George Palattiyil

Globalization and cross-border reproductive services: Ethical implications of surrogacy in India for social work

Surrogacy in the context of cross-border care has hitherto received little attention from the international social work community. In India, the provision of surrogacy services for foreign couples may be seen as part of the country’s wider health tourism industry. This article overviews current evidence on surrogacy in India, and discusses the extent to which proposed legislation, the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (Regulation) Bill and Rules 2009, satisfactorily addresses social workers’ concerns to ensure adequate protection of the interests of young Indian women engaged in surrogacy, as outlined in the International Federation of Social Workers’ policy on cross-border reproductive care.

Coping strategies of families in HIV/AIDS care: some exploratory data from two developmental contexts

Abstract Caring for a family member with HIV/AIDS presents multiple challenges that strain a familys physical, economic and emotional resources. Family carers provide physical care and financial support and deal with changes in family relationships and roles, often with little support from outside of the family. Carers in developing countries face even greater challenges, due to lack of medical and support services, poverty and widespread discrimination against those with HIV/AIDS. Little is known about how family carers cope with these challenges or about the ways that development impacts on the process of coping. The current study explored coping strategies used by family carers in two contexts, Kerala, India and Scotland, UK. As part of a larger study, 28 family carers of persons living with HIV/AIDS were interviewed −23 in Kerala and 5 in Scotland. A modified version of the Ways of Coping scale was used to assess coping strategies. Responses were compared on the total number of coping responses used as well as on selected subscales of the WOC. Differences were assessed using the Mann-Whitney U-test. The two cohorts differed significantly in terms of the coping strategies used. The carers from Scotland used a larger number of different coping strategies and scored higher on measures of problem focused coping, positive reappraisal, seeking social support, self-controlling and distancing/detachment. Respondents from Kerala scored higher on a measure of self-blame. Results are discussed in terms of the impact of community resources on coping strategies.

Issues of Alcohol Misuse among Older People: Attitudes and Experiences of Social Work Practitioners

This small-scale qualitative research focused on the experiences of social workers vis-à-vis older people who misuse alcohol. Based in an Older Peoples Team in the west of Scotland, the study explored service provision for alcohol misuse and examined whether practitioners felt the existing services provided by the Substance Misuse Team were effective in meeting the needs of older people with an alcohol problem. Using semi-structured interviews, data were collected from 18 participants, the majority (14) of whom were female and whose ages ranged from 31 to 54 years. Several key themes emerged including the extent of alcohol problems among older people and the complex reasons that cause older people to misuse alcohol. These reasons commonly related to the increasing challenges of old age. The data also demonstrated that current services are not meeting the needs of older people. Practitioners identified a need for an ‘age-specific’ approach to target more effectively the complex needs of older people. Recommendations from practitioners included ways to develop new and more effective services, including a more age-specific service, such as providing longer term support in older peoples own homes, using a specialised support worker, and increasing staff training on alcohol use among older people.

Guest Editorial – Social Work in India

Social work in India has a chequered history, originating from a pre-modern charitable response of individuals or groups of people to address the problems of society, and evolving to the more modern professionalisation of social work underlined by formal training in theory and practice. The origins of social work in India are rooted in the humanitarian and altruistic ideals, which took the shape of voluntary work or religious pursuits to help the poor and needy. While these trends continue to influence social work practice in India, the emergence of professional social work has struck a chord for a more radical and action-oriented social work practice. Social work as a profession was introduced to India by American educators who in 1936 established the first school of social work in Mumbai, which is known today as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. TISS was a pioneering effort to professionalise social work with the objective of bringing about social welfare through academic excellence. The establishment of TISS was followed by that of a number of other schools of social work, many of which have been modelled on Western approaches to practice and catering to the domestic market. The radical shift came at the turn of the century, driven by the global demand for social workers, leading to a mushrooming of schools of social work across the country, producing qualified social workers en masse. As a practice, professional social work in India is embedded in the values of equality, worth, and dignity of all people; is motivated by the aspirations for human rights and social justice; and strives to alleviate poverty and empower marginalised and oppressed people in order to realise their true potential. As such, social workers can be described as change agents in a society that is marked by caste and class divisions and structural inequalities. Although the more established schools of social work are modelled on the Western philosophical ideas and the National Association of Social Worker’s Code of Practice, there has been a fundamental shift towards indigenising social work – appreciating the cultural differences and societal values that the Indian psyche is accustomed to. Nonetheless, it is evident that globalisation and its overwhelming impact on India’s masses have led to a more radical and activist type of social work interventions with mass movements, such as efforts to work against the displacement of the rural poor resulting from multi-national hydro-electric projects or movements fostering the equality of Dalits (the untouchables). PRACTICE: SOCIAL WORK IN ACTION VOLUME 24 NUMBER 2 (APRIL 2012)

Surviving or thriving? Enhancing the emotional resilience of social workers in their organisational settings

Summary High rates of absence due to stress, and issues with recruitment and retention of staff suggest that social work is a challenging profession. Despite this, many social workers gain a great deal of satisfaction from their role. Various studies have focused on stress management in social work. Less attention has been paid to how social workers maintain resilience in the face of challenges and thrive in their role. Drawing on a social constructionist approach to explore how social workers conceptualise emotional resilience in the context of their profession, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 13 social workers employed in local authority teams. Findings The findings highlight how emotional resilience tended to be associated with stress management by the social workers interviewed. Organisational and structural factors were felt to threaten resilience more than the emotional intensity of working with service users. Application When resilience is conceptualised as stress management, sources of adversity need to be addressed to enable social workers to survive. Resilience needs to be reconceptualised as positive adaptation to the challenges of the social work role in order to promote factors that enable workers to thrive. The insights from the study exhort us to re-examine the scope of social work organisations to enhance the resilience of their workers.

Reclaiming international social work in the context of the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development: Some critical reflections:

The protection of human rights and the promotion of social justice is a shared spirit manifested within all social work. Islands of local concern are directly affected by global stresses and inequalities, and the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development has created a space for repositioning social work globally in addressing these challenges. This article opens up definitions and examples of international social work, arguing the need for integrating an international outlook within social work education and policy in order that the emerging workforce, wherever they may be, are equipped with the knowledge, skills and values for international action.