International Social Work

Demographic ageing implies increased care needs, in which social workers play a key role. However, knowledge about their practice is limited and fragmented. This mixed-methods systematic review integrates evidence from 19 studies published between 2000 and 2022 on the roles of long-term care social workers in Europe and North America. The findings reveal that service and case management, direct support, personalisation of care and community engagement are leading roles. Limitations with implications for practice are also detected, such as lack of specialisation, paperwork burden, and work overload, which should be overcome to maximise social work’s contribution to care quality.

The relationship between burnout and telework was analysed to find out how COVID-19 affected the emotional state of social workers who teleworked during the pandemic, and to analyse the risk of burnout in the field of social services. The fieldwork was conducted on a self-selected sample of 395 social workers in Spain in 2021. The results show a lower risk related to negligent treatment and a high resilience of professionals. The findings highlight the role of social work and the need to organise social services to guarantee the quality of this service without overburdening its professionals.

This article explores the experiences of pregnant migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, focusing on their coping approaches and negotiation of reproductive rights. While some faced structural vulnerabilities and remained passive, others transitioned from passivity to assertiveness in negotiating their rights. It emphasizes the ethical obligation of social workers to address disparities in international standards, labour laws, professional commitments, and actual service provision. The study reveals the complex challenges faced by pregnant migrant domestic workers that surpass mere informational or structural limitations. Recommendations are provided to bridge the service gap, guided by social justice and a rights-based framework.

To address the decline in US refugee admissions, the Biden Administration launched ‘Welcome Corps’, a program that encourages Americans to welcome refugees arriving through the US Refugee Admissions Program. This article includes a historical overview of private sponsorship models in the United States and globally. In addition to an overview of the initiative, potential benefits include more US citizens to sponsor refugees and family sponsorships. Potential challenges include resettlement workers feeling overwhelmed with program oversight and a decline in government aid. Recommendations focus on ways to make Welcome Corps more efficient for policymakers, social workers, and community advocates.

This exploratory study examines the impact of fly-in fly-out (FIFO) and the difficulties facing male workers. The results are based on data gathered through a semi-structured interview guide from 22 men working in the FIFO mining sector. The participants’ comments show that certain factors stemming from family and couple dynamics influence workers’ perception of their work/family balance. This study shows that FIFO workers are confronted with realities that, when they ask for help, require the worker to have specific knowledge of this lifestyle.

This study examines the sex-specific impact of marital trajectories among older adults on successful aging to help social workers identify those most at risk for sub-optimal outcomes who may benefit from targeted interventions. Binary logistic regression analyses were used to investigate 7641 older Canadians who were classified as ‘aging successfully’ in the baseline wave of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Men who were continuously married, continuously widowed, or became married between the waves were more likely to age successfully than their never-married counterparts. For women, marital trajectories played a modest role. Social work interventions are discussed.

This study explores improvements in psychological resilience among rural left-behind children in China through social services provided by social organisations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with leaders and social workers from 15 social organisations. The results revealed that left-behind children’s academic adaptation improved significantly. However, there were cases of failure to enhance physiological and psychological adaptation. This study provides guidelines for policymakers to formulate targeted support policies, for social organisations to assess their service quality and for service providers to change their role to collaborators, thereby jointly helping rural left-behind children improve their psychological resilience.

Despite its three-decade history, social work lacks professional status in Nepal. Drawing on authors’ own critical reflection, this article documents strategies to advance social work’s professional status through a process of social legitimation. Following a brief discussion of social work in Nepal, it reports on issues pertinent to, and efforts, thus far, to professionalise social work noting strategies to advance professional identity, status and recognition in Nepal.

Research has identified challenges associated with the implementation of competency-based social work field education in Vietnam. However, there is limited information available from intern supervisors, who have unique perspectives at the crux of social work training and service delivery. An exploratory phenomenological qualitative approach was used to explore their experiences and perceptions through online interviews. Four categories were identified: diverse implementation of a common framework, rudimentary expectations and activities, challenges to implementation, and opportunities for improvement. These findings suggest that a multidimensional approach is needed, including improved collaborations between field agencies and universities to empower students, intern supervisors, and faculty.

This study investigates the perceptions of early-career social workers on their academic preparation for their social work employment in the context of the challenging road and ambitious comeback of social work in post-communist Romania. Results showed respondents felt ill-prepared in their transition from education to their employment and received limited resources from employers to support the application of knowledge and skills learnt at university to the realities of daily professional practice. A multi-pronged approach is needed to educate new social workers at both university and employer levels with the goal of providing quality social services to clients and their families.

Studies done before tend to amplify the role of institutions in improving the welfare of individuals and families. Few studies interrogate the role of beneficiaries in micro-social work interventions. Using NGOs’ interventions as a case study, beneficiaries are going the extra mile to reap maximum benefits, and some of their actions are organic, spontaneous and context-specific and are not influenced by NGOs themselves. The findings deepen community practice by appreciating that NGOs’ beneficiaries can organise for social action in pursuit of household welfare. There are better outcomes when micro-social work builds on the potential of clients.

Hosted internally displaced persons become ‘invisible’, leaving them unable to immediately access incoming aid and to be assisted through social work services. Social welfare policy must enhance the intervention paradigm in ways that disseminate social work efforts to entire displaced populations, ensuring that the invisible ones are not left behind.

This article explores the roles of social workers in advancing LGBTQ+ inclusive mental healthcare in Southeast Asia. This role aligns with the global nature of the social work profession and several regional and national ethical frameworks and principles for social workers in Southeast Asia, emphasizing core values such as dignity, human rights, and social justice. Highlighting mental health disparities and social adversities faced by LGBTQ+ in the region, social workers can adopt a framework encompassing cultural competency, community support, advocacy, and research to improve the mental health outcomes of this marginalized population.

Smoking remains one of the biggest health issues worldwide. Although social work is supposed to enhance well-being and therefore address smoking, it has been criticized as passive in its stance. In this article, we present tobacco harm reduction as a strategy that can help social work deal with smoking.