Summary

Nepal has now over a hundred of social work colleges from where nearly a thousand students graduate each year. However, the sad reality of these graduates is that many of them do not work in the fields of social work. Instead, they end up working in the fields other than social work; and in the worst scenario, they are either unemployed for long period of time or are forced to migrate to overseas in the hope of a better future. Given these, this qualitative study explored about Nepali social work graduates who do not work in the fields of social work and found that there are various external and internal issues that contributed to the worsening situation of social work graduates. In addition to this, the study found that there is an immediate need to reform social work education and practice in Nepal such that it re-thinks the purpose of social work in Nepal and thus also strategically position itself so that its graduates do not experience such condition in the future. 

Keywords (separate with commas)

Social work profession, social workers' condition, social work career, Nepal

Summary

Youth workers are a vital component of youth programs and they often become role models, mentors, teachers and sometimes, even surrogate parents to the young people in these youth programs. Our study asks: What are the systemic issues, gaps, and barriers encountered by youth workers? How do they navigate these gaps? What issues affect youth workers' ability to do their work with youth as effectively and healthily as possible?  Our methods included seven focus groups with 58 frontline youth workers. The findings centred around four themes: Youth worker identity and lived experience as a resource: 1/ Their professional identity is tied to their personal identities and was “not separated or detached” but part of who they are. 2/ Numbers Work: The pressure to meet targets and numbers frequently means that critical skills and practices, such as relationship-building, mentorship, empowerment, and advocacy, are difficult to report as numbers, are rendered invisible. 3/ Rule-bending Work: The systems within which youth are embedded have significant gaps for young people. They discussed how they made these systems work for youth. In some instances, this work is unauthorized. 4/ The marginality of youth work and invisibility of youth workers’ voices (devalued work and precarious employment). Youth workers described their precarious and insecure jobs and how they had to piece together multiple contract-based jobs to survive. They also noted that the youth sector’s precarious and insecure labour market is stratified by race, gender, and sexuality. Through unfair and exploitative employment structures and practices, the youth sector is a site of harm and inequity for youth workers, which negatively impacts youth. The findings provide a detailed account of how personal, professional, and political identities are constructed in relation to the work and the actual practices that community-based youth workers do, including care, systems coordination, and numbers work. 

Keywords (separate with commas)

Youth work, Precarity, Qualitative Research

Summary

Social workers are committed to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI). As such the profession is needed now more than ever, yet there is a global shortage. Deficits become even larger for social workers focused on mental and behavioral healthcare.\  Some even call it a healthcare workforce crisis, with drastic numbers leaving the workforce prior to retirement. Helping professionals, like social workers who perform mentally exhausting work are particularly at risk for compassion fatigue. Secondary traumatic stress and burnout are contributing factors to compassion fatigue, but little is known regarding how to improve compassion fatigue resilience. A pilot study to better understand contributors to compassion fatigue was conducted (N=71) and revealed that almost 50% met the cut-off for burnout.\  Further as mental health symptoms increase, so does compassion fatigue. Contributors to compassion fatigue also included prior mental health problems, personal trauma, life adjustments and work environment factors. A simple solution for addressing compassion fatigue and burnout is inefficient, rather we need a variety of unique approaches that improve coping and areas of focus to improve job satisfaction.\  This workshop will present tailored practitioner and student methods for improving coping styles and compassion fatigue resilience. By highlighting unique approaches among these critically important professionals, we emphasize and offer a plan for addressing the larger social and ethical challenges around social worker retention.

Keywords (separate with commas)

compassion fatigue, work environment, social worker, resilience

Summary

The study aims to\\ present and analyze how\\ migrant social workers without local household registration\\ of China\\ serve young migrant workers\\ in factories or service industry, who also possessed no local household registration of urban Chinese areas. Also, the study is to justify and construct the resonance between migrant social workers and migrant workers in the process of interaction and service delivery, and\\ how\\ the resonance informs the development of the\\ social work profession in China, with responding to the\\ questions: (1) What is the experience of migrant social workers in serving the young migrant workers or labours in urban China? (2) How does the common experience of migration shape the service process? (3) How does the service provided by the migrant social worker shape the life of migrant workers or labours?Narrative\\ inquiry was applied to the research.\\ Interviews with\\ migrant social workers with whom the young migrant workers interacted and community stakeholders, in addition to observation, were triangulated to enhance the\\ verisimilitude and\\ utility of the research. All interviewees shared rich and thick narration on their stories to be social worker and present their life to serve migrant workers.\\ Furthermore, with the narratives of interviewees, the idea of ‘profession of social worker’ is thickened with ‘commitment’ and ‘life togetherness’ with migrant workers to change their social milieu with professional ethics, skills and knowledge. Following the research finding, further studies on developing the manpower of social workers directly from the population of migrant workers is advised. Those social workers with migrant backgrounds will find it more effective to engage, assess and identify the needs of migrant workers. Establishing training institution of migrant workers in social service field is suggested to enhance blooming of social work profession as well as responding to immediate service needs of migrant workers in China.\\ 

Keywords (separate with commas)

Social Work in China, Migrant, Migrant Social Worker, Narrative Research, Resonance, Professional Identity of Social Worker