Intercultural competence in the area of drug dependencies

This article takes a multidimensional or biopsychosocial conception of drug dependency as its starting point. Within this analytical framework, we advocate making the intercultural dimension more visible, since it is essential for the design and implementation of integral intervention processes. We propose intercultural competence as a working model that can increase the capacities of institutions and professionals —a particularly important consideration in the case of social work— in order to effectively address the aforementioned cultural dimension. After an extensive review of the scientific literature, we have defined five processes that can contribute to strengthening an institution’s intercultural competence and four processes that can do the same for a professional’s intercultural competence. Though selected for application in the area of drug dependencies, all these processes can also prove useful in improving attention to any other kind of culturally diverse group or person.

Hidden Gems: systematically searching electronic databases for research publications for social work and social care.

Context: Electronic bibliographic databases are a key source for professional publications about social work and community care more generally. This article describes and evaluates a method of identifying relevant articles as part of a systematic review of research evidence. Decision making about institutional and home care services for older people is used as an example. Method: Four databases (Social Science Citation Index, Medline, CINAHL, and Caredata) that abstract publications relevant to health and social services were searched systematically to identify relevant research studies. The items retrieved were appraised independently using a standard form developed for the purpose. The searches were compared in terms of sensitivity, precision, overlap between databases, and inter-rater reliability. Results: The search retrieved 525 articles, of which 276 were relevant. The four databases retrieved 55%, 41%, 19%, and 1% of the relevant articles respectively, achieving these sensitivities with precision levels of 54%, 48%, 84% and 94%. The databases retrieved 116, 73, 24 and 15 unique relevant articles respectively, showing the need to use a range of databases. Discussion: A general approach to creating a search to retrieve relevant research has been developed. The development of an international, indexed database dedicated to literature relevant to social services is a priority to enable progress in evidence-based policy and practice in social work. Editors and researchers should consider using structured abstracts in order to improve the retrieval and dissemination of research.