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Decision support systems are known to be helpful for professionals in many medical professions. In social work, decision support systems have had modest use, accompanied by strong criticism from the profession but often by praise from political management. In this study the aim of the authors was to collect and report on the published evidence on decision support systems in social work. The conclusion of the authors is that a decision support system gives support to social workers in conducting a thorough investigation, but at the same time gives them the freedom to make autonomous decisions that might be the most helpful for and used by social workers. Their results also indicate that decision support systems focusing on atypical rather than typical cases are perceived as the most useful among experienced staff.
Is it possible to see future social work in today's social work students? It is likely that the way these students think about social work will form the future practice. In this study we investigate social work students' motives and expectations of their future profession. A survey was conducted among first semester students at four different universities in Sweden (n=243). The survey asked questions about the students' motives, what they thought the main aim of social work is, and how they would like to be seen as social workers. The results show among other things that social work students consider the main aim of social work is to improve people's lives, advocate on people's behalf, and protect vulnerable people. The most frequently stated motives for becoming involved in social work were to help vulnerable people, and an interest in social issues, and the least important were religious or political reasons. The study has not being able to identify any future changes in social work. This could be interpreted as showing that social work has basic values that are constant over time and cultures.
Over-indebtedness has become an increasingly common issue in Europe and a growing concern for social work. In Sweden, budget and debt counsellors are the main actors guiding over-indebted individuals towards financial well-being. This study analyses how budget and debt counsellors rhetorically make sense of and justify their service provision. The research data consist of interviews with thirty-nine counsellors, supported by vignettes. The analysis shows that counsellors make sense of their service by constructing two guiding principles: to promote financial agency, centred on upholding the client’s autonomy and self-determination in solving the debt problems, respectively, to promote financial change, centred on providing the advice, guidance and practical support required to alleviate the client’s debt problems. These two guiding principles construct the client’s capability and responsibility to deal with their debt burden differently and motivate the counsellors to take different courses of action in relation to the client. Counsellors’ sense-making talk can thus be said to both reproduce and challenge predominant policy discourses emphasising citizens’ personal responsibility for creating welfare. The findings are discussed in relation to their implications for social work policy and practice.
From time to time universities in the Global North teach social work in the Global South. This article describes and discusses pedagogical aspects of such projects, focusing on teaching styles and strategies developed. Nine interviews with Swedish teachers with experience of teaching in Iraqi Kurdistan were conducted. The teachers had different methods of mastering the teaching situations and three major styles were identified, referred to in this article as guide, therapeutic and Socratic.
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