Socialinis darbas. Patirtis ir metodai / Social Work. Experience and Methods 2008, nr. 2(2)

The objects of the research are power relations between victims of trafficking and physicians, and the importance of the role of a social worker in these relations. Even though sexual, physical and psychological problems of victims’ health are defined as one of the most distressing consequences of women trafficking, the question of medical care of these women has been still lile studied. Limited attitude towards health care, the fear of physical and psychological violence in a physician room and complicated accessibility of health care raise the importance of a social worker. Thus the research is aimed at defining the roles of a social worker in the process of health care of victims of women trafficking.The qualitative method has been applied in this research. Two physicians, two clients of the project of Lithuanian Caritas program “Aid to the victims of trafficking and prostitution” and the social worker of this project have been questioned by a semi-structured interview. The data analysis has been made according to fenomenographic and content analysis data approaches. The results of the research indicate that the process of victims of women trafficking health care is impossible without a direct participation of a social worker. According to the strategy of empowering as well as the participants of the research, despite traditional roles of a social worker as broker and advocate, the supporting role of a social worker has been noticed.The research has been also aimed at exploring the relations between physicians and women who were trafficked. Even though a consultative physician – patient relation model predominates, the interviews have revealed that the physicians have all the power. This is determined by their Professional knowledge, experience, power in decision making, and the social status of a physician.As the results of the analysis show, informal collaboration between aid programs and medical institutions raises a lot of misunderstandings. The interviewees emphasized not only the lack of collaboration, but the tendency to control. According to the participants of the research, the collaboration should be improved by changing the aitude of physicians towards victims of women trafficking, also by making changes in health care policy carried out by the government.According to the results of the research conclusions have been made and recommendations for the aid programs, physicians and social policy formers have been given.

This article focuses on a hidden and rarely discussed present-day phenomenon – women violence against men, which is analyzed on the aspects of men experience. Women violence against men is hidden under the stereotypical roles attributed to each sex and under the feeling of embarrassment felt by men as well as fear of being neglected by the members of society if talking out loud about the relevant issue. The experience of men having suffered women violence is exposed via a qualitative research by combining content analysis and open coding of grounded theory. With the help of content analysis men experience was revealed through categories while grounded theory allowed name them by the words uttered by men. Five men having experienced women violence were questioned by a semi-structured interview. As a result of the analysis, it turned out that men describe women violence as a sensitive and unwillingly publicized detail of their lives. Men tend to minimize women violence by not attaching significance thereto despite of the fact that it has caused them negative feelings. Those men, who have experienced physical, psychological and sexual violence on behalf of women, perceive it as the consequence of women’s desire to dominate in inter-relations, resulting in the expression of disability and negative emotions as well as striving to protect oneselves against the unpleasing man’s behavior. Due to the hegemonic norms of manhood, existing within the society, but failed to accomplish by men, divorce and decreased men’s self-esteem are the main consequences of women violence, that have influence on further life of men. Nonviolent possibilities for solving conflicts and couple issues are associated with greater tolerance towards each other and the development of help services for men, bearing in mind that violence generally is the problem of a human being not only a problem of a certain sex.

By having analyzed scientific research executed and articles published it has become clear that the number of girls suffering from Anorexia Nervosa is rapidly increasing within the society. This fact substantiates the relevance and significance of the topic analyzed in this work. Numerous empirical analyses have been carried out in research of Anorexia Nervosa, however, the type of research that would reveal a social network of girls suffering from Anorexia Nervosa has not been detected. Therefore the goal of the work is to reveal the aspects of social network of girls suffering from Anorexia Nervosa. By implementing the objectives raised for the research, social network aspects are exposed by analyzing its schemes created by the girls, nature of relationships as well as functions of the network members. In order to disclose the aspects of a social network of girls suffering from Anorexia Nervosa, a qualitative analysis has been carried out. Five girls suffering from the illness took part in the research. Each girl was interviewed once. Before the interview the participants of the research drew their own schemes of social networks applying Rousseau’s (1985) network scheme. The outcomes of the research were analyzed according to the method of themes analysis. In the process of analyzing the outcome of the research, the network structure was revealed by exploring the schemes drawn by the girls, meanwhile the relationships and functions of the network members were developed by construing the data obtained during the interviews. It turned out that a solid social network does not guarantee the quality of social support provided since that does not prevent a girl from feeling lonely, unappreciated and unheard. Relationships with the primary social network, which includes family members, friends and co-workers, are. the most important for a girl.[...].

In this article the nongovernmental organization is named as the closest environment to the individual returning from imprisonment institution and this environment helps them to integrate into the society. In social work most of the services are based by human relationships quality. L. C. Johnson (2003) points the importance of the relationships between the client and social worker. The relationships motivate to solve the problem and to accept the help, give the feeling of safety. The aim of this article is to highlight the importance of the relationship between the social worker and the client in the intervention process. The research showed that in nongovernmental organization the relationship with social worker becomes the base of client’s thinking, self-evaluation and emotional changes, and helps to sustain these changes in such way promoting the integration of individuals returning from imprisonment institutions. The social worker through the acceptance, exaltation of human value, support increases the client’s self-evaluation, motivation and develops internal client’s resources which help to grow as personality and integrate themselves to the society.

Institution of a family is in the process of transformation: more people live in an open cohabitation, the birth rate is decreasing, and the number of divorces is growing up. The number of multiproblem families, which lack appropriate relations inside them and with outside environment, is becoming bigger. Such families do not care about education of their children. It is not easy to perceive, to understand and to interpret a family. The difficulty of family cognition lies in the fact that there is no, and cannot be, a unanimous attitude towards family cognition because family relationships are not given beforehand, a family is not a static phenomenon, it is distinguished by development of inner relationships. The article analyzes five theories which are most often used in family research: structural-functional, social exchange, symbolic interaction, developmental and ecological system theory. It is also stressed that work with a family has to have the goal which should be clear, understandable, and should correspond to family needs. Conscious understanding of the processes in a family makes work more effective. It is important to see a family as a structure in its life cycle. A social worker is not a task performer but an activity organizer, helper supporter. He/she shows the direction but the goal has to be reached by the family itself. Social worker’s behavior (his/her skill to initiate relationship with a family, to apply social work methods) is important in the work with a family. It is essential to follow the principle of confidentiality and not to undertake the role of a judge.

According to M. Payne (1996), agencies, providing social services, are in the process of consistent alternation. These changes take place in order to react to people demand on social services. The review of family example is the model of decision making over child’s future in the family, which came over from Great Britain. The review is attended by specialists of various areas. Because of interdisciplinary situation, the tension field occurs among providers of social services, because every of them comes to the review with his/her own purposes and functions. From the theoretical perspective powers are being described as the mean of individuals’ regulation. To manage means to model activity field of other individuals, to put it in other words, powers are proportion of strengths, when some strength dominates, and the others comply. The purpose of the research is to disclose the links between power relationships and decision making in the review process of family case. The following tasks of the work were raised in order to achieve the mentioned purpose: 1. To discuss political, juridical and theoretical aspects of powers relationships, while highlighting the context of decision making over family future in the context of review process. 2. To review institutional aspects of powers relationships, grounding competencies and roles of social worker in the review process of family case. 3. To disclose the links between power relationship and decisions over child’s future in the review process of family case. The research is accomplished, using qualitative descriptive research method. The information for this research was collected using semi-structural interview. In order to process collected data, instrument of themes analysis was used. The research was attended by 11 respondents. The results of research.[...].

Straipsnyje analizuojamas, pagrindžiamas ir apibendrinamas bendravimo tarp globėjų ir globojamų vaikų tėvų pobūdis, bruožai. Kokybinio tyrimo rezultatai atskleidė, jog tik sisteminis požiūris socialiniam darbuotojui leidžia analizuoti socialines situacijas remiantis holistinėmis perspektyvomis, koncentruojant dėmesį į globėjų ir globojamo vaiko tėvų bendravimą. Atkreiptinas dėmesys tiek į globėjų, tiek į globojamo vaiko tėvų šeimų sistemas, jų tarpusavio sąveiką bei galimus efektus. Gauti rezultatai padeda suvokti socialinio darbo vystymo su globėjų bei globojamo vaiko šeimomis galimybes, siekiant užtikrinti sėkmingą jų bendravimą.

We oen hear children described as hyperactive, but what exactly does this mean? Most happy, normal children have a lot of energy, so how do you distinguish between an excited child and someone suffering from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder)? The answer is that it can be difficult. This disorder can vary in intensity and most children will express some of the symptoms some of the time. Unfortunately, there are no specific tests for ADHD, so a diagnosis is based on the child’s behavior. ADHD is characterized by symptoms of inaention, impulsivity and hyperactivity at levels that are considered maladaptive and inappropriate for a child’s age or stage of normal development. For more than a half of the people, who were diagnosed with ADHD, the onset of the disorder arrived before the age of seven years. About 40 % of them show symptoms that persist to adulthood. The disorder occurs more frequently in males than females. Descriptions in the ICD-X, DSM-IV include three diagnostic subtypes based on a predominance of symptoms – either inaention or hyperactive-impulsive symptoms. A child can be classified as having either: inattention, hyperactive impulsive or combined type, if both symptoms are present. Although researchers still do not know what exactly causes such a condition, they do know that it is an inherited one. This is why most of the research examining the etiology of ADHD is on a correlational basis. Advice is warranted in attributing causal status to identified variables. Variables within a child, such as neurobiological factors and hereditary influences, have been recognized the most. Syndrome discussed above is not a rarity; alternatively, this is a massive thing, which a pedagogue, nurses meet almost every day.

Social participation is a new concept in the contemporary society, however it is of high importance to every member of the society who aims at becoming an active subject of own becoming and who aims at full involvement into the social life. The main features of social participation are as follows: individuation, socialization, parity, self-support, cooperative relations, the development of networks, and open solution of conflicts. These features are important to every person who aims at resettlement into the society and at participation in its processes. Children, who live in the families at social risk, often have no possibilities to cognize and to acquire these features, often get into the social exclusion and come quasi to a crossroad. One of the innovatory social services to children are daytime care centers, i.e. institutions of social services, providing daytime care, social and educational services for children who got into the social exclusion and who are in difficulties. The aim of the paper is to reveal the development trends of social participation in child daytime care centers. The following objectives have been set to reach the aim: to identify the possibilities of child’s socialization while creating future dreams; to reveal his/her self-respect and the need of self-realization are forming during the process of individualization; to explore what services, which are provided in daytime child care centers are attached to develop child social participation. Qualitative descriptive research aimed at looking holistically at the importance of experiences of children, who live in the families at social risk, for their social participation. Information and data, which have been collected during this research, may be used for the identification of the situation and needs of children and for the creation of new activities and services that would develop social participation of children.

As the practice shows, the effective management of social service organizations requires not only the knowledge of social work, but also the background of management, which enables to apply creatively the acquired necessary managerial knowledge and skills to the professional practice. The purpose of the research – to reveal the managerial skills which are necessary for the implementation of social service management functions. The object of the research – managerial skills required for social service managers. The qualitative analysis, which included 20 managers of social service organizations, has been carried out. Once the analysis of the interviews about their managerial practice has been done, it emerged that there is a necessity of skills involving the development of the human resources (search for the employees, their selection, motivation, reduction of interpersonal tension and conflict dealing). The research is significant to the organizers and implementers of university programs and social worker qualification improving programs, as well as to the specialists of the research field.