Romanian social workers facing the challenges of neo-liberalism

Lazăr, Florin; Mihai, Anca; Gaba, Daniela; Ciocănel, Alexandra; Rentea, Georgiana Cristina; Munch, Shari

doi:10.1080/13691457.2018.1540405

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…There has been a suggestion that the advocacy role of social workers has increased under personalisation (e.g. Lazăr et al, 2019), but our findings also suggest that family members are often used as a proxy for the person. Whilst family may have the individuals' best interests at heart, they do not necessarily advocate for that person's own needs and wishes.…”

Section: Recommendations: Challenging Policy and Supporting Practicementioning

confidence: 49%

“…This increasingly managerialist approach to practice within Local Authorities has been criticised as leading to a bureaucratic, process driven social work with reduced professional autonomy, increasing workload, deskilling, and alienation of staff (Postle, 2002;McDonald et al, 2008;Trevithick, 2014). For example, Lazăr et al (2019) found that social workers in Romania felt under constant pressure from regulation, which was amplified by increased workloads. Such pressures are shared in other international contexts as well (see for example, Tasse and Boucher (2005), France; Grassi and Alayon (2005), Argentina;and McDonald and Chenoweth (2006), Australia).…”

Section: Policy Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social workers’ negotiation of the liminal space between personalisation policy and practice

Southall

Lonbay

Brandon

2019

European Journal of Social Work

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As a result of a changing legal and policy context, statutory social work with adults in the UK has undergone a series of radical reforms. Underpinning these changes has been an ideological shift in the way adult social care should be provided. A clear 'direction' including a focus on autonomy, self-determination and personal responsibility is being promoted. These represent changes for both social workers and people receiving services. However, it has been suggested that policy may not fully acknowledge the factors that may undermine the ability of some individuals to take control of and manage their own needs. This paper draws on findings from two research projects, undertaken with social work practitioners located in statutory adult social care teams in the North East of England. The first explored the involvement of older people in adult safeguarding and the second considered capacity assessments and best interest decision-making by social workers under the Mental Capacity Act (2005). This paper presents key findings regarding how social workers attempt to reconcile the gap between the profile of the service user in policy and the reality of the people that social workers are supporting in practice. Key recommendations for policy, practice, and further research are also discussed.

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Section: Recommendations: Challenging Policy and Supporting Practicementioning

confidence: 49%

Section: Policy Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social workers’ negotiation of the liminal space between personalisation policy and practice

Southall

Lonbay

Brandon

2019

European Journal of Social Work

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“…A recent Romanian qualitative study on social workers within the public social services before the COVID-19 pandemic [10] reported following stressors that severely challenged their daily professional practice: lack of resources for meaningful intervention; insufficient collaboration with other institutions; tangled and uncorrelated legislation; and misunderstanding of the roles and tasks of social work (on the part of clients, external institutions and even other departments within the social worker's host organisation).…”

Section: Stress and Burnout Among Social Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In sum, factors identified as contributing to the social workers' stress included the nature of social work practice, especially the tension between philosophy and work demands, the organization of the work environment [18] and the obstacles related to regulations and legislation [10].…”

Section: Stress and Burnout Among Social Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another aspect that characterizes the current social assistance system is the fact that the main focus of the professionals' work in this field is on the benefits of social assistance, and that the procedures for allocating these benefits are bureaucratic and too complicated, and social services are in-sufficient and sometimes non-existent, some of the needs of the communities being met by non-governmental organizations. Therefore, resources are insufficient to properly address clients' needs and there are tensions between the structural constraints and professional ethical [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stress and Burnout Among Social Workers in The VUCA world of COVID-19 Pandemic

Dima¹,

Meseșan-Schmitz²,

Șimon³

2021

Preprint

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This paper aims to contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social workers and the social work profession in Romania. Research has shown that social work is a profession at high risk for developing the burnout syndrome, which has many detrimental effects on both social workers and the clients that they serve. Two conceptual models are used to frame the discussion: the theoretical framework of VUCA (volatility, uncer-tainty, complexity, and ambiguity) to discuss the challenges of the unprecedented context the COVID-19 pandemic has created for social workers; stress and burnout to explain the negative impact of this period of time. Based on convergent mixt methods, the study sample consisted of 83 social workers employed in statutory and private social services in Romania, from different fields of intervention. Results show that 25,3% of respondents suffer from a high level of burnout and 44.6% scored in a range that indicate a medium level of burnout. A group of 31.1% have managed to handle stress factors in a healthy manner. Main stressors found are especially personal (fear of contamination, personal and family) and work-related factors (workload, new legislative rules and decisions, inconsistency, instability, ambiguity of managerial decisions, or even their absence or non-assumption, lack of clarity of working procedures, limited managerial and supervisory support, limited financial resources), less than client related factors (lack of direct contact, risk of contami-nation in two ways, managing beneficiaries fears, difficulties related to technology and digital skills). Study results point to the importance of organizational support and developing a self-care plan that help protect against occupational stress and burnout. Recommendations are made putting forward the voice of fieldworkers and managers fostering initiatives and applications of sustainability-based measures and activities designed to deal with the challenges of the VUCA environment.

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Romanian Social Work Education, Past and Present Crossroads

Roth

2020

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Work Education

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Romanian social workers facing the challenges of neo-liberalism

Cited by 17 publications

References 26 publications

Social workers’ negotiation of the liminal space between personalisation policy and practice

Social workers’ negotiation of the liminal space between personalisation policy and practice

Stress and Burnout Among Social Workers in The VUCA world of COVID-19 Pandemic

Romanian Social Work Education, Past and Present Crossroads

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