Foreword On the 5th Hradec Social Work Days, we decided to devote ourselves to the topic "Assessment of the living situation". There were several reasons. First of all, we wanted to follow up on the previous IV. The days in Hradec, which were devoted to the topic "Social work between help and control", and where a number of contributions showed that one of the key moments when it is necessary to balance very sensitively between symmetrical and asymmetrical approach to clients, is precisely the phase of "assessing" their life situation. In addition, one of the key topics of the previous Hradecky Days was the topic of the possibility of social workers influencing clients (politicians, employers, etc.), so we decided to devote one of the sections to the topic of "assessment" in the context of a social contract. Secondly, we were approached by an article by Pavel Navrátil from the Department of Social Policy and Social Work of the Faculty of Social Studies in Brno, which was published in the journal Sociální práce/Sociálna práce (1/2007) and was devoted to the "assessment" of the life situation. Although this is only an introduction to the issue of "assessment", it brought two main impulses for us. On the one hand, it draws attention to the very little attention that is given to this topic. This meant a challenge for us, because one of the goals of the Hradecky Days is to contribute to the theory of social work and convey new theories or perspectives to our students. And on the one hand, we asked ourselves what it looks like in the Czech Republic (and of course also in other countries, such as Slovakia and Poland in particular) with a preference for a quantitative or qualitative "assessment" strategy. We perceive a certain duality or separation of both of these strategies in the practice of social work, and we thought that it might be interesting to mediate a dialogue between the supporters of both strategies, or to come to the risks, or on the contrary, the advantages of both "assessment" strategies through discussion.
The third stimulus was the continuous discussion about the quality standards of social services, where standards 2, 3, 4 and 5, which are very closely related to the issue of "assessment", are the biggest problem for a number of social service providers.
The main paper, presented by Pavle Navrátil on the topic "Truth in the assessment of the life situation", proved to be an ideal introduction to the issue of "assessment", as it presented the key dilemma of this process. He dealt with two points of view on "assessment", namely the objectivist view, which is characterized by an emphasis on the truth and belief in the existence of objective reality, in contrast to the constructivist view, which, on the contrary, draws attention to the social construction of reality and the plurality of truths. In the field of social work, this dilemma is represented, for example, by the following questions: Should social workers in the "assessment" process figure as experts on the situation, or is the client's point of view decisive? Which methods of "assessment" should be chosen - standardized or quantitative, or qualitative based on in-depth interviews with clients? Is "assessment" a final process, logically followed by a decision, or is it a continuous process of reflecting on the social situation? However, the fundamental contribution of Pavel Navrátil's contribution was not the raising of these questions, but the effort to convert them from the language of dilemma or conflict to the language of reconciliation or coexistence. And in this spirit, a number of other contributions and discussions of the conference were carried out, which showed that there is not necessarily one single correct way of assessing the life situation.
Within the individual sections of the conference, four themes emerged as key. First of all, it became clear that there is no agreement among the participants regarding the use of language, when for many of them the use of the term "diagnosis", which associated an objectivist expert approach, was questionable. For others, it turned out to be an inappropriate term "assessment", which also associated them with the absence of a client and the evaluation of the situation. Others preferred to use the terminology of social service quality standards through concepts such as individual planning, dialogue, negotiation or contracting. This situation seems to give rise to the idea of several language discourses within social work, which can be labeled as medical or psychological language, academic language and social service language.
Secondly, the need to reflect gender aspects within the "assessment" of the client's life situation became apparent. The main attention was paid to the question, to what extent the strategies of clients when formulating the order are influenced by their gender - or their gender socialization - when, for example, men may have a tendency to suppress their emotional needs. This led us to raise other questions: How to solve the dilemma between need and order, if they differ? Should we respect a client's order that may not meet his/her needs?
Thirdly, the question of the usefulness of standardized "assessment" methods was raised. Are they an aid to social workers for further decision-making, or on the contrary, do they limit the individual approach that the worker could choose? It turned out that the evaluation of standardized "assessment" procedures can differ from the point of view of the experience of social workers and workers. For the less experienced, they can serve as a useful tool, while the more experienced can represent a certain loss of freedom in judgment.
And finally, fourthly, there were problems with the approach of social workers to influencing the social contract. It was not so much that they were not interested in influencing this contract, but rather that they are not considered equal partners in this process. Examples were presented where the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs does not take seriously the comments of social workers and prefers the opinions of doctors as greater experts. Individual contributions do not have to embody the views of the editors of this collection, and we once again invite readers to form their own opinion. Radka Janebová, Martin Smutek (editors), December 2008 Contents
Radka Janebová, Martin Smutek (editors) Preface
I. "ASSESSMENT" IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIAL CONTRACT, THEORETICAL CONCEPTS AND RESEARCH
Pavel Navrátil Truth in assessing the life situation
Martin Smutek Intersubjectivity of the world and assessment of the life situation
Štefania Kövérová Concepts of the relationship between the individual and society as an immanent part of SP approaches to assessing life situations
Miroslav Kappl Developmental models of social work and their metaphors
Jana Levická Social diagnosis - its changes over time
Elena Ondrušková Gender perspective in social work - social constructivist paradigm in assessing the life situation of clients
Radka Janebová Comparison of the postmodernist perspective in social work and van der Laan's "principle of judicious help" with regard to the process of "assessment" of the client's life situation
Beata Górnicka The role of the client in diagnosowaniu jego szuktuły Ŝyciowej przez prawoknica Socjalnego
Veronika Hanzalikova Diagnosis in the behavioral concept
Jiří Kučírek Consequences of the influence of "urban space" on the life situation of an individual
Ľuba Pavelová Dependent client of social work in the context of a social order
Jan Mandys Homelessness in the context of social contract
Alena Novotná Social counseling in the context of social order
Jan Vrbicky The emergence of a social service as a result of a dialogue between experts
Jana Marie Havigerová, Radka Janebová Implicit concepts of normality among workers in helping professions
Tibor Vojtko Dilemma of normality in the theory and practice of helping professions
II. DILEMMAs, RISKS AND METHODS OF "ASSESSMENT" OF THE LIVING SITUATION OF CLIENTS
Katarína Levická Risks of diagnosis in social work
Klára Cozlova Assessing the living situation from a gender perspective - TKI for senior citizens
Linda Sokačová Don't let yourself be discriminated against and don't let others do it. Legal advice and information service for persons discriminated against on the basis of gender and age
Lenka Vavrinčíková, Alžbeta Brozmanová Gregorová Assessment in social work - dilemmas in relation to drug users
Petra Balážová, Ľuba Pavelová Dilemmas of social work in the field of addictions
Beáta Balogová Existence of suicide in seniors living in the home environment and residential facilities
Lydia Lešková The activity of social workers within the assessment team in assessing the social consequences of severe disability
Soňa Chloupková How to assess the client's living situation within the framework of a social investigation for the purposes of deciding on a care allowance
Lenka Kvašňáková Assessing the living situation of children at risk and their families in Gateshead, UK. Experience from foreign practice
Josef Zita The nature of case studies in social work (case study method)
Daniela Květenská Qui bono?
Martina Hrozenská, Milan Tomka Assessment of the living situation of clients admitted to a retirement home and a social services home
Anna Kasanová Changing the intellectual level of clients - changing the quality of social services
Peter Brnula, Ladislav Vaska Supervision as a tool to help the social worker in the dilemmas of assessing the client's life situation
Emilia Janigová Possibilities of applying alternative punishments from the point of view of social work
Zoja Koscurová The role of the social worker when working with clients in primary schools in the context of the new legislation
Lenka Haburajová-Ilavská Social assistance as a form of solving the conflict situation of a citizen
Daniel Dvořák, Martin Kaliba The effectiveness of substitute family care in contemporary society
III. INTERDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOP: PSYCHOLOGICAL, LEGAL, PEDAGOGICAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF "ASSESSING" THE LIFE SITUATION OF SOCIAL WORK CLIENTS
Stanislav Pelcák Client from the point of view of salutogenesis (Resilience and coping with chronic disease)
Wiesław Sikorski Komunikacyjne znaczenie zachwań nieverbalnych w pracy socjalnje
Jan Lašek, Šárka Wiesenbergová Determining the level of moral development in two groups of teenagers
Jana Faltusová Community planning of social services in Holick
Marija Topic Social policies of the Republic of Croatia for persons with disabilities
Monika Žumárová, Jana Tesková The view of a social pedagogue on the quality of life of seniors
Miroslav Mitlöhner Legal responsibility of social services worker
Olga Sovova Jurisprudence of the Supreme Administrative Court in pension matters
Title: Assessment of life situation in social work Editors: Mgr. Radka Janebová, Mgr. Martin Smutek Cover and typesetting: Mgr. Martin Smutek Year and place of publication: 2008, Hradec Králové Edition: first Load: 250 Published by Gaudeamus publishing house, University of Hradec Králové as its 892nd publication. ISBN 978-80-7041-419-4