The literature has documented the disproportionate rate of HIV infection among women of color, mainly, African American women and Latinas. The current trend shows that the number of cases affecting these sub-populations will continue to increase. A gap exists in the literature in understanding the coping strategies of Mexican American women living with HIV. Using an ethnographic approach, this research answers the central question of how Mexican American women live with and make meaning of their HIV status. This researcher used a sample of 15 Mexican American women living with HIV who had participated in the Mujeres Unidas support group in San Antonio, Texas. The most common theme found was how the role of faith was central to their lives. It was clear that this belief served as their primary source of strength. The findings suggest the need for social workers to examine new paradigms, strategies, and interventions that focus on the broad social, economic, and community factors that put Mexican American women disproportionately at risk for HIV. These factors include poverty, income and wealth inequality, poor quality of life, racism, sexism, and low socioeconomic status, which are all major risk factors for ill health and health disparities. This research demands that social workers and other researchers examining coping skills address the issues of resiliency and strengths perspective in understanding the ways in which the life journey unfolds for Mexican American women living with HIV. Although, this study focused on Mexican American women, future research is needed to compare this group to other women living with HIV as there may be cultural differences that exist. Additional research is needed in studying the role that religion plays in the lives of Mexican American women living with HIV as many of the participants revealed that they left things up to “God’s will.” Among the unexpected findings, the theme of viewing their situation from the perspective of “Un dia a la vez” (One day at a time) suggests that the belief that the course of their lives is not necessarily under their control which could be related to fatalism (fatalism). / text

The overall objective of this study is to develop and evaluate a social group work empowerment programme which is aimed at alcohol dependent elderly people's needs and strengths. The thesis consists of four sections: Section A refers to the problem statement, research objectives and procedures which were followed. Furthermore the limitations of this study, the definition of key words as well as the composition of the research report are discussed. The problem statement can be condensed as follows: o Journals all over the world have been pleading for decades that alcohol dependent clients should be exposed to special developed treatment programmes. Opposed to this, it was found that treatment centres in South Africa use one programme for all their clients, irrespective of age. This entails an unfair and unjust service delivery model. From these findings a need for a specialized treatment programme for alcohol dependant clients was identified. o The strengths perspective has been successfully implemented in various service areas of social work. Unfortunately it has not yet been implemented in a controlled study with alcohol dependent elderly through group work services. The problem statement leads to four research aims. Developmental and Utilization Research (DR & U-model) was used as the overall research model. This model was implemented within a mixed methodological design model. Interviews and experimental research were used as quantitative approaches, although some qualitative data were also reported. A case study, as a qualitative approach, was also used. Literature studies were conducted on the themes of alcoholism, social group work, as well as the strengths perspective. Section B consists of the four articles that form the report about the research outcomes. Each article is a report about a particular sub-project of the research and each has, as a self-contained unit, an own research aim, research method and report. Each of these is linked with the central aim, objectives and content of the umbrella research project. The four articles are: Article 1: Profile of alcohol dependent elderly people A comprehensive profile of alcohol dependent elderly is drafted based on the results of interviews and case studies with 56 aged participants. Various strengths, such as a spouse, of alcohol dependent elderly were identified. On the other hand needs, such as effective communication skills, were also identified. Article 2: The nature and practice of a strengths perspective with alcohol dependent elderly people The history of the strengths perspective is outlined within a South African and international context. From the literature study as well as interviews with the aged participants (N=56) and social work practitioners (N=27) various strengths and qualities group work services with alcohol dependent elderly people. Opposed to this, it was found that although this perspective holds many advantages for the alcohol dependent elderly person, it is presently not practised at registered treatment centres in South Africa that were involved in this investigation. Advantages, disadvantages and principles of this perspective are also discussed. Article 3: A social group work empowerment programme with alcohol dependent elderly people A social group work empowerment programme was developed for alcohol dependent elderly, aimed at their special needs, strengths and challenges. The programme was developed in the spirit of empowerment, a strengths perspective, healing and wholeness, as well as music therapy. Thirteen group meetings, such as communication, conflict management, handling of mild depression, managing of loss, HIV/Aids and the aged person, as well as religion and spirituality in old age, were developed and presented to the client group. Special concerns for group work with the aged, such as to use a loud voice and to speak clearly, were identified from the literature and empirical research, and was taken into account during the programme presentation. Article 4: The effect of a social group work empowerment programme on the social functioning of alcohol dependent elderly people The programme was implemented with eight (N=8) aged participants in an experimental group. Eight (N=8) aged participants was in a comparative group and they received the current group work programme offered by the targeted treatment centre. The shortened Affectometer 2 (Kammann & Nett) and Personal Multi-Screening Inventory (Perspective College) were used as quantitative measuring tools at four occasions with both groups. Added to that, the experimental group completed a self-developed qualitative questionnaire once after intervention. According to the quantitative data neither the empowerment programme, nor the current group work programme improved the social function of the alcohol dependent elderly people The qualitative data showed exactly the opposite findings for the experimental group. In Section C a summary of the findings and conclusions of the full research project is provided. Furthermore some recommendations are provided, followed by a discussion on the contribution of the study. Section D consists of various addenda, such as the interview schedules that were used for data collection purposes. The thesis is concluded with a compound bibliography. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Social Work))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006

Thesis (Ph.D. (Social Work))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

<p>This research study employs a strengths perspective. This means that, instead of the traditional deficits or pathology-based approach of focusing on weaknesses, the focus is on positive outcomes. Fortitude, more specifically, is the strength gained from appraising oneself, one&rsquo / s family, and one&rsquo / s social support, in a positive manner. This strength equips people to cope successfully in stressful situations. Fortitude as a construct in the strengths perspective promises to give insight into student success because it takes more than one level of analysis into account. The current research study investigates whether there is a link between fortitude and academic achievement in first year students at the University of the Western Cape.</p>

<p>This research study employs a strengths perspective. This means that, instead of the traditional deficits or pathology-based approach of focusing on weaknesses, the focus is on positive outcomes. Fortitude, more specifically, is the strength gained from appraising oneself, one&rsquo / s family, and one&rsquo / s social support, in a positive manner. This strength equips people to cope successfully in stressful situations. Fortitude as a construct in the strengths perspective promises to give insight into student success because it takes more than one level of analysis into account. The current research study investigates whether there is a link between fortitude and academic achievement in first year students at the University of the Western Cape.</p>

The overall objective of this study is to develop and evaluate a social group work empowerment programme which is aimed at alcohol dependent elderly people's needs and strengths. The thesis consists of four sections: Section A refers to the problem statement, research objectives and procedures which were followed. Furthermore the limitations of this study, the definition of key words as well as the composition of the research report are discussed. The problem statement can be condensed as follows: o Journals all over the world have been pleading for decades that alcohol dependent clients should be exposed to special developed treatment programmes. Opposed to this, it was found that treatment centres in South Africa use one programme for all their clients, irrespective of age. This entails an unfair and unjust service delivery model. From these findings a need for a specialized treatment programme for alcohol dependant clients was identified. o The strengths perspective has been successfully implemented in various service areas of social work. Unfortunately it has not yet been implemented in a controlled study with alcohol dependent elderly through group work services. The problem statement leads to four research aims. Developmental and Utilization Research (DR & U-model) was used as the overall research model. This model was implemented within a mixed methodological design model. Interviews and experimental research were used as quantitative approaches, although some qualitative data were also reported. A case study, as a qualitative approach, was also used. Literature studies were conducted on the themes of alcoholism, social group work, as well as the strengths perspective. Section B consists of the four articles that form the report about the research outcomes. Each article is a report about a particular sub-project of the research and each has, as a self-contained unit, an own research aim, research method and report. Each of these is linked with the central aim, objectives and content of the umbrella research project. The four articles are: Article 1: Profile of alcohol dependent elderly people A comprehensive profile of alcohol dependent elderly is drafted based on the results of interviews and case studies with 56 aged participants. Various strengths, such as a spouse, of alcohol dependent elderly were identified. On the other hand needs, such as effective communication skills, were also identified. Article 2: The nature and practice of a strengths perspective with alcohol dependent elderly people The history of the strengths perspective is outlined within a South African and international context. From the literature study as well as interviews with the aged participants (N=56) and social work practitioners (N=27) various strengths and qualities group work services with alcohol dependent elderly people. Opposed to this, it was found that although this perspective holds many advantages for the alcohol dependent elderly person, it is presently not practised at registered treatment centres in South Africa that were involved in this investigation. Advantages, disadvantages and principles of this perspective are also discussed. Article 3: A social group work empowerment programme with alcohol dependent elderly people A social group work empowerment programme was developed for alcohol dependent elderly, aimed at their special needs, strengths and challenges. The programme was developed in the spirit of empowerment, a strengths perspective, healing and wholeness, as well as music therapy. Thirteen group meetings, such as communication, conflict management, handling of mild depression, managing of loss, HIV/Aids and the aged person, as well as religion and spirituality in old age, were developed and presented to the client group. Special concerns for group work with the aged, such as to use a loud voice and to speak clearly, were identified from the literature and empirical research, and was taken into account during the programme presentation. Article 4: The effect of a social group work empowerment programme on the social functioning of alcohol dependent elderly people The programme was implemented with eight (N=8) aged participants in an experimental group. Eight (N=8) aged participants was in a comparative group and they received the current group work programme offered by the targeted treatment centre. The shortened Affectometer 2 (Kammann & Nett) and Personal Multi-Screening Inventory (Perspective College) were used as quantitative measuring tools at four occasions with both groups. Added to that, the experimental group completed a self-developed qualitative questionnaire once after intervention. According to the quantitative data neither the empowerment programme, nor the current group work programme improved the social function of the alcohol dependent elderly people The qualitative data showed exactly the opposite findings for the experimental group. In Section C a summary of the findings and conclusions of the full research project is provided. Furthermore some recommendations are provided, followed by a discussion on the contribution of the study. Section D consists of various addenda, such as the interview schedules that were used for data collection purposes. The thesis is concluded with a compound bibliography. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Social Work))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / This research study employs a strengths perspective. This means that, instead of the traditional deficits or pathology-based approach of focusing on weaknesses, the focus is on positive outcomes. Fortitude, more specifically, is the strength gained from appraising oneself, one’s family, and one’s social support,in a positive manner. This strength equips people to cope successfully in stressful situations. Fortitude as a construct in the strengths perspective promises to give insight into student success because it takes more than one level of analysis into account. The current research study investigates whether there is a link between fortitude and academic achievement in first year students at the University of the Western Cape / South Africa

本研究旨在探討以優勢觀點為基礎之社會工作實施場域中，社會工作者與情感性精神疾病個案助人關係歷程、雙向復元因素與意涵，與不同組織政策與文化對雙向復元之影響，進一步形成實務場域中助人關係與雙向復元之建議與策略。 　　本研究運用質性研究深度訪談法與詮釋現象學觀點，採立意與滾雪球抽樣，使用半結構式訪談大綱與研究者於田野之互動與觀察，再現八名受訪者（五名優勢觀點社工、三位情感性精神疾病個案）之生活經驗，回歸現象本質綜觀與探討。 　　本研究主要發現如下： 一、情感性精神疾病的重新詮釋：社會工作者正視個案憂鬱或躁狂發作而產生生理、心理與社會的排除，將疾病常態化、普同化，並經由多面向的宏觀檢視以打破原本負面框架與預設立場，包含：1.給予自殺的生命解套—給予選擇與自我決定；2.賦予反覆訴說的意義—重新詮釋生命的機會。 二、歷經「隧道」、不斷攀升—助人關係發展之歷程：歸納優勢觀點社會工作者與情感性精神疾病個案發展助人關係之歷程，可分為想像期、建立期、考驗期、合作期與復元期五大階段，形塑「穿越生命隧道之旅」般的助人關係意象，並發現差序格局文化下的助人關係連續體之特色。 三、雙向復元的實質意涵：由個案「置身死地而後生」與社會工作者「從助人意義中回觀自我」的復元經驗中，歸納「雙向復元」之實質意義與內涵，是一種助人關係與個人內、外在情境三者交互作用而成的超越狀態與主體終極目標，影響成因包含個人、人際與環境三大層面和七個項目。 四、組織政策與文化對雙向復元之影響：不同組織政策與文化之對雙向復元具有實質之影響，分析受訪社會工作者所屬的機構內部可發現「考驗」與「支持」的態樣，後者不但創造充分的人際支持與成長環境，更能促進社會工作者的復元、提升個案服務品質與績效、穩定社工流動率。 依據上述研究發現，提出以下建議： 一、情感性精神疾病個案之助人關係策略：1.增強個體權能：擱置並轉化問題、充分尊重與信任、著力優勢與能力、累積成功經驗、創造選擇性。2.善用關係影響：借重家庭的影響力、保持助人關係中的接觸與等待、建立分享與互惠的彈性關係、善用權力落差形成改變。3.導入環境資源：地緣與文化的親近性、開放的會談地點與時間、連結資源與網絡合作。 二、正視雙向復元之目標：回歸自身被忽略的正向經驗，賦予生命及工作狀態之意義，個案或社會工作者復元的同時也使對方進一步昇華和復元，像漣漪效應般能擴及旁人，間接影響家庭與社會系統，啟動整體社會文化的善循環。 三、機構推動優勢觀點模式之建議：瞭解如何有效學習並運用優勢觀點模式、適度激勵並給予充分支持、提供合理的保障與實質誘因。 四、未來研究之建議：瞭解情感性精神疾病之特性並有所應變、具備接近田野之管道並增加研究對象的多元性、學習與受訪對象共創新的復元價值。 / The study aimed to explore the process, elements and meanings of mutual recovery for social workers and the clients with mood disorder, the organizational influences on the mutual recovery, and to propose strategies for mutual recovery for social workers. The methodology adopted in this study was hermeneutic phenomenology. Using purposive/ snowball sampling, the researcher interacted, observed, and in-depth interviewed the participants using a semi-structured interview guide. Though this process, the living experiences of the eight interviewees (five strengths-based social workers and three clients with mood disorder) were represented to reveal the nature of the phenomenon of mutual recovery. The major discoveries of this study include: 1.Re-definition of mood disorder: social workers could recognize the consequence of clients being seriously excluded from the society due to their depressive or manic episode; they helped the clients to normalize their disease, as well as to break their own negative assumptions toward the disorder. The tactics that they used were such as like：a) Providing relief to suicide–personal choice and self-determination, b) giving meaning to repetitive narratives– opportunity to redefine life. 2.“Tunnel” process, continuing to rise, the process of helping relationship: the process of strength-based social workers in developing relationship with clients with mood disorder could be categorized into five stages: imagination stage, development stage, challenge stage, cooperation stage, and recovery stage. Hence, the nature of helping relationship was like “going through the life tunnel” . The characteristics of such a relationship reflected the differential association continuum among Chinese culture. 3.Essential meaning of mutual recovery: For the clients, the recovery experiences were as if being brought back to life. For the social workers, they rediscovered of themselves in the meaning of assisting others. The real meaning and essence of mutual recovery could be summed up as the interaction of within a person, internal and external environment, and in turn further shaping the transcendental force to help acquire the life goal. Moreover, those goal were affected by personal, relational and environmental factors. 4.Organizational influences on mutual recovery: by analyzing the effects of organizational policies and cultures on mutual recovery, we found that “supportive surrounding” creates an environment which was better for the development of interpersonal relationship than an “challenging surrounding”. The former could help facilitate the recovery and performance of social workers, as well as decrease the turnover rate of social workers. Based on these findings, we propose: 1.Strategy for forming the helping relationship with clients with mood disorder: 1) empowering individual: letting go and transform problems into respect, trust, and focusing on advantages, capabilities, and successful experiences to create options. 2) Better utilizing the effects of interpersonal relationship: by using the influences from family, maintaining the contacts in interpersonal relationship, building mutual and flexible relationship, and using the power differentiation to facilitate changes. 3) Introducing resources from surrounding: an open location and timing that connect the clients/social workers with their surrounding and culture, and enabling the linkage of resources and networks. 2.Emphasizing mutual recovery: stressing the positive experiences that were over sighted previously and finding meaning to life and work status. The recovery of the clients and social workers will further influence their families and the whole social system, and create a benign cycle accordingly. 3.Suggestions for organizations in promoting the strength-based model: to learn the effective ways of learning and applying strengths-based models, giving adequate encouragement and support, and providing reasonable assurance and incentives. 4.Recommendations for future research: should understand the characteristics of mood disorder and know how to handle the situations, to expand the sources of participants, and to have the intention of creating the new meaning of recovery with participants.

Ugdymo ir socialinės integracijos garantijos sudaro sąlygas atskleisti ir plėtoti negalių turinčių vaikų ir suaugusių asmenų potencialą, turi svarbų vaidmenį asmens intelektinių, socialinių ir kt. gebėjimų raidai. Tačiau net ir įstatymiškai įteisintomis integracijos sąlygomis kai kurios negalių turinčių asmenų grupės patiria tam tikrų socializacijos problemų, susijusių tiek su nepalankiomis visuomenės nuostatomis, negalės stereotipais, tiek ir su neįgaliųjų elgsenos ypatingumais. / Scientific problem in the dissertation research is specified according to the following problem questions: How do the strategies for social skills’ education, which are oriented towards the strengths of a pupil and the system of interactions among education participants, function in the educational practice? What particularities of the application of social skills’ strategies (pupil’s strengths and education participants’ system) do the experience of education participants reveal? What positive and problem aspects of the interaction among education participants do the education in the system child-family-school highlights.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka huruvida professionella med koppling till LSS-verksamheter inom Eskilstuna kommun upplever vuxna med högfungerande autism som socialt isolerade, vilka bakomliggande faktorer de professionella anser orsaka social isolering samt hur de arbetar för att bemöta detta. Omfattningen av forskning som finns om social isolering hos vuxna med högfungerande autism är liten. Den forskning som finns tyder på att personer inom autismspektrumet ofta upplever begränsningar i sina sociala förmågor, vilket bidrar till svårigheter i sociala interaktioner samt bibehållandet av relationer. Dessa svårigheter kan leda till ett undandragande beteende som kan resultera i social isolering. För att besvara syfte och frågeställningar har semistrukturerade intervjuer med professionella från olika LSS-verksamheter utförts. Analys av det insamlade materialet har skett utifrån Honneths teori om erkännande samt Saleebeys styrkefoukserade förhållningsätt till socialt arbete. Resultatet visar i huvudsak på att de professionella upplever att social isolering är ett förekommande fenomen inom målgruppen där de bakomliggande faktorerna anses vara erfarenhet av misslyckanden i sociala interaktioner, social ångest samt stigmatisering av personer med funktionsnedsättningar. Resultatet tyder på att de professionella arbetar med att individanpassa insatserna efter den enskildes behov för att kunna kompensera för dennes svårigheter. / The purpose of this study is to investigate whether professionals from Eskilstuna municipality who work with people with disabilities perceive adults with high-functioning autism as socially isolated, what underlying factors the professionals consider causing social isolation and how they work towards meeting the individuals need for support. The research available on social isolation in adults with high-functioning autism is limited. The available research indicates that people with autism often experience limitations in their social abilities, which contributes to difficulties in social interactions and relationships. These difficulties can contribute to evasive behavior that can result in social isolation. In order to answer the purpose, semi-structured interviews with professionals from various occupations within social work were conducted. Analysis of the collected material has been based on Honneth's theory of recognition and Saleebey's strengths perspective. The results mainly show that the professionals experience social isolation as a common phenomenon within the target group where the underlying factors are considered to beexperience of failures in social interactions, social anxiety and stigmatization of people with disabilities. The results indicate that professionals work to adapt the environment to support the individual's needs in order to be able to compensate for their difficulties.