Abstract
There is a saying which goes “travel broadens the mind.” This is certainly true in my circumstances and conditions, and I have imagined this is true for many social work researchers, educators, and practitioners interested in Research on Social Work Practice who travel to another country (Kraayenoord, 1999). The opportunity to attend conferences and visit universities, schools, and centers in other countries enables one to reexamine social welfare policies and social work practice in one’s own country and to learn about new issues and debates (Megahead, 2012, 2015a, 2015b).
I have had an opportunity to broaden my mind through numerous visits to a number of different European states, such as the Netherlands, England, and Northern Ireland. Some of the topics of conversations and issues of debate with which I have engaged in and became aware of on my several trips are also represented in this special section of Research on Social Work Practice. Other topics that have appeared in this special section I have engaged in by virtue of being the guest editor of this special section.
As an international journal, it is quite possible to “travel” in this special section entitled Research on Social Work Practice in Egypt and the Arab World to Egypt, the Arab world, Turkey, and Australia. The first article by the guest editor, Hamido A. Megahead, deals with Research on Social Work Practice in Egypt and the Arab world. This specific topic has been discussed in terms of doctoral dissertation and other research themes. It is in fact not only a formal discourse of writing but a distinctive form of designing research in Egypt and the Arab world. A detailed mapping of the features of social work research in Egypt and the Arab world has been also offered.
Two other articles are concerned with psychosocial assessment tools. The significance of assessment is specified in two axioms of treatment (Hudson, 1978). The first axiom asserted that if social work practitioners cannot measure the client’s problems of social and/or interpersonal significance, they do not exist. The second axiom stated that if social work practitioners cannot measure the client’s problem of social and/or interpersonal significance, then they cannot treat it. Also the significance of assessment is specified in two additional axioms of development. The first axiom referred that if the social work practitioners cannot measure the client’s lack of specific skills, positive behavior, and/or resources, it does not exist. The second axiom mentioned that if social work practitioners cannot measure the client’s specific skills, positive behavior, and/or resources, then they cannot develop and create it. A great deal of adapted Arabic versions of English-language objective psychosocial assessment tools in Egypt and the Arab world have been published
For measuring the client’s problem of social and/or interpersonal significance, there have been identified three scales; namely, the Arabic version of the Depressive Cognition Scale for Egyptian adolescents (Bekhet & Zauszniewski, 2010), the Arabic version of the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) for pregnant women (Chaaya, Osman, Naassan, & Mahfoud, 2010), and the Arabic version of the Composite Abuse Scale for use with Saudi women (Alhabib, Feder1, & Horwood, 2013). For measuring the client’s specific skills, positive behavior, and/or resources, there have been identified four other scales, namely, the Arabic version of the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory for adolescents and youth (Ibrahim, 2016), the Arabic State Self-Esteem and Satisfaction With Life Scales regarding Emirates’ married persons (Al-Darmaki et al., 2015), the Arabic version of the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale for Lebanese women (Charafeddine, Tamim, Soubra, De la Mora, Nabulsi, 2016), and the Arabic version of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (Khalil, 2011). For the current special section, two scales have been included. Ozmete and Megahead, screening for elder abuse among Turkish older people: validity of the Hwalek–Sengstock Elder Abuse Screening Test (H-S “East”), and Moussa et al. psychometric properties of an Arabic version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. These two adopted scales are interesting. The first scale could be useful application and tool within the elderly person’s families (Dogan & Deger, 2004), nursing homes, and residential long-term care facilities (Saka & Varol, 2007). The second scale is urgently needed in the context of the massive waves of refugees since the Second World War. Arab refugees are currently and continuously fleeing to the Western world. As this Foreword is being written, Arab, Christian and Muslim refugees from Iraq (e.g., Mosul), Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, and Somalia are using very unsafe boats to cross Mediterranean Sea to Europe and to the other Western countries (Robinson, 2016). This tool could be used in the process of rehabilitating these refugees.
Additionally, the three other reported articles are concerned with social work intervention. Fortune (1999) indicated that the practice in the real world is the raison d’etre of social work, and the purpose of social work is to pursue intervention. Social work practitioners do not stop after studying a phenomenon, they are always doing something about it in terms of preventing ill-health, changing policy, influencing organizations, assisting families, or/and teaching persons coping skills. Therefore, social work researchers need to be the same as social work practitioners and NOT to stop with ONLY studying the phenomenon (exploratory and descriptive research), they do need to conduct intervention research. For the current special section, three intervention research studies have been included: Duyan et al. on the effects of group work with institutionalized elderly persons, Altınova et al. on the impact of the human rights education program for women on gender perceptions of social work students, and Serpen et al. on using movies to change homophobic attitudes of social work students. In these three articles, social work researchers did not stop with only studying residential older people (e.g., Sinunu, Yount, & El-Afify, 2009), the gender perceptions of social work students, and the negative attitudes of social work students toward gays and lesbians. However, they all have been attempting to do something about these issues in terms of alleviating the personal and social problems of older people in this residential care (Winningham & Pike, 2007), to positively change the gender perceptions of social work students, and also to positively change negative attitudes of social work students toward gays and lesbians people.
A thorough reading of any or all of the articles in this special section of RSWP will certainly set you to thinking about the article’s contents in regarding to your own work or your own country. The different cultures, the different ways in which different aspects of social problems are approached, give the social work practitioners, researchers, and educators new insights into practical solutions for the social problems in their own settings (Catterall, 1977; Megahead, 2015a, 2015b). Your reading also introduces you to new ideas and challenges. You can do so without having to have a passport, immigration visa, injections, or even foreign currency. This is a wonderful way to broaden the mind (Kraayenoord, 1999).
I would like to take this opportunity to thank colleagues who have helped to peer-review process for the articles submitted for possible inclusion in this special section. I am unable to mention their name as it was blind peer-review process.