This article discusses the violence perpetrated by clients against social workers who provided services to COVID-19 patients and their families in Chilean hospitals during the initial peak of the disease in the country. In this way, this becomes the first study to analyze client violence toward social workers in the health crisis generated by the pandemic. The results indicate that the presence of aggressions from clients is high and social workers’ coping strategies are passive. Finally, the urgent call for prevention and the need for research are presented.
In this In Brief, the authors present an argument about the challenges for feminist social work in Chile, given the political transformation process occurring since 2019 in the country. Through an approach that addresses the history of social work in dialogue with important political events for Chile and their consequences for the feminist and social movements, the authors argue that—despite the progress achieved—the main challenge for feminist social work today continues to be a male privilege. This is exemplified by a critical view of two main social work development fields: social services and academia. Finally, referring to critical and feminist perspectives, the authors reflect on possibilities for change in social work practice and education, given the political uncertainty that Chile is facing, particularly after the failure of the first constitutional election.
Stressful situations are likely to impact health and social care workers’ quality of life negatively. Indeed, mental, physical, and emotional health problems have been reported in relation to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life of health care workers. Instead of health care workers’ reality, and despite the care sector’s relevance, studies of the effects of COVID-19 on the quality of life of care workers have not been sufficiently explored. Recognizing the effect of COVID on the quality of life of care workers will collaborate with leaders of organizations, social work practitioners, and academics in the design of policies that promote better working conditions. Therefore, during 2021, a study was carried out in Chile where 150 social services and care workers were surveyed in Chile using a version of COV19-QoL in Spanish. The impact of COVID on quality of life is described, and the challenges that this reality implies to social service leaders are presented.
The concept of ethics in social work is the practical knowledge based on professional experience. To understand ethics in macro social work, first, ethics and morals will be described broadly as well their relevance to social work identity. Then, codes of ethics, standards, and ethics committees are presented as components of integrity systems. In the same way, professional principles and values together with their relation to macro–social work definitions are reviewed. These account for procedures that display autonomy, reciprocity, reflexivity, and conflict acceptance to arrive at prudent and fair decisions. As an applied ethics, social work ethics is concerned with the systematic analysis of ethical issues in practical contexts. In this sense, the work is focused on decision-making in macro social work, bringing out the challenges that professionals face and how they address these challenges. This analysis will be done considering the moral dilemmas that might arise for social workers in practice with/in communities, organizations, and the public policy arena. Finally, to argue decisions and actions in professional practice, some philosophical approaches are presented, which are selected according to their relevance to macro social work. Summarizing, communicative ethics, the ethics of conflict, the ethics of recognition and moral offense, and intercultural ethics are reviewed in order to avoid all kinds of fundamentalism and relativity in professional action.
En los últimos treinta años, el campo de la administración pública en América Latina ha girado en torno a cómo introducir reformas en el sector público inspiradas por la Nueva Gestión Pública. En efecto, la mayoría de las administraciones públicas se han enfocado casi exclusivamente en introducir este tipo de reformas, ignorando una serie de alternativas que han emergido en el debate académico. Una de esas alternativas es el enfoque de la motivación de servicio público, el cual analiza cómo ciertos factores intrínsecos, directamente asociados con la noción de servicio público, motivan el comportamiento de los empleados públicos. Este artículo tiene como objetivo fomentar un debate latinoamericano sobre cómo diseñar e implementar políticas de recursos humanos basadas en la teoría de la motivación de servicio público. A partir de una muestra no probabilística con 172 respuestas, el artículo identifica un número de factores de motivación de servicio público entre funcionarios públicos chilenos. Los hallazgos muestran que la atracción por las políticas públicas, el compromiso con el interés general y la compasión son factores tan poderosos como el amor por el dinero. Al mismo tiempo, los resultados muestran que el autosacrificio no motiva a los funcionarios públicos chilenos. A partir de estos hallazgos, se presenta una discusión sobre cómo la motivación de servicio público puede ser un enfoque útil para rediseñar políticas de recursos humanos.
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