Un marco conceptual que demuestra el valor de los servicios de orientación

Tanto profesionales como quienes tienen a su cargo diferentes servicios están de acuerdo en que la evaluación es importante. Sin embargo, los orientadores rara vez evalúan su trabajo de manera de hallar una relación causal entre los servicios que los usuarios reciben y los cambios a los que acceden. Se ha desarrollado un marco teórico para evaluar los cambios en los conocimientos, habilidades, actitudes y creencias del usuario y examinar el impacto que dichos cambios han hecho en su vida y en la sociedad en la que se desenvuelve. El marco incluye también un sistema de seguimiento de las intervenciones realizadas y de los recursos necesarios para poder implementar exitosamente estas acciones. Ha sido empleado en diversas situaciones orientadoras, establecimientos educativos y acciones de orientación vocacional, con el objeto de proporcionar evidencia de que el servicio brindado realmente produce un impacto sobre la vida del usuarioTanto profesionales como quienes tienen a su cargo diferentes servicios están de acuerdo en que la evaluación es importante. Sin embargo, los orientadores rara vez evalúan su trabajo de manera de hallar una relación causal entre los servicios que los usuarios reciben y los cambios a los que acceden. Se ha desarrollado un marco teórico para evaluar los cambios en los conocimientos, habilidades, actitudes y creencias del usuario y examinar el impacto que dichos cambios han hecho en su vida y en la sociedad en la que se desenvuelve. El marco incluye también un sistema de seguimiento de las intervenciones realizadas y de los recursos necesarios para poder implementar exitosamente estas acciones. Ha sido empleado en diversas situaciones orientadoras, establecimientos educativos y acciones de orientación vocacional, con el objeto de proporcionar evidencia de que el servicio brindado realmente produce un impacto sobre la vida del usuario

A framework for demonstrating the value of human services

Tanto profesionales como quienes tienen a su cargo diferentes servicios están de acuerdo en que la evaluación es importante. Sin embargo, los orientadores rara vez evalúan su trabajo de manera de hallar una relación causal entre los servicios que los usuarios reciben y los cambios a los que acceden. Se ha desarrollado un marco teórico para evaluar los cambios en los conocimientos, habilidades, actitudes y creencias del usuario y examinar el impacto que dichos cambios han hecho en su vida y en la sociedad en la que se desenvuelve. El marco incluye también un sistema de seguimiento de las intervenciones realizadas y de los recursos necesarios para poder implementar exitosamente estas acciones. Ha sido empleado en diversas situaciones orientadoras, establecimientos educativos y acciones de orientación vocacional, con el objeto de proporcionar evidencia de que el servicio brindado realmente produce un impacto sobre la vida del usuario.

A framework for demonstrating the value of human services

Tanto profesionales como quienes tienen a su cargo diferentes servicios están de acuerdo en que la evaluación es importante. Sin embargo, los orientadores rara vez evalúan su trabajo de manera de hallar una relación causal entre los servicios que los usuarios reciben y los cambios a los que acceden. Se ha desarrollado un marco teórico para evaluar los cambios en los conocimientos, habilidades, actitudes y creencias del usuario y examinar el impacto que dichos cambios han hecho en su vida y en la sociedad en la que se desenvuelve. El marco incluye también un sistema de seguimiento de las intervenciones realizadas y de los recursos necesarios para poder implementar exitosamente estas acciones. Ha sido empleado en diversas situaciones orientadoras, establecimientos educativos y acciones de orientación vocacional, con el objeto de proporcionar evidencia de que el servicio brindado realmente produce un impacto sobre la vida del usuario.

Modelo de habilidades de las TICs y nuevo perfil profesional de los Consejeros de Orientación en algunos países europeos

El artículo analiza la utilización de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación en el escenario de algunos países europeos en el ámbito de la Orientación Educativa y Profesional.

Profile in occupational counselling and placement and employment services: social policies axis

This paper presents the gestation of a new model of Occupational Counselling, centred in the joint action of State, Third Sector and Private Organizations. Different programmes are identified which involve the treatment of issues related to Labour, Employment and Education within the framework of objectives of social development, community participation and respect for diversity. The data of the investigation make it possible to establish connections between the tasks, professional profiles and professional training of the counsellors who participate in the different programmes.

Un marco conceptual que demuestra el valor de los servicios de orientación

Tanto profesionales como quienes tienen a su cargo diferentes servicios están de acuerdo en que la evaluación es importante. Sin embargo, los orientadores rara vez evalúan su trabajo de manera de hallar una relación causal entre los servicios que los usuarios reciben y los cambios a los que acceden. Se ha desarrollado un marco teórico para evaluar los cambios en los conocimientos, habilidades, actitudes y creencias del usuario y examinar el impacto que dichos cambios han hecho en su vida y en la sociedad en la que se desenvuelve. El marco incluye también un sistema de seguimiento de las intervenciones realizadas y de los recursos necesarios para poder implementar exitosamente estas acciones. Ha sido empleado en diversas situaciones orientadoras, establecimientos educativos y acciones de orientación vocacional, con el objeto de proporcionar evidencia de que el servicio brindado realmente produce un impacto sobre la vida del usuarioTanto profesionales como quienes tienen a su cargo diferentes servicios están de acuerdo en que la evaluación es importante. Sin embargo, los orientadores rara vez evalúan su trabajo de manera de hallar una relación causal entre los servicios que los usuarios reciben y los cambios a los que acceden. Se ha desarrollado un marco teórico para evaluar los cambios en los conocimientos, habilidades, actitudes y creencias del usuario y examinar el impacto que dichos cambios han hecho en su vida y en la sociedad en la que se desenvuelve. El marco incluye también un sistema de seguimiento de las intervenciones realizadas y de los recursos necesarios para poder implementar exitosamente estas acciones. Ha sido empleado en diversas situaciones orientadoras, establecimientos educativos y acciones de orientación vocacional, con el objeto de proporcionar evidencia de que el servicio brindado realmente produce un impacto sobre la vida del usuario

iCarer Project: Intelligent Care Guidance and Learning Services Platform for Informal Carers of the Elderly

The increasing ageing population is demanding new care approaches to maintain the quality of life of elderly people. Informal carers are becoming crucial agents in the care and support of elderly people, which can lead to those carers suffering from additional stress due to competing priorities with employment or due to lack of knowledge about elderly people?s care needs. Thus, support and stress relief in carers should be a key issue in the home-care process of these older adults. Considering this context, this work presents the iCarer project aimed at developing a personalized and adaptive platform to offer informal carers support by means of monitoring their activities of daily care and psychological state, as well as providing an orientation to help them improve the care provided. Additionally, iCarer will provide e-Learning services and an informal carers learning network. As a result, carers will be able to expand their knowledge, supported by the experience provided by expert counsellors and fellow carers. Additionally, the coordination between formal and informal carers will be improved, offering the informal carers flexibility to organize and combine their assistance and social activities.

Automatic message handling for a national counselling service

An automatic email handling system (AutoRouter) was introduced at a national counselling service in Australia. In 2003, counsellors responded to a total of 7421 email messages. Over nine days in early May 2004 the administrator responsible for the management of the manual email counselling service recorded the time spent on managing email messages. The AutoRouter was then introduced. Since the implementation of the AutoRouter the administrator's management role has become redundant, an average of 12 h 5 min per week of staff time has been saved. There have been further savings in supervisor time. Counsellors were taking an average of 6.2 days to respond to email messages (n=4307), with an average delay of 1.2 days from the time counsellors wrote the email to when the email was sent. Thus the response was sent on average 7.4 days after receipt of the original client email message. A significant decrease in response time has been noted since implementation of the AutoRouter, with client responses now taking an average of 5.4 days, a decrease of 2.0 days. Automatic message handling appears to be a promising method of managing the administration of a steadily increasing email counselling service.

Clinical supervision in school counselling and career counselling: Is it time to develop a new story?

Supervision provides benefits for school counsellors and career counsellors such as support, an opportunity to gain new ideas and strategies, and personal and professional development. Despite this, studies have also shown that school counsellors perceive that the amount of time they participate in supervision is inadequate. In career counselling, there is little evidence that supervision has even been established as a mainstream professional practice. The reasons for this curious situation, whereby little time is spent on a potentially beneficial activity, are uncertain. The present study investigated the supervisory experiences of a group of school counsellors and career counsellors for a six month period following their completion of an intensive supervision training program. Participants recorded their supervisory experiences in a structured diary. Even though the participants were well informed about supervision, the findings of the present study are consistent with those of previous studies. This history of repeatedly similar findings suggests that it may be timely to ask some fundamental questions about supervision in these two professions. Such questions in turn suggest possible new research directions.

Career counselling in Australia

Historically, perhaps because of its matching process traditions, career counselling has tended to be viewed more simplistically than other fields of counselling. However, in the latter part of the 20th century the career development industry witnessed rapid growth and seems set for a promising future. Such growth has corresponded with irreversible change in the world of work, the emergence of lifelong learning as integral to people's careers, and broader and more holistic definitions of career and career development that have gained widespread acceptance. With the increased influence of constructivism, career counselling has emerged from its vocational guidance origins as a profession in its own right. Increasingly, policymakers are recognizing the importance of career guidance and counselling in assisting to achieve policy goals related to lifelong learning, employment, and social equity. Thus, closer links have been created between policymakers and practitioner associations such as the Australian Association of Career Counsellors (AACC). Such intense focus on career guidance and counselling has also resulted in closer scrutiny of its professional standards and qualifications. Consequently, at the same time as there being increased demand for and interest in career counselling, practitioner associations are faced with issues related to redefining their roles with members, the community, and policymakers. This article will describe the changed context of career counselling, current issues such as standards and accreditation, and redefinition of the profession. The AACC's response to these challenges will be the focus of this article.

The credentialing of counselling in Australia

Counselling is an unregulated activity in Australia. No statutory regulation currently exists. As a result, different counselling organizations are promoting different voluntary standards for the practice of counselling. This has led to a credentialing dilemma in which counsellors and the public are confronted with a number of counselling qualification choices. This dilemma poses a number of questions: Should counselling become more regulated in Australia? At what level should counselling be regulated? Should there be various levels of counsellor regulation? This article provides an overview of the credentialing dilemma facing counselling in Australia, compares and contrasts two main Australian accreditation efforts, and proposes cooperation as a way of navigating said dilemma. The implications for counselling as a profession are discussed along with suggestions for its development as a profession. This includes a discussion regarding the relative advantages and disadvantages of greater regulation of counselling as a professional activity in Australia. Specifically, what is and is not generally considered a profession is reviewed, different forms of credentialing are outlined, and general arguments for and against accreditation efforts are presented. The efforts of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA) and the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) are compared and are shown to have common ground. Consequently, ways in which the main counselling organizations may best work in conjunction to promote counselling as a profession in Australia are proposed. These suggestions include good communication, collaboration, and the avoidance of turf wars. Specifically, that the ACA and PACFA collaborate on developing a combined independent registration list that is supported by both organizations or, minimally, that both organizations have mutual recognition on each other's register lists.

Experts:the knowledge and power of expertise

In this book, Stehr and Grundmann outline the theoretical significance and practical importance of the growing stratum of experts, counsellors and advisors in contemporary society, and claim that the growing spectrum of knowledge-based occupations has led to the pluralisation of expertise. As decision makers in organizations and private citizens, for various reasons, increasingly seek advice from experts, the authors examine the nature of expert activity, and suggest that the role of experts needs to be distinguised from other roles such as professionals, scientists, or intellectuals. Experts, they argue, perform knowledge based activities that mediate between the context of knowledge creation and application. Existing approaches tend to restrict the role of the expert to scientists, or to conflate the roles of professionals with experts. In avoiding such restrictions, this book sets out a framework to understanding the growing role of expertise in a better way. Experts provides thought-provoking discussion that will be of interest to postgraduate students and academics working within the fields of social theory, knowledge, and consumption.

Marital counselling: follow-up study of marriage guidance clients: perceptions of the agency, the process and outcomes. Available in 2 volumes.

This study is a consumer-survey conducted with former Marriage Guidance Council clients. The objectives were to identify and examine why they chose the agency, what their expectations and experiences were of marital counselling and whether anything was achieved. The material was derived from tape recorded interviews with 51 former M.G. clients (17 men and 34 women) from 42 marriages and with 21 counsellors; data from written material and a card-sort completed by the research sample; and the case record sheets of the research population (174 cases). The results from the written data of clients showed that 49% were satisfied with counselling, 25.5% were satisfied in some ways but not in others, and 25.5% were dissatisfied. Forty-six percent rated they had benefited from counselling, either a great deal or to some degree, 4% were neutral and 50% recorded they had not benefited. However the counsellors' assessments were more optimistic. It was also ascertained that 50% of the research sample eventually separated or divorced subsequent to counselling. A cross-check revealed that the majority who rated they were satisfied with counselling were those who remained married, whilst dissatisfied clients were the ones who unwillingly separated or divorced. The study then describes, discusses and assesses the experiences of clients in the light of these findings on a number of dimensions. From this it was possible to construct a summary profile of a "successful" client describing the features which would contribute to "success". Two key themes emerged from the data. (1) the discrepancy between clients expectations and the counselling offered, which included mis­ match over the aims and methods of counselling, and problem definition; and (2) the importance of the client/counsellor relationship. The various implications for the agency are then discussed which include recommendations on policy, the training of counsellors and further research.

Client discourses on the process of seeking same-sex couple counselling

How same-sex couples manage the process of seeking help for their relationships is an under-researched area. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 people who had engaged in same-sex couple counselling, and were analysed using discourse analysis. The ways in which the couples positioned themselves as part of a 'minority group', or part of a generic group of couples struggling with relationship issues, impacted on how they discussed seeking help. We conclude that counsellors and psychotherapists need to be aware of the ways in which couples construct their relationships, and mindful of the tricky navigations around similarity to, and difference from, different-sex relationships. The impact of this on couples seeking therapeutic help is considered. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.