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The aim of the article is to present the perceptions of social work educators from Lithuania and Japan, on the role of technologies in the development of the profession. Qualitative research was based on 18 interviews. The place of technologies in the social work profession and the implications that these technologies may have on social work values, knowledge, skills and SW identity are discussed from the perspective of B. Latour, specifically, his two practices of knowledge generation—purification and translation. The article contributes to the discussion on the role and integration of technologies into social work education and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The aim of the study was to evaluate the mental health care system from the perspective of experts, as well as a subjective review by patients in mental health centers of the treatment they are receiving. Methods: This article includes data from two studies performed in Lithuania: expert and patient research. Research participants were 20 experts (non-governmental organizations, academics, service workers, decision makers, central government) and 30 patients (heterogeneous according to their demographic characteristics, diagnoses, forms of treatment received). Results: According to the patients, psychotherapeutic treatment requires a much higher degree of patients' active involvement and input; medication-based treatment contributes to the patient's passive position regarding their healing process. Experts' opinions regarding the balance between psychotherapy and medication focused on the following topics: the availability of psychotherapy in bigger cities and its lack in rural settings; the supply of private providers and lack of public services; a progressive youth and a conservative older generation of psychiatrists; a paradoxical concentration of psychotherapy in inpatient facilities and its lack in the community. Conclusions: Though mental health care requires a clear and ethical balance of biomedical and psychotherapeutic interventions, a transparent and public dialogue about the efficacy and advantages of different treatments is needed, but this consensus is still not achieved in many countries, including Lithuania. Both psychotherapy and medication-based treatments are regarded as useful elements of treatment from both the expert and the patient perspective. However, there is lack of availability of psychotherapy services in the mental health system in Lithuania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-realization as the aim of social work is mentioned in the ethical codes of social workers and various acts, regulating the activity of social work in Lithuania and other countries. Self-realization is discussed as the essential virtue, defining social work, and as the objective, towards which the final goal of the practice, involving all areas of social work, must be oriented. Thus, the aim of research which is presented in this paper was to find out what conditions design premises for the clients to aim for the self-realization during the process of the assistance. Searching for what kind of attitudes towards social problems and the means and principles of assistance are important when endeavouring to design conditions for the self-realization of a client during the process of assistance, qualitative research was carried out: biographic interview with a client, interviews of 6 social workers and the analysis of the documents of 3 organizations, which work in the social field and clearly name self-realization of the clients as the goal. The results of the research revealed, that the system of the assistance, when aiming for this goal of social work, is composed of these elements: professional specialized assistance; the creation of material basis and conditions, which do not humiliate human dignity and do not stimulate the rise of *supply* mentality; the design of conditions for work and learning thru work; providing the possibilities for education; the design of the space for the development of the personality during leisure time; warranting the relationship, based on the confidence and belief in person during all the process of assistance. This system of assistance is based on 3 principles of design of natural environment: the principle of unterminated time of assistance; the principle of design of family environment; the principle of individual approach to person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a conceptual framework within a decision-making (DM) context in situations, when child protection workers have to decide to either remove a child from his or her parents care or leave him or her in a family. Based on the thematic analysis of data from the 33 interviews, we have developed the concept of DM context as a space of uncertainty which is multilayered and implies an inherent duality of each contextual element. The study contributed to the research on work in a private setting, by revealing the role of agency culture and public attitudes in child protection workers' decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scavengers are people who recover recyclables from waste and use it for self consumption and/or trade. Though this group of society exists in many societies, the research in this area is scarce. There few research made in western world, more in developing countries. In Lithuania this area is quite uninvestigated. The paper present this paper the results of ethnographic research conducted in year 2006-2008 in Lithuanian dumps. The nature of this paper is descriptive. We introduce general characteristics of scavengers' work and their earnings in various countries as well as in Lithuania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This article aims to identify the different truths perceived and experienced by the four main parties involved in the process of removing children from families. Furthermore, the article examines the potential implications of these individuals' "versions of the truth" on the public discourse. Background: This article offers a unique lens for analyzing situations when children are removed from their homes by employing the principles of the sociology of knowledge and the concept of the Rashomon effect. This combination reveals the different truths, reasons, and motives of all parties involved in situations of removing children from their homes in Lithuania. Method: Seventy‐one semistructured interviews were undertaken with the parties who have direct experience of the process of child removal from families: children, parents, child protection workers (CPWs), and the police. Results: The interviews with parents reveal the unexpectedness and unfairness of the removal situation, and lack of institutional support in their efforts to recover the child. Similarly, for children the removal experience was traumatizing, resulting in losing trust in their parents and CPWs. However, in some cases they were glad to be taken away from the neglecting and violent environment. Child protection workers experience strong emotions and face ethical dilemmas during the removal. Nevertheless, they perceive themselves as life‐saving professionals who meet children's best interests. Conclusions: The research revealed that all four involved parties have their own diverse and competing truths. These truths do not have equal chances to be told, listened to, or to shape the general discourse. They are limited by privacy, professionalism requirements, and feelings of shame and guilt. Implications: The research results have implications for further research, practice, and policy. They offer a methodological approach, combining competing truths, which can guide the daily work of child protection workers. On the policy level, the results of this study might be helpful for professionals in other countries developing or reforming their child protection systems. The ability to openly express one's truth can be seen as a crucial factor, serve as a means of parents' attempts to publicly prove one's suitability to care for children, or CPWs' professionalism in making appropriate decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this article is to analyze the challenges that arise from stigma and that relatives of people with Schizophrenia face in their relationships in primary social network. Schizophrenia does not only change everyday life and relationships of the ill but also of their relatives. This topic is not researched in Lithuania. Meanwhile in the international context, the biggest attention is paid to the subjective and objective burden that relatives of the people with Schizophrenia face, leaving aside the changes and dynamics in their relationships. Therefore, in this article the influence of the stigmatization on the relationships in the closest environment of patient is discussed. In order to achieve this goal, qualitative research has been completed and 15 half-structured interviews with the people who have relatives, who suffer from Schizophrenia, were carried out. The relation to the person with Schizophrenia varied according to the individual cases - some of them were spouses, some where children, parents, siblings or further relatives. The results of the research reveal that Schizophrenia causes complex emotional experiences of patient’s family members, and gives an effect on relationships within the family, as well as on relationships of the ill and his family members with further relatives, friends, neighbors and colleagues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]