Program Thursday 24 August

FinTech is a contemporary terminology used to describe innovative technologies in the financial sector. The paper explores ways in which fintech can support and enhance better e-health services and social inclusion. For this purpose, the presentation will include the case study of the UK’s Mental Health Challenge. An initiative was conducted by the UK’s financial regulatory authority, the Financial Conduct Authority in cooperation with the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, bringing together experts and stakeholders from across and outside financial services to develop technology-based ideas to address specific industry challenges. It is a case study of a unique regulatory innovation and modern financial regulatory governance that promotes collaboration across a spectrum of different industries with a common goal of providing better financial services to vulnerable customers with mental health issues and using innovative technologies to enhance different public policies, among which are public health services and social inclusion. The goal of the paper is twofold. Firstly, to propose ideas and insights into selected methods and means of approaching this challenging area. Secondly, to contribute to the academic discussion on what type of initiatives could efficiently promote social development through financial innovation that supports financial inclusion.

This paper discusses the philosophical foundations for developing a mixed-methods study on HIV prevention in Uganda, using the post-positivist and constructivist ontological positions, positivist objectivism epistemology, and axiological analysis. Uganda. Between 1992 and 2002, Uganda succeeded in reducing HIV prevalence from 18% to 6.1% primarily because of widespread adoption of low-risk behaviours and high AIDS-related mortality. Since 2002, Uganda's HIV prevalence fluctuated between 6.2% and 7.3%.

Using inference-based convergent mixed methods grounded in social ecology theory, I investigated changes in HIV prevention behaviours between 2000/1 and 2016 and associated behavioural factors. I confirmed that Abstinence, Be Faithful and Condom (ABC) use within a supportive policy environment were the cornerstone of Uganda’s early HIV decline. Knowledge about HIV, its transmission, and ABC Plus behaviours and circumcision increased, but high-risk practices are re-emerging, suggesting limited impact of knowledge on prevention behaviour, particularly among widowed, divorced, and separated individuals; sexually active young adults; and married men. Gaps exist in abstinence and faithfulness, and unprotected sex in risky encounters is common. Condom use has hardly increased since 2000/1, despite improved availability. I conclude that prevention efforts should target high-the widowed, divorced, and separated men and women to avert the potential HIV resurgence in Uganda.

India is an emerging economy that has experienced increased economic development and a growing middle class, while simultaneously continuing to be challenged by economic constraints and poverty. Within this context, a complex presentation of multi-generational malnutrition within the household emerges. Historically, multigenerational malnutrition occurred in the form of an underweight mother and child dyad. Contemporary research has identified double burden malnutrition, where mother and child are affected by different forms of malnutrition often with an overweight mother and underweight child. In India, given the changes in lifestyles, the prevalence of overweight among the population is increasing, resulting in an additional multigenerational single-form malnutrition of an overweight mother and child. The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence of these three forms of malnutrition among mother-child dyads, and to model predictors of each form. The study utilizes the India National Family Health Survey 2019-2021 and includes all households with children ages 13-59 months of age. Logistic regression models will be conducted using child, mother, and father characteristics, household factors, and healthcare access. Policies and interventions for addressing the complexity of malnutrition will be discussed.

Mental health practitioners who treat trauma survivors use trauma-focused therapies such as Brief Eclectic Psychotherapy for PTSD (BEP), Brainspotting (BSP), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), and Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE). Studies show that these therapies are effective. Investigating therapists’ self-perception of efficacy is crucial to applying these therapies. These therapies require appropriate education and training. It is vital that the practitioners are confident in treating trauma. Through our research, we hope to enhance the future practice of trauma-focused therapists by providing evidence-based guidelines. The purpose of this research study is to conduct a program evaluation of an EMDR training that a cohort of mental health practitioners completed. This study seeks to determine if clinicians' self-perception of efficacy in treating trauma will improve after completing EMDR training. We analyzed pre- and post- test data from a training to determine whether their self-perception of competence in treating clients with trauma improved after their EMDR training. We found several factors that affect practitioner’s self-perception of competence. In this presentation we discuss the implications of this study that contribute to mental health practice and the use of trauma-focused therapies.

Key principles of social work profession are social justice and human rights which include the right to health, as a fundamental human right. Health is the foundation for the personal, social and economic development of individuals and communities. The issue of health is not only an individual, biological and medical issue. Social justice is reflected in health and by that becomes a structural issue. Changes in social and health policy affects the everyday lives of all citizens. In this presentation based on a theoretical analysis of relevant Croatian literature, the role of social work in healthcare system in the Croatian context will be considered from several perspectives. From a historical perspective, we can talk about the intertwining of health and social work, before the clear formation of the profession of social work, but also immediately after its formation in 50ties. From the structuralist approach, social determinants of health and the realization of health care reflect the wider socio-economic context that will be presented as well as the professional activity of social workers in secondary and tertiary healthcare. In Croatia, healthcare social workers are mostly employed in psychiatric clinics and hospitals. Last, the issue of interdisciplinary cooperation between the social work and healthcare professions will be described, because the provision of social work services to patients in the healthcare system takes place through cooperation with doctors and nurses. And that cooperation can be improved so the bio-psychosocial model of healthcare provision can be implemented.

In January 2023, the European Commission presented a plan to increase the number of return migrants who return to countries outside the European Union. This plan is supported by the EU and UNHCR adoption of repatriation, or the right of displaced peoples to return to their country of origin, as the preferred solution to migration crisis. This preference is in effect since 1996, despite a significant body of research which substantiates that repatriation is not sustainable. To address the discrepancy between existing evidence and the adoption of repatriation as a sustainable solution, this study was grounded in a Postcolonial and Transnational Feminist framework and used Critical Discourses Analysis to explore the forced repatriation of Kosovars. Since 1999, Kosovo has been among the top 10 countries of origin for return migrants, thus this study sought to understand this important trend in Europe. Findings from 15 interviews with return migrants suggest that return migrants face unique challenges upon return, have their human rights violated, and desire to remigrate rather than repatriate. This presentation will analyze how these dominant discourses uphold the Global North superiority and shape participants’ identity. Although centered on Kosovo, the study’s implications have global importance to shape policy, given the escalating rates of global return migration.

Once the largest refugee resettling country, the U.S has engaged in a series of refugee resettlement program retrenchment in recent years, with rippling effects in LMICs hosting and processing displaced populations. In the case of Kenya–which hosts hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees–local and global policy setbacks have created a de facto state of liminal legality for Somali refugees that place them at risk for poor health. The consequences of precarious living and liminal legality extends to various domains of refugee life, including fundamental rights to social care. Without social or legal protections, refugees are barred from accessing rights to healthcare and face arbitrary arrest and detention and systematic discrimination. With a focus on the role of liminal legality in determining health inequities, this paper will present a structural vulnerability assessment of Somali women displaced in urban Nairobi, Kenya and proposes that the socio-legal ascribed status of “refugee”, rather than the process of displacement itself, is a chief determinant of refugee health. We will discuss the role of social protections affecting health for refugees and ramifications of global policies. While revealing inaction and abandonment in the form of structural vulnerability, we present suggestions for future interventions.

In the U.S., the recent emergency response to the resettlement of Afghan refugees uncovered long-standing limitations of the refugee resettlement program. Unlike other resettlement programs, the U.S lacks diversity in its various inter-organization arrangements while also limiting the conditions in which resettlement can occur. These political decisions are reflective of the program's primary and skewed focus of economic development, often at the price of equity. The exclusive focus of self-efficiency has produced unintended consequences such as disparate outcomes in many social measures as well as gaps in services, underscoring the problematic nature of the current program. This “gap” in services has traditionally been filled by refugee-led organizations (RLOs). Refugees themselves, RLOs are less resourced than resettlement agencies and undergo unrecognized legitimacy. Lack of recognition of the critical role RLOs play in the resettlement process has meant that refugee voices and experiences are peripheralized in the resettlement process. Their de-legitimization has also left them unable to effectively compete with other non-refugee-led agencies in acquiring resources meant to address the needs of their community. RLOs have for decades filled in critical gaps and their recognition in the U.S resettlement policy may help address long neglected refugee social and health equity.

The civil war in Syria has resulted in major humanitarian crises, with a large number of refugees fleeing to Jordan for safety. A majority of these refugees live in urban settings and face multiple risks. Drawing on a recent study on adolescent refugee reproductive health, the paper explores the experience of young refugee girls who were married before the age of consent and living with their husbands and in-laws. Their narratives painted a vivid picture of the challenges they face as they make their families. Involuntary hormonal treatment to kick-start periods to bear children, multiple child-bearing, lack of knowledge about reproductive health and birth control measures, gender-based violence, lack of agency with mothers-in-law as the all-powerful control figure, and isolation framed their lived experience. Many young girls talked about men using loopholes in the legal age of marriage to bribe authorities to camouflage their real age. Becoming mothers at such a young age saw them as “adults”, by virtue of being married and having children. Education was less important – their focus was more on their children. The presentation will explore these challenges and their impact on young mothers’ health and well-being and what challenges it poses for social work.

Since 2010, there has been a considerable surge in violent conflicts across the world, leading to historically high levels of forcibly displaced population globally. The latest data from UNHCR (2021) reveal a staggering 89.3 million people, who have been forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence, and human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order. More recently, the war in Ukraine has caused the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe. Drawing on research with adolescent refugees and humanitarian practitioners and policy makers in Jordan, Uganda and Bangladesh, this paper explores methodological considerations and ethical challenges involved in researching refugees. The presentation will briefly touch on key research findings on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and examine the importance of generating ethically sound research for supporting evidence-informed health responses to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. The paper will reflect on the importance of an ethically sound, rights-based approach to research that involves engagement with multiple stakeholders early on to support evidence-informed inter-sectoral policy and practice priorities to enhance outcomes for those who we research

Introduction: Extended working life is considered a key solution to prevent future labor force shortages in long-term care (LTC). However, the opportunity to extend working life is unequally distributed within different occupational sectors. Workers with physically demanding work tasks, as in LTC, tend to retire early, and their intended age to retire may not correspond with political aims of postponing retirement. This study's aim was to perform a systematic review of factors associated with retirement intentions among older LTC-workers (45+). Method: The review was guided by PRISMA. Quality assessment followed JBIs checklist. We searched seven databases for literature: Web of Science, PubMed, SocINDEX, Scopus, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and Medline, with filters. Literature searches resulted in 4 489 records. Screening was performed independently and double-blinded. Results: We reviewed six papers eligible for inclusion. The result challenges previous assumptions on the associations between health- and several psychosocial work factors with early retirement intentions among older LTC workers, e.g., poor health and job dissatisfaction.

A key question in public discourse is how loneliness among older adults can be reduced. In the Swedish context, increased focus is on community-based interventions, where the importance of understanding the social context of older adults’ everyday life is underscored. Attention in these types of interventions are placed on how older adults’ local environment can facilitate social activities, meeting places and social interactions. This necessitates an understanding of older adults as actors who can be actively involved in reducing their own and other’s loneliness. The aim of this forthcoming study is to highlight how older adults make sense of their experiences, the effects of, and own agency in community-based loneliness interventions in Sweden. Qualitative interviews will be conducted with older adults who have joined interventions to reduce their own loneliness, and older adults who choose to participate as peers to support others who are lonely. This study will contribute to insights on the effects of new types of loneliness interventions for older adults. Studying agency in such interventions can shift the perspective on how older adults are viewed from passive recipients of social interventions to actors with abilities to change their own and others’ social lives.

This is a allready published article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2022.2115017

Public sector reforms have expanded the number of subcontracted nursing homes in Europe. In Sweden, municipalities contract out nursing homes to various providers through procurement documents, while simultaneously striving for equality in care. This has placed increasing demands on caregivers, in hope of improving care recipients’ empowerment and well-being. Consequently, this study has two aims: first, to investigate the prerequisites for empowering care recipients and caregivers in Swedish nursing homes, as expressed in procurement documents; second, to compare procurement documents between municipalities, to determine whether they are (dis)similar based on the objective of care equality. In total, we collected 7 procurement documents, with attachments, from three Swedish municipalities, from 2015 to 2020. Deductive content analysis, based on empowerment theory regarding care recipients and caregivers, was used to analyse the documents. The results indicated an emphasis on empowering the care recipients. The procurement documents placed multiple demands on the caregivers but barely touched on staff empowerment. The municipalities differed in how the providers competed to win the procurement. The result highlights a problematic aspect of the marketisation of nursing homes, namely combining the objective of equality with competition between providers.

This communication is focused on well-being in aging and retirement, which involves changes at various levels that require each individual to be able to adapt to a new phase. Not necessarily seen as a social problem, the way this transition is experienced can result in situations of vulnerability. The greater or lesser quality of life in aging is associated with the context and circumstances to which each person is a subject of. In this way, it becomes essential to guarantee the necessary conditions for them to be able to age well and with quality. Therefore, we intend to present a proposal for an intervention based on the retirement preparation and planning within the scope of Social Work, that makes it possible to reduce the period of disorganization and promote new beginnings, decisive for the well-being and quality of life in this stage. Methodologically, an exploratory study was carried out with an eminently qualitative approach, using two data collection strategies: the semi-structured interview with 8 professionals and the questionnaire survey of 100 people aged 55 or over. The results allow us to establish what we consider to be the key elements in the process of preparing and planning a retirement.

COVID-19 continues to impact the general population and the extent to which it affects US Master of Social Work (MSW) students is unknown. Therefore, this study aims to examine resilience, attachment, and other mental health constructs among MSW students during COVID-19. United States MSW program directors were emailed the electronic surveys to distribute to their MSW students. We evaluated the bivariate relationship between the variables and conducted a multiple hierarchical regression predicting resilience. The findings suggest that individuals with higher levels of resilience have lower levels of depression and PTSD. Finally, attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, and self-efficacy were statistically significant predictors of resiliency in the hierarchical regression. This study adds to the literature on how MSW students have been impacted by COVID-19 stressors and the role resiliency, self-efficacy, and attachment styles have in terms of mental health outcomes during the pandemic. These results are important when considering interventions to assist MSW students during and after the pandemic, especially regarding stress reduction and student success.

This paper reviews the advocacy efforts, community organizing, establishment, operation, and lessons learned from a project in Hamilton, ON to found the first ever COVID-19 clinic for Black & other racialized people, people with disabilities and those experiencing barriers to access to COVID-19 vaccinations. Community advocates, academics, health leaders who are from and serve Black and other racialized and marginalized groups in Hamilton responded to the overwhelming impacts of COVID-19 on marginalized Black and other racialized groups in Hamilton through relational solidarities that allowed for community members to lead the design, and operation of the clinic, to serve those most in need, with the knowledge and expertise most capable of such an intervention. Through resistance of officials to take action, racist backlash, problematic organizational and institutional responses to the need of Black and other racialized community leaders, the Restoration House clinic advocates and community leaders responded to needs by maintaining focus on community through collective solidarities. The Restoration House model offers several contributions to how we think about community/public health advocacy, organizing and operational interventions through crises and beyond.

The present study aims to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the professional reality and health of Portuguese and Brazilian social workers. The perception of Social Workers in this impact is especially importante, as they are professionals on the frontline and tend to work with the most socially vulnerable population. The methodology used was qualitative, with semi-structured interviews, through the online modality. This research centers on social workers that supervise internships at a Portuguese university (n=20) and a Brazilian university (n= 17). The social workers surveyed were peremptory in stating that their perception is that there was an aggravation of social problems, highlighting the increase in economic difficulties, mental health problems, unemployment, social isolation and interfamily conflicts. As a direct consequence of the pandemic, in their professional practice, they report a worsening of working conditions, highlighting the greater workload and the need to reorganize the service, using new technologies to try to get closer to people. The personal life of these professionals was also affected, with an increase in difficulties in reconciling family and professional life reported.

The research project aims to analyze the coping mechanisms vulnerable individuals employed during the pandemic, and to develop a list of strategies to share with agencies in the area. It includes a survey to agencies to identify participants’ utilization of local support and challenges agencies faced. In addition, thirty individuals were recruited for interviews to discuss the challenges and solutions employed to ease the hardship. Agency staff shared the challenges in maintaining an optimal level of service delivery and how the pandemic has negatively impacted organization’s capacity to assist the needs of clients. Some of the themes are staff shortage, decrease funding, higher demand for services, and non-compliance of Covid-19 safety protocols. Thirty individual interviews revealed key challenges, such as lack of health care access, financial hardship, isolation, restrictions imposed by government and agencies, physical and mental health concerns (fear, anxiety, and depression) and weight gain. Coping mechanisms include a positive mindset, following safety protocols, seeking help, maintaining good health, staying in touch with community organizations and be kind to one another. A report will be compiled to circulate among local agencies to share the research findings.

The goal of all nations should be to protect their people, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized among them. Yet, child maltreatment is still a major social welfare, economic, and political problem that affects millions of children every year across the world. Children may experience maltreatment at home, school, and community from caregivers, educators, and community members alike. In many developed and developing nations, school practitioners are required to report child maltreatment in an effort to protect a vulnerable group in society. This requires that schools play a key role in responsive services (i.e., intervention and postvention) to identify and report issues of maltreatment. Therefore, the purpose of this presentation is to share the results of a cross-cultural comparative study about school practitioner preparedness to identify and report child maltreatment in developing and developed nations. The goal of this presentation is to share the study results, discuss the implications of training, and disseminate best practice strategies to improve training in schools.

Promoting and enhancing human health and wellbeing is one of the central tasks of both professional social work and Sustainable Development (SD) with its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, one-third of SDGs' milestones concerns young people's autonomy, participation, inclusion, health, and wellbeing. International research investigating youth health and wellbeing has explored different health dimensions. However, there is still limited research on how health-related issues are integrated into youth's daily lives, especially concerning natural and built environments. This is also the case in Sweden. This presentation is based on a study within a doctoral project. The study utilises the photovoice method examining youth's perceptions and perspectives regarding their health, wellbeing, and work-life capacities within SD. Photovoice is a creative and empowering visual method. In this study, recruiting young people was the most challenging phase. The data from the first photo-voice session indicated surprising outcomes. The participants (aged 15-19) were not very interested in environmental issues concerning their health and wellbeing, but in food and other meaningful activities. They also focused on mental health as their central health aspect. The study results indicate the need for further work for a holistic approach when working with youth, both in social work and SD.

The specialization trend in child welfare continues, parallel with high turnover and increasingly younger and more inexperienced workforce. These parallel trends are interesting, as one of the most common arguments for specialization is the possibility of developing an expert role. This presentation is based ona a study of the development of specialisation and workforce characteristics in Child Welfare according to the results of survey data, collected on three different occasions (2003, 2014, 2018). The results indicate that the movement towards specialisation is persisting. Work task specialisation, in the meaning of performing fewer work tasks in the later years, could be understood mainly as a form of statutory specialisation, which indicates a shift in the work role. The tendency of specialisation in only one or two phases of the process almost resemble that of work at an assembly line. The statutory child welfare social workers in this sample were also younger and less experienced at the later measuring points. The results of the studies indicate a need for continued work to understand the organization's importance for both social workers' working conditions and the development of professional expertise in social work.

Well being of our Youth: Social Work Intervention for Prevention of Suicide amongst Medical and Engineering Entrance Examination Aspirants from Delhi and Kota Sangeeta Sharma Dhaor. Associate Professor, Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, Delhi University Abhishek Mishra. Student MSW Introduction: The increasing number of suicides amongst the Entrance Examination Aspirant Youth is a cause of concern for the State and the Society. The pressures, precipitating factors and stressors that push a youth embarking on a professional journey, take a drastic step to kill themselves need to be identified. The rising trend of suicide among youth has challenged us to develop a response. To develop a model of social work practice a qualitative exploratory research was conducted to understand the issues faced and interventions required. Methods: A qualitative exploration was conducted amongst JEE (Joint Engineering Entrance Examination ) and NEET ( National Entrance Examination Test) aspirants from Ranchi and Kota through google meet platforms and face to face with JEE aspirants from Delhi. Snow ball method was used to reach out to them through one seed person who called in other members to participate. Key informants’ interviews were conducted after seeking consent. Interviews were conducted using interview guide. The qualitative findings were supplemented with case studies. Basic version of NVIVO was used to analyse the information. Results: There were six respondents from Kota amongst them one was a girl, nine from Ranchi, and seven students were from Delhi, all were boys making a total of 22 students. They were 18-25 years of age. It was found that Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation was affected by interest in the subject, along with pressure from peers, family, and environment. Stress impacted suicidal ideation by causing depression, anxiety, and anger in the respondents. The education system, and syllabus, were the external stressors. Conclusion: It was concluded that the pressure to perform comes from the environment, peer group, family and socioeconomic conditions. Stress was identified in anxiety, depression, anger, and social exclusion. It was identified that these factors of motivation, pressure and stress can be offset by time management skills, and an enhanced support system. The vast syllabus and high expectations coupled with the low capacity building during the formative years cause stress. Each factor required a social work intervention by the social worker. This included extending support for strengthening internal as well as external support along with advocacy at the policy level. This led to the development of a model for practice with all care workers.

Young people who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET) face multidimensional barriers to reconnecting to learning and earning opportunities, which can deepen discouragement, anxiety and poor mental health, leading to further disconnection from education and employment. This study aims to understand whether a coaching programme that supports young people in developing action plans and refers them to available services and opportunities in their communities can promote improved wellbeing. This study involves 20 in-depth interviews and the collection and analysis of survey data from 82 young people who have participated in the programme. The findings demonstrate that involvement in the programme has improved wellbeing and navigational capacity of the participants. Factors contributing to this shift involved access to information, having someone they could trust to talk to, and feeling a renewed sense of belonging in their community. The study provides evidence that any analysis of youth transitions to learning and earning must engage meaningfully with multiple deprivation and the systemic nature of poverty, as well as its effects on mental health and wellbeing. It also has clear practice recommendations regarding the importance of social welfare para-professionals and the need to invest in welfare services to ensure that the most marignalised youth are able to reconnect to employment and education opportunities.

Background: Early Childhood Development Centres (ECD’s) lay the groundwork for children’s overall health and wellbeing. While much progress made been made in transforming the ECD sector since the inception of Democracy, including the recent migration of the ECD sector from the department of Social Development to the Department of Basic Education, the current state of ECD centres in South Africa still faces multifaceted issues. These issues include access to quality services, adequate infrastructure, ECD regulation and funding opportunities. Overcoming challenges to quality access of ECD centres requires a multi-sectorial approach and has multiple benefits, including high quality education and improved health outcomes for the children, promoting social and economic development, and strengthening social cohesion among families and communities. Aim: By understanding the role of ECD centres in childcare, this study aims to assess the state of ECD centres in South Africa and the barriers to formal ECD registration.Methods: We analysed data from the South Africa Early Childhood Development Census collected in 2021. Our sample size was 42 420 ECD centres in nine provinces of South Africa. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Our results revealed that 41.1% of ECD centres were registered, 16.2% were in process and 42.5% were not registered. More than half (62%) of ECD centres allowed some children to attend the ECD programme without paying a fee. Some barriers to ECD registration by unregistered centres included a lack of bank account (75.40%), lack of training in first aid (50.9%), a lack of separate classes for different age groups (12%) and lack of separate kitchen space from where children are (7.5%). These findings were echoed in multivariate analysis. For instance, lack of bank account (relative risk ratio (RRR) 6.97; confidence interval (CI) 6.37 - 7.62, p<0.05) was a strong predictor for barriers to ECD registration. CONCLUSION. Considering the benefits of unrestricted access to quality childhood education and childcare for positive child well-being outcomes, the present study underscores the need for improved and efficient processes to ECD registration in South Africa. This will also contribute to, strengthening families and communities, thus contributing to the overall social and economic development of the country.

Background: Individuals with chronic health conditions (CHCs) often experience a decrease in work ability. Objectives: This study examined (a) characteristics of maintenance of business activity (i.e., business profitability and job-satisfaction) (b) the relationships of coping-strategies with maintenance of business activity. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 294 self-employed participant’s aged 26–77. Cancer disease (23.4%), cardiac disease (21.7%), respiratory disease (36.2%), or inflammatory bowel disease (18.6%). Results: Participants reported a substantial decrease in business profitability but high job-satisfaction. The SEM revealed that the association between work-ability limitations and lower maintenance of business profitability was partially mediated by lower use of disengaged coping-strategies. The association between sense of mastery and job-satisfaction was partially mediated by coping strategies. Conclusions: Self-employed with CHCs are at risk of declining of business profitability; however, degree of work-ability limitations alone did not explain business profitability maintenance or job-satisfaction, but it was related to coping resources and strategies.

Background: Individuals with chronic health conditions (CHCs) often experience challenges and pressures. There is little information regarding the unique stressors and needs of CHCs who are self-employed. For social workers to provide adequate care to these individuals, it is essential to understand their challenges. Objectives: This study examined (a) the mediating role of intolerance of uncertainty (IU) in the relationship between physical symptoms and job-satisfaction levels and (b) the moderating role of age on the relationship between IU and job-satisfaction. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 294 self-employed either with cancer (23.4%), cardiac (21.7%), respiratory (36.2%), or inflammatory bowel diseases (18.6%). Results: Physical symptoms were associated with job-satisfaction via IU; more severe physical symptoms were associated with higher IU scores, which was associated with lower job-satisfaction. In addition, the relationship between IU and job satisfaction was moderated by age. Finally, the IU mediates the relationship between physical symptoms and job-satisfaction only in the oldest age group. Conclusions: Differences exist in the relationships between physical symptoms, IU, and job-satisfaction by age groups. Social workers should be aware of the challenges of self-employed people, especially the impact of age, physical symptoms and IU on job-satisfaction and special programs should be developed.

In Slovenia social entrepreneurship has a long tradition but the law regulating this particular field was adopted only in 2011. Even though the first law distinguished between two different types of social enterprises (first, according to the areas of activity of social interest, and second, according to the vulnerable groups that should be employed in such enterprises), this was changed a few years later. Now social enterprises can be established according to a looser definition of the conditions that enterprises should meet. Some of the social enterprises decided to implement a social activation project for recipients of financial social assistance as an innovative/complementary approach to the already existing state model (called the social activation pilot project). The characteristics of the innovative approach are presented and reflected through the lens of basic social work concepts. The evaluation of a project has shown that social enterprises have the potential (compared to public services) to provide activities tailored to the needs of people - recipients of financial social assistance. The innovative approach has contributed to good outcomes for people that have integrated into society (socially or in terms of employment).

Migrants’ labour market integration is complex, particularly among individuals who lack higher education or vocational training. The overall aim of the project was to identify obstacles for labour market integration of migrants with low education in a region with many newly arrived migrants. In this study, the migrants’ employability constructions were explored from a relational perspective integrating agency and structure. Interviews (23) were conducted with migrants participating in Swedish for Immigrants. The results underscore the importance of gate keepers in the negotiation of employability in a largely unfamiliar setting. The participants were all motivated to work. Many lacked experience of paid employment, but had other work-related experiences. The evaluation of these experiences and competencies was a relational process that left room for improvements. Deteriorating health did not have a straightforward link to lower employability perceptions, and its importance was negotiated and made sense of by the individual migrant, various gate keepers, such as the Public Employment Service, and significant others. In conclusion, to strengthen employability perceptions and improve labour market integration, there is need to re-evaluate and promote the migrants’ strengths and previous work-related experiences on an individual basis and consider individual limitations in a contextual and relational perspective.

Introduction Turnover intentions (TI) in healthcare staff relate to high workload and high emotional exhaustion. Nurses have higher TI than other healthcare professionals. Few studies have focused on TI in healthcare staff as a group within the Job Demand-Resources (JD-R) theory. Aim To investigate healthcare staffs’ TI in relation to JD-R theory and relationships with staff wellbeing. Method A cross-sectional correlational and comparative study using a survey to healthcare staff in Sweden, in 2022. The survey contained questions of work environment, wellbeing and TI. Data were analysed with SPSS. Results The survey had 416 responders from different professions (response rate 31%). Fourteen percent rated their TI as high. High TI related to high emotional exhaustion. Moderate relationships were seen between high TI and high job demands/low resources. Weak relationships were seen between high TI and high workload and low satisfaction with given care. TI was also related to age, but no differences were seen for gender or level of education. Conclusions The results resemble earlier research regarding TI, stress and burnout. The results suggest that high demands and low resources are related to healthcare staffs’ TI. More studies with similar design are needed to confirm and broaden the results.

Sweden is often described internationally as a progressive country regarding issues affecting transgender (in short “trans”) people, although it is possible to identify several areas for development. One area is the professional treatment of older trans adults which has been described as deficient in many ways (e.g. in the social work field). Therefore, the purpose of this study has been to examine older trans adults' previous experiences of treatment and what significance this has for future meetings with social workers in public welfare institutions, such as when applying for elderly care interventions. Particular focus has been on expectations and concerns, which has contributed to identifying certain challenges and implications for social work. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with eight trans people (65-82 years). The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis and theories applied for interpreting the material were gender theory and queer theory. The results indicate experiences of heteronormative assumptions and, based on this, fear of being treated differently or being subjected to abusive treatment when meeting professionals. A suggestion for future research is to focus further on older trans adults' experiences of becoming recipients of elderly care interventions.

The current study examined the mediating role of perceived social support and subjective well-being in the association between the big five personality traits and actively seeking a partner for elective co-parenting. This population, many of whom identify with the LGBTQ community, can be interpreted as a vulnerable group, due to the absence of an appropriate policy in social services, as well as insufficient clinical knowledge about their needs among the helping professionals. The data were collected through structured questionnaires administered to a sample of 212 people considering ECP in Israel. The findings suggest that conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extraversion were positively associated with perceived social support, which in turn was positively related to actively seeking an ECP partner. In addition, emotional stability and extraversion were positively associated with subjective well-being, which in turn was positively related to actively seeking an ECP partner. It can be concluded that certain personality traits shape how people perceive themselves and their environme+I12nt, and that these perceptions may explain their decision to actively seek a partner for ECP. These research findings can be used by people who are considering such a family form, as well as counselors and therapists accompanying such people.

In Brazil, a country of great inequalities, people with HIV and AIDS need health services and assistance support guaranteed by the State. In the last six years, the Brazilian government was occupied by neoliberal presidents, who intensified the budget cut for social policies and were guided by neoconservative proposals. During this period, there was an increase in HIV cases among young gay men and poor black people. Women in the northeast region, the poorest in the country, continue to be infected with HIV, at a higher rate than in regions with better income and education indicators. Due to resource cuts, HIV prevention work, which was mainly carried out by non-governmental organizations, has been significantly reduced. In addition, its scope was limited due to conservative restrictions, which restricted information aimed at key populations, such as homosexuals and sex workers. The interference of social determinants of health is identified, interfering in actions to face the epidemic and making it difficult to reach international goals to end AIDS by 2030, as proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

This paper attends to matters of occupation, settlement and development for rearticulating discourses and knowledge relations on homelessness to undermine projects separating land from body. Through historiographical analysis applied to the National Housing Strategy (NHS), Reaching Home (RH), and Housing First (HF) (contemporary Canadian iterations of homelessness policy and practice), it critically examines representations and omissions to intervene on common projects constituting discourses on homelessness. The analysis suggests that contemporary understandings communicate and define the homeless body as an identity of lack, novel to the neoliberal, omitting attentions to homelessness as colonial capitalist process implicated in ongoing, relational, and severed histories of violence. It reveals that NHS, RH, and HF operationalize ‘ending’ homelessness through abstracted/eugenic ‘expert’ medicalized, liberalized, and market-based systems/taxonomies that reify/silo/silence/erase knowledges via embodied projects of rights, justice, and care. These discourses are part of (re)developed economic institutionalized politics severed and managed in the social sphere, a violence of Land/Body bifurcation made possible through the imposition of claims on body and land in the creation and maintenance of ideal citizen subjects becoming self-determined rights holders/tenant placeholders in a commodified market for home. These analyses offer possibilities for resistance to severing violence from which ideas of homeless bodies and landscapes emerge.

Recent emphases on productive, social investment-oriented social policy suggests that existing social policies are somehow unable to ensure citizen’s health and well-being, are unsustainable, and need radical rethinking. I argue that we need to better understand the ways in which long-standing policies have enabled and continue to facilitate society’s adaptation to ongoing social and economic challenges. Failing to do so risks severing vital social policy synergies that have worked through prevention to support the well-being of all people, forestalling their marginalization, poverty, or acute vulnerability. The paper describes a conceptual framework for thinking about welfare state social policies, aimed largely at children and families, which may be simultaneously protective and productive. I contend that we lack theoretical explanations for countries that achieve low poverty without adverse economic consequences. Applying social developmentalist ideas from the Global South to the traditional welfare state literature of the Global North, I argue that such outcomes result from policies that work for reasons that depart from standard economic assumptions. What I term ‘developmental welfare state policies’ highlight the investment, generative, preventive, and resiliency-boosting aspects of existing policies and caution against either promoting separate social investment policies or dichotomizing social policies as either passive or activating.

This communication intends to present the narrative approach and the strengths perspective as a process of methodological intervention in Social Work that allows to capacitate and to restore in a singular form the identity of subjects in situation of vulnerability. The focus of the intervention is centered on the individual, seeking his rehabilitation, simultaneously, as a moral person, as a being with dignity and as a social being. Recognizing their situation of special vulnerability, their non-disaffiliation is sought through an accompaniment that values the strengths potentially hidden or concealed but present, as result of their personal experiences (Saleebey, 2009). A qualitative methodology of analysis of case studies was used, with the complementary resource of interviews with 40 professionals who intervene with people in a situation of homelessness. While these Social Work approaches are not “new”, they contain new elements that can cause a paradigm shift, making vulnerable people protagonists and specialists in the integration process. They strongly inform the “identities” and the choices of the subjects, and therefore constitute the “site” of the intervention (Healy, 2005), making it central for training and social recognition to take place.

The United States has a lengthy history of treating individuals experiencing substance use disorders (SUDs) from an abstinence-only framework. Whether it has been Carrie Nation, prohibition, 12 step groups, or The War on Drugs, the United States has insisted that for people to recover they must completely abstain from all substances. In many other countries, harm reduction practices have grown a large base of empirical support and become central to treating individuals with SUDs. While harm reduction practices have taken root in some places within the United States, there continues to be a substantial amount of residential SUD treatment programs that perpetuate an abstinence-only framework, creating a lack of access for people seeking harm reduction programs. This study examined 68 residential treatment programs in the state of Michigan to see if they operated from an abstinence-only or harm reduction framework, and whether there were differences in success rates between the two models. We will present the findings of this study and the need for further research.

The object of this study was to explore correlations between the subjective feeling of wellbeing of youth: students of the University in Zagreb(N=153) (age 18 to 34) and the use of psychoactive substances during 2021. Even though wellbeing and mental health, as well as the use of psychoactive substances are relatively well covered and explored, there is not enough attention given to the correlation of those two phenomena. In this study we used questions about socio-demographyc data, questions about consumption of psychoactive substances (kokain, amphetamin, ecstasy, inahlants, kanabis, alchohol), questions about subjective wellbeing, Depression, anxiety and stress Scale and questions about subjective feeling of fullfiling own potentials. Data were analized in SPSS statistical program by using descriptive statistic and Pearsons coreelation. There was no statistically significant relationship between subjective wellbeing and psychoactive substances missuse, however, the study shows that alchohol consumption , as well as kanabis consumption is widely spread amoung student population. This research points out the need for further analizing young peoples wellbeing and missuse of psychoactive substances. In addition, the data collected in this study can be used to plan and create educations for young people, meant to promote the importance of well-being and mental health.

Family prevention programs that enhance mental health, wellness, and resilience—while simultaneously addressing violence and alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse—among Indigenous families are scarce. This gap in culturally grounded and community-based programs creates a critical need to develop and evaluate the efficacy of such prevention programs. This presentation fills this bap by describing the structure and content of the Weaving Healthy Families (WHF) program, a culturally grounded and community-based program aimed at preventing violence and AOD use among U.S. Indigenous peoples while promoting mental health, resilience, and wellness in Indigenous families. This presentation will elucidate how to incorporate a “Two-Eyed Seeing” approach (incorporating Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing), unveiling the process to develop and implement the program in a culturally grounded and community based way. Finally, promising longitudinal pilot results from the program will be shared, including post-intervention improvements across ecological levels such as the use of psychological and physical violence, alcohol use, parenting practices, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, emotional regulation, depressive symptoms, conflict resolution health behaviors, wellness, personal, familial, and community resilience, social support, the family environment. How these improvements vary by reported level of historical oppression and by sex will be focal.

Overview: Structural sexism pervades throughout the feminized profession of social work and drives distress for social workers and clients. Structural sexism stems from broader historical oppression that persist through settler colonial structures. Despite fundamental ethical principles for social workers to challenge social justice, dominant clinical and self-care models tend toward focalized and neoliberal approaches that perpetuate problems and place primacy on personal responsibility. The purpose of this article is to offset this dominant approach by introducing an Indigenist, collective model of wellness and liberation, called Living AWAke. Living AWAke encompasses living in alignment with agility (AWA) – an all-around approach to optimum living that integrates a critical consciousness of how international settler colonial structures of historical oppression drive distress among social workers and clients. This article models the process of decolonization from the settler colonial structures within the social work profession and offers tools to foster this process. To redress historic imbalances, Living Awake centers ‘alterNative’ gender expansive opportunities from precolonial Indigenist feminisms. AWA is to live in alignment with one’s authentic self, with agility, by nimbly responding to life with clear awareness of how to navigate heteropatriarchal and heteropaternalistic settler colonial structures of historical oppression. This workshop has been pilot-tested among Indigenous and non-Indigenous social workers and other health practitioners in the United states with success and has been extended for application with an international audience.

Background: By extending the author’s Indigenist and decolonizing framework of historical oppression, resilience, and transcendence (FHORT). The article focuses on introducing a model of wellness and liberation, which couples praxis, or reflective critical action paired with action through living in alignment with agility, or ‘living AWAke.’ Living AWAke fosters praxis and emancipation, where people more readily learn to live in accordance with their authentic, aligned, and liberated selves. The concept of Living AWAke extends and deepens the FHORT by delving deep into the resilience, transcendence, and wellness components of FHORT while centering gender and sociostructural factors. The FHORT was developed from over a decade of community-based participatory work (qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and clinical trials research) focusing on violence and substance abuse prevention, wellness, health equity and women’s health, and resilience (See https://www.catmckinley.com/my-work). Unlike most resilience and posttraumatic growth frameworks, the FHORT situates resilience, posttraumatic growth, and transcendence in the lens of structural or historical oppression, which limits opportunity, access, availability and access to resources for equitable health and wellness based on the intersecting factors, such as racism, sexism, and classism. Transcendence is about living AWAke, which involves utilizing a critical consciousness to dismantle, decolonize, and discarding imposed and internalized restrictive and prescriptive roles; this process of liberation enables people can reclaim, re-envision, and reconnect and living in alignment with their highest, most authentic self.

Aims: (a) Understanding how gender and other dimensions of diversity drive disparities for disadvantaged groups. Centering gender & structural causes of disparities in clinical practice & self-care models; (b) Utilize Indigenous relations to unpack gender disparities and provide “alterNative” and emancipatory possibilities for gender; and (c) Introduce and apply the Living AWAke model and how to utilize to promote self-care and wellness using the Living AWAke Spiral Assessment to promote self-care and wellness.