Socialno delo, Vol. 38 (1999), Part 1
ARTICLES
Economical and Social Position of Unemployed Disabled People in Slovenia: Characteristics of Individual Groups of the Disabled Regarding the Legal Provision on Disability - 5, (Abstract)
Joint Parenthood after Divorce or Break-up of an Extramarital Household: Better Opportunities for Social Work with Family - 29, (Abstract)
ESSEYS
Some Open Questions and Dilemmas of Social Work in a Home of the Aged - 49, (Abstract)
Individual Faith as Related to the Concept of Psychosocial Development - 53, (Abstract)
ABSTRACTS
Abstracts
Editor's Notes
This issue is characterised by thematic variety in which some topics invariably recur, just as typical problems met by social work recur, despite their variety, and of course they are related to current social problems and preoccupations.
Thus, two papers deal with unemployment - Cveto Uršič and Janez Drobnič with the disabled who are unemployed, while Metod Tekavčič contributes a report on his research from a club of employment seekers (to which Blaž Mesec's commentary to the methodological part of the report is added). The next two papers are about divorce (of both married and unmarried spouses); in the first one, Irena Bizjak pleads for the introduction of 'joint parenthood', when the divorced couple agree about it and there are no counter-indications, and in the second, Franc Udovič again presents the technique of mediation.
In 'essays', Stanija Ivajnšič discusses some constant questions of social work in homes of the aged, while Vida Kramžar Klemenčič attempts to analyse the issue of personal faith from the point of view of E. Erikson's theory.
Cveto Uršič, Janez Drobnič
Economical and Social Position of Unemployed Disabled People in Slovenia: Characteristics of Individual Groups of the Disabled Regarding the Legal Provision on Disability
The authors analyse the position of individual groups of the disabled - due to work, war, categorisation (juveniles), and those who got the status on the basis of the Law of Training and Employment of the Disabled Persons - on the labour market. Their findings are based on the research Economical and Social Position of Unemployed Disabled People in Slovenia they carried out (with collaborators) in 1995. Individual groups of the disabled differ according to their degree of education, their age and their interest in employment. As a whole, this group of employment seekers have worse personal characteristics (lower education, higher age, shorter and more negative working experience, more health problems) than the unemployed who are not disabled. That reason, along with inadequate systemic solutions, contributes to their increasing marginalisation.
Lawyer and sociologist Cveto Uršič, M. A., is an assistant lecturer of labour legislation and social safety at the University of Ljubljana School of Social Work, Programme Director at the Republic of Slovenia Institute of Rehabilitation, a member of the expert council of the Social Chamber of Slovenia, and the national co-ordinator for Rehabilitation International, a worldwide NGO. Sociologist Janez Drobnič is a counsellor to the Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs.
Metod Tekavčič
Effects of the Club of Employment Seekes'
The comparison of a group of persons categorised as long-term unemployed who are members of an employment seeking club (n = 19) with a comparable group of nonmembers (n = 20) - equalized in gender, age, education, marital status, employment age, duration of unemployment, cause of unemployment and self-rating of possibilities for employment - conducted after three weeks of the former group's participation in the club shows that the groups differ significantly (chi-square test) in self-ratings of self-esteem and of their performance in the employment interview, the members being higher on both items. In the member-group, there are fewer persons who had been seeking employment through formal and informal channels before they enrolled into the club. There are no significant differences between groups in their statements of psychological, social and economic stresses of unemployment and in manifestations of readiness for education and training.
Metod Tekavčič is a social worker; at the time of writing this paper, he was a last year student of social work.
Sonja Žorga
OPEN DILEMMAS IN THE PRACTICE OF PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION
(Full text)
The decision to organise professional supervision is usually met v^^ith a number of content-related
and organisational problems amongst the management and other professionals themselves.
They wonder whether supervision is to be obligatory, what is it to be focused upon, hov^ to
choose a suitable supervisor and what form is a supervisory group to assume. They may hesitate
between voluntary and obligatory supervision and ponder on the size of the group, the frequency
and length of supervisory sessions and the duration of a supervisory cycle. None of these questions
can be ansvvered univocally, as the solution depends on several circumstances, wishes and
in particular the purposes supervision is to follow. The author presents some basic functions of
supervision, and in throwing light on various possibilities, she offers a variety of answers to, and
Solutions of, the dilemmas that accompany these questions.
Sonja Žorga, Ph. D., is lecturer of developmentalpsychology and co-ordinator of post-graduate specialisation studies of supervision at University of Ljubljana Pedagogical Faculty.
Blaž Mesec
Effects of the Club of Employment Seekers: Commentary
In the commentary to the above report, the problems of interpretation related to the ex post facto design are discussed, and an interpretation is offered, partially supported by the findings of the research that the persons who voluntarily enrolled in the employment seeking club were more dependent, more ready to admit helplessness and accept help ("weak job seekers"); on the other side, the nonmembers are less dependent, less ready to admit helplessness and ask for help ("strong job seekers"). It seems that those who admit their own helplessness and seek help have higher possibilities to get employment.
Dr. Blaž Mesec is associate professor of methodology and Dean of University of Ljubljana School of Social Work.
Irena Bizjak
Joint Parenthood after Divorce or Break-up of an Extramarital Household: Better Opportunities for Social Work with Family
The paper presents the possibility of arranging for joint parenthood of children after divorce or break-up of an extramarital household through practice and law. Many courts of law do not take into consideration parents' agreements on joint care of their child, referring to the Law of Matrimony and Family Relations that does not mention that possibility. More and more countries have altered their legal practice and the law itself, so that when circumstances allow, the child is assigned to both parents' care and upbringing. To entrust the child to one parent only has become rather an exception in cases when joint care would not be to the child's benefit. The author's intent is to contribute to better social work with the family in which none of the parents renounces his or her care of the child. This approach in social work stimulates the quality of work, does not exclude anybody and seeks opportunities for both parents to care for their child.
Social worker Irena Bizjak is counsellor for partnerships and family relations at Centre of Social Work Piran.
Franc Udovič
Mediation as Compared with Related Approaches
The rapid growth of the practice of mediation in the world indicates that this approach to resolving interpersonal conflicts is very effective and obviously fills the gap that has always been felt by social work practitioners. The process of mediation with its temporal-logical graded structure and clear orientation towards an honest, self-responsible and co-operative conflict solution is an opportunity for the partners in conflict to keep dignity and self-respect while asserting their interests. The interdisciplinarity of the mediation technique (social sciences, psychology, law and economy) allows a comprehensive and dynamic treatment of conflict. In this way, the partners reach agreements that are suitable to the circumstances and satisfy all the participants, thus obtaining permanent value. Such conflict management seems particularly important in the field of family relations, where a continuation of a relationship between partners is expected, as what is often at issue is the delicate question of protecting the rights and welfare of their children. These can be best protected if the parents keep co-operating and jointly care for the children (mutual parenthood). In order to do so, numerous and precise agreements are needed between the parents, as well as their readiness to adjust them to changed circumstances. All of this can be achieved in the process of mediation.
Pedagogue and social worker Franc Udovič is senior counsellor in the field of divorce and separation and head of Mediation project at the Social Work Centre in Maribor.
Stanija Ivanjšič
Some Open Questions and Dilemmas of Social Work in a Home of the Aged
In the time when our society irreversibly ages, institutional care has become a necessity or a need dictated by the contemporary way of life. Institutional care is the most widely spread form of organised care of the aged in Slovenia. Despite great efforts to enrich the life in homes of the aged with cultural and social actions, a part of psychological and emotional needs of an aged person can only be satisfied by his or her friends and relatives. The paper lists the open questions met by social workers in relation to the aged persons and their relatives, to their teams, to the institutions employing them, and to other institutions and individuals with whom they co-operate. The red thread is in these questions: how to preserve personal integrity of the aged person; how to alleviate the effects of institutionalisation; and how to successfully carry out the role of institution and the role of counsellor. Open questions and dilemmas met at work can be solved in supervision. Supervision enables professional growth of a counsellor, keeps up his or her self-confidence and autonomy in decisions, which is crucial for his or her successful work and content at work.
Social worker Stanija Ivajnšič works in Home of the Retired D. Vogrinec, the Tabor unit, Maribor.
Vida Kramžar Klemenčič
Individual Faith as Related to the Concept of Psychosocial Development
The field of individual faith, established by W. James at the beginning of the century, is wide and ramified. Several theoretical clusters stem from it, the research of personal faith as related to personality development for one. The pioneer of such research was G. Allport. In the author's view, one of his most interesting successors was E. Erikson who, on the basis of general anthropological assumptions, built an interesting and well known theory of personality development and linked it to the phenomenon of ritualisation. Ritualisation is not synonymous with the religious but its condition. In the process of individual ritualisation all elements of religious ritual or experience can appear, such as numinosity, dramaticallity, adherence etc. Such research gives grounds to the investigations of the diversity and the universality of religious conduct.
Sociologist Vida Kramžar Klemenčič, M. A., teaches social science courses at Secondary School Zagorje.