Bogdan Lešnik

This (treble) issue contains selected contributions to the Second Slovenian Congress of Social Work that took place last September in Portorose. There have been two ‘selections.’ Authors themselves made the first one by deciding whether or not to submit their papers; the second one was the result of the reviewing process. However, some accepted papers will be published in subsequent issues. The non-Slovenian reader is given yet another selection. As always, the English table of contents lists only full articles (with English abstracts). It does not include those presentations at the congress that have not been developed into such texts, but have instead been accepted for publication in the format of reports. *** The distinguished colleague Gabi Čačinovič ­Vogrinčič has developed a methodical concept that she translates into English as ‘unique projects of help.’ Its point of departure is the co-elaboration of the plan of action towards the solution; the worker and those who seek help with a problem make it and carry it out together, on the basis of their ‘co-research’ of their preferred solutions, potentials, opportunities, resources, etc., as opposed to the mere application or enforcement of a Procrustean template of ‘problem solution.’ The author has formulated the concept in her work with families, but it makes equal sense in the work with couples, groups, and individuals (with their personal social networks). The project that emerges from such joint efforts of the participants in a given situation is indeed inevitably ‘unique.’ However, we are not certain that the term ‘unique projects of help’ adequately describes the method, which is referred to in more than one paper, so perhaps this explanation will be useful. Suggestions are welcome.

Gabi Čačinovič Vogrinčič

The solution of many problems confronted in social services requires the participation of users’ families. The process of help in social work with families includes a search of good outcomes by and for all partakers in the problem. The process involves both the family and its individual members. The worker’s aim is never to preserve the family at all cost but to find better conditions for its members in the family or outside, and to support them to remain together, transform, or part. Social work with the family is carried out in unique projects of cooperation, which the workers co-elaborate with each family. The paper discusses the basic tasks in the development of a doctrine of social work with families and conceptualises the work as the co-elaboration of solutions in a working relationship, and as the accomplishment of the needed changes together with the family.

Vida Miloševič Arnold

The paper presents a model of integral treatment of persons with dementia and argues for its use in homes for the aged. The author refers mainly to the contribution of social work as a profession, whose values and ­concepts significantly shape the fruition of the model. She presents a possible course of work with persons with dementia on the basis of the model, as well as the possible tasks and contributions of the social worker in a sheltered departments for residents with dementia.

Marie-Anne Zahl

Peter Berger was a central contributor to the development of the secularisation theory in the 1950s and 1960s. The theory holds that modernisation leads to a decline of religion both in society and in the minds of individuals. However, Berger himself is now questioning, even falsifying, the secularisation theory. In social work methods textbooks we find little, if any, attention given to knowledge and skills development in this sensitive area. The paper presents Norwegian social workers’ attitudes towards religion and spirituality in social work practice based on questionnaire data. The data reveal a general reluctance. Close to 25 % of the respondents found it against the mission and ethical principles of social work to integrate religion and spirituality in social work practice. However, the great majority want to learn more and find it appropriate to include spirituality in work such as foster-care. If spirituality is an integral part of a person, and if resource orientation is prevalent when working with clients, then the areas of religion and spirituality can hardly be ignored. Some ideas of what to include in social work education are therefore presented as possible practice tools and for further discussion.

Nina Mešl, Nataša Omladič Ograjenešek

Children and adolescents who see a solution for their distress in temporary retreat from their living environments can in the last decade seek help in crisis centres for the youth. Recovery from a traumatic event requires adequate help, which cannot be provided without additional skills. For every child or adolescent seeking help a unique project of help is developed. The process of work in a crisis centre is divided into three chronological stages, related to the course of crisis. In the initial state of acute crisis, vulnerability, confusion, and distress, a safe, peaceful environment is necessary for support and to confirm that the young person was right to seek help. During his or her stay in the centre, the work is focused on co-researching and co-creating the conditions for further action, so that all participants in the problem develop the preferred outcome together. The end of the process is marked by the solution of the crisis and possibly a plan for further work.

Sabina Jelenc Krašovec, Sonja Kump

Participation in educational activities helps establish and/or maintain social networks of the elderly, increases their power and decreases their social exclusion. It raises a number of social resources and stimulates four dimensions of social support: it provides companionship and emotional, instrumental and informational support. The authors find that the ­supply of education for the elderly has improved during the last two decades, but the participation of the elderly nevertheless diminished between 1987 and 2004. However, since research shows the reduction of the significance of the perceived obstacles that discourage the elderly from participating, more elderly people would probably take up education, had its supply been more adequate. The need for a different conception of education for the elderly is evident from the finding that even in 2004, the main motivation to enter education was the need for social relations.

Marina Ajduković

The role of women in the development of social work in Croatia is analysed in three periods: 1900 – 1941 (the influence of women’s organisations, women’s movements and the emancipation of women), 1941 – 1952 (the role of women in the care for the victims of war, especially children, and the impact of women on the professionalisation of social work), and 1952 – 1960 (the role of women in the foundation of the school for social workers and in the development of the profession of social work). Each period is marked by the activities of a concrete woman. Milica Bogdanović was the president of the society ‘Protectors of Girls’ (1927–1936), Diana Budisavljević organised the rescue of, and care for, several thousand children, victims of war (1941–1945), and Tatjana Marinić was one of the founders of the Zagreb school for social workers. The analysis of the role of women in the development of social work is the framework for a reflection on more general questions: Is social work of ‘female or male gender?’ How did the marginal social status of women motivate their active role in the profession of social work? Has the entry of women into the field of care for the discriminated and vulnerable groups contributed to the professional and academic promotion of women or to the marginalisation of social work as a profession? What has been the role of individual ‘strong women’ in the development of the profession?

Bogo Jakopič, Bogdan Knavs

In the distant past, care for the deaf was often very bad. Christianity established a more respectful attitude. In Slovenia, as in other European countries, there have been many priests, nuns and conscientious Christians who devoted themselves to the deaf. The paper discusses, amongst others, Dr. Valentin Stanič, who founded an institution for deafmute people in Gorica, Ignacij Holzapfel, the ‘material father’ of its equivalent in Ljubljana, and Alojzij Tome, who was forbidden entry into the Ljubljana institution after the war, even though he had wholly dedicated himself to the population. Many teachers have donated or bequeathed them their property. Today, priests can work with the deaf again, this time under the umbrella of Religious Centre of the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing based in Ljubljana.

Jana Mali, Vida Miloševič Arnold

The authors discuss the attitude towards users in homes for old people and their ­employment of staff. A survey of archives and other research material show that the attitude towards users in the homes corresponds to their employment policies and to the development of social and medical professions that now prevail in them. The employment of specialised profiles begins in the 1960s; since 1980s, with the regularisation of medical care in the homes, the trend is to increasingly employ medical staff. Even though social workers introduce new activities in the homes, the medical model still predominates.

Iain Ferguson

The growth of inequality and erosion of social solidarity brought about by two decades of neo-liberal policies points to the renewed relevance of the radical social work tradition in the 21st century. The paper argues that since its origins in the 19th century, social work has possessed a ‘radical kernel,’ most evident during periods with a high level of social struggle. Central to this radical tradition is an emphasis on locating people who use social work services within a wider context of structural oppression, political and economic processes, and the meaning of events to the actors involved. The ­conclusion is that the emergence of new social movements in recent years in opposition to neo-liberalism and war offers fresh opportunities for social work to renew its commitment to equality and social justice.

Mateja Sedmak

The history of scientific investigations of ethnic heterogamy is the history of scientific pathologisation of this type of partnership or family relations. One of its consequences is the total absence of counselling and therapeutic work with the members of ethnically mixed families. Such work can only be accomplished successfully by taking into consideration the explicit or implicit cultural assumptions that bear upon spouses or partners experiencing a crisis. According to the research conducted in the multicultural area of Istria, the most potentially problematic culturally defined elements in the life of spouses and families are gender roles and the attached expectations. The other significant cultural differences encountered by ethnically mixed partners are dissenting views on the roles within the family and the attached expectations; dissenting views on privacy and on individuals’, partners’ and the family’s needs for privacy; different degrees and modes of collectivity (socialising, hospitality, solidarity); differences in emotions and their expressions; differences in personal, motivational and performance-related orientation towards the present or the future; and differences in mentalities, ways of life and general world-view.

Maca Jogan

In post-socialist Slovenian society, there are two opposing trends of addressing gender discrimination; on the one hand, the fortification of capitalist economy is linked to the revival of the traditional androcentric order, and on the other, accession to EU obligates Slovenia to implement the strategy of equal opportunities. The implementation of equality has institutional roots in the former (socialist) social order as well. On the grounds of public opinion polls since 1990s till 2003, the author finds a change of attitude towards gender inequality in two directions. Some characteristics of the observed period indicate an increased valuation of equality (in both genders): the dominating, unequivocal refusal of the ‘single carer’ ideology; the established view that employment is the basis of women’s autonomy; the diminishing of the belief that housework fulfils women just as much as their participation in paid work; the weakening of the idea that what women desire the most are home and children; a more energetic renunciation of the idea that women should stay home, even in the case of mothers with (pre)school children; and the awareness of half of the men that they should get more involved in existentially pressing housework. On the other hand, along distinctively disproportionate burdening of men and women with urgent housekeeping and family-related tasks, it is increasingly held that the employment of women impairs the family, which may contribute to the emergence or intensification of guilt feelings in some women, since most women do not consider employment a temporary, transient undertaking. This invisible moral overburdening of women, together with a visible physical one, is precisely what helps maintain or even reinforce the sexist, male-centred tradition in Slovenian society.

Simona Gerenčer

Deafblind persons are people with simultaneous impairment of hearing and vision. Their double disability requires a specific mode of communication and a specific approach. In many European countries, there are national associations that offer programmes for work and rehabilitation to deafblind persons and thus make it possible for them to socialise; in Slovenia, however, almost nothing is heard about them. Their number is unknown, no literature exists, and there are no interpreters. Deafblind persons are an overlooked group of people. On the basis of demographic ­indicators used worldwide, it is estimated that there are between 100 and 360 such persons in Slovenia (amongst the population of 2 million). Their communication is adjusted to their remaining abilities. Because of the mistaken assumption that they are incapable to communicate or live ordinary lives, they are pushed in total social and mental isolation.

Borut Grabrijan

In Slovenia, deinstitutionalisation in the field of mental health began in 1991. Non-­governmental organisations have been the main actors in the process. It has brought changes to the situation in which the treatment of persons with prolonged difficulties in mental health had been primarily in the hands of psychiatric hospitals and special social care institutions. Notwithstanding the involvement of medical centres, and to an extent of centres of social work, in psychosocial rehabilitation, the main load of normalising the life of discharged psychiatric patients had fallen on their families. After the initial wave of mental health programmes that started in 1991, the state has defined priorities in the ‘National Programme in the Field of Social Care until 2005.’ The author surveys the programmes that have been co-financed by the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, particularly in the period 1996 – 2005, by their types, by the types of their co-financing, and by the geographical dimension of their expansion in Slovenia.

Toni Vrana

The author first defines social responsibility in general terms, and then in more concrete terms of the international project ExSoRes, a study of social responsibility in the social field. Its findings point to the multifariousness and vagueness of the notion in that sector, and to the need to shape specific definitions. Further, he discusses the paradoxes and dilemmas of social responsibility between claims and reality and between free choice and obligation, and raises the question whether education for social responsibility is tenable. Finally, he stresses the importance of an adequate environment, in which organisations could articulate their views on their responsibility, and of personal responsibility in the accomplishment of socially responsible behaviour.

Romana Zajc

Old-age pension insurance and disability insurance are two highly important civil rights concerning social security. The paper discusses the changes brought about by the Pension and Disability Insurance Act. The legal conditions to acquire the right to pension in Slovenia are compared with other European countries. The analysis of comparative samples from a public institution and a business organisation is presented, in particular with regard to the duration of work experience, the age of persons, and their intended retirement age in relation to gender. Insured persons may shorten the required ­duration of work experience by ‘buying off’ their study years, maternity, military service, and by the duration of their registered unemployment. The Act reduced the rights deriving from compulsory old-age pension ­insurance, but it introduced additional pension insurance, which is a topical issue both for individuals and for the companies that sell additional pension insurance.

Blaž Mesec

The paper criticises the definition of social work by IASSW and IASW as unspecific and inadequate. The definition does not state that social work is not only a profession but also a science of solving social problems. It does not state the genus proximum of the profession (helping professions), its specifics, or its actual objective (help to solve concrete persons’ social problems and distress). It does not specify the social changes it supports, or the problems in human relationships it helps overcome. Imposing on social work the task of emancipating people for their own good, it repeats the ideological formula of class struggle. The complexity of social work tasks is reduced to the empowerment of unspecified ‘people.’ In defining social work as the endeavour for structural social changes, it crosses the boundaries of the profession. The author sees the origin of this confusion in the relics of ‘critical social theory,’ which are based in unrealised hopes for socialism in the generation that embraced it when it had already collapsed.

P. Videmšek, V. Flaker, B. Kresal, M. Nagode, N. Rode, J. Škerjanc, Š. Urh

Tamara Rape, Pavla Rapoša Tajnšek

Maria Anastasiadis, Paul Weihs

Tanja Medvešek

Danijela Jelka Bratec

Tatjana Rožič

Ksenija Ramovš, Jože Ramovš

Jasna Vešligaj – Damiš

Jože Ramovš, Danica Hren, Pavlina Žgajnar

Jasmina Breznik, Duška Landeker

Bojana Petrovič

Marija Serdoner – Lavrenčič, Tatjana Dolinšek

Bogdan Lešnik

Dina Vanja Dobovičnik, Lilijana Vučenović, Jelka Zorn, Tanja Skornšek Pleš

Nino Rode, Liljana Rihter, Barbara Kobal

As an evaluation system is soon to be introduced in social care, it is time for discussing its procedures. Each evaluation is unique, yet the procedures must be repeatable, testable, and they must give comprehensible results. Only then may the assessments of one object be compared with those of another. The authors propose a procedure that links the uniqueness of evaluation with the need for comparability: a combination of self-evaluation and external evaluation, which is based on uniform criteria and a uniform collection of the data. They argue for professional evaluation. The question of evaluators' competences leads to their proposal of an institutional place of evaluation. Some solutions are proposed for the problems of collecting the data for evaluation and of the format of assessments. The scenario of evaluation procedures is proposed.

Andreja Kavar Vidmar

Being employed is a special kind of inclusion. According to M. Jahoda, it has consequences in the fields of income, time structure, contacts outside the family, status and identity, links between individual and collective aims, legality and control. When it ends, because one becomes unemployed or retires, these consequences are brought to an end as well. The author compares the situations of becoming unemployed and becoming retired, illuminating especially the position of the recently retired.

Jana Mali

The concepts of living and working in institutions for aged people do not match the needs, wishes and demands of users. To illustrate this point, the author emphasises their essential feature of being institutions, analysing it through Goffman's concept of the total institution. Her research has shown that while there is a greater consideration for the users, and that the staff tries to comply with their needs and demands, but only within the institutional framework. In the first place, these institutions are concerned with providing for large crowds of people.

Simona Hvalič Touzery

Informal help to aged people is an important supplement to formal and private care services, yet the state does not sufficiently support and acknowledge it. Family carers of aged people are neglected in both political and professional spheres. The author points out the significance of family care for its aged members in the light of social-demographic changes. She presents the profile of family carers and social care for aged people in Slovenia, comparing it briefly with the situation in Italy and Denmark. In European Union, close family members care for two thirds of aged people in need, and two thirds of this care are provided by women. In Slovenia, too, the bulk of this work is performed by female relatives. The largest part of aged people's social network are family members, most often children and partners, who provide the most of help. Until now, Slovenian programmes of social and medical care have not included family carers of aged people. However, the drafts of the national programme of social care for aged people in 2006-2010 and the new national strategy of social development with a great proportion of aged population do anticipate support for family carers of aged people.

Barbara Kobal

For some time now, a change of family legislation, which includes the regulation of guardianship, is under preparation in Slovenia. Different professional groups have different ideas about how it should be arranged. The author considers the possibility of a greater inclusion of contemporary trends in social care services, in the first place the pluralisation of the welfare system and the related reinforcement of the users' participation. Since the act of social care (dated 1992) and the national programme of social care until 2005 have begun to introduce the pluralisation of social care services, this could be extended to guardianship as a form of social care for the people who, for various reasons, cannot care for themselves. At present, the most disputable provisions are the suspension of transactional ability for the persons under guardianship and the prolongation of parenting rights to the parents of such persons.

Špela Urh

The author's field research shows that the living conditions of the Roma in three municipalities in Bela Krajina (Črnomelj, Metlika, Semič) are quite similar. The Roma live in marginal settlements, most frequently in huts, and only a few families live in apartments. Few Roma settlements have ­electricity and running water. Most houses are illegal buildings. Only a few dozens Roma in Bela Krajina are fully employed. For the most part, they are non-qualified workers in communal jobs (disposal of garbage, cleaning parks and streets, etc.). The reason is their low level of education, but discrimination is frequent as well. Social workers who meet the Roma professionally often breach the ethical code of social workers, which demands non-discriminatory attitude towards users. The only firmly established provision of the state is granting financial support.

Viktorija Bevc

In Slovenia, children are mainly adopted by infertile couples. The results of the questionnaire applied to the couples with fertility problems who participated in the adoption preparation programme that is carried out by the Association "Deteljica" show that most couples are deeply emotionally distressed by their inability of biological reproduction. From the emotional state of these couples before their inclusion into the programme, one can infer the emotional state of the majority of infertile couples who adopt a child without preparations that would relieve them from the pressure caused by infertility. Emotional instability has a strong impact on the capacity to adopt a child and on the general mood of the couple. From the professional point of view, to carry out adoptions without substantial preparations of the couple is a questionable practice. Most children are adopted by infertile couples that, inhibited by their feelings of inadequacy, meet the child's needs with difficulty, since they primarily follow their need to feel on a par with couples that give birth to their children.

Janko Cafuta

Tanja Lamovec

Tatjana Kavšek

Emica Toplak

Suzi Kvas

Dževada Popaja, Natalija Gregorič

Darja Zaviršek

N. Mešl, Š. Urh, T. Rape, M. Pajnhart, S. Štrbenc, M. Markoč