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This article examines Norway's child welfare service managers' perceptions of infection control measures on service functionality. The longitudinal study entailed nine rounds of surveys (N = 153–214) with child welfare managers between April 2020 and September 2021, collected by the Norwegian Directorate for Children Youth and Family Affairs after the onset of the Norwegian lockdown of March 2020. The findings suggest links between the strictness of measures and ability of child welfare services to ensure appropriate service delivery. Lockdown caused significant difficulties for many municipalities, while milder measures had less impact. We discuss some implications for practice with children and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Summary: This article is grounded on Cheers, Darracott, and Lonne’s (2007) framework for conceptualizing the factors that influence rural social care practitioners in their work. Focusing on the ‘personal domain’ we report results of qualitative interviews with 22 social workers who were part of a larger sample of 82 Australian rural social practitioners. As part of the larger study, practitioners were asked how they defined social care, whether they practised it and if so how, factors influencing their practice, and the information bases they used.• Findings: Analysis of the social work interviews identified that the personal domain had considerable influence on their day-to-day practice. Five themes emerged describing the personal domain: ‘life experiences’, ‘beliefs and values’, ‘ideas and theories’, ‘personal relationships’, and ‘personal characteristics’. We call for further research to conceptualize the domain more clearly, identify factors within it, and investigate how they influence practice, with special focus on how social workers’ personal moral-ethical frameworks influence their practice decisions.• Application: Opening space to explore the personal domain challenges social work practitioners and students to critically reflect on how their life experiences, beliefs and values, ideas and theories and personal relationships and characteristics influence their practice. It also provides practitioners, employers, and professional organizations with knowledge they need to help social workers cope with the demands of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines contemporary social work and why it is under serious threat, ideologically and economically, in a rapidly changing world that no longer highly values its social mandate, methods, and outcomes. Within this hostile environment we investigate the low salaries and high student debt that beginning social workers experience, which might otherwise drive them into unions. Instead, the profession resists unionization, preferring to remain focused on its ideals rather than the disquieting marketplace realities. We then examine the general elements of a hybrid union model that can assist social workers to organize and thus arrest their long-standing professional and fiscal decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social workers, welfare workers and others living and working in small rural communities report that they are generally highly satisfied with their work and lifestyle. Paradoxically, high levels of occupational stress are also reported. Rural welfare work has elements such as the adoption of dual and multiple roles, cultural 'Isolation', the blurring of work and home, profess tonal and citizenship roles, and lack of anonymity, which can contribute to occupational stress. Concerns about personal and family safety with exposure to episodes of violence, harassment and bullying within small communities also contribute to feeling stressed. Using qualitative and quantitative data gained from the authors' two Australian studies, together with international research, this paper examines rural practice and occupational stress. Whilst employers and colleagues may attribute stress reactions to the individual practitioner's inability to cope with the demands of rural practice, strategies that are both systemic and structural are required to address this significant occupational issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though there is substantial agreement about the nature of rural contexts, practice principles, and factors influencing practice we stilt do not have a framework for organising this knowledge in a way that can directly inform the practitioner In their day-to-day work. In this paper, we introduce the concepts 'practice domains', 'domain location', and 'domain alignment' that, taken together provide such a framework. We suggest that each practitioner works within a number of practice domains. A domain is a discourse about practice comprising narratives about how a social worker should practise and which factors they should take most account of In their practice decision making. Each practitioner, and each practice process, can be located somewhere within each domain (domain location) and also situated amongst domains according to their relative alignment with each of them (domain alignment). In this paper, we present this framework and show how it is useful for practitioners in understanding practice, identifying factors Influencing It, and making practice decisions in immediate, concrete situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problematic staff turnover of social workers and other human service professionals has plagued rural communities, employers, employees and their families, and led to significant financial and human costs. This paper reports the findings of a two year longitudinal study of 194 Australian rural social workers and the high staff turnover they experienced during 1994- 1997. Regression analyses of survey data revealed that employer-related factors were strongly associated with premature departure, while community and personal factors tended to influence retention positively. Social workers who were well provided with social, emotional and financial support by their employers and colleagues tended to stay long enough for the lifestyle attractions of rural practice to take increasing effect. On the other hand, unsupported practitioners tended to depart early. Hence, problematic staff turnover can be addressed with different approaches from employers, educators and staff. A range of remedial strategies is generated including preparatory briefings, increased training, better-targetted recruitment, and enhanced support and supervision of staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]