Social Work, Health, and International Development

Compassion in Social Policy and Practice

Serge Dumont, Myreille St-Onge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136455476
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medical Theory, Practice & Reference

Sharpen your social work in health care knowledge and skillsSocial Work, Health, and International Development: Compassion in Social Policy and Practice presents leading international experts from a range of disciplines providing the latest in research, theory, and practical solutions to advance social work in health care issues. Readers get a refreshed view on ways to put social policy into a compassionate and empathetic framework with strategies to more effectively meet today's challenges in social work and health care. This superb selection of papers from the Fourth International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health held in Quebec provides a unique perspective on social work and the development of a more compassionate world.Social Work, Health, and International Development: Compassion in Social Policy and Practice focuses on areas essential to every social worker no matter where they practice. The book explores the increased importance of compassion and solidarity among social workers, the essential need to effectively address the HIV/AIDS pandemic, strategies to more fully address aging issues, and best practices. The latest research findings and data are discussed to modify approaches and revitalize the field, all to help the world become a more caring, compassionate place.Topics in Social Work, Health, and International Development: Compassion in Social Policy and Practice include:

• social work interventions to lead needy countries from health to economic growth
  
• the concept of solidarity as a fundamental notion in social work
  
• the need to revisit social work's ethical foundations
  
• cultural competence in responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic
  
• a comprehensive action plan to deal with HIV/AIDS
  
• a study on grandparents' caring for children of AIDS victims
  
• multilevel interventions to promote elderly people's mental health
  
• forming partnerships that promote the diverse voices of older people
  
• recognizing deficiencies to increase cultural competency in staff
  
• "best practice" case management approach to improve patient adherence to care
  
• Internet-based intervention for caregivers of persons with dementia
  
• dyadic peer support pilot intervention for parents of children with lung disease
  
• continual education for increased professional competence
  
• much more!

Social Work, Health, and International Development is invaluable reading for social workers, health practitioners, researchers, and clinicians.

PART I

Introduction: Social Work and the Development of a More Compassionate World: Experiences and Knowledge to Share

Serge Dumont, PhD

Myreille St-Onge, PhD

In May 2004, the city of Quebec welcomed nearly 800 delegates from forty countries and five continents within the scope of the 4th International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health. Hosted by the Laval University School of Social Work and the Social Work Department of the Hôtel-Dieu-de-Lévis Hospital, this event took place under the umbrella theme: Social work and the development of a more compassionate world; experiences and knowledge to share.

This fourth major gathering has confirmed the emergence of a tradition that is deeply rooted in the international community of social workers working in the areas of health and mental health. Although they are all extremely committed to the various highly specialized fields in which they work, they are bound by a real need to meet with their counterparts to share experiences and further the development of knowledge. They are especially aware that the illnesses currently afflicting both individuals and their communities are signs of social inequalities and the current imbalance between human beings and their environment. The fight to alleviate human suffering and the causes and consequences of illness thus enriches humanity as a whole. The Fourth International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health provided them with the precious opportunity to reflect together on how social work can contribute to the development of a world that values compassion and solidarity.

---

[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Introduction: Social Work and the Development of a More Compassionate World: Experiences and Knowledge to Share.” Dumont, Serge, and Myreille St-Onge. Co-published simultaneously in Social Work in Health Care (The Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 44, No. 1/2, 2007, pp. 3-12; and: Social Work, Health, and International Development: Compassion in Social Policy and Practice (ed: Serge Dumont, and Myreille St-Onge) The Haworth Press, Inc., 2007, pp. 3-12. Single or multiple copies of this article are available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-HAWORTH, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (EST). E-mail address: [email protected]].

Available online at http://swhc.haworthpress.com

© 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1300/J010v44n01_01

The scientific program was structured so as to maximize the sharing of knowledge and views within each area of interest, with the hope of stimulating the emergence of new partnerships. Conference objectives were:

•	Offer a unique occasion to promote the development of knowledge and practices in health and mental health care.
•	Foster convergence among the creative, leading-edge actors in research and development related to the social aspects of health and mental health.
•	Encourage the formation of international partnerships in order to promote the development of research and training in healthcare and mental health care.
•	Offer graduate students in social work an opportunity to expand their professional network by establishing valuable contacts with colleagues, researchers and clinicians from many regions around the world.

Holding this event made it possible to bring together, under the same theme, internationally renown speakers, experienced experts, as well as researchers, clinicians and graduate students from different countries of the world, thus contributing to the reinforcement of collaborative links, the dissemination of new knowledge, and to increase research capacity within the field of health and mental health.

The quality of the communications was ensured through the presence of internationally renown speakers providing feature addresses, plenary speeches and satellite symposiums. A scientific committee comprised of 93 members assessed nearly 800 abstracts regarding their innovation and their contribution to the development of knowledge. Five hundred (500) participants were invited to speak or to present poster communications. The Conference themes were addressed by twenty-one keynote speakers (five feature addresses and sixteen plenary speeches). Moreover, within the scope of the conference’s main theme, seven sub-themes were addressed through satellite symposiums: social policies, mental health, violence, aging, HIV-AIDS, cancer, and mobility of populations-mobility of health related knowledge.

Of the five feature addresses, sixteen plenary speeches and 500 communications that were presented in the conference, sixty-nine were submitted to be considered for publication. Over the following year, these manuscripts were reviewed by external reviewers. This current volume includes two feature addresses, three plenary speeches and thirteen original articles. The issue is comprised of four sections: Compassion and Solidarity, HIV-AIDS, Aging, and Practices. These sections are summarized here.

COMPASSION AND SOLIDARITY

To start with, this volume presents the reader with the welcoming remarks delivered made by Serge Dumont, Vice President of the conference and President of the scientific committee. Dr. Dumont explains that the choice of the conference theme-Sharing experiences and knowledge: How social work can contribute to building a compassionate world–intertwines with the challenges now confronting social workers in the health field where major forms of suffering are often a reflection of inequities and imbalances in the relationship between individuals and their environment. Furthermore, the magnitude these inequities and imbalances is generally compounded by the presence of disease. Based on the works of Peter Kropotkine on mutual aid as a development factor of humanity, Dumont argues that the modern society has given social workers the mission of promoting social development and ensuring the well-being of individuals. Moreover he asserts that it is by building and strengthening solidarity that social workers acquire the capacity to establish compassionate social relationships.

After spending twenty years on the southern border of Mexico and working with migrants in Italy, Mozambique, Angola, and South Africa, the Padre Flor Maria Rigoni has learned that when a migratory trend begins, history follows suit, regardless of any rejection, discrimination and attempts to enforce borders. For him, it’s a living tide that represents a wager on the future. He evokes that the 245,000 dispossessed people who have passed through Casa del Migrante located in the Chiapas, Mexico, in the last twenty years have infused his work with meaning. It is through sharing the misery and suffering of migrants or other refugees that he explores with us the themes of compassion and solidarity. To him, compassion is a sister to empathy, a feeling of togetherness and a perception that the other person’s world is partly one’s own world too. Moreover, compassion is a positive attitude, it is an option in favor of the other person [… it is to embody here and now the person facing me and in whom I have decided to take an interest]. Solidarity is even broader than the concept of compassion and embraces unity, assistance, sharing, assuming the cause of the other and making it one’s own. He explains that the concept of solidarity rather has social overtones and very often refers to citizens’ duties and rights or to the notion of union harmony. He asserts that speaking of vulnerable categories, many times in the no-face, no-name daily dealings with people such as the undocumented, the sick or the handicapped, there is a dire need for an option that goes beyond the socio-political arena or even professionalism, and resides fundamentally in the dimension of gratuitousness and human brotherhood.

Karla Miley and Brenda DuBois invite social workers to revisit the ethical foundations of their practice. They list sixteen principles of ethics based on fundamental values of the profession that should embody our preferences in terms of ways of thinking and ways of conducting social work practices. These ethical principles remind us of the essential critical functions of the profession and enable us to situate our actions within issues related to the promotion of justice and the defense of rights, to the social development of communities, to solidarity betweens nations and people and finally, respect for dignity and self-determination. They assert that the simultaneous focus on human well-being and human rights is central to empowerment social work, as practice from this perspective contributes to building a more compassionate world.

HIV-AIDS

Social workers have been hailed by the HIV-AIDS epidemic since its initial manifestations. William Rowe reminds us that social work practitioners, researchers, and educators from around the globe gathered in Montreal on the occasion of the Joint Meeting of the International Federation of Social Workers and The International Association of Schools of Social Work in 2000 to dialogue on the unique and shared challenges we face in our respective regions concerning HIV. One of the outcomes of this gathering was a Manifesto on HIV Prevention and Care which was widely distributed around the world. One of the central tenants of this Manifesto was the critical need for cultural competence in responding to HIV-AIDS pandemic. In his article, Rowe uses the lens of cultural com petence to depict and analyse the reality in two countries, the United States and Indonesia, regarding the epidemic progression of this disease. Despite the fact that their experiences with HIV have been remarkably different, Rowe explains how future experiences may turn out to be very similar. Such evolution would be mainly attributable to cultural factors and he argues that social workers who value diversity must have the capacity to understand the socio-cultural dynamics related to the epidemic progression and must also promote programs and services in HIV prevention care that reflect an understanding of culture diversity.

In this regard Nigel Hall shares his thoughts about how social workers can help build more compassionate and ethical caring strategies that improve the lives of those living with the disease. In order to do so, he illustrates, with examples from his extensive experience, how the action plan proposed by the Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Information Dissemination Service can make a real impact. The core of this comprehensive action plan includes: Tackling the issue of poverty; tackling gender inequity, power issues and the roles of men and women; building an effective coalition through a multi-sectorial approach; and finally, tackling stigma and discrimination.

Within the prevention perspective, experiences in testing clinics have shown that the larger part of the population who request HIV tests can be classified into several main groups which are now well-documented and studied, such as homosexual people and injection drug users. However, Naama Patinkin and her colleagues from Israel have examined the behaviors and motivation of young heterosexual men and women who, without belonging to an at risk group, nonetheless go to testing clinics because they feel they engage in unsafe sexual behaviors. Results reveal several possible explanations for risky sexual behavior, such as applying of a variety of risk management mechanisms, refraining from impulse control behaviors, and self-destructive motives.

AGING

In her plenary speech, reported in this volume, Alice Ming-lin Chong highlights the trend of population ageing in the world, and in the People’s Republic of China in general, and Hong Kong in particular. She argues that due to improvements in hygiene and medical technology, people nowadays can live much longer. However, Dr. Chong is concerned about the inconsistency in psychosocial indicators in elderly populations where simultaneously high levels of life satisfaction and high suicidal rates, as well as the weakening of social support networks, are observed. With respect to this phenomenon, she shares meaningful insights and analyses the recent scientific knowledge in this field of research. Finally, she makes some suggestions for promoting elderly people’s mental health through different levels of intervention, including individual, family and social network, community and international levels.

Involving people in decisions about both their own needs and broader issues of service development, reflects an empowerment perspective promoted by health social workers. Jackie Powell examines the contribution of social work to an interdisciplinary research agenda designed to promote increased involvement of older people in issues of service quality in health settings. Based on research experiences in the United Kingdom, she asserts that social workers have many opportunities for rethinking research relationships and forging partnerships that promote the diverse voices of older people. For instance, involving older people in the research audit process, mixed-methods including focus groups or in-depth interviews, and an interactive research approach illustrate some meaningful opportunities in this area.

PRACTICE

Culture

According to a growing trend, hospitals in large cities must provide services to an increasingly diverse linguistic and cultural clientele. Some strategies have been adopted to...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• PART I
• PART II
• Index