Serviço social, assistência social e drogas: um estudo do trabalho profissional do assistente social nos centros de referência especializados de assistência social no município do Rio de Janeiro

Esta dissertação discute o entendimento dos assistentes sociais que atuam nos centros de referência especializados de assistência social de três coordenadorias de desenvolvimento social do município do Rio de Janeiro sobre o tema das drogas, com o objetivo de analisar se as ações profissionais são dirigidas a uma perspectiva crítica, desconsiderando valores conservadores na sua intervenção, e se, durante seu trabalho profissional, buscam contribuir criticamente para a garantia dos direitos dos usuários. Para tal, realizamos entrevista com os assistentes sociais inseridos nesses centros, e através das respostas apresentadas, analisamos como o tema das drogas é abordado pelos profissionais de serviço social. A contribuição para a garantia de direitos requer do profissional de Serviço Social a possibilidade de realizar mediações entre as políticas e a contextualidade do usuário, considerando, também, as possibilidades e limites no percurso histórico que atravessa o uso das drogas. Cabe inclusive situar a compreensão das drogas e sua relação com o desenvolvimento do capital, em que a estratégia proibicionista responde aos interesses de um determinado bloco do poder. Dessa forma esse estudo resgata a construção histórica da profissão de Serviço Social no Brasil, destacando os processos que marcaram uma possibilidade de ruptura com o conservantismo profissional e, por conseguinte, suscitavam uma perspectiva profissional mais crítica e densa teoricamente. Apresenta uma análise do desenvolvimento capitalista, destacando as tendências e estratégias atuais para o enfrentamento da questão social, sob o contexto neoliberal. E por fim, acrescido da pesquisa empírica realizadanos CREAS o estudo buscou identificar se os profissionais de serviço social conseguem fortalecer o projeto ético-político da profissão, ou se as marcas deixadas pela herança conservadora, que gestaram a profissão são resgatadas e utilizadas no trabalho profissional.

Experiências subjetivas e perspectivas de futuro: a juventude do Centro Cultural Cartola - RJ

Esta pesquisa se construiu a partir do encontro com a ONG Centro Cultural Cartola da comunidade da Mangueira, no Rio de Janeiro. Nós refletimos sobre algumas questões relativas aos processos subjetivos com os quais se relacionam as crianças e jovens que participam de atividades culturais do centro, a partir justamente das experiências vividas neste espaço. Nosso foco se concentra nas crianças e jovens que integram a orquestra de violinos, grupo que denominamos grupo orquestra. Concretizamos nosso intento através de pesquisa participativa, focalizando, sobretudo, as perspectivas de futuro desses sujeitos em relação à inserção na sociedade e no mundo do trabalho. Nós buscamos nos aproximar da realidade do campo para conhecer como se dava a participação desses jovens nas atividades culturais e artísticas, e entender como elas contribuíam para o processo de produção de subjetividade e formação de uma concepção sobre a vida profissional deles. Realizamos encontros de grupos operativos que procuraram investigar como cada jovem enxerga sua situação atual e seu projeto de futuro. Nesta dissertação, fruto de tal intervenção, tecemos uma discussão sobre os aspectos das experiências subjetivas emergentes no centro cultural, bem como sobre os processos de produção de subjetividade e a temática da identidade cultural. Abordamos também o conceito de grupo e sua relação com a formação e transformação do sujeito. Além disso, refletimos sobre a função do trabalho para a configuração e reconfiguração do mundo social

O Mercosul social: avanços e obstáculos para uma nova dinâmica de integração regional

Este trabalho busca analisar a nova dinâmica do processo de integração no Mercosul, caracterizada pelo tratamento de temas sociais como direitos humanos, meio ambiente, saúde e educação, indicando o avanço de uma agenda social de integração que rompe com a tradição comercialista do bloco. O avanço de governos progressistas nos países membros contribuiu para essa nova lógica integradora, tendo estimulado também o aumento dos mecanismos de participação social, abrindo espaço para uma maior presença de atores sociais nas discussões relativas à integração. É objetivo da pesquisa avaliar qual é a efetiva influência desses novos atores no Mercosul, questionando-se a possível existência de uma esfera pública transnacional. Para chegar a uma resposta, o trabalho recorre a variáveis e conceitos como déficit democrático, transparência, representatividade e faz um estudo específico das características e dos meios de articulação de duas categorias sociais no bloco: as centrais sindicais e os empresários.

小学学习不良儿童对言语交际策略的理解与运用

[Abstract] Verbal communication strategy (VCS) refers to a programmed knowledge applied by individuals to understand and express intentions via language symbols in their realization of communicative objectives according to social conventions. As an important index of social development, verbal communication strategy has provided a new perspective for social skill studies. However, more work has to be done in the investigation of LD children’s VCS developmental pattern and affecting mechanism. Through contextual test, structured interview and role-play, the present study, by adopting integrated measurements of instrumental and interpersonal effectiveness, explored the developmental characteristics of Chinese learning-disabled primary school children across 3-6th grades at both comprehension and application levels. Then, their social perspective-taking performance and verbal retelling competence of each participant were examined, on the basis of which, path analysis was conducted, with social perspective-taking, verbal retelling and verbal communication strategy comprehension as independent variables, to reveal the inner mechanism affecting LD children’s application of verbal communication strategy. Finally, an intervention study was carried out through a combination of polite request strategy understanding lessons and social perspective-taking training dramas. The results indicate that:(1) No significant grade differences were found in LD group for polite request strategy, while significant differences were reported across different grades of non-LD children. For indirect reply strategy, significant grade and gender differences were found among LD children, but the developmental trajectory between the two groups was different. For both polite request and indirect reply strategies, the strategy comprehension level of LD children was significantly lower than those without learning disabilities. (2) No significant grade and gender differences were found in LD group in their application of polite request strategy, while for non-LD children, significant differences were reported across different grades. For indirect reply strategy, both LD and non-LD groups exhibited similar developmental characteristics. Significant group differences only exist in the over-all application level of polite request strategies, not in indirect reply strategies. However, the differences of the latter between the two groups were found at significant level only among the 11-12 year olds. (3) LD children’s perspective-taking and verbal retelling competence were significantly lower than those of non-LD group. For polite request strategy, the influence of social perspective-taking to strategy application was indirect and must be via strategy comprehension, while for indirect reply strategy, strategy comprehension was found to play as a partial mediator between social perspective-taking and strategy application. The influence of verbal retelling to strategy application was indirect on both types of strategies. (4) LD children’s strategy comprehension and social perspective-taking level can be improved, and the improvement of these two competences has significant positive impact on the increase of their strategy application level. Key Words: learning disabilities, verbal communication strategy, social perspective- taking

学习不良少年的自我意识情绪研究

Self-conscious emotions (guilt, shame, embarrassment, pride, etc) are social emotions, and involve complex appraisals of how one’s behavior has been evaluated by the self and other people according to some value standards. Self-conscious emotions play an important role in human life by arousing and regulating human action tendencies, feeling and thoughts, which can promote people to work hard in achievement and task fields, maintain good interpersonal relationship according with social morality and expectation. The present study aimed to examine complex self-conscious emotional understanding capabilities in junior middle school students with and without learning disabilities, how the self-conscious emotions generate, and relationship between self-conscious emotions and self-representation in academic and interpersonal fields. Situational experimental methods were used in this research, and the results would give further supports for learning disabilities intervention. The main results of present research are as follows. 1. The study included 4 parts and 6 experiments. The aim of study 1 was to explore whether juveniles with learning disabilities understood complex self-conscious emotions differently from juveniles without learning disabilities. We surveyed the self-conscious emotions understanding of 37 learning disabilities and 45 non-learning disabilities with the emotional situation stories. The results indicated that the self-conscious emotional recognition in others for learning disabilities was lower than that of non-learning disabilities in different emotional recognition tasks. Moreover, children with learning disabilities were more inclined to recognize emotions in themselves as elemental emotions, however, children without learning disabilities were more inclined to recognize emotions in themselves as self-conscious emotions. 2. The aim of study 2 was to explore the generative mechanism of self-conscious emotions in academic and interpersonal fields with the method of situational experiments, namely to examine whether the self-discrepancy could cause self-conscious emotions for learning disabilities. 84 learning disabilities (in experiment 1) and 80 learning disabilities (in experiment 2) participated in the research, and the results were as follows. (1) Self discrepancy caused participants’ self-conscious emotions effectively in academic and interpersonal fields. One’s own and parents’ perspercive on the actual-ideal self-discrepancy both produced dejection-related emotions (shame、embarrassment) and agitation-related emotions (guilt). （2）In academic fields, children with learning disabilities caused higher level negative self-conscious emotions (embarrassment, shame, and guilt) and lower level positive self-conscious emotion (pride). However, there were no differences of self-conscious emotions for children with and without learning disabilities in non-academic fields. 3. The aim of study 3 was to explore what influence had self-conscious emotions on self-representation for learning disabilities with the method of situational experiments. 57 learning disabilities (in experiment 1) and 67 learning disabilities (in experiment 2) participated in the research, and the results were as follows. （1）The negative self-conscious for learning disabilities could influence their positive or negative academic and positive interpersonal self-representation stability, the ways in which self-evaluation of ability mediate these effects. However, there was no significant effect for the negative self-conscious and self-evaluation of ability predicting negative interpersonal self-representation stability. （2）The stability level of positive academic and interpersonal self-representation for learning disabilities was lower than that of non-learning disabilities. There was no significant difference of the negative interpersonal self-representation stability for children with and without learning disabilities in the positive self-conscious valence condition. However, the stability level of negative interpersonal self-representation for learning disabilities was lower than that of non-learning disabilities in the negative self-conscious valence condition. 4. The aim of study 4 was to explore the intervention effects for self-conscious emotions training course on emotional comprehension cability. 65 learning disabilities (34 in experimental group, and 31 in control group) participated in the research. The results showed that self-conscious emotions course boosted the self-conscious emotions apprehensive level for children with learning disabilities.

学习不良少年的污名效应研究

Stigma is defined as a sign of disgrace or discredit that sets a person apart from others. Stigmatized individuals had been significantly influenced by their group-based stigma. Through the methods of laboratory experiment and questionnaire surveys, the current study started with examining the attitudes of middle school students to the students with learning disabilities (LD), systemly explored the characteristics of perceived stigma and self-stigma of LD students, the mechanism that the influences of stigma on students with LD, and the mental control required to cope with the stigma. The results of the present studies had significant implications for the understanding of the LD phenomenon and the intervention of LD adolescents. The results indicate that: 1. Generally, middle school students had negative implicit attitude and negative explicit attitudes towards the LD students. The effect size of the phenomenon of this study is large. The LD students showed a more positive attitude than others on the explicit attitude measure; all students consistently had negative attitudes toward LD students on the implicit attitude indices, in addition, no group differences and gender differences were observed in the implicit attitude. 2. Eight hundred and seventy two students were surveyed to test the reliability and validity of the new developed perceived stigma scale and self-stigma scale. Both questionnaires showed sufficient content validity, construct validity, criterion-related validity and adequate internal consistency reliability. Then, both questionnaires were administered to student with high academic achievement (high achiever), students with middle academic achievement (middle achiever), and LD students. Results revealed that the LD students mildly stigmatized by the social culture. The LD students had more stigma perception and self-stigma than the middle achievers and high achievers. The results also indicated that there were more stigma perception and self-stigma for LD students in grade two than that of LD students in grade one and grade three; meanwhile, male LDstudent hade more stigma perception and self-stigma than female LD students in all grades. 3. A latent variable path analysis was conducted to investigate how the stigma affect the academic goals using the data collected from 186 LD students. The results suggested that the LD-related stigma did not have direct influence on academic goals. The LD-related stigma indirectly influenced the academic goals through mediating effects of self-stigma and academic efficacy. 4. Stereotype threat could have some influences on the relationship between the task feedback and self-esteem. The results of study using eighty-four LD students showed that: when the negative stereotype was not primed, the self-esteem of the LD students was significantly influenced by the feedback of the task: an enhance self-esteem following a positive feedback and a lower self-esteem following a negative feedback. When the negative stereotype was primed, there was no significantly difference between the positive feedback group and negative feedback group. All the results showed that priming the negative stereotype could weaken the influence of feedback to the self-esteem of LD students. 5. There was more cognitive and behavioral control when LD students tried to cope with the stigma by concealing negative academic achievement during an individual interview with an unfamilar expert. The LD students whose academic achievements could be concealed had more thought suppression and thought intrusion and reported more self-monitoring behavior than the participants in the other experimental conditions.

Wykluczenie społeczne wyzwaniem dla współczesnego świata

Społeczeństwo, w którym egzystuje współczesny człowiek, jest nie tyle trudne, ile bardzo złożone. Dlatego też wielu ludzi nie radzi sobie z różnymi problemami natury osobistej i społecznej. Wielu z nich doświadcza wykluczenia społecznego definiowanego jako efekt różnego rodzaju upośledzeń społecznych, wobec czego jednostka lub grupa nie może w pełni uczestniczyć w życiu gospodarczym, społecznym, ekonomicznym i politycznym społeczeństwa, do którego należy. Podmiotem wykluczenia społecznego jest przede wszystkim jednostka, która na drodze realizacji własnego humanitas została wykluczona w sposób przez siebie zawiniony lub doznała wykluczenia z powodu niewłaściwej polityki państwa. Do najważniejszych problemów lokujących się w obrębie wykluczenia autor zalicza: niepełnosprawność, bezrobocie, bezdomność, uzależnienia, samotność i ubóstwo. Scharakteryzowano przywołane powyżej obszary wykluczenia oraz podjęto próbę wskazania sposobów pomocy jednostkom, które stały się ofiarami wykluczenia. Podstawową instytucją pomagającą tym osobom jest pomoc społeczna, której pierwszym i podstawowym celem jest ulepszanie życia społecznego. Ważne miejsce zajmują w niej pracownicy socjalni, którzy jako jednostki wykształcone i kompetentne mogą wpływać na lepsze życie człowieka. Niestety, współcześnie nie zawsze w wystarczający sposób zaspokajane są podstawowe potrzeby zagubionych osób. Najsilniej dotykają one grupy i jednostki najsłabsze. Wskutek owych braków w polityce społecznej oraz w jej przedmiotowych zakresach: w polityce ludnościowej, rodzinnej, edukacyjnej, mieszkaniowej, polityce podziału dochodu, zabezpieczenia społecznego, zatrudnienia, następuje erozja najsłabszych ogniw systemu społecznego. Konieczne zatem wydaje się otwarcie polityki państwa na różne problemy społeczne, nie zawsze zawinione przez jednostkę, ale przez system, w którym się ona znalazła.

Real Time Eye Tracking and Blink Detection with USB Cameras

A human-computer interface (HCI) system designed for use by people with severe disabilities is presented. People that are severely paralyzed or afflicted with diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) or multiple sclerosis are unable to move or control any parts of their bodies except for their eyes. The system presented here detects the user's eye blinks and analyzes the pattern and duration of the blinks, using them to provide input to the computer in the form of a mouse click. After the automatic initialization of the system occurs from the processing of the user's involuntary eye blinks in the first few seconds of use, the eye is tracked in real time using correlation with an online template. If the user's depth changes significantly or rapid head movement occurs, the system is automatically reinitialized. There are no lighting requirements nor offline templates needed for the proper functioning of the system. The system works with inexpensive USB cameras and runs at a frame rate of 30 frames per second. Extensive experiments were conducted to determine both the system's accuracy in classifying voluntary and involuntary blinks, as well as the system's fitness in varying environment conditions, such as alternative camera placements and different lighting conditions. These experiments on eight test subjects yielded an overall detection accuracy of 95.3%.

Practice Links [Issue 46, February 2012]

Practice Links is a free e-publication for practitioners working in Irish social services, voluntary and nongovernmental sectors. Practice Links was created to enable practitioners to keep up-to-date with new publications, electronic resources and conference opportunities. Issue 46 features information regarding databases to support practice as well as the latest research being conducted in the fields of youth empowerment programs and relevant podcasts.

Becoming a father of a child with an intellectual disability- a narrative inquiry of Irish fathers’ stories

Background: This thesis explored men’s experiences of becoming a father of a child with an intellectual disability in the early years. In Ireland, it is estimated that there are almost 97% (n= 9,914) children with intellectual disabilities living at home in the care of parents, siblings, relatives or foster parents. While mothers and fathers are the primary caregivers, mothers’ experiences are well documented in comparison to the dearth of reports on fathers’ experiences. This descriptive narrative study aims to redress this gap in knowledge and understanding of men’s experiences of becoming a father of a child with an intellectual disability in the early years. Method: Narrative inquiry was employed for this study as it allows stories told by fathers to be collected as a means of exploring men’s transition to becoming a father of a child with an intellectual disability. A sample of 10 fathers of children with intellectual disabilities aged between thirteen months and five years of age were recruited from a large intellectual disability Health Service Provider (HSP) in the South of Ireland. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews which were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using a narrative thematic approach. Findings: Findings are presented in four themes: i) ‘becoming a father’, ii) ‘something wrong with my child’, iii) ‘entering the world of disability’ and iv) ‘living a different life’. For all 10 fathers the time of being told that their child had an intellectual disability was laden with negative emotional responses irrespective of whether the diagnosis was at birth or more gradual over the child’s early developmental period. When fathers found out that ‘something was wrong’ they spoke of ‘moving on’ and entering the world of disability. In their narratives, becoming the father of a child with an intellectual disability had changed their lives and would inevitably change their futures. Fathers’ positivity was clearly evident with many fathers identifying that the diagnosis of their child with an intellectual disability was not a life ending event but rather a life changing event. Conclusions: Healthcare professionals have a critical role in supporting fathers during the transition to becoming a father of a child with an intellectual disability. Factors which require consideration include recognising that each father’s experience is unique; that fathers require support; and that fathers achieve personal growth because of their experiences of their transition to becoming a father of a child with an intellectual disability in the early years.

Quality of Life and Neurocognitive Functioning in Children with Sickle Cell Disease: Investigating the Feasibility of a Computerized Cognitive Training Program

Children with sickle cell disease (SCD) have a high risk of neurocognitive impairment. No known research, however, has examined the impact of neurocognitive functioning on quality of life in this pediatric population. In addition, limited research has examined neurocognitive interventions for these children. In light of these gaps, two studies were undertaken to (a) examine the relationship between cognitive functioning and quality of life in a sample of children with SCD and (b) investigate the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a computerized working memory training program in this population. Forty-five youth (ages 8-16) with SCD and a caregiver were recruited for the first study. Participants completed measures of cognitive ability, quality of life, and psychosocial functioning. Results indicated that cognitive ability significantly predicted child- and parent-reported quality of life among youth with SCD. In turn, a randomized-controlled trial of a computerized working memory program was undertaken. Eighteen youth with SCD and a caregiver enrolled in this study, and were randomized to a waitlist control or the working memory training condition. Data pertaining to cognitive functioning, psychosocial functioning, and disease characteristics were obtained from participants. The results of this study indicated a high degree of acceptance for this intervention but poor feasibility in practice. Factors related to feasibility were identified. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Creative leadership & communities of practice

This Second Wave presentation focused on 'Creative Leadership and Communities of Practice', with particular reference to issues of trust affecting young people, unemployment and wider uncertainties in an economic recession when people were facing job cuts and in a social environment characterised by cynicism and a downturn in trust. Young people who join Second Wave are brought into a community of practice (CoP) (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1999) involving a dynamic, fluid process which is distinctive in its transformative power to change people's lives. The philosophy behind this involves Dewey's notion of the 'active self' (Dewey, 1916) and the theories of 'social constructivism' (Vygotsky, 1978). The process fosters trust, confidence and social learning (Bandura, 1977; Vygotsky, 1978) in which young people join in with a dialogue involving participation in the youth-centred creative space. The 'border zone' (Heath, 1994) in that creative space enables young people to connect with each other in the specialist field of youth arts. The youth-centred partnerships involved lead to greater confidence and development in a range of important artistic, social, cognitive and emotional skills and opportunities. Ultimately, the young person may become engaged in multi-agency working with Second Wave's external partners. Throughout all of these processes, young people are encouraged progressively to develop a more 'active self' to engage proactively with many different beneficial opportunities relating to the performing arts. In an era in which there has been a loss of trust in public life this is particularly important. If trust is defined in part as a belief in the honesty, competence and benevolence of others, it tends to act like 'social glue', cushioning difficult situations and enabling actions to take place easily that otherwise would not be permissible. The Edelman Trust Barometer for 2009 has recorded a marked diminution of trust in corporations, businesses and government, as a result of the credit crunch. While the US and parts of Europe were showing recovery from a generalised loss of trust by mid-year 2009, the UK had not. Social attitudes in Britain may be hardening - from being a nation of sceptics we may be becoming a nation of cynics: for example, only 13% of the population surveyed by Edelman trust politicians to tell the truth. In this situation, there is a need to promote positive measures to build trust. The presentation aims described key aspects of Second Wave's approach to identify and disseminate its model of good practice to make this more explicit and accessible to others. It is with awareness of the profoundly challenging circumstances facing young people, particularly but not exclusively in inner city urban areas such as Deptford, and the valuable contribution youth arts work can make to their well-being and development, that the presentation was carried out. In an era of generalised mistrust, the work done at Second Wave is crucial in empowering and supporting young people to find a positive and creative direction as part of the community.

Keeping it together: a guide for support staff working with people whose behaviour is challenging

This guide has been written for support staff, working with people with learning disabilities, who are new to challenging behaviour or facing it for the first time. It is a self-help guide and provides practical and realistic information on how direct care staff can develop strageties to support people whose behaviour is challenging and develop their skills in this area.

Routine maintenance and sustainability of existing social housing

Presently the UK social housing stock accounts for approximately 18% of the total UK housing with maintenance costs in the region of £1.25 billion per annum. In terms of its impact on the environment, housing is generally responsible for approximately 27% of the UK’s CO2 emissions. The extent to which routine maintenance (planned preventative and responsive) can be used as a vehicle to improve the overall sustainability (social, environmental and economic) of existing social housing is one focus of a 5 year EPSRC funded research programme. This paper reports on the findings of a series of in-depth interviews with social housing providers examining current social housing maintenance practices and attitudes towards sustainability. This paper will report the initial findings of interviews and outline a new performance based multi-criteria maintenance model from which an AHP hierarchy will be presented, integrating the principles of sustainability into maintenance strategies