Abstract
This issue covers a multitude of countries and groups. Each article poses important questions for educators, practitioners and policymakers. Despite such methodological diversity, a common concern shared by all authors in this issue is how social workers can promote social justice and challenge social exclusion and oppression.
In the first article Julie Drolet, Richard Enns, Linda Kreitzer, Janki Shankar and Anne-Marie McLaughlin explore the social work resettlement practice experience of Social Justice Matters. In their study they focus on on a Syrian refugee family in Canada. The Syrian conflict and war has contributed to the largest refugee crisis in recent history. Private sponsorship options, grassroots activities, and the role of social work in resettlement are discussed. This article concludes with a call to action for social workers to strengthen their support and involvement in the resettlement of refugees.
Yang-Tzu Li, Yue-Chune Lee, Ming-Sum Tsui and Michael Chui-Man Pak, in the next article, focus on social support for middle-age and elderly adults in Taiwan. Similar to other countries, the proportion of elderly citizens in Taiwan living with their children is declining, due to a reduced intention and ability to take care of elderly parents. The social life of elderly people is a dynamic continuum, in which their social support is correlated with social networks and social participation. Longitudinal data were used for latent growth curve modelling to estimate changes in social support for the subjects over time. The findings will be presented, followed by a discussion. The article provides recommendations for service, research, and limitations of the study.
Critical deliberations with regard to health and social care integration for social work with older people is the focus of the next article, authored by Malcolm Carey. This study questions ongoing moves towards integration into health care for social work with older people in the United Kingdom. While potentially constructing clearer pathways to support, integration risks reducing welfare provisions for a traditional low priority user group, while further extending the principles of privatisation. Integration models also understate the ideological impact of biomedical perspectives within health and social care domains, conflate roles and undermine the potential positive role of ‘holistic’ multi-agency care. Constructive social work for older people is likely to further dilute within aggressive integrated models of welfare, which will be detrimental for meeting many of the complex needs of ageing populations.
In the next article, Min-jung Kim, Min-joo Kim, Jyung-soo Kim and Joon-ho Kim assess and propose a protection and resettlement support act for North Korean defectors. The purpose of this study is to critically examine how North Korean defectors adapt to South Korean society and how the South Korean government institutes policies to support their settlement in the perspective of social integration. In particular, economic and psychological support by the South Korean government are analyzed among the current resettlement support policies. The aim of this study is also to suggest proper remedial actions for North Korean defectors based on empirical research on the actual conditions of North Korean defectors in South Korea.
Jiska Cohen-Mansfield, Rotem Perach, Tali Kadmon Stern, Shulamith Albeck, Dror Rotem, Tamara Lynn Arnow and Yaffa Lerman discuss the very timely issue of information needs, quality of service, and insights in the use of technology an aging-focused telephone hotline.
The most common topic of inquiry was care, followed by referrals for institutional placement and financial queries. Advice from hotline professionals was reported to be useful and helpful.
Yet the issue of the query was not resolved in half of the cases. Some queries may be addressed by enhancing hotline procedures, but others reflect general unmet needs that require wider systematic social changes in the information, system, and financial domains. Analysis of hotline calls can be useful for identifying areas, both for improvement for the hotline and for society.
In the next article, Gurid Aga Askeland, Elsa Døhlie and Kjersti Grosvold explore the transformation of learning experiences in international field placement into sustainable social work knowledge for future practice. The authors used focus group interviews and analysed international experiences in light of domestic ones. Some of the conclusions of the study focus on the fact that students’ learning process from experience to theory and from theoretical knowledge to practice would benefit from following a transformation of knowledge cycle through the study programme.
Lester James Thompson and David Alastair Wadley explore applications of relationist ethics in social work. The authors suggest that although ethics continue to underpin the discipline, contemporary complexities of postmodernism, globalism and managerialism are destabilising the universalist moral intentions of practice and subsequently demotivating eudaimonic drives. Cultural and context-specific relativist influences are promoting an ethics of ‘fitting in’ which, without critical analysis, betrays client best interests by favouring formulaic absolutes. Alternative, relationist theory can support a critically reflective and care-ethics-driven practice that is motivating, clearer and focused on ontological consideration of dynamic client, practitioner and environmental needs. It can thus help social workers to situate themselves and achieve personal and professional transformation.
In the final article of this issue Petri Virtanen, Ilpo Laitinen and Jari Stenvall discuss street-level bureaucrats as strategy shapers in social and health service delivery. The empirical evidence underpinning this study was drawn from six countries. The authors argue that there are multiple realities in terms of the construction of public services and they approach the question by deploying Lipsky’s notion on SLBs by empirically analysing middle managers’ views on how SLBs act and their role in this construction process. Findings suggest that SLBs have three different kinds of strategies in the construction process: policymaking, working practices, and professionalism.