Search

Search Results

• Misszióból professzió: Bevezető gondolatok a szociális munka esszenciális elemeinek koncepcionális építkezéséről

  Views:

  121

  In this study, I outline the appearance of the mission of American social work in the second half of the 19th century, and then the construction of the conceptual elements of the profe ssion. The choice of cited, typically American authors is also narrowly tailored, however, in my opinion, they give an authentic picture of the conceptual construction of the profession and adequately depict the development arc that the profession, which started from the religious charity and has now matured into a profession and a science, has gone through in the last 125 years. In addition to all this, I also try to answer such questions as, for example, where are the boundaries between religious and professional assistance, what does professionalism mean in social work within a religious community or church, and what is needed for a better integration of spirituality into the professional practice.

• Pillanatképek a szociális munkások képzéséről a tanfolyamoktól a diplomát adó képzésekig

  Views:

  100

  The aim of the study is to show the historical development of social workers training in Hungary. We all so present the development of the social work as a profession. The development of training faces to so me difficulties. In our study we tried to show the history of social workers training from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century which was not so easy in so me cases. We all so tried to introduce the training courses, to reorganize the master they were destroyed, redefined his profession, renovate the training. We do these to help to consolidate and confirm the identity of our profession from the conclusions and suggestions we had from our study and make that it will able to fit to the development of the modern education.

• Szociális munka és hatalom. Széljegyzetek Krémer Balázs vitairatához

  Views:

  189

  In this writing, I will add notes to Balázs Krémer's discussion paper. In his paper, my colleague linked the identity crisis of the social work profession to the relationship of the profession to power. I agree with the findings of the discussion paper. With my remarks, I try to broaden the perspective of the discussion of the issue with recalling historical and international experiences, and on the other hand, I support the findings of the study by highlighting other facets of these findings.

• Gyorsjelentés munkahelyi veszélyekről és biztonságról a szociális munkában

  Views:

  91

  Workplace safety and risk are rarely mentioned in social work, so we researched the topic. We explored how workplace risks, client aggression and workplace bullying manifest themselves and who is affected by them, from a national and international perspective. Our survey was based on a questionnaire from the Association of Union of Social Professionals, which, from the responses, has shown a strong interest among those working in the profession. The responses showed that professionals are not prepared for dangerous situations that happen in all areas of social work. National and international research data and professional materials suggest that there is a responsibility on the part of the legislator, the profession, training, institutions, and professionals themselves to ensure a safe workplace and safe working conditions. Professional minimum standards are needed to increase safety in the workplace and in social work. International standards and national experiences can be used to develop this. A protocol of this type can provide a basis for training on the subject and for the development of further detailed, discipline-specific standards.

• Az elhívás: a szociális munka gyakorlatának spirituális modellje

  Views:

  104

  In making a carrier choice, many Christian students find the social work profession a good fit with their religious faith. Many specifically relate their faith to their choice of social work. Buti t doesn’t take long in their social work studies for these students to begin to recognize the complex tensions between religious faith, agency auspices, and the secular values of the social work profession. My intent in this paper to explain, or more accurately to reintroduce, the religious model of calling as used by Christian social workers, past and present, in linking Christian faith and professional social work practice.

• A romániai szociális munka történelmi és társadalmi kontextusa

  Views:

  218

  External analysts often characterize our region (Eastern Europe or Central-Eastern Europe) as a whole. Such approaches can be found not only in economic and political issues, but also in social terms. However, local experts, who are familiar with the specifics of these countries, are aware of the nuances and differences that have become specific to a certain country. This paper aims to reveal the historical and social context of social work in Romania, which determines the current position and role of the profession. It is obvious that the profession has made a long course of development over the last three decades since it has been virtually reborn, but as the final part of the paper emphasizes, many organizational problems still need to be resolved.

• Reflections on six decades of professional social work fundamental principles for social workers

  Views:

  124

  What principles have I found to exist over my six decades of social work that are central to the profession and are still applicable in today’s complex world?  What has guided social work in its quest to address the myriad, ever changing and most difficult problems facing our societies irrespective of the continent or country?  In my professional journey these practice guides can be synthesized into 13 basic principles that can serve as a strong foundation and are still highly useful today. In my over 55 years as a professional social worker, studying the individuals and writers who were seminal to the profession to those who emerged during the mid-20^th century, certain principles emerged.  These principles arose from both practice and academic areas and have provided grounding and guidance that has led to the successful delivery of social work irrespective of the decade or location.

• A szociális életpályamodellel kapcsolatos dilemmák

  Views:

  334

  The social sector has been in crisis in many respects because of adverse changes in recent decades. There is a shortage of qualified social workers, high staff turnover, precarious working conditions and a steady decrease in the resources available to the sector. The development of human resources has therefore become an urgent necessity. The social careers model, like career models in other sectors, could contribute to the development of human resources in the social sector and the efficient functioning of social institutions and services. However, dilemmas about the career model have emerged in recent years, dividing the profession significantly. In our study, we set out to explore these dilemmas and, using the focus group interview method, we sought to find out what social professionals think about the career model, which has been taking shape for almost a decade. Would they support the introduction of a career model, and if so, under what conditions, and what tools would they include in the model to improve the efficiency of the sector and the quality of life of social workers. Our research shows that employees in the social sector have highlighted a stable and predictable salary and incentive system guaranteeing existential security as a key element of a modern career model. The guarantee of working conditions has emerged as a new, usually unusual and indicative of fundamental shortcomings element in the career models. However, the majority of respondents expressed reservations about the introduction of a performance appraisal system and the use of performance management in the sector. Only a minority of the focus group argued in favour of career management, an appraisal system that recognises quality work and professional innovation, and a service system that supports human resource development.

• A tét a jövő

  Views:

  9

  Pontsho James Mmadi: A Reason for choosing social work as profession: a case study of prospective students at the University of Limpopo

• „Mást tudnék csinálni, de hogy nem szeretném, az biztos!” Szociális munkások 2006-tól 2017-ig

  Views:

  135

  How do social workers see their work, their calling? What changes did they go through, and how did they value these? To have an answer, I interviewed 13 social workers of a city in 2006 and in 2016 and 2017.

  The interviewees have already changed their workplace and gone through other changes in their life, which they experienced differently. Most of them showed alternations in their attitude toward their work, one-third presented prolonged changes in their internal thinking and personality. They sense and follow changes in their profession, and in the society. Almost all of them think that they have the opportunity to find a new job either up to their circumstances or their personal qualities.

  The outcome of this research can contribute to the general opinion about social workers’ career path, about which information is usually gathered during their studies.

• A szociális munkás és a hatalom – válasz Krémer Balázs cikkére

  Views:

  265

  The article responds to Balázs Krémer's article "From the Social Worker of Power to the Power of Social Work - Discussion Paper on the Crisis of Social Work" and the related online professional debate. In my article, I summarize my views on the historical and social embeddedness of social work in Hungary, including the apparent contrast between social policy and person-oriented social work, the contrast between improvisational and standardized social work, the phenomenon of client management, and the empowerment to interpret the social profession.

• Trends in social work in the 21st century

  Walter Lorenz

  Views:

  2

  This historical and contemporary overview of key developments in social work’s professionalisation demonstrates its intricate enmeshment with political framework conditions. The current scenario is characterised by stark polarisations as evidenced by the seemingly insurmountable dilemmas over how to overcome wars, epidemics and the economic and climate crises. These polarisations indicate a systematic erosion of the social dimension of societies largely through neoliberal politics which pose a central challenge to social work and its professional social mandate. The experience of social workers in confronting ambiguity and dealing dialectically with the polarising tendencies of modernity in their position as an “in-between profession” therefore offers transformative possibilities for dealing with current global dilemmas through the affirmation of core social work competences, which is illustrated with examples.

• A szociális munka etika oktatása

  Views:

  227

  How does the teaching of ethics appear in the education of social work and is this enough? I would like to answer to these questions in this article. In my thesis I tried to approach the topic from several aspects. On the one hand, I prepared questionnaires for bachelor students participating in various social work trainings. On the other hand I interviewed students, entrants and tutors. Finally, I reviewed the curriculums of these trainings, searching for subjects, which name refers that the subject includes aspects of social work ethics.
  Why is this topic so important? That is because social work is a profession of human rights, which not only aims to get people to respect rights but to guarantee their implementation and realization. Indeed, the task is to develop and protect these fundamental human rights, too. However, this is only possible if the social workers are aware of the Code of Ethics and the professional values, as essential parts of professional competences.
  The research concluded that the ethics education in universities and colleges is not structured and focused enough and still there are some social work students and professionals who do not know the Code of Ethics, did not hear about the Association of Social Work Ethics. Consequently, they may have difficulties to solve pivotal problems, and recognize dilemmas in the field of ethics.
  Nincs szociális munka szakmai etika nélkül. Ebben valószínűleg mindannyian egyetértünk, ahogy a szakirodalomban is olvasható „…a szociális munkában minden döntés tartalmaz etikai aspektusokat” (Loewenberg, Dolgoff 1988a: 181). Mégis, annak ellenére, hogy a szociális munkának szerves része a szakmai etika – vagy annak kellene lennie –, igen kevés tanulmány található ebben a témában a hazai szakirodalomban. Hogyan lehetséges az, hogy úgy kell kutatni, vadászni a kapcsolódó olvasmányokat? Pedig szükség lenne szakirodalomra, hiszen a „hatékony gyakorlat feltétele a dilemmákhoz való tudatos viszonyulás” (Andok, Tímár 2002: 88). Hogyan jelenik meg az etika oktatása a képzésben és ez mennyire elegendő? Erre a kérdésfeltevésre épül ez az írás.

• A hatalom szociális munkásától a szociális munka hatalma felé

  Views:

  886

  In this paper I review the power relations relevant to social work and social workers. At the birth of the profession, an enlightened absolutist political power structure created great freedom and creative opportunities for social workers to contribute to alleviating social crisis. Social work was willing and able to meet these needs. The above-mentioned power orientation created a particular professional manner of operation by applying improvised solutions, by „dispatching” of clients to other public services, by the brokering of information and resources. In this set-up, the importance of power of clients, especially over social workers were marginalised. All this has contributed to a serious crisis in the sphere of social work when political power has become more confrontational and has sought to resolve social issues by force.

• A magyarországi szociálismunka-kutatások néhány kontextusban

  Views:

  524

  In their study authors are seeking answer to the question whether social work research in Hungary can be characterised by scientifical and/or practical orientation and accordingly what its role in is maintaining the gap in the profession between theory and practice. The paper examines Hungarian social work research in a quasi-systematic review, for which theoretical backgrounds are views regarding social work practice research and social work knowledges, explored in previous papers of the same authors. The empirical base of the review is an analysis of the essays published in the two-volume collection ’Tudományos gondolkodás és kutatás szerepe a szociális munkában’ (translate as ’Role of scientifical thinking and research in social work’) being an adequate representation of recent Hungarian research on social work.  The review indicates that Hungarian research on social work can be placed on a continuum ranging from theoretical to practical approach, although research involving practitioner-researchers, or examining and developing the practical knowledge are not typical features of it.

• A szélsőjobboldal befolyása a németországi szociális munkára: Szisztematikus támadások és napi eltolódások

  Views:

  155

  Exploratory studies in two German federal states (NRW 2019, MV 2020-21) have examined the question of whether and how the far right has an impact on social work. After an introduction to the growing influence of the far right across Europe (1) and its relationship to social work (2), a brief outline of the regional context (3) and the methodological approach of the two studies (4) are described. After a presentation of the overall results (5) and a more detailed description of the central categories (6), the summary of the impact of influences on social work (7) and the implications for social work are discussed (8).

  The results show that the influences are present across all fields of social work and all regions of both federal states examined in Germany. The far right's own social offers instrumentalise charitable activities for political messages and organised educational offers within closed scenes exist with a high degree of continuity. Attempts to exert external influence, especially by political actors, have increased and in some cases have taken on a drastic character, even reaching the stage of mass threats and physical attacks. Finally, the findings also point to shifts within professional social work. These are reflected in undemocratic and inhumane practices as well as specific exclusions. The findings suggest that it is necessary to make the far right's influences visible and to formulate a common institutionalised response within the profession that is effective in countering these attacks.

• A szociális munkások munkahelyi biztonságáról, a kockázatokról és a szakma identitáskríziséről

  Views:

  1198

  I have been trying to finish this paper for years. I started when, in the summer of 2018, a father of three children who was being evicted for not paying a foreign currency loan killed one of our colleagues, the only person who tried to do something for him in a hopeless situation. Initially, I wanted to write about the safety of social workers at work and the possibilities of risk management. I was invited to a committee of experts to draw up recommendations on this subject. While writing the expert opinion, as a social worker, I tried to assess the risks that threaten our colleagues in their daily work, and also what we can do, or who at all can do and what to control these risks. I also realized how much an intervention is worth that doesn’t affect the most serious risks, it just makes recommendations to colleagues on what to do if, for example, a father deprived of his child shows up in the office swinging an ax. In addition, interventions come at a price. What can social assistance work be like without intimate counselling rooms, but with police protection, panic buttons, paprika spray, official person! badge, and so on. I also participated in the group of experts whose first report on a serious malpractice case also appears in this issue. And then came the coronavirus epidemic. And now I have completed the study, which is actually about the crisis of our profession and what can to be done to manage it.