study proved useful in our inquiry in providing clues to the various personal assignments we had set for our project group. The entire project covered a period of less than three months and because of this comparatively short research period, we resorted to simplified techniques of judging. We found a high percentage of agreement among the judges. This not only indicates that the tasks can be differentiated by social workers in the field of child welfare but also that the "forced choice" phase of the judging probably does not adversely affect reliability. Further, we suggested in the Adam's study, it would appear that "worker autonomy” can usefully be used as a criterion in ranking tasks in a child welfare agency. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Due to the emotional draining and potentially stressful nature of social work practice, the availability of social work supervision becomes desirable and necessary. Supervision has to be implemented continuously in order to render an effective and sufficient service to clients, families and communities. Social work supervisors have very important and necessary roles to play in the professional development of social workers and the effective functioning of the social services organisations in which they are employed. Additional to the responsibility pertaining to the social workers, supervisors are middle managers and thus have specific management responsibilities as well. The result is that the supervisor has to implement both supervision and management functions. Supervisors function under stress that is enforced by expectations from social workers and senior management. Social workers do have formal channels of feedback and support in the supervisors that provide opportunities for commendation. Supervisors have no such formally assigned sources of feedback or support. There is little recognition for their accomplishments and little or no support when they encounter problems. The problem is that the lack or absence of support and support systems for social work supervisors has a negative influence on their supervisory and managerial services to social workers. The supervisory and managerial expectations were identified as prove of the demands placed on supervisors as well as the work-related stress that they are subjected to. A few management strategies have been identified as possible support systems for supervisors in the management of supervisees. Support systems that were identified and discussed are employee benefits, employee incentives, job description, knowledge of the budget and financial controls, employee assistance program, supervisors’ peer support group, career planning, organizational culture, organizational climate and the immediate superior. The empirical research was done through the quantitative research technique and a mailed questionnaire as data gathering method. The social work supervisors of the Department of Welfare were the research population and the participating provinces were Mpumalanga, Free State and Eastern Cape. The data received through the questionnaires supported the indication that supervisors do not receive support in the execution of their responsibilities. It was confirmed that the identified support systems, if utilised and applied effectively, could provide supervisors with support. The empirical research and the literature study have confirmed the following research statements: 1. Insufficient support systems are available to supervisors in the social work profession. 2. The available support systems for social work supervisors are inadequately administered and utilised . 3. Due to the inadequate utilisation of support systems, supervisors experience lack of support resulting in neglected supervisory and managerial practice. Relevant data from the questionnaires and the literature study formed the basis for the development of guidelines for application of the support systems. It is recommended that these guidelines be implemented for the support systems to be effectively utilised and applied. / Thesis (DPhil (Social Work))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

A qualitative examination of the lived experiences of clinical social workers’ use of self in practice was completed. The current study was designed to examine how LCSWs defined and utilized use of self in practice. Additionally, the study was focused on how LCSWs’ use of self evolved from introduction in graduate education to postgraduate practice. Informed by Mead’s (1934) theory of self, as well as Walters’ (2008) distilled definition of Dewane’s (2006) operational definition of use of self, fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted from a purposive sample of licensed clinical social workers from a southeastern region of the United States. Using constant comparative analysis to synthesize the findings, two themes emerged. First, participants described individual development of the use of self as clarified by subthemes of educational instruction and application in practice. Second, participants discussed how they integrated the use of self in practice, clarified by personal and professional factors of Dewane’s definition, such as personality traits and skills gained in social work education. With this study, the researcher aimed to contribute to the practice literature by systematically examining the operational definition of the use of self and to suggest implications to inform educational curricula and practice standards for professional development. Study limitations were discussed, in addition to implications for future research. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection