Foreword This collection deals with changes in the client of social work services. It is a probe into the history of selected topics, but mainly into modern trends and schools of thought that shape social work services, influence their clients and thus figure as one of the engines of their changes. It is an extensive set of topics, which we tried to divide editorially into several thematic blocks dealing with different target groups of clients. The first block of articles includes texts written in English that deal with the drug issue and were created on the occasion of the formation of an international research team that will systematically investigate this area in the future, map the historical circumstances of the emergence and development of the drug issue on a European scale, and will thus try to contribute to the understanding of the changes in the client of social work services in this specific issue. In this block you will find articles written by authors from Sweden, Norway or Germany.
However, the vast majority of the articles included in this collection were created on the occasion of the 3rd Hradec Social Work Conference with international participation, which was held in Hradec Králové on November 24 and 25, 2006. Some of them supplement the introductory block of English articles on the drug issue and supplement the already quite wide international scope of this block of articles with some experiences with this target group from the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
We also include a block of articles covering the topic of social security, which mainly touch on the topic of social services, their standardization, planning and anticipated changes with the arrival of the long-awaited new legislation in this area. Seniors and the disabled are also an important target group, to whom separate thematic blocks are dedicated. Similarly significant space is devoted to the theme of youth, family and ethnic minorities. The changes in the client of social work services also influence (and are influenced by) topics such as the issue of gender and inequality between men and women, the topic of work and employment, from which most social problems in society ultimately arise.
As the final block of topics, we include philosophical questions, ethical problems and questions of metatheory, which help shape the theoretical basis of the social work profession. All that remains is to thank all the authors from six European countries who contributed their articles to the creation of this multilingual international collection. Special thanks go to foreign authors from Sweden, Norway, Germany, Poland and Slovakia, who in this collection allow us to look into some selected specific problems from their countries and we hope that there will be mutual enrichment with new knowledge of authors from all interested countries. We would also like to thank our colleague Bauer for presenting a comprehensive introductory paper at the conference.
At the end of this short preface, allow us to thank the senator of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, docent Karl Barták, for taking over the patronage of the 3rd Hradec Social Work Days conference. We would also like to thank the honorary chairmanship of the conference, i.a. the dean of the Faculty of Education of the University of Hradec Králové, docent Jehliček, the Consul General of the Czech Republic in Poland, Dr. Josef Byrtus, the Diocesan Bishop of the Hradec Králové Diocese, Mons. Dominik Duka, vice-rector for public relations of the University of Konstantin Filozof in Nitra, Slovakia, docent Tvrdoň, and also Dr. Miroslav Mitlöhner, head of the Department of Social Work and Social Policy of the Faculty of Education of the University of Hradec Králové, who organized the conference and who is the implementer of this international collection.
Martin Smutek, Miroslav Kappl (editors), December 2006 Introduction The topic "client of social work services in the changing times" became a point whose task was to focus the attention of the contributors to this collection, why and for what - and for whom - social work as a profession and a field was created. Even though this topic is as old as the field of social work itself, it is relevant at all times, because the development of the entire social context is always so dynamic that it forces companies to reformulate their idea of the client of guaranteed services.
"Client of social work services" is an interesting category in which various types of people could be included in the past and today. The poor, thieves, drug addicts, prostitutes, the homeless, the unemployed, the old and sick, abused women, abused and neglected children - these are just a small sample of the various groups in our society that social workers meet every day to help them change their lives for the better (whether they like it or not).
We would say that individuals pursuing these goals as their life's content probably suffer from a "messiah complex", and we would rather say that the professional group that fulfills this service in society is a group of carefully trained professionals, possessing a set of working methods, built on solid, indisputable theoretical foundations. Each of us can believe what we want. It is a tangible fact (which this collection is proof of) that social workers are actually offered a large number of different theories that explain who should be considered a client and how they should be treated.
If we look at how experts from practice and the academic world, whose contributions have come together in this set of texts, deal with these topics, we will find that there is great variability in their views (some might even use the word chaos), which, paradoxically, does not lead to the denial of social work as a professional discipline, but rather gives a certain mosaic-like picture that can be used in practice.
We can ask why this is so. We may be interested in why society tolerates a scientific field whose experts cannot always give the same (or at least basically the same) answer in their statements to the question of how a social worker actually knows who is the client of his services, and what sources he should use when trying to "correct" the client's world for the better - and on the basis of which he assumes the right to intervene in his life in various ways.
It is not possible to give a generally acceptable answer to this question. Our answers will not exceed the horizon of what we usually call "subjective interpretation". Let's offer one of the many possible versions, which will hopefully accurately evaluate the spirit of this entire collection, which was intended to collect the answers to the above-mentioned questions.
A good beginning of such an interpretation (one of many possible beginnings) can be the fact that in the states of contributing experts (from theory and from practice) three types of social workers were very often and prominently displayed: experts focused on providing "material" help; experts focused on providing "non-material" assistance; and finally experts providing both. Of course, each of these types of social workers is oriented towards a different type of clientele.
However, there were no radical clashes, as might have been expected, in which supporters of individual concepts would ask each other in their states about the "legitimacy" of the other's concept of social work (usually in the form: ..."this is not social work, it's pure bureaucratic work"... "this is not social work, it's just psychotherapy"...). As if surprisingly, there was a general agreement that sometimes it is necessary to use "material help" for the client, sometimes, on the contrary, purely "immaterial" forms of help, other times they can be combined in a "connected" form - and that's fine. A social worker can work in all these ways without getting a clear image of a civil servant, clinical psychotherapist - or, for example, social pedagogue. For some, this unclear identity of a professional social worker can still be quite unsatisfying.
Let's consider this fact just described as happy. The spirit of tolerance that the authors of the texts in this collection showed towards the concepts of others - despite all the differences of opinion - perhaps brings good news for social workers that the group of social workers is beginning to realize itself as a truly professional group that can resist the various pressures of the ruling political elites, who, in accordance with their visions of the world, always try to prefer one of the just described types of social work and, on the contrary, suppress the other as much as possible. Perhaps this is one of the important answers that this set of texts brought.
Miroslav Kappl
CONTENT
I. DRUG PROBLEMS Bengt Svensson Why Do Men and Women Continue to Use Drugs?
Hans-Jørgen Wallin Weihe Long Time Survivors of Drug Addiction in Rural Norway
Joachim Thönnessen Drug Therapy and Yoga
Martin Smutek, Lucie Luxová, Martina Houdková Drug "Veterans", their Life Stories and Relationships to Social Changes in the Czech Republic - The Pilot Study
Pavel Vácha The needs of specific services in the field of addiction prevention
Václav Macoun Evaluation as the basis of a modern drug service
Jana Cigáneková Clients of the field syringe exchange program in Nitra
II. SOCIAL SECURITY CLIENT Miloslav Plass Standardization of social services in relation to the new law on social services. Creating a network of social services
Daniela Květenská New system of social services
Andrea Hloušová, Petra Maťátková, Jiří Kovalčík, Aleš Ryba User of social services from the point of view of the new Act on Social Services
Zdenka Nováková Changes in the goals of helping the client
Lenka Haburajová Ilavská The poor as clients of social work and resources to help solve their social situation in the 1930s
III. SENIORS Jana Veselá, Petra Veselá Age, aging and regional aspects of the Czech population in the field of aging
Lída Sazimová, Petra Antonů Improving the quality of services for seniors in the Vysočina region and in the Central Bohemian region through education in the field of quality standards
Martina Hrozenská The importance of quality standards of social services in ZSS for seniors
Hana Francová, Veronika Záleská Handling a large clientele in institutional facilities
Anna Kasanová Seniors from the point of view of social pathology
IV. MEDICAL AND MEDICAL DISABILITIES Petr Popek Performance of social work in a medical facility
Jozefína Tkáčiková, Ľuba Pavelová Social client in healthcare
Zdenka Šándorová, Blanka Brandová Client of the social prevention service - early care - in the context of Act no. 108/ 2006 Coll. about social services
Markéta Slavíčková, Josef Zita Geriatric patient – client of a social worker
Andrea Juhásová Day care as prevention of exclusion
Lýdia Lešková, Ladislav Leško Personal assistance provided to citizens with severe disabilities as a tool to support their independent life
Jan Novotný, Jaroslav Zukerstein A project focused on working with wood intended for the visually impaired target group of children
Miroslav Mitlöhner Selected social and legal problems of suicide and euthanasia
Jan Lašek, Renata Kysilková Personal well-being in two historically different social groups – citizens of the Czech Republic and the USA
V. YOUTH AND THE FAMILY Milan Tomka Family system as a subject of social work interest
Hana Pazlarová, Oldřich Matoušek Non-state social services for families - survey in selected regions of the Czech Republic
Alžbeta Brozmanová Gregorová The family as a client of social services - experiences with networking help
Lenka Látalová, Jana Levická, Ľudmila Kopťárová, Veronika Hanzalíková The family as a client of social work
Alexandra Žilková, Josef Zita A single-parent family with a severely disabled child
Michal Klapal Values, ideals, goals in children and young people Josef Kasal A football fan as a client of social work
Ľudovít Galbavý Alternative punishments for juvenile offenders from a historical perspective to the present in the Slovak Republic
Martin Lülei Probation, social work and clients in restorative justice
VI. GENDER POINT OF VIEW Dagmar Marková A gender-sensitive approach in working with social work clients
Martin Uháľ Positive discrimination of women
Radka Janebová When the client is a man
VII. WORK AND EMPLOYMENT Daniel Toth The Lisbon strategy and its implementation in the conditions of the Czech Republic
Jan Beer Strengthening the role of the social economy will affect the social climate
Jan Hloušek The use of social work in the implementation of the concept of social responsibility
Helena Szewczyk The problem of mobbing at work 347
E. Ondřejová, Š. Čížková, K. Janiš, M. Myšíková To implement professional practice for students of the field of "Social Pathology and Prevention"
Kamil Janiš, Jr. Practice through the eyes of students
VIII. ETHNICITY, COMMUNITIES Gabriela Hepnarová, Silvie Hendrychová Roma issue in Europe - approaches versus solutions
Emil Samko Social integration of Roma within local communities
Ľuba Pavelová Social client in community social work
Jan Vrbicky The countryside as a potential social threat
Tibor Vojtko Osada Růžičkov and its ideological program of educational reform
IX. PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS, ETHICS OF SOCIAL WORK, METATHEORY QUESTIONS Zdeněk Kučera Ethical – philosophical motivation of social work
Ivan Hruška Current problems of clientelism and social work clients
Jana Levická, Lenka Gottliebová, Veronika Hanzalíková, Ľudmila Kopťárová Changes in the professional relationship between the social worker and the client
Zdeněk Mlčák, Alina Kubicová To the concept of the client in social work: managerialism or humanistic approach?
Martina Myšíková Social work as a service oriented to the life world
Martin Chadima Philosophical subtext of human life
Miroslav Kappl Adoption of constructivist ideas within the therapeutic paradigm of social work
Leoš Zatloukal Counseling approaches inspired by postmodern philosophy
Pavel Navrátil Assessment in a socio-historical context
Dagmar Scherrerová Eclecticism of interventions and the unique social situation of the adolescent
Lucie Smutková, Martin Smutek Issues of power in helping professions and balancing the relationship with the client
Reviewed by: Doc. PhDr., PaedDr. Kamil Janiš, CSc. (Department of Pedagogy and Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic) PaedDr. Peter Jusko, Ph.D. (Department of Social Work Faculty of Education, Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica, SR)
Title: Social Work Client Metamorphoses Editors: Mgr. Martin Smutek, Mgr. Miroslav Kappl Cover and typesetting: Mgr. Martin Smutek Year and place of publication: 2006, Hradec Králové Published by Gaudeamus publishing house, University of Hradec Králové as its 675th publication. ISBN 80-7041-716-1