Summary

This paper reports on a subset of findings from a large systematic scoping literature review on professional identity in social work. Against the backdrop of contemporary practice contexts, especially concerns about constrained resources and poor working conditions, there are growing calls to understand the factors that impact the professional identities of qualified social workers. To examine how professional identity is developed and crystalised, a search strategy was implemented across academic databases to gather peer-reviewed social work literature spanning a 20-year period. Screening produced a total of 65 sources for analysis. Our paper reports on the findings that were derived from thematic analysis of the findings section of the empirical studies (n = 49) and the main discussion section of the non-empirical (n = 16) studies. The findings revealed a range of positive and negative factors that impact upon developing, sustaining and/or threatening the professional identity of social workers. Among the positive impacts are themes related to coherence and congruence in professional identity as well as pride and access to ongoing learning. In contrast, the negative impacts highlighted issues related to incoherency, as well as ambivalent or poor external perceptions that produce a lower regard for social work. Implications for evidence-informed systemic measures that prioritise the development and sustainability of professional identity are outlined for professional associations and employers. The need for further research that examines these positive and negative factors are identified to better understand variables that contribute to social workers developing and sustaining coherent professional identities. 

Keywords (separate with commas)

Professional identity; social work; working conditions; public perceptions; retention; burnout 

Summary

Introduction: This research examined experiences of child welfare workers (CWW) and foster-care providers in addressing communication and child-parent access during the COVID-19 pandemic.\ Background: Immense disruptions to child-welfare systems during the pandemic have been reported. Prolonged durations of social and physical isolation of children in child welfare from their birth families and from CWW were unintended consequences of COVID-19 public health measures. This isolation negatively impacted on the mental health of children and parents, and increased children’s vulnerability to child abuse and neglect. Regardless of the reasons, child-welfare policy and practice ought to prioritize family reunification as the initial case goal, but curbing visits during the pandemic severely impacted this core tenet. Service disruptions were mostly addressed by a rapid transition from in-person to virtual child-welfare services. Yet, the experiences of CWW and foster-care providers in implementing virtual child-welfare services during the pandemic are not well understood in Canada and elsewhere.\ \ Method: Thirty-seven CWW and foster-care providers participated in a survey conducted in Ontario, Canada. The survey included items on strategies used to communicate about safety, children and youths’ reaction to remote interventions. challenges faced by foster-care providers in managing parent-child access visits. and their recommendations for improved parent-child access for children in foster care.\  \ Findings: The use of virtual video communication alongside other modalities to observe non-verbal cues and interactions was almost universal (about 94%) but varied with children’s age. Privacy concerns were common in children and youth contacts. Visitation scheduling challenges, digital inequality and fear of the contagion were commonly encountered by foster-care providers.\ Recommendations: Regular virtual check-ins with foster parents by CCW, training on safety and on use of online meeting tools. and providing subsidies for internet-related costs would enormously fill the unmet support needs of CWW and clarify foster parents’ roles in managing parent-child relationships.\ 

Keywords (separate with commas)

COVID-19. pandemic, foster-parents, virtual, child-welfare, abuse and neglect, communication\ 

Summary

Finnish social work is subject to the changes of the century. Since the beginning of 2023, social and health care has been administratively combined with welfare areas.In Finland, the social sector has the biggest shortage of workers, according to the Employment Barometer of the Ministry of Labor and the Economy for the year 2022 (TEM). According to it, the third biggest shortage was of special experts in the social sector. Based on the analysis prepared by Keva, there will be a shortage of social workers in the future as well. According to Keva, there are more than 6,000 pensioners in this professional group, and there is currently a shortage of 2,700 social workers (Keva). According to the register maintained by Valvira, there are more than 7,200 social workers in the register of professionals, and there are approx. 4,700 vacancies for social workers in the municipalities, of which approx. 3,500 are qualified social workers. 105 social workers have participated in this qualitative survey study at October/2022. The questions are open questions and they map the well-being experienced by social workers, its obstacles; work support and career development opportunities. The theoretical reference framework structures the material through four concepts: well-being at work, forms of work support, motivation and commitment to work and the organization.The research questions include: What kind are the organization and management that supports social work, as well as work support, so that work well-being and career development as well as competence develop in an optimal way?The goal of the research is to find ways to the revolving door syndrome of social work and how the employees could do better in their tasks and thus also the clients and society could do better.

Keywords (separate with commas)

well-being at social work, career development, engagement at social work

Summary

In the United States, and throughout the world, neurodiversity has become increasingly visible in recent years. For instance, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention \ (2020) estimates that 1 in every 36 children in the U.S. has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, marking a substantial and rapid increase from only 1 in every 150 children in 2000. Similar increases have been observed elsewhere around the world. \ Neurodiversity often comes with the need for specialized and coordinated social and health services, and the complexity of providing those services often leaves neurodiverse children and their families “lost in the system” without adequate support to make progress toward improved social function and independent living. Social service and healthcare workers are often inadequately trained to meet the needs of this growing population, and many national and private health and social service systems are not designed to bring together professionals who may be able to provide necessary supports.The Virginia Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities program (VA-LEND) is designed to train social service and healthcare workers from 16 professional disciplines how to provide person-centered, evidence based, and interdisciplinary supports to children with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families. VA-LEND involves students in didactic, clinical, policy, and individually designed leadership activities in order to develop a strong interdisciplinary workforce aimed at improving health and social outcomes for people with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Through activities such as our Family Mentorship Experience and the inclusion of self-advocates with disabilities and their family members as full participants in our class sessions, VA-LEND exemplifies model practices for centering lived experience for sensitizing professionals to the service needs of people with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families. This presentation will share our successful model, our evaluation results, and provide suggestions to audience members who may wish to establish interdisciplinary training programs.\ 

Keywords (separate with commas)

Neurodevelopmental disabilities; interprofessional training; workforce development; lived experience