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Introduction

Recent demographic indicators reveal that over the next decade the effect of ageing on the UK adult population will result in a 20%increase in those of 65 and a 60% increase in “the over 85 year-olds” by 2027 (DoH 2007a, p.1). This trend, together with the increase in the numbers of the population suffering from medical and health issues, including dementia and disability, presents a challenge to the provision of adult social care, in terms of both funding and the need to deliver appropriate services designed to provide this segment of the population with “equality of citizenship” (ibid).

As a response to the changing demography, in 2006, the Department of Health (hereinafter DoH) produced a white paper outlining a new direction for the provision of adult social care services within the community, which indicated the need for a fundamental change from previously existing policies and procedures (DoH 2006). Subsequent DoH (2007a, 2007b and 2009) publications have served to provide guidance on how it was anticipated these change would transition into the practical environment. The central theme of this new direction was based upon a personalised agenda, with users and their carers being given more control and choice over the care services they required and the format in which they wished these services to be provided. In other words, the objective was for adult social care services to be provided based upon a person-centred approach rather than the internal social care services decision-driven model (Department of Health 2007b).

As with all new fundamental and structural changes of this nature, a key element of the ‘personalisation agenda’ is to ensure that the quality of service delivery matches the health and social needs of the local community. It is this aspect of the new adult social care than forms the basis for this paper. Following a brief overview of the objectives and requirements of the ‘personalisation agenda,’ the paper will outline the measurement hat are required to be put in place to ensure the delivery of the requisite quality service to the end user and their carer (Mullins 2006).

The ‘Personalisation agenda’

The basic premise of the ‘personalisation agenda’ programme and its aim of moving control of adult social care services to a user/carer-centred model. In other words, instead of professionals within the social services making the decision in relation to the support services required, and how this would be provided, under the new systems, these issues will be determined by the individual user. Therefore, with the aid of the social services team as and when required, the purpose of ‘personalisation’ was to deliver four main objectives, which are outlined as follows:

Budgetary control

The user/carer will have the opportunity to design and create their own budget to cover their health and care needs. Based upon this budget, an allocation of funds will be provided over which the user/carer will retain control

Choice of support requirement spending

Within the context of the budget and resources that has been designed by the user/carer, they will retain the choice of what support services they require and how the budget will be allocated across these services

Choice of service providers

Rather than social services deciding the service provider, that choice will now be in the control of the user/carer. In this respect, the user/carer can decide whether the support services they require should be delivered at their home, at an external location, such as a care home or respite centre and, ultimately, whether the provider of these services should be the local social care service or an external private organisation.

Appropriate and timely access to support

Instead of having the delivery of their health and social care services determined by the professionals within the health care sector, the personalised approach gives the user/carer the right to choose the time of these services, for example, at night or during the day.

To ensure that these objectives could be met, with a target data for their full implementation being set at April 2011 (ADASS 2009), were tasked with introducing a system based upon the following changes:

Integrated working with the NHS

Commissioning Strategies, which maximise choice and control whilst balancing investment in prevention and early intervention

Universal information and advice services for all citizens

Proportionate social care assessments processes

Person centred planning and self-directed support to become mainstream activities with personal budgets which maximise choice and control

Mechanisms to involve family members and other carers

A framework which ensures people can exercise choice and control with advocacy and brokerage linked to the building of user-led organisations

Appropriate safeguarding arrangements

Effective quality assurance and benchmarking arrangements

To deliver these changes successfully within the target time scales set, this process has required local social services departments to take steps to redesign the manner in which their organisation were operating as outlined within the following section of this report.

3 Re-designing the provision of adult social care

For the adult social care departments of local authorities, main areas of change required to develop a user/carer-centred approach to service provision, the most important factors that needed to be addressed were concentrated upon three main areas. These can be defined as follows:

Ensuring the resources are available to assisting the user with the creation of their own care assessment needs and budget

Ensuring the facilitators of that choice were available and making sure that the required quality of service is delivered, and

Providing and communicating information in a manner that enables the user to make an informed choice

Consequently, there was a need to focus upon introducing improvements to three key operational elements:

3.1. Human resource capabilities

It will be apparent that some user/carers may require assistance with the process of conducting a personal assessment of their ongoing health and social care needs and designing the budget required to ensure that these needs are capable of being met. For this purpose therefore, it has been important for the local authority to provide users’ with access to employees with the required level of skills and capabilities to assist the user/carer with this process. In many cases, the requisite skills and competences required to achieve this transformation of services might not have existed within the roles of existing frontline service team members. Therefore, it has been important to introduce training programmes designed to assist the workforce to adapt to the new roles.

3.2. Physical internal and external resources

As user/carers now have the choice of how, where and who they wish to provide their service needs, it has been important to realign existing internal existing and external physical and, in some cases human, resources to provide the appropriate range of choice. In basic terms, this choice can be divided into two main categories, these being whether the user/carer requires the service to be delivered in the home or at an external location and having the choice as to whether the service is delivered by the public or private sector.

Home or external delivery of service

Within this context of choice, the main area of change has occurred where user/carers have wished their service requirements to be delivered in their own home. To facilitate this choice, adult care services have needed to ensure two requirements are met. Firstly, there has been a need to ensure that there is a sufficiency of employees experienced in the delivery of home based care services to users/carers, which in some cases has again meant retraining existing members of the workforce to ensure their ability to transition from working in a controlled environment to one where self-control is the main requirement. Secondly, it has meant that the adult social care service has an adequacy of physical and portable equipment required to facilitate home based service provision.

Public or private service provider

Concerning the choice of provider, it was incumbent upon the adult social care services to achieve two objectives. Firstly, there was a need to develop relationships with a sufficient number of external private care providers to enable sufficiency of choice for the user/carer. Secondly, as part of their remit to providing the appropriate type and quality of care, the department also needed to be assured that the quality of service available from the external private provider complied with the standards and quality of care as set down within the government and DoH requirements. Private health and social care providers in this context can refer to agencies and individuals who are trained in the provision of individual care services as well as the external organisations that are operate nursing, care home and other health care facilities.

3.3. Communication process

The final change required, and perhaps in many ways equally important as those discussed previously, has been the need to introduce a robust process of bi-direction communication between all the stakeholders, which includes the adult social care management teams, employees, external service providers, both public and private and, of course, the service user/carer. In order to make an informed choice it is critical that the user/carer has access to data and information related to all the available options open to them. For example, in the case of private care homes, this would include details of the accommodation amenities, the type of care services available from the provider, and overview of their quality standards and the price of the service being provided. In other words, there is a need to create a knowledge based organisation (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995). In practice therefore, the communication process within the adult care service environment in accordance with the following diagram (figure 1).

4. Measuring quality service delivery

4.1. The rationale for measuring quality service

Major Service delivery transformation of the nature being discussed within this report requires change and, as Turner (2009, p.1) rightly confirms, “Change: and the need to manage change through projects, touches all our lives, in working and social environments.” This has certainly been the case in designing a process that requires the adoption of a user/carer-centred approach to adult social care. Similarly, as with all changes of this nature, not all aspects of the process can be completed at the same time, in other words it needs to be introduced in stages (Allan 2004, Cameron and Green 2004, Blake and Bush 2009 and Turner 2009). For example, providing carers with information related to private provider service choice cannot occur unless or until these providers have been contacted and a relationship built with them to facilitate their willingness and appropriateness to be included in the process. Lewin (Wirth 2004) in developing what he terms as the ‘freeze model’ suggests that stages required to complete this change are three in number:

Motivation of need for change (Frozen)

Design and implementing the change (Unfrozen and moving to a new state)

Making the change permanent (Refreezing)

Source: Wirth (2004)

Of equally critical importance having identified that structure that needs to be put in place to effect the change/transformation to the ‘personalised agenda’ requirements for the organisation, is to ensure that each aspect of this process is managed in an efficient and effective manner in order to deliver the quality of service that meets the user./carer needs. It is equally important to continue to measure the quality of service delivered on an ongoing basis. The ADASS (2009) have suggested that the transformation to the new service structure should be based upon the extent to which the local adult social service department has achieved the following five key priorities:

That the transformation of adult social care has been developed in partnership with existing service users (both public and private), their careers and other citizens who are interested in these services.

That a process is in place to ensure that all those eligible for council funded adult social care support will receive a personal budget via a suitable assessment process.

That partners are investing in cost effective preventative interventions, which reduce the demand for social care and health services.

That citizens have access to information and advice regarding how to identify and access options available in their communities to meet their care and support needs.

That service users are experiencing a broadening of choice and improvement in quality of care and support service supply, built upon involvement of key stakeholders (Councils, Primary Care Trusts, service users, providers, 3rd sector organisations etc), that can meet the aspirations of all local people (whether council or self-funded) wanting to procure social care services.

Source: ADASS (2009)

Consequently, it is clear that as an integral part of delivering these priorities, the local adult social services department to have implemented a number of performance assessment and measurement models are discussed in the following section of this report.

4.2. Measurement models for quality service delivery

For measuring the effectiveness of quality service delivery within the context of any organisation, there are a number of management and measurement models that can be used. The objective of some of these, as Turner (2009, p.357) comments is to analyse and assess the performance of the changes that are taking place, such as the transformation of adult social care being discussed in this report. However, in addition to these measurement models, there are others that are designed to measure service quality for specific elements and stakeholders within the change process and post change performance.

Taking the above issues into account, the focus of this discussion is aimed at measurements to be used during the course of the adult social service transformation, the effectiveness of individual employees and external provider’s provision of quality services and the measurements used to assess the satisfaction levels of the user/carer. This triangular approach is designed to achieve the following objectives for the adult social services department:

Monitoring quality service delivery against timelines and milestones set

Enabling department to comply within regulatory agendas

Ensuring required skills and competences of work force and external provider’s

Monitoring development of appropriate team based relationships

Measuring extent to which services provided meet with user/carer needs

In all of these areas, the measurement models being used are designed to be part of a continuing process of ensuring the service delivery remains at the highest level of quality (Mullins 2010).

4.2.2. Project and post-project performance

In the view of the author of this report, in order to evaluate the change and improvement to the quality of service during both its implementation and execution stages, it is considered that the measurement model based upon the KPI and Balanced Scorecard approach which was developed by Kaplan et al (2006) is the most appropriate for use. This is especially true within the implementation stages of the change process. The reason for this is that it provides regular opportunities for reassessment and the rapid introduction of measures to address issues that might have arisen (Johnson and Clark 2008). Moreover, within the context of the ‘personalised agenda’ approach, it has the added benefit of being able to combine the financial as well as the non-financial outcomes. In this respect therefore, when used in the adult social services this model not only enables an assessment of the service quality being delivered but will also help to ascertain whether the user/carer is being provided with value for money.

The design and benefits of this measurement model can best be explained from the following diagram, which clearly shows the objective of the Balance Scorecard is to assess and evaluate the performance of quality service delivery from four main perspectives. There are to provide a process for learning and growth, to provide guidance for the management of the organisation, ensuring satisfaction of user/carer needs and, as a result to achieve the financial objectives (Kaplan et al 2006).

In terms of improvement to the service quality, are clearing identified within the appraisal of the KPI’s (figure 3), in that it provides learning for the organisation, which leads to better decision making and continues the process of improved service quality delivery.

Source: API (2010) http://www.ap-institute.com/kpi_fig3.htm

4.2.3. Employee performance appraisal

Skills and competences of employees, whether part of the internal social services workforce or engaged by an external provider, are another key an essential area of service quality delivery that needs to be constantly kept under review (Leat 2001 and Armstrong 2006). The extent to which an employee is able to perform their duties in a manner that satisfies the user/carer, will have a significant impact upon the latter’s level of satisfaction. Consequently, it is important for managers to work with the employees to ensure that they are both acquiring the skills needed to perform their roles and motivated to undertake these duties in a manner that seeks to achieve excellence.

The most appropriate model in this instance is the use an individual employee ‘performance appraisal’ system. This model is based upon interactive communication and discussion process that takes place between the employer/manager and the employee (Leat 2001). The first stage is for both parties to complete a previously designed ‘performance appraisal’ form, which can be similar to the example that is provided in appendix 1 and attached to this report. The purpose of both parties completing this document is so that the level and standard of the employee’s performance is provided from both perspectives. This provides the opportunity for the employer to gain an insight into where the employee feels they are excelling and/or consider that further assistance from the organisation, perhaps in the form of additional training, may be considered helpful.

Following completion of the appraisal form, the employee will then deliver a copy of this to his/her employer for consideration. It is preferable at this stage to ensure that a meeting has been arranged at which both employee and employer will be able to discuss freely the results of the appraisal (Armstrong 2006). It should be deliberately designed for this appraisal process to take the form of a two-way conversation or discussion. From an employer’s viewpoint, this will provide them with the opportunity to provide the additional assistance that the employee perceives to be missing from their development, and discuss those areas where the employer considers improvements are required. For the employee, this process is likely to lead to them feeling more involvement with the organisation and therefore more motivated to produce the best service performance they can (Leat 2001).

Further, to enhance the levels of employee involvement and motivation, which as Armstrong (2006) argues, is key to gaining the best quality of service from the workforce, it is important that the adult social services department introduces a system of employee discussion groups. During these sessions, all employees should be encouraged to participate and share their views and opinions on the effectiveness of the processes that is intended to improve service quality for the user/carer. Often, these discussion sessions will lead to the innovative ideas being suggested which, although not previously considered, could produce benefit for the process, as well as improving employee’s level of involvement with the organisation.

4.2.4. User and carer service quality satisfaction

Academics and researchers, especially those who are intimately involved with the social and health care sectors, have sought to provide a number of tools aimed at improving the quality of service delivered to the user/carer. Two of these models, which have recently been assessed, are the SPRU and ASCOT models (SCIE 2010), the objective of both being to find ‘excellence in adult care services.”

The SPRU (Social Policy Research Unit) model (SCIE 2010, p.4)

The focus of the SPRU is based upon the conducting post-service delivery assessments and evaluation which, in other words means that this models, through some format, measures the extent to which the service quality has provide the required service and needs priority for the user/carer. It is a model that is often relied upon for inspection and compliance purposes, such as when the Quality Care Commission conducts an inspection of a private care home (Francis 2009).

The ASCOT (Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit) model

The ASCOT model of performance measurement is very similar to the SPRU model, with the difference being that in this case there are a more defined number of specific issues that the research in question is endeavouring to use for their assessment of the quality of the service being delivered to or experienced by the user/carer, as outlined below:

Accommodation, cleanliness and comfort – The person using the service feels their home environment, including all the rooms, is clean and comfortable.

Control over daily life – The person using the service can choose what to do and when to do it, having control over their daily life and activities.

Dignity – The negative and positive psychological impact of support and care on the personal sense of significance of the person using the service.

Food and nutrition – The person using the service feels they have a nutritious, varied and culturally appropriate diet with enough food and drink they enjoy at regular and timely intervals.

Occupation – The person using the service is sufficiently occupied in a range of meaningful activities whether it be formal employment, unpaid work, caring for others or leisure activities.

Personal cleanliness and comfort – The person using the service feels they are personally clean and comfortable and look presentable or, at best, are dressed and groomed in a way that reflects their personal preferences.

Safety – The person using the service feels safe and secure. This means being free from fear of abuse, falling or other physical harm and fear of being attacked or robbed.

Social participation and involvement – The person using the service is content with their social situation, where social situation is taken to mean the sustenance of meaningful relationships with friends, family and feeling involved or part of a community should this be important to them

Source: SCIE (2010, p.5)

What both of these models have in common is that they are based upon the recognised processes of quantitative primary research, which is commonly used by academics for a wide range of investigations (Johnson and Durberley 2000, Easterby-Smith et al 2004 and Gill and Johnson 2010). With the overall objective of ‘personalised agenda’ being to deliver a quality of service that meets the user/care’s needs and requirement, it follows that the only way that this quality can truly be measured is by gathering information from the source that is intimately connected with, and experiencing, the service being provided, this being the end users. Consequently, it is important for the adult social care department to introduce a continuing process of measures designed to accumulate feedback from the user/carer, which should include:

Regular conduct of a survey questionnaire aimed at gaining user/carer feedback and comments on all aspects of the services delivery process that they have decided to be included within their care management plan

Regular individual one-to-one meetings with user/carers to allow for more comprehensive bi-directional discussion related to their experience of the service quality provided

Of course, the most important part of this process is for the organisation to ensure that where issues or concerns are raised by the user/carer, These are referred to the relevant stakeholder group or person within the organisation so that they can be appropriately be addressed. Additionally, regular contact should be maintained with the user/carer, to advise them of the outcome of any measures taken to improve the quality of the service delivered.

5. Conclusion

There is no doubt that the transformation of adult social care has not only signalled one of the most comprehensive reforms of quality service delivery to the user/carer in many decades, but also one of the most complex in terms of its introduction and successful implementation (DoH 2009). Consequently, ensuring that the quality of the services being delivered are maintained during and post this implementation has required the introduction of a number of measures designed specifically to ensure that that this remains the case. As indicated within this report, those measures, the central part of which is to evaluate and examine the user/carers perception of service quality is being met, need to be applied to all stakeholder groups, including those internal to adult social services and the external services providers whose services are also utilised. It is considered that the measurement and managed tools discussed within this report provide the best models for this purpose.

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This work was produced by one of our professional writers as a learning aid to help you with your studies

Introduction

This report will focus on the needs of an older person using the ideas of developmental theorists. The subject of the case study will be a 70 year old female called Y and the key theories discussed will be Erikson’s life cycle model and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Background

I have based this study on a lady who I will refer to as Y. She is a neighbour who I have known for several years and is 70 years old. She had a fall recently which left her hospitalised for a short period with a broken shoulder. Her mobility is also waning due to arthritis and her shoulder injury has left her unable to drive and requiring physiotherapy. She also need short term help with aspects of personal care such as washing and dressing. She is a widow and I know her (adult) children fairly well. She and the family know that I am studying social work and one of the children had actually asked me for some advice recently about her mother’s situation and how they might access support services. I have had some discussions with the family and told them about this assignment during the course of these discussions; they have given me consent to discuss Y’s case. Y still has capacity to give consent this type of issue and she is also happy for me to use her details on the understanding that she will remain anonymous.

Methodology

Once I had obtained consent for Y and her family and provided assurances that her information would be kept confidential, I met with her on three occasions to discuss her needs, her feelings about her situation and how her situation might be improved. I had access to her medical records; I also met with her son and daughter on one occasion to discuss their mother’s situation. The interviews lasted around thirty minutes and were relatively informal.

Developmental stage and psychological models

The development model that I am applying to this case study is Erikson’s theory of psychological development. It is a model that believes personality development is something that continues through the course of a person’s life and Erikson breaks this down into eight different stages of development. The early stages cover the first stages of a person’s life. Moving through adolescence into young adulthood and middle age. At each stage Erikson’s model explains some of the thoughts and feelings that are likely to occupy a person’s mind, and discusses how success or failure in work or relationships can impact on a person’s psychological well-being (Newman and Newman, 2012).

It is the latter stage of Erikson’s model that are most relevant to Y. She has passed through stage 7 which Erikson sees as a period often pre-occupied by careers and parenting to the final stage of the model which is labelled Integrity vs Despair. At this point people are often examining their lives and considering whether they have a feeling of contentment about what they have achieved in life or feelings of disappointment. They are often worried about the future and there is a gradual realisation that the end of life is imminent (Ryan and Coughlan, 2013).

Erikson wrote about the concept of ego integrity and that people analyse that opportunities they have taken or lost in life. If people feel that they have not made the most of life’s opportunities there can be a feeling of despair that they no longer have time to put it right (Ryan and Coughlan, 2013).

When I applied this theory to Y I found that she was a person who was on the whole happy with what she had achieved in life. She had enjoyed a career working in local government; she had been happily married and raised two children who seemed to be going on to live fulfilling lives. I did not feel that Y had regrets about the past but she was starting to worry increasingly about the future.

Any view of Y of course should take into account her wishes, feelings and needs as an individual rather than simply looking at her age and pigeon-holing her according to a theoretical model, Social work as a profession should avoid stereotyping (Zastrow, 2014) and this is something by social work codes and standards

Attitudes and belief systems

My discussions with Y have me an insight into her attitudes and belief systems. Returning to Erikson’s model, I found that she had a positive view of her life to date but was increasingly concerned that the period of her life where she is an active citizen is coming towards an end. This is a view that can be held by other in society about older people. Ageist views that older people are a burden to society rather than making a contribution exist (Thompson, 2003) and I felt that Y herself was buying into this outlook.

I also felt that Y was worried that her lack of mobility would prevent from achieving her goals of playing an active part in the lives of her young grandchildren. Again, Erikson’s model suggests that dissatisfaction in the later stages of life can lead to despair and this was a concern about Y.

Psychological needs

I have given consideration to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in looking at what psychological needs Y might have. Maslow argued that people are motivated to satisfy a certain level of need before being motivate to move on and meet the next (Mcleod, 2007).

Y has safety needs at this point. Her fall and her limited mobility are making her more vulnerable at home. My discussions with her established that she was concerned about having more falls or her mobility continuing to wane. She needs to be reassured in some way that her current condition is hopefully temporary, that she will recover from her shoulder injury and soon be as active and independent as she had been prior to her fall.

The next of Y’s needs from Maslow’s hierarchy that should be prioritised are her love and belonginess needs (McLeod, 2007). She clearly receives love from her family but her current lack of mobility, particularly the fact that she cannot drive until her should has healed, means that she is having less contact with family and friends; she is also reliant on people coming to her rather than being proactively able to go and make contact with friends and loved ones.

Maslow’s theory touches on the importance of self-esteem and this may well be a particular need of Y at the moment. She is feeling vulnerable due to a combination of age, declining mobility and a feeling that she is less able to look after herself than previously. She needs to get her confidence back and getting out and doing the social activities she has done prior to her fall will be central to her recovery both physically and psychologically.

I think that one of Y’s greatest needs over the next few months will be to remain engaged with the community around her. There is a concern that social isolation could lead her into depression; she will begin to overly dwell on the negatives of her situation and consequently move into a downward spiral both psychologically and physically.

Recommendations for holistic care needs

In the short-term, Y needs a carer to visit her once a day to help her get washed and dressed. She can make basic meals but a temporary frozen meals service might also be useful for her.

She will require ongoing physiotherapy for her shoulder. Monthly sessions at the local hospital should be a minimum but she also needs to take responsibility for doing her exercises each day.

A holistic assessment should also focus on her mental health; Y may be prone to some level of depression and this is something that professionals and family need to monitor. Counselling sessions should be commissioned if required.

Y should also be in touch with Age Action so she can use their information service, in particular in relation to social activities and travel whilst she cannot drive

Practical suggestions

There are a number of practical steps that can be taken immediately to make the home environment safer for Y and hopefully improve her overall well-being. One thing that she can do is identify current hazards in the home that increase her risk of falling and remove them. This might simply be furniture or ornaments in places that cause a problem. She can also invest in making the bathroom safer with rubbers mats and by installing hand rails around the bath and shower.

I would recommend that anyone caring for Y, whether this is a family member, neighbour, professional carer or volunteer, undertakes training with the HSE. Specific training courses such as 2Care in the Home” can provide guidance for carers on basic aspects of care such as feeding, washing and dressing.” In the short t-term, Y only needs assistance with dressing due to her injury and hopefully she will be able to manage her personal care in the medium term. If her abilities deteriorate however it is useful to have people with the correct skills on hand.

For Y’s family, this is the time in Y’s life where they may need to look for support as carers. Carer’s Allowance and Respite Care Grants may be some of the types of financial support open to them and I would recommend that they speak to their local Department of Social Protection office or research the help and support available to carers at http://hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/olderpeople/carersrelatives/Support_for_Carers.html

From a policy perspective, my experience with Y makes me feel that the government should have a focus on social inclusion for people in later life. Social care should not just be about the provision of personal services, it should also understand the psychological fears that older people have as they move toward the end of their lives and appreciate the importance of human relationships to them. Finding ways to allow older people to connect with others should be a central policy aim.

Long term consequences

The long term consequences of failing to meet Y’s needs are both physical and psychological. Failure to make her home environment safe could lead to further physical harm but a failure to meet psychological needs can also be damaging. Maslow’s theory stressed that the failure to meet one need leads to a lack of motivation to meet others (Moyle et al. 2014). Erikson’s theory also referred to the feelings of despair that can occur in later life (Moyle et al., 2014). If Y’s needs around contact and relationship are not met, her self-esteem will suffer and she will lose the motivation to do the things in life that make it worth living. Depression and despair may then follow.

Ethics and values

My engagement with Y and her family has been in line with the IASW standards; I have proposed solutions that are in Y’s best interests and acted in an honest and trustworthy fashion, ensuring confidentiality and essentially looking at ways to promote the rights of Y whilst ensuring that she does not take actions that might cause her harm (IASW, 2009). I am sure that Y is safe and looked after by her family but I think it is important that she understands her limitations at this point and does not allow her frustration to lead her to ‘run before she can walk’ in terms of long term recovery.

One of the key elements of the IASW Code of Ethic is that “truly valued, fully human life is generally realised by individuals living and acting interdependently in communities;” (IASW, 2007, P2) and I feel that my engagement with Y has been to encourage to get back to her life living interdependently in the community as soon as possible.

Critical reflection

My reflection on my engagement with Y and her family was that I engaged with her in a respectful and person-centred manner. My prior knowledge of Y and her family made the situation a little easier; I knew that they trusted and there were no professional power barriers impacting on the interviews. I felt that I used my communication skills well and asked questions best suited to gathering the relevant information from Y and her family so that the best recommendations could be made.

I hope that my intervention has been a positive development for Y and that she will take on board the suggestions I have made. I feel that we developed a relationship based on trust and that she valued the knowledge and ideas that I offered. I do believe that she will benefit from my work with her.

List of References
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HSE (2015_ Support for Carers. [Online] Available: [http://hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/olderpeople/carersrelatives/Support_for_Carers.htm] accessed 2nd February 2016
IASW (2009) Code of Practice [Online] Available: [https://www.iasw.ie/attachments/2eb7f6f6-ca51-4f38-b869-df7e0b411e91.PDF] accessed 2nd February 2016
IASW (2007) Code of Ethics [Online] Available: [https://www.iasw.ie/attachments/8b37e75a-26f6-4d94-9313-f61a86785414.PDF] accessed 2nd February 2016
McLeod, S. A. (2007). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. [online] Available: [http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html] accessed 2nd February 2016
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Zastrow, C. (2015). Social Work with Group. Stanford: Cengage

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Organizing to encourage effective direct support

The following report is based upon the experiences and perceptions of direct support (and of the ‘social model’ of disability provision) of a particular person with learning disabilities: Mark. The experiences and perceptions in this case study are taken from interviews and discussions with Mark himself, with members of his family, and with his social workers and managers. The purpose of the report is to describe Mark’s experiences of social care under direct support and to compare these with the types of social work that he experienced before the introduction of direct support. The report focuses upon Mark’s growing sense of ’empowerment’, ‘ability to help himself’, and ‘individuality’ that emerge from his experiences of direct support. Thus a major theme of this report is to examine how direct support assists people with learning disabilities to gain recognition as contributing members of the community.

The report has the following structure:

A (i). An analysis of the government’s seminal white paper Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century (DOH, 2001). This white paper was a momentous recognition by government of the ‘social model’ of social provision, and it thrust direct support to the front of the government’s strategy for learning disability. A discussion of this white paper allows an analysis of Mark’s own experiences of direct support: how successful it has been for him, how he perceives the changed attitudes of the social workers he works with – how they now perceive their work differently now.

(ii). This section also examines the notion of ’empowerment’ and the idea that people with learning disabilities must be recognized as contributing members of society also, rather than ‘medical problems’.

(iii). The model, Organizing to Encourage Effective Direct Support, stresses the need to examine direct support from the perspectives of all involved: the person with learning disabilities, his carers and also the government and managers who make decisions that affect him. This white paper then is a highly useful document for understanding the government’s perspective and attitude to the needs of people with learning disabilities.

B. An analysis of the biographical material furnished by Mark’s case study. Does his experience of direct support match that set out by the government in Valuing People? Which direct support schemes in this white paper has Mark benefited from? What are does he perceive the benefits of direct support to be in contrast to previous types of social care that he has experienced? How do those people who live and work with Mark perceive these changes?

C. An analysis of three theoretical and practical existing models of disability provision – moral, medical, social – and Mark’s various experiences of these models. How does Mark experience the theory of social provision when it is put into practice?

D. Conclusion. The report concludes with an examination of Mark’s future prospects working with direct support, and the future prospects of direct support itself

A: Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability in the 21st Century

‘A person-centred approach to planning means that planning should start with the individual (not with services), and take account of their wishes and aspirations. Person-centred-planning is a mechanism for reflecting the needs and preferences of a person with a learning disability.’ (Valuing People, 2001, p49)

This quotation from the government’s seminal white paper Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century encapsulates the radically new ideas and ideals established by this document for the provision and practice of social work for people with learning disabilities. This white paper represented both an important official recognition of the validity of the ‘social model’ of disability provision, and also a promise to implement its ideas and philosophy of learning difficulties, as had been advocated by social work practitioners and academics for some time. Thus this white paper was a significant move away from the ‘medical model’ of disability provision that had held supremacy for most of recent healthcare history. As the above quotation suggests, this new approach to disability gives the individual far greater freedom to make decisions about his own future – the philosophy is ‘person-centred’ and ‘individualized’ – and, more than this, recognizes that people with learning difficulty have exactly the same rights and should have exactly the same opportunities as non-disabled people. The white paper acknowledges the new phenomenon of the ’empowerment’ of people with learning difficulties and suggests how empowerment can be extended amongst those with such difficulties.

An analysis of this white paper is vital for any student with learning difficulties who seeks to analyse how direct support works in practice. Valuing People established guidelines and proposed schemes that have to be met in practice, in the lives of people with learning disabilities. In the next section, this report looks at how this government model has been experienced by one particular person with learning difficulties: Mark.

This present analysis focuses upon Chapter 4 of the white paper: More Choice and Control for People with Learning Disabilities. The introductory statement of this chapter sets the tone for the entire document. It states:

‘Government objective: To enable people with learning disabilities to have as much choice as possible over their lives through advocacy and a person-centred approach to planning the services and support they need.’ (Valuing People, p44)

Thus from the very beginning of this chapter the paper makes it clear that people with learning difficulties must have ‘as much choice as possible’ and be helped by a ‘person-centred approach’ to take control of their own lives. A second key promise emerges soon afterwards: ‘Services should respond to the wider aspirations of people with learning disabilities and give them more choice and control’ (Valuing People, 2001). This phrase reveals that people with learning disabilities are no longer thought of only in terms of those disabilities, but that their ‘aspirations’ and ‘personalities’ are taken into account also. The paper contends that social workers must seek to reverse the many problems halting direct support at the time: for instance, services were too lethargic, advocacy was limited, and people with learning difficulties had far too little say and involvement in the management of their own care. The paper suggests methods as to how these faults in the system might be changed. For instance: advocacy services must be extended considerably, more people must receive direct payments, and a person-centred approach must be developed by social workers and managers. Managers have the vital responsibility of ‘personalizing’ people with learning disabilities and getting to know those difficulties intimately. Managers and organizations cannot help unless they take such an approach.

Valuing People made several proposals to affect such reform: the Disability Rights Commission, ?1.3 million per annum to expand advocacy services, The Learning Disability Development Fund are all examples of proposals made in the white paper. Let us look at several of these methods of direct support in more detail.

Disability Rights Commission: The role of the DRC is to assist people to guarantee their rights as secured by the Disability Discrimination Act (1995). The Commission’s work involves getting disabled people into consultations about major policy initiatives that concern them; ensuring that decision-making material is available in user-friendly formats; and educating businesses and institutions about how to work with people with learning disabilities.

Advocacy: Advocacy is absolutely crucial for successful transfer of responsibility and decision-making to people with learning disabilities themselves. Advocacy can be of two types: self-advocacy or advocacy through organizations. The government gives ?1.3 per year to further advocacy programmes.

Direct Payments: Direct Payments are a further means of giving people with learning disabilities more control over their own lives. Direct Payments enable Local Councils to allow people to pay for support they are entitled to before that support has been given. This was extended by the Carers and Disabled Children Act (2000) which facilitated immediate payments to carers and to 16 and 17 year olds with learning difficulties. (The Health and Social Care Act (2001) widened the availability of Direct Payments still further.) Once these payments are received disabled people have far greater freedom to choose what type of support they require for themselves. The Implementation Support Team was set-up to improve application rates for this critical scheme.

Person-Centred Planning: This initiative is intended, as its name suggests, to ensure that the planning of care for a person with learning disabilities is organized as much as possible by working with individuals themselves. The paper suggested that Learning Disability Partnership Boards begin to implement this approach throughout care management and practice as soon as possible.

Care management: According to the white paper care management is the ‘formal mechanism for linking individuals with public services’ (Valuing People, 2001). In other words, care management is the vital instrument of direct support. Therefore it must be ‘responsive to person centred planning, and have the capacity to deliver the kinds of individualized services likely to emerge fro the process’. Connexions Gateway was set-up to establish vocational plans, as well as health, housing and communication plans for people with learning disabilities.

Fair Access to Care: Free Access to Care was aimed to establish the basis by which eligibility for social care for adults should be determined.

In conclusion, Valuing People was a sea-change in the policy of the British government and its care agencies towards the care of those with learning difficulties. Its emphasis upon direct support through person-centred care and individuality gave people with learning difficulties rights and confidence to exercise those rights that they would never have previously thought possible. It empowered disabled people to help themselves. Managers and social workers too were seen as vital instruments for changing the prejudices and attitudes of the public, and creating awareness that people with learning disabilities are valuable members of the community.

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The concept of social work in the modern world has attained significant stature and its application in the culturally diverse societies is often stressed. Its relevance in the research area of disaster management is also worth mentioning. In the new era of globalization, the benevolence of the people to contribute to social good of the fellow beings in frustrating situations is to be appreciated.

The relevance of social work and social activities has been recognized at international level and organizations such as the United Nations emphasize the need for the involvement of the various charitable societies and organizations across the world for socially useful causes. Addressing the needs for social activities at international level, various organizations and charitable societies have played their vital role in the recent crisis situations concerning the Tsunami.

It is of foremost significance to have a profound analysis of the various factors contributing to the overwhelming worldwide response to the crisis situation of Tsunami. The paper focuses on the critical discussion of various responses by the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) and International Social Work Organizations to meet the needs of the hour. Relying on the applicable theories of globalization and social work, this paper concludes on the lessons taught by this natural calamity relating to the international social work.

Tsunami: The Disaster of the Millennium

In less than 3 minutes the room filled up with water and the unbroken waves were roaring inside the room smashing everything that was inside the room (A statement of Tsunami Victim, http://www.theaca.net.au/journals/ca_archive/ACA%20Mag%20Vol5%20No2%20Winter%2005.pdf)

The AASW and other International Social Work Organizations provided all possible aid to the sufferers after the disaster ‘Tsunami’ of December 26th, 2004. It has mainly focused on the physical needs in terms of food, water, shelter and medical relief. This natural disaster took away thousands of lives and made the survivors homeless.

Many lost their dear ones, especially children. They were desperately in need of emotional support and necessary support for developing their family again after this catastrophe. A primary assessment of these relief activities confirms the value of social work in the framework of the world with the theories of globalization.

Families and Survivors of Tsunami Project (FAST) is initiated by International Federation of Social Workers Asia Pacific and supported by international organizations as a professional response to the crisis. (FAST) http://www.aasw.asn.au/adobe/news/FAST_outline_draft12012005.pdf

The professional assessment of Social work and its strategy are indisputably goes beyond just physical relief efforts. They render their services to the survivors/sufferers for a longer term perspective to fulfil human and social needs for community/cultural bonding. Social workers’ relief efforts are generally concentrated in the social and emotional rehabilitation. Thus social workers help in alleviating grievances of the people. The FAST project succeeded in capacity building and development of the Tsunami survivors, including society rebuilding.

In such difficult situations the very notion of social work has its own significance. International Social Work draws together the practice of wisdom emerging within the broad scope of international social work practice. “(Pawar., and Cox 2008). Nowadays people consider social work as an international profession and many job opportunities have emerged due to the new concept. Though social work has a history associated with the origin of mankind, it was recognized now due to the extensive researches and analysis carried out by man through ages on the social work towards many international issues.

The relief and rehabilitation efforts taken by many International Social Work Organizations like AASW, IFSW and HRW are well appreciated by the whole world. In Indonesia, where the tsunami hit hardest, AusAID worked with the United Nations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to provide substantial emergency relief (Source: Australia’s Emergency Response to the Tsunami Magazine article by Alan March; UN Chronicle, Vol. 42, June-August 2005). They became a role model of every charitable society by showing their memorable and historic efforts in the process of systematic of rescue and rehabilitation efforts in the aftermath of Tsunami disaster.

AASW: Working for a Noble Cause

The constitution of AASW, the national professional representative body of social workers in Australia, has recently been amended this year and on-going through the latest constitution. It has seen society established in 1946 and started working for the welfare cause since 1989.

As a member of the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), the Company recognises that social work originates variously from humanitarian, religious and democratic ideals and philosophies, and that it has universal application to the meeting of human needs arising from personal-societal interactions, and to the developing of human potential (Source: Relationship with the International Federation of Social Workers AASW Constitution 2008, http://www.aasw.asn.au/about/FinalisedAASWConstitutionforASIC270608.pdf).

The AASW affirms that their professional social workers, in association with IFSW members offer services to the socially, physically, economically very poor society for their welfare and self-fulfilment. Officering their best, they mostly achieved the purpose of functioning by developing a disciplined and scientific strategy for the welfare and improvement of the living quality of people.

The AASW engaged in the building up of resources meant for various levels of targets whether it is individual, national or international needs. All of this reveals that the concept of social work has attained a global perspective. The global dimension of social work has given it a new life and attraction. Alleviating current social burden to unfold the full potential of communities is the guiding spirit of Social Relief International (Welcome to Social Relief International 2006).

Social work in modern times has become a profession which is sought after. The professional touch given to social work has caused the disfiguration of the very concept of social work for the benefit of society and human beings. The essay tries to make an analysis of the very concept of international social work and how it has helped in removing the severity of many a social calamity and disaster, and its relevance at the context.

The proper understanding of dimensions of international social work will enable the people to get a broad idea of the different and varied aspects of social work. These different dimensions of international social work have their matchless relevance in the modern society. These dimensions are namely economic dimensions, social dimensions and the environmental dimensions. Issues, strategies, and programs related to international social work draws together the practice wisdom emerging within the broad scope of international social work practice. (Pawar. and Cox 2008).

Using a broader perspectives approach, that involves scientific, economic, environmental and social development methods, authors David Cox and Manohar Pawar stressed the community to actively counter the global challenges that is often critical to life. This is the time to respond to modern global challenges which causes disaster to the well-being of people, communities and all the nations in the world. For responding to the natural calamity, the modern people have to adopt a broad outlook, which includes universal, human rights, environmental, and social development perspectives.

At this juncture, social workers need join their hands together for getting the crisis removed from the society whatever be the problem. But the measures that have been taken will not suffice the required level. There are few examples which prove it. The Human race has overcome so many challenges over the years that nothing seems impossible! However, Social Relief International believes that we have not even achieved one tenth of what is possible when it comes to creating socially acceptable living condition for all (Welcome to Social Relief International 2006).

The above cited quote has been taken based on the ongoing process of relief and rehabilitation works in Africa which is the greatest example of how confused governance joined with poor. These new programmes have to be put into practice and strategies have to be found in this regard. There should be a change in the approach of the people to the social relief programmes. Social relief international approach should be based on three main ideas.

Children must become the centre of any programme that aims to relive poverty, communities should have the access to resources within themselves to overcome social challenges and the research and policy analysis has to be the complete part of every social programme.” (Welcome to Social Relief International 2006). The new dimensions of international social work make it possible in the vast practicability of these measures.

The new approach gives more practical sense to the novel ideas of international social work. The international social work makes it possible for the whole world to come into contact with each other and also there is unanimity and the feeling of oneness in the entire realm.

Globalization: Its impact on Social Work

There are many definitions for the term globalization. It is the integration of economic, political, and cultural systems across the globe. Globalization is a force for economic growth, prosperity, and democratic freedom, (Welcome to a student’s guide to globalization). Anyhow globalization is the process of becoming the global village and it has some theoretical perspective. Due to the globalization the world economy has been configured and unleashed to have a free and fair business across the world. This results in a drastic change in socio-economic conditions of the people.

The makeover of home and households in transnationalism is also among one of these multidisciplinary perspectives. Globalization as a process has many merits and demerits. It helps in the integration of the whole world to one to an extent. There are a few theories which question the utility of the very concept of globalization. Many debates have been made to substantiate the point that the globalisation is useful to all the nations up to an extent.

Economic globalization can been viewed by utilizing two theoretical perspectives, herein described as free-market capitalism and world systems (Globalization: Two Sides of the Debate). Both these have their own positive as well as adverse impacts. These two perspectives are most often utilized for debate in many social forums.

The ‘world systems’ perspective offers the greatest explanatory power in its approach to and explanation of the underlying logic and dynamics of economic globalization as well as the potential consequences of such a phenomenon (Globalization: Two Sides of the Debate). Globalization affects a range of social issues such as poverty, immigration, women’s social position, health, and development. The importance is to be given to whether it is affecting these social issues positively or adversely.

Globalization and poverty are interrelated as globalization has helped in removing or reducing the rate of poverty in many developing countries. It has enhanced the rate of immigration from poorer countries to develop or developing countries. Globalization has helped in removing many of the social problems of women. It has also helped in the improvement of the health of the people. Due to the globalization factor, there is a scope of vast developments in every field as well as every parts of the world. The help rendered by globalization in removing the poverty has great impacts upon the society.

It could remove the level of poverty by creating more and more employment opportunities. Comparing the nations across the world through the past 20 years, countries like China, India and some of the nation’s belonging to East Asia have gone through with the fast growth in their economic conditions and remarkable decline in the poverty rate. Situations in other countries were a little different. The scenario of Latin America remained idle.

The economic developments of the former Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa seem to be brought to an end and even regressed. But it is to be analysed what is the ultimate repercussion of globalization. The neoliberal argument says that world poverty and income inequality fell over the past two decades for the first time in more than a century and a half, thanks to the rising density of economic integration across national borders. (Hunter 2004).

Globalization and migration represent two of the most dynamic global socio-political trends of our present time. While both have their own driving dynamic, they are highly interrelated.

Globalization has an ambivalent and somehow contradictory influence on the current migratory flows. (Papantoniou., Peschke,. And Moritz 2004). It means that globalization opened different kind of prospects, situations and conditions as per the choices of people that increase the anxiety for a better place of comforts and intensify the thought of migration. Globalization resulted in mixed kind of direct or indirect consequences that includes breaking down of national economies, acute poverty, developing economic disparities, conflicts and wars, revival of tribal, ethnic, and religious fundamentalism, declining of traditional industry, environmental degradation, which might pave way towards migration anticipated as a survival strategy.

Based on an analysis of around 150 million people, it was found that they migrated outside their countries of origin and have been forced into exile due to their economic constrains. Studies show that the condition of women becomes more and more deplorable due to the impact of globalization. Apart from these there are a few beneficial changes that have taken place due to globalization; this may include various rights for the protection of women from all kinds of threats.

Globalization has helped in improving the health conditions of people all over the world. The access to medical care and treatment could save many lives and this shows that people have an improved level of health in the times of globalization. All these conditions helped in the improvement and development of the world. The improvements in every field helped to create a lot of development in the condition of the entire world and its people.

Peoples’ Welfare: In Paper & In fields

The translation of International human rights is to be made possible at the local level; efforts have to be taken to bring about these radical changes. There are authenticated sources which tell that the efforts were not so relevant. Successes and limitations of these efforts to translate macro/international human rights norms into concrete local policy initiatives and in so doing, argue for a gendered and radicalized critique of human rights. That is attentive to the creative and often unexpected uses of macro-political tools for local political ends. (A Policy for Redressing Gender and Racialized Inequalities? The Substance and Politics of Rights Ordinances in the United States).

There is also another drawback about the international treaties of human rights that it is too remote from the realities of people and their lives. International human rights treaties often claim that timely efforts are taken for changing people’s poverty and deteriorating condition into stable and developing one. But in practical fields it never happens and for that the international treated are always criticized for turning their face around from the realities of people’s living conditions. Indeed, scholars have gone as far as to argue that international law itself is unlikely to advance human dignity because human rights treaties are flawed as a matter of substance and process (McGinnis, 2003:137 A Policy for Redressing Gender and Racialized Inequalities? The Substance and Politics of Rights Ordinances in the United States).

The potential for new technologies and telecommunications for enhancing information exchange and social justice activism is getting improved in the era of globalization. The technology savvy world develops modern and innovative communication models with a view to create opportunities for the people to speak about the better experiences and social concerns. Such basic social problems as inequality, poverty, and discrimination pose a constant challenge to policies that serve the health and income needs of children, families, people with disabilities, and the elderly (Anderson. and Herr 2007).

There are places or nations where we can see the process of significant changes both in personal values and civil life. New technologies in every field have helped to make faster telecommunication facilities for enhanced and speedy information exchange. Sometimes modern trends such as globalization of business and consumer values, fast growing and developing communication media and its personalization, and the economic rearrangement of business into e-commerce and other information-oriented economies are often treated as bane, but it has a positive aspect too.

Because of the above changes of modernization the whole world could provide helping hands wherever it need within little timeframe, whether it may be monetary forms of help or information based or even manpower related. Yet there are many signs – from the WTO experience in Seattle to the rise of global activism aimed at making biotechnology accountable – that new forms of citizenship, politics, and public engagement are emerging (Anderson, and Herr 2007).

International Social Workers: The Role in Rehabilitation of Needed Community

The position of international social work in the modern times is very stable and effective too. New and more vistas are opened in the field. The nature of work has fully changed over the years. Social workers among teenagers is getting vide vitality and is becoming popular. In the New Arenas for Community Social Work Practice with Urban Youth, Melvin Delgado contends that social services with teenagers need to be re-conceptualized (Chow 2001).

As an initial process, according to him, the young people should be trained in the way that it would benefit the development and growth of nations by extracting maximum potential from them. Continuing the topic Delgado insists to adopt the approach of developing energetic and hardworking community for the development and economic nourishment of the country. Analysing various case studies regarding humanities, arts, sports and human psychology the author advises the society to adopt the successful intervention strategies of community social work practice.

The Asian Tsunami Disaster received unprecedented global publicity resulting in an outpouring of financial assistance from governments, the general community and private donors, and international bodies. The AASW and the International Federation of Social Workers Asia Pacific responded to this crisis in a very helpful manner by giving such assistance to the victims and to those who directly or indirectly suffered the aftermath.

The International Social service organization FAST prescribed a working perspective in their constitution and that is Social work seeks to enhance community expertise and empowerment in the decision making process through all stages of planning, intervention and recovery. Strengths and resilience of the local community is acknowledged. International assistance is essentially collaborative with national/local partners in a consultancy role and in training/support/ research and evaluation (Source FAST http://www.aasw.asn.au/adobe/news/FAST_outline_draft12012005.pdf).

By using the knowledge and value based skills social workers can intervene in the people at the levels of individual, group and family, community and their policy. These intervention/consultation is guided by certain disaster management principles, values and code of ethics . The tasks, issues and priorities mentioned in FAST constitution are as under:-

Assessment of social emotional impact and needs.

Planning short term interventions re grief, loss, trauma reactions.

Working alongside agencies providing medium term interventions for communities and within temporary shelters to develop temporary communities.

Helping manage the grieving process; providing info; assessing vulnerable people and referring for intervention/treatment.

Therapeutic work, support and placement of orphaned/unattached children, adolescents and the widowed.

People with physical disabilities or mental/intellectual disabilities.

Assisting in education, research and evaluation, as well as documenting the event and process.

(Source FAST) http://www.aasw.asn.au/adobe/news/FAST_outline_draft12012005.pdf

No country stood alone from the aftermath of the disaster. Every country either directly or indirectly had to suffer the repercussions of this crisis. Tsunami was the result of a catastrophic earthquake at a magnitude of 9.0 in rector scale, which shook the Indian Ocean and formed very high tidal waves. The world has become a dumb witness of this deadliest natural disaster which happened in modern the era.

These deadly tidal waves devastated coastal areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Southern India, Thailand, and other nations, taking lives of around 228,000 to 310,000 due to casualties and other sorts of loss to the properties of nations. Meanwhile, the international aid provided all sort of relief and rescue, and rehabilitation services for the affected areas, that could covered around 3 billion USD (about 2.3 billion euros) from across the world. Past experience shows that rebuilding takes years of momentous effort. For instance, in Hokkaido, Japan, it took over five years to completely recover from a 1993 earthquake-triggered tsunami ( http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/tsunami/overview.php).

There was global support against the disaster; help from different parts of the countries flew to the affected countries. Every nation joined their hands to fight against the disaster as well as to console the victims. With the outpouring of support from the global community, the recent tsunami disaster has highlighted a number of factors regarding the coordination and delivery of international aid. (Fertig, Foster, and Nicholas 2005). While providing the aids to the sufferers these organizations had sustained a number of bitter experiences and setbacks at the beginning stage.

Some of the difficulties the organizations had to face during the time of aid operations for the victims were that of financing such missions, providing the required type and amount of supplies, and bringing aid to affected populations while dealing with home and foreign governments. The AASW and the international social organizations rendered a significance services to tsunami victims. AASW and International Social Work Organizations, the renowned organizations for social services, bestowed a sort of social, economic, psychological solace upon the victims that rejuvenated them both physically as well as mentally in alleviating the sorrow of the tsunami affected people of different regions.

These organisations help for the removal of poverty from grass root level. IFSW is an international body for social work, representing half a million professional social workers around the globe (http://www.aasw.asn.au/news/news_archive.htmvb). The rehabilitation services rendered by these humanistic organizations, irrespective of their basis objectives and aims, were actually the need of the hour. The assistance provided by them cannot be belittled. The social workers from these organizations tried their hardest to reduce the grievances of the tsunami affected people and to rebuild their socio-cultural status.

Tsunami: Rescue and Rehabilitation

The Asian Tsunami Disaster received unprecedented global publicity resulting in an outpouring of financial assistance from governments, the general community and private donors, and international bodies. The AASW and the International Federation of Social Workers Asia Pacific are responded to that crisis. No other rescue and relief operations have ever received as much publicity as the Tsunami rehabilitation efforts.

As social work has become a profession it will certainly have possibilities for some drawbacks in the near future. Many organizations have now emerged as social organizations to render help for the needy and for the disaster affected people. Now, social work and social workers become part and parcel of a wider acknowledged profession. It has been included in the curriculum of many countries.

In a review of 20 years quantitative research and analysis into the psychological effects of disasters, Norris (2002) concluded that of the 50,000 people who had experienced 80 different disasters (62 per cent of which were natural disasters) and found the magnitude of individual effects like 74 per cent suffered from psychological problems, 65 per cent had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), 37 per cent got depression or major depressive disorder and 19 per cent went through with anxiety or generalised anxiety disorder (Source Magnitude of Individual Effects) http://www.acu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/97176/Disaster_Literature_Review_Edited_Final.pdf ).

Keeping in mind the facts mentioned above, the training of social workers should be planned accordingly incorporating human psychology and process of treatment for these kind of mental traumas. International social work has the following key features which distinguish it from any other profession. The study of International Social Work includes the main issues like natural calamities, disasters, major accidents, and its rescue/rehabilitation related strategies and programmes to be implemented at the right time in the right place of affected people.

Adopting these practices develops the broad scope of international social work services. As this essay has already narrated, the suggestion of authors David Cox and Manohar Pawar, regarding the ways of responding against the critical situations by all means available in this world.

Conclusion

The essay provides a positive approach with incorporating therein the overall perspectives and scope of international social work and social development practice to the world. One cannot expect a genuine social worker organization or other determined charitable societies to deceive peoples in the name of relief and rescue services. Thus the efforts made by Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) and International Social Work Organizations for the rescue and rehabilitation of Tsunami affected people solely justified. Only because of these services the sufferers made themselves rehabilitated and returned to their normal life. So the services got deserved recognition and applause.

Ethically speaking to have a mind for social services is a generous initiative that everyone does not possess. The young generation can be provided with appropriate teaching, practicing, developing subject requirements and processes and thereby the world could create a best quality people with generous thinking and deed.

To propagate these values one need to have implement the process of international social work practice for students and practitioners at all levels. International Social Work is an ideal text for undergraduate and graduate courses in Social Work and Development Studies as well as an excellent resource for social workers, human services professionals, and development practitioners (20060718 Pawar. and Cox 2008).

So the international social work organizations today become one of the inevitable social organizations for a noble cause. They help the entire world by rendering purposeful social services for the sake of humanity. Social workers have to be appreciated and applauded for their dedication and their sacrifices in the matters related to work.

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COX, David., and PAWAR, Manohar. (2008). International Social Work: Issues, Strategies, and Programs (Hardcover). [online]. Amazon.com. Last accessed 25 August 2008 at: http://www.amazon.com/International-Social-Work-Strategies-Programs/dp/1412914078

Australia’s Emergency Response to the Tsunami) Magazine article by Alan March; UN Chronicle, Vol. 42, June-August 2005

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Undergraduate Bulletin 2008-2009: Courses In Globalization Studies. [online]. University at Albany. Last accessed 25 August 2008 at: http://www.albany.edu/undergraduate_bulletin/a_glo.html.

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HUNTER WADE, Robert. Is Globalization Reducing Poverty and Inequality? (2004). [online]. elsevier.com. Vol. 20. P. Last accessed 25 August 2008 at: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/DESTIN/pdf/Isglobreducing.pdf .

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BROWNE, Colette V., and BRAUN, Kathryn L. (2008). Globalization,Women’s Migration, and the Long-Term-Care Workforce. The Gerontologist. Last accessed 25 August 2008 at: http://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/48/1/16.

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They are not the typical bank robber or professional thieves, but also political, radical, school dropout, women who refuse to take on the role of either homemaker or mother. People feel the need to challenge the system, push beyond the limits established by society’s traditions and laws.

They accept the label because they feel that the norms of society should change or that they simply want a bigger reward for what they do for a living. My essay will consider a number of explanations related to defining deviance. I plan to discuss Tittle and Paternoster’s typology of middle class norms, Heckert and Heckert’s conception of positive deviance and lastly Erikson’s theory that deviance serves functions for society.

One engages in deviant behaviour when one acts in a manner that contravenes the dominant norms that govern a given society or social system. A behavior may be seen as normal, even desirable, by some and at the same time deviant by others. For example, a student who spends a lot of time doing library research may win a teacher’s respect and appreciation, but be considered a nerd by other students. What is normal and desirable to the teacher can be deviant to other students. Those students who refuse to study are deviant by the norms of the teacher and most of society.

In order for deviance to take place or exist it must have the following four components: be classified a norm; someone who is violating that particular norm; someone who judges it to be wrong, also know as an “audience” and lastly, a negative reaction by that audience which can also be measurable. For example, a person who choses not to participate in premarital sex for their own personal or religious values is viewed as a deviant by other members of society; because this is not important to society as a whole but only a limited number of individuals.

William Summner states that there are three types of norms, the first of which is folkways. “Folkways” are basic everyday norms based on custom, tradition and etiquette; and may include: eating behaviors and physical closeness. Violators do not cause serious outrage but may be seen as odd. For example, when traveling on public transportation and an elderly person enters and there are no seats available, it is courteous for one to offer their seat.

Interracial marriage and drug addictions are an example of the second norm, known as “mores”. More severe than folkways, mores are based on broad social mores that are critical to the fabric of society and social order. One is seen as wicked and harmful to society. Mores can either be started negatively (by not killing someone) or positively (you let others live.)

The strongest norm is supported by codified social sanctions and is subject to arrest and/or punishment; It is directed toward behavior that used to be associated with folkways or mores that later turned into laws as society become more complex. The example given in the Adler and Adler text is traffic violations. “Although violating a law by acts such as traffic violations will bring the stigma associated with arrest, it will usually not brand the violator as deviant”.

The difference between laws and mores is that laws are established and enforced by government; whereas, mores are setup, maintained and enforced by the public. Therefore, laws are clearly defined and more formal of all the social norm, in that they specify distinct rules and carry out a possible threat of punishment. Every society has norms, although there is no norm that is the same in any society or part of the world, this is because it is based on the values people find important and essential to keep order.

In order to classify deviant behavior into different categories by grouping individual instances and characteristics is very complicated, because deviance is relative in that it is a product of social contexts from which judgments of what is and is not socially acceptable emerge. Deviant behavior is bounded by time, place, status and group. It must be intimately linked with the norms of a particular normative system at that historical moment. For instance, getting a divorce in the 1950’s was frowned upon and seen as “bad” but now in the 21^st century is it even more common and as a result more socially acceptable.

Tittle and Paternoster developed a typology based on ten middle class norms, their deviant behavior, and examples of the various deviant acts within each category of Tittle and Paternoster typology. Their typology demonstrates the variety of deviant behaviors that can be recognized from just one normative perspective. The ten middle class norms include: Group Loyalty, Privacy, Prudence, Conventionality, Responsibility, Participation, Moderation, Honesty, Peacefulness and Courtesy. For the purpose of this essay, I will examine the three most important norms, which are: loyalty, privacy and prudence; their respective opposites include: apostasy, intrusion and indiscretion.

The first norm “Loyalty” is the ultimate right of the group or collectivity is to sustain itself through subordinating the individual interests to the group or society as a whole in order to maintain the commitment against all challenges. Consequences include sanctions that usually evoke a lifetime of stigmatization. Other disloyal behaviors include: betrayal of Government secrets, treason, draft dodging and advocating another philosophy.

As in the case of David Latchana, a so-called gang member who died, November of this year because he was summon to be a Crown witness in a 2005 assault trial for a previous case against the accused. Since Latchana testified in court, he betrayed the norms of street gangs and thus, labeled a “snitch.” According to Sykes and Matza, delinquents hold values, beliefs, and attitudes that are very similar to those of law-abiding citizens.

Delinquents feel an obligation to be bound by law, they justify their delinquent activities by learning “techniques” which enable them to “neutralize” temporary values and attitudes that allow them to drift between legitimate and illegitimate behaviors. If we look closely at Sykes and Matza’s “Techniques of Neutralization”, Latchana’s behavior (testifying) was serving a greater good (loyalty to friends, to higher principals, to god) which is the forth technique known as ‘appeal to higher loyalties’. His killer was acting out the third technique, ‘denial of victim’, where he was legitimating his behavior by suggesting that the person hurt (Latchana) does not deserve victim status because he asked for it, when he decided to testify.

The second norm is “Privacy” and it holds that every person has the right to exclusive control over some things such as, private places and personal items. Whereas, “intrusion” entails acts which deny the controller or owner of some domain the exclusivity implied by ownership. For example, at the beginning of the year the company that owns HomeSense and Winners revealed that their computers containing sensitive customer credit card information had been hacked, exposing the data of approximately 20 million VISA customers in North America. In addition to record spying of bank and hospital information, theft, rape, homicide and forgery are other forms of intrusion.

“Prudence” is the third norm, this is when all people are expected to exercise selectivity in the practice of activities that are pleasurable. A person is supposed to refrain from activities that are frivolous or primary oriented around self-gratification or which involve nonproductive emotional involvements or disrupt productive emotional ties. Participating in acts of indiscretion such as adultery, prostitution, homosexual behavior and different types of addictions.

These indiscreet behaviors most times are sanctioned, ordinary provoke substantial stigma along with life long group disapproval. Only until recently has drug addiction become a heated issue in the world of sports and events such as the Olympics or Tour de France. Athletes like Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong know too much about this as they both have been accused of using performance-enhancing drugs during the 2005 and 2006 Tours respectively.

I personally do not agree with Tittle and Paternoster’s view of middle class norms. Several sociological theories come to mind that contradict T&P’s views, more specifically, reasons for why they would act in such ways. Thosten Sellin, state in ‘The Conflict of Conduct Norms’ (1938), that the norms and values of the subcultures incorporated and are meshed with those of the overarching American, but at a point were two separate entities and in conflict this particular theory is know as Cultural Conflict.

Positive deviance is a culturally appropriate development approach that is tailored to a specific community in which it is being used. For example, even though poverty is often the root-cause of ill health, in any community there will usually be some families that manage to stay healthy, or raise healthy kids, despite their poverty.

Heckert and Heckert explore the topic of positive deviance and define Normative (objective) as the behaviors and attitudes that exceed normative expectations (e.g., over conformity) are also referred to as, positive deviance. It goes on to suggest that people who posses an excess of socially acceptable behavior, such that they are excessively altruistic, charismatic, innovative, conformist, or innately gifted are also regarded as deviant. The example that I provided earlier in this paper about the over-achieving student that is seen as a “nerd,” “geek,” or “teachers pet” is an example of normative deviance.

Reactivist (subjective) defines positive deviance as positively evaluated behaviors and attributes, such as athletic talent. In today’s society, a lot of emphasis is placed on physical attractiveness. Every culture has a set of general standards of attractiveness that they subscribe to. Those who possess these traits are “assumed to possess more socially desirable personalities than those of lesser attractiveness, but it is presumed that their lives will be happier and more successful.”

Dove’s global Campaign for Real Beauty is a global effort that is intended to serve as a starting point for societal change by replacing old narrow, stifling stereotypes and replace them with a newer and more improved broader, healthier, more democratic view of beauty that any women can achieve. Dove believes that real beauty comes in many shapes, sizes and ages; compared to the unrealistic standards of beauty that the media and advertisers place on women and children. The consequences of these unrealistic standards are that both women and children have eating disorders, issues with their bodies, and have low self-esteem.

Erikson argues that deviance serves functions for society, specifically that it fosters boundary maintenance, bolsters cohesion and solidarity, and promotes full employment for those who are in that sector. All of these aspects are closely integrated. One learns the placement of a community’s boundaries by participating in confrontations which occur when a person ventures too close to the curb and is met by policing agents. It is the job of the policing agents to guard the cultural integrity of their community.

Institutions are designed to discourage deviant behaviors, but tend to operate in a perpetrating manner. Prisoners and hospitals provide aid/shelter to a large number of deviant persons, sometimes giving them a certain advantage in the completion of social resources. On the other hand, these very institutions gather marginal people into tightly segregated groups and give them an opportunity to teach one another the skills and attitudes of a deviant career which reinforces their sense of alienation.

In the case of prisons, although it is difficult to change the worst of our penal practices because we expect the prisons to harden the inmates’ commitment to deviant forms of behavior and draw him more deeply into deviant ranks. Realistically, we do not expect the aforementioned deviant to change as they are processed through the control agencies that was provided to them.

In addition to acting as boundary maintaining devices in the sense that they demonstrate to which ever audience is concerned where the line is drawn between behavior that is and is not acceptable, It is also important to note that boundaries are never a fixed property of a community and are always shifting because people of the particular community are always finding new ways to define its limits.

Deviance is not caused because of a poor working order or the result of a leakage within the system but rather preserve the stability of social life in limited qualities. On the 11^th of September 2001, 19 Islamic terrorists followed Bin Laden’s teachings by hijacking airliners and crashing them into the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon, killing 3,000 people. This tragic event, brought members of society and people across the world closer together, which lead to social solidarity and cohesion. Solidarity is the uniting of interests, purposes, feelings or actions of among a certain group. Cohesion is the act, process or state of cohering or sticking together as a unit.

Durkhiem also agrees that deviance is functional and states the following four points: Laws break boundaries of what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Second, Laws are a public display of boundary making via the courts and media. Third, crime tests boundaries of laws; law is relatively static and that crime is dynamic. For example, if a law does not reflect public interest attitudes, it has to be changed. Lastly, crime helps in integration: public alarm about a crime brings them together and therefore, increase social solidarity.

Deviance is normal, a crucial part of human existence and thus an important aspect of social life. This is because deviance differs from society to society: what is socially acceptable somewhere may not be appropriate in another place. Also, what is known as deviant today, may not be classified the same way tomorrow, next week or next year. The theories and definitions that were discussed above prove that everyone is deviant, the only difference is that some people chose not to participate in it.

Deviant behavior is socially accepted by members of society and this is seen through the rules and laws put in place, that regulate how a deviant behavior is then dealt with. Also, a certain amount of deviance is critical for the well-being and sustenance.

Bibliography

Adler, Patricia and Adler, Peter. Constructions of Deviance: Social Power, Context, and Interaction, Fifth Edition. Toronto: Thompson, 2006.

Goode, Erich Deviant Behaviour, Eighth Edition. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.

Gomme, Ian The Shadow Line: Deviance and Crime in Canada, Fourth Edition. Toronto: Nelson, 2007.

Mother says slain son was not a gang member Online. 12 November 2007. <http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20071112/mississauga_homicide_071112?hub=TorontoHome>

Sykes and Matza’s Techniques of Neutralization Online. 5 December 2007. <http://www.hewett.norfolk.sch.uk/CUTTIC/soc/crime/crim.htm>.

A breach of security leads to fear for customers who shopped at two of Canada’s biggest chains Online.18 January 2007 <http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_7011.aspx>

Harrington, TomCycle of denial: The dirty world of cycling Online. 3 January 2007.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 05 Dec. 2007. .

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Introduction

According to the British Medical Association (BMA) (1), the Vancouver style of referencing is named after the work of a committee of medical journal editors who first met in Vancouver in 1978; this group subsequently became the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The system was developed by the United States (US) National Library of Medicine, and adopted by the ICMJE as part of the standard requirements for papers submitted to biomedical journals (1). The Vancouver system differs from the Harvard (author-date) system of referencing by using numbers instead of the author-date to indicate references. The Vancouver referencing style uses either a bracketed or superscript number in the text, which connects with a list of references at the end of the work (2). The same number can be repeated if a source is used more than once in the same text (2). The Vancouver style has many advantages over other referencing styles; firstly, the main text reads more easily, with the references being less obtrusive for the reader (1). Secondly, references in the reference list are directly correlated to the numbers in the main text; this saves the reader time searching for a specific reference in the list (1).

To demonstrate effective use of the Vancouver referencing system, this example work will briefly review literature pertaining to one of the most important aspects of clinical nursing practice: hand decontamination. The review will be referenced throughout using the Vancouver system, with the reference list supplied in numerical order at the end of the work.

Hand decontamination in clinical practice: A brief review of the evidence

For many decades, it has been well reported in nursing literature that effective hand decontamination significantly reduces the spread of hospital acquired infections (HAI), such as Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus(MRSA) (3). Endemic HAI have been strongly linked to the contaminated hands of healthcare workers (4). According to Loveday et al., hand decontamination should take place before and after all patient contact, after contact with the patient’s environment and/or body fluids, when hands are visibly soiled, before and after an aseptic procedure, and after removing gloves (3).

Despite a wealth of educational campaigns, literature, and professional guidelines in recent years, the literature suggests that many healthcare workers remain non-compliant with hand decontamination procedures; the impact on patient safety of this non-compliance is significant (4). Many authors suggest that there are a number of barriers affecting hand decontamination; these barriers include professional issues such as lack of time, unmanageable workloads, reduced staffing levels, and frequent admissions to the ward or unit (5, 6, 7).

In addition, other theories around the behaviours of healthcare workers and non-compliance with hand decontamination have also been proposed (4). Jackson and Griffiths conducted a qualitative, interpretative study of the drivers of nurses’ behaviours in relation to infection control. Interestingly, the authors found that as nurses’ familiarity with their patients increased, their rate of hand decontamination decreased (8). Jackson and Griffiths suggested that hand decontamination was viewed as a ‘protection of self from unknown dirt’, and as the nurses’ ‘disgust’ with the patient decreased (due the increased familiarity), their hand washing also decreased (8). This implies that hand decontamination is behaviour driven, rather than driven by scientific knowledge of infection control (9, 10). This, perhaps, goes some way to explain why the extensive educational campaigns and guidelines for healthcare workers on hand decontamination have had little impact on the rates on compliance (4). It is important to note, however, that the majority of studies investigating compliance with hand decontamination are either observational, or utilise self-reporting; self-reported data is often vastly different to the observed reality (11). Furthermore, Jenner et al. note that nurses are able to identify poor or non-compliant behaviours in others, but rationalise their own behaviours, meaning self-reported studies should be viewed with caution in terms of reliability (11).

Given the importance of hand decontamination in minimising the spread of HAI, it is fundamental that a solution is developed to overcome the problem of non-compliance (3, 4). Many authors suggest that a multifaceted approach is needed in order to achieve this (12). The United Kingdom (UK) Department of Health (DoH) recommends that all healthcare workers receive training and supervision on correct hand decontamination practices (13). The World Health Organization’s (WHO) ‘My Five Moments for Hand Hygiene’ guideline is an evidence-based, field-tested, user-centred approach which is designed to be applied in a wide range of healthcare settings (14). This approach could be readily implemented in those clinical areas where compliance with hand hygiene is problematic. Additionally, national and international educational campaigns about hand decontamination, such as those by the WHO and the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), must be supported by senior hospital management and medical staff, in order to be successfully implemented and to have a positive impact on staff compliance (7). Finally, further novel research to examine behaviours as drivers of hand decontamination, and strategies to alter or manage those behaviours, could also be a means of solving the problem of non-compliance (8).

Conclusion

To demonstrate the effective use of the Vancouver style of referencing to the reader, this example work has presented a review of the literature pertaining to hand decontamination in clinical nursing practice. The essay also demonstrates how numerical referencing in-text is less obtrusive to the reader than other forms of citation such as the Harvard author-date style. A brief exploration of the literature has shown that non-compliance with hand hygiene continues to be problematic in most healthcare settings; this is driven by both the behaviours of healthcare workers, and also by professional issues, such as lack of time, heavy workloads, and poor staffing levels. A multi-faceted approach is clearly needed to overcome the problem of non-compliance with hand decontamination; several solutions have been proposed in this review. Throughout the review, contemporary nursing literature has been cited using bracketed numbers in the text; these connect to a comprehensive reference list presented in numerical order at the end of the work, as required for the style of Vancouver referencing.

References

(1) British Medical Association. Reference Styles Internet]. UK: BMA; 2017. Available from: https://www.bma.org.uk/library/library-guide/reference-styles – Vancouver
(2) Neville C, Referencing: Principles, Practice and Problems. RGUHS Journal of Pharmacology Science. 2012; 2(2): 1-8.
(3) Loveday HP, Wilson JA, Pratt, RJ, et al. epic3: National Evidence-Based Guidelines for Preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections in NHS Hospitals in England. J Hosp Infect. 2014; 86, S1–S70.
(4) Rigby R, Pegram A, Woodward S. Hand decontamination in clinical practice: a review of the evidence. Br J Nurs. 2017; 26(8), 448–451.
(5) Gonzalez ML, Finderman R, Johnson KM, et al. Understanding hand hygiene behavior in a pediatric oncology unit in a low-to mid-income country. J Nurs Educ Pract. 2016; 6(9)
(6) Seibert DJ, Speroni KG, Oh KM, et al. Preventing transmission of MRSA: a qualitative study of health care workers’ attitudes and suggestions. Am J Infect Control. 2014; 42(4): 405–11.
(7) Lankford MG, Zembower TR, Trick WE, et al. Influence of role models and hospital design on hand hygiene of healthcare workers. Emerging Infect Dis. 2003; 9(2): 217–23.
(8) Jackson C, Griffiths P. Dirt and disgust as key drivers in nurses’ infection control behaviours: an interpretative, qualitative study. J Hosp Infect. 2014; 87(2): 71–6.
(9) Jackson C, Lowton K, Griffiths P. Infection prevention as ‘a show’: a qualitative study of nurses’ infection prevention behaviours. Int J Nurs Stud. 2014; 51(3): 400–8.
(10) Curtis VA. Dirt, disgust and disease: a natural history of hygiene. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2007; 61(8): 660–4.
(11) Jenner EA, Fletcher BC, Watson P, et al. Discrepancy between self-reported and observed hand hygiene behaviour in healthcare professionals. J Hosp Infect. 2006; 63(4): 418–22.
(12) White KM, Jimmieson NL, Obst PL, et al. Using a theory of planned behaviour framework to explore hand hygiene beliefs at the ‘5 critical moments’ among Australian hospital-based nurses. BMC Health Services Research. 2015; 15: 59.
(13) Department of Health. The Health and Social Care Act 2008 Code of Practice on the Prevention and Control of Infections and Related Guidance. UK: DH; 2015.
(14) World Health Organization. My Five Moments for Hand Hygiene [Internet]. Geneva: WHO; 2009. Available from: http://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/background/5moments/en/

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Introduction

The focus and purpose of this essay is to provide a short and concentrated introduction to the concept of Harvard Referencing and the reasons behind its significance. Furthermore, the essay will also acutely demonstrate how the Harvard referencing system is best integrated in report form.

What is Harvard Referencing? Origin & Definition

The concept of Harvard Referencing is widely believed to have originated from a paper published by scientific professor Dr Edward Laurens Mark in 1881 who evidenced one of his report conclusions with the name and date of the work of his predecessor (Pears & Shields, 2016). In the contemporary era, the Harvard referencing system is used ubiquitously by academic institutions such as schools, colleges and universities to provide a reading source list (Pears & Shields, 2016). Comparably, Choy (1994) asserts that the key purpose of Harvard referencing is to enable researchers to qualitatively identify the books, academic journals and other relevant sources used in the construction of their essay and/or report. Moreover, Butler et at (2010) assert that Harvard referencing ensures that a report and/or essay is suitably evidenced and founded on solid academic information. Indeed, Pears & Shields (2016) further opine that reports or essays which do not incorporate the Harvard referencing system are not as well received in the field as those which do principally because these reports and essays will have little academic grounding.

Why is Harvard Referencing Important?

A key aspect of the Harvard referencing system is in giving due credit to the original authors of sourced information (Butler et al, 2010). Turabian et al (1996) assert that when stating a direct quote from an author of a journal or a book, the researcher must use quotation marks and reference the page number. This process is carried out so that the reader of the report can then directly engage with the source text should they wish to gain a clearer understanding of the subject matter (Turabian et al, 1996). An example of how to appropriately cite a Harvard referenced direct quote is as follows; “The concept of human resource management (HRM) basically contains three elements that refer to successful people management. The first element – human – refers to the research object” (Bach & Edwards, 2012, p.19). If the researcher wishes to use this quotation as a means of furthering their own written argument they can alter the words accordingly. In relation to the citation given, an example of this would be as follows; conceptually, human resource management involves three main elements which are essential pre-requisites in the successful management of people within a modern organisation (Bach & Edwards, 2012). In this instance, there is no need to add the page number because the researcher has directly integrated their own words and lexicon into explicating the subject matter (Pears & Shields, 2016).

There is also a form of Harvard referencing which involves in-text citations which is where a researcher is obligated by their academic institution to provide page numbers for all sourced material in the main body of the report. Another key feature of the Harvard referencing system pertains to providing a clearly set out reference list as an appendix to the report or essay which ensures that the reader is granted the opportunity to pursue further readership on the topic (Pears & Shields, 2016). Indeed, it is also important to note the difference between a reference list and bibliography because these terms are often used interchangeably when discussing Harvard reference lists. Pears & Shields (2016) asserts that the difference between a reference list and a bibliography is that a reference list documents all sources which have been used in-text whereas a bibliography is a list of all the sources contacted in the write up of a report but may not necessarily be cited in text. Additionally, Butler et al (2010) add that the Harvard referencing system grants a student the opportunity to showcase their wide variety of readership out with module sessions. Butler et al (2010) further argue that this is a key area where students can attain higher marks in an assignment scenario. Indeed, there are several areas in relation to Harvard referencing format where students can excel and/or underperform. For example, Cottrell (2013) asserts that one of the key problems students face in the successful implementation of the Harvard referencing system is in citing one or more authors for a direct quote and/or reference. The correct way to do so when citing two authors is to state the author’s surname and then intersect the surname of the second author with an ampersand (Cottrell, 2013). In the event of citing three or more authors the Harvard referencing system dictates that researchers must state the surname of the first author and then add the phrase “et al” – a latin phrase meaning ‘and others’ (Cottrell, 2013). The chief reason why the Harvard referencing system stipulates this rule of citation is because many journals and books in the world of academia can be authored by 10 or more authors, so the in-text citation would be too exhaustive and cumbersome for researchers (Butler et al, 2010).

Furthermore, it also estimably improves the layout and format of an essay and/or report which is another area of the marketing criteria which students must demonstrate proficiency in (Pears & Shields, 2016). Another area of essay and report writing which the Harvard referencing system directly caters for is where a researcher sources from the same author more than once during their writing (Pears & Shields, 2016). Butler et al (2010) assert that in this scenario, the Harvard referencing system stipulates that the citation should be listed alphabetically to avoid confusion. An example of this is as follows; Bach & Edwards (2012a) assert that human resource management is an essential core function and/or support function in any modern organisation. Turabian et al (1996) are in concurrence and further add that human resource management can be detrimental to an organisation’s strategic success depending on how it is managed. Similarly, Bach & Edwards (2012b) state that without a strongly effective HRM support system locked in place an organisation is unlikely to sustain any long-lasting marketplace competitiveness.

What are the Academic Consequences of Not Using Harvard Referencing Appropriately?

Turabian et al (1996) categorically assert that reports or essays which do not Harvard reference appropriately are destined not to attain high grade classifications. This is chiefly because in the modern world of academia, the assignment criteria will specifically mark how well a student has referenced their work (Turabian et al, 1996). Furthermore, Butler et al (2010) add that reports which do not Harvard reference appropriately are at greater risk of scanning as plagiarised work which will reduce a student’s grade classification quite considerably. Indeed, in cases where the student has Harvard referenced so poorly, the level of plagiarism could even lead to their expulsion from their course module depending on the opinion of their tutor (Butler et al, 2010).

References

Bach, S & Edwards, M. (2012a, p.1) Managing Human Resources: Human Resource Management in Transition. London: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bach, S & Edwards, M. (2012b) Managing Human Resources: Human Resource Management in Transition. London: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Butler, A & Marsden, S & Dodd, S. (2010) Harvard Referencing: Student Style Guide. Sunderland: City of Sutherland College.
Choy, R. (1994) Using Harvard Referencing. New York: School of Management and Marketing.
Cottrell, S. (2013) The Study Skills Handbook, 4th Ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Pears, R & Shields, G. (2016) Cite Them Right: The Essential Referencing Guide. London: Macmillan Education UK.
Turabian, K.L & Grossman, J & Bennett, A. (1996) A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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APA style referencing refers to American Psychological Association’s referencing style 6th edition, and is one of the most popular and frequently used forms of referencing style within psychological research literature (Dryjanska, 2017; Gaffney, 2016; DeCleene & Fogo, 2012). The following essay will provide a discussion of the importance of APA style referencing within psychological literature but also in terms of consistency within academic essays. In addition to this, this essay can be used as a basic guide for students to properly cite and reference an essay using this particular referencing style. To this end, all sources will be cited and referenced within this essay in APA style.

One of the most important reasons for using APA style referencing is that it ensures that academic literature and research reporting is standardised and supports a commitment to the scientific ideal (Safer & Tang, 2009; Madigan, Johnson & Linton, 1995). In this sense, using APA style referencing is important in order to conform to how research papers and articles are referenced in the hard sciences like Chemistry, and is particularly important with regards to presenting complex information and findings in a succinct and logical manner (Simmons, 2004; Madigan, Johnson & Linton, 1995). Furthermore, such a referencing style means that referencing and citations are standardised and there is continuity within papers that use APA referencing (Walsh & Shapiro, 2006; Simmons, 2004; Polkinghorne, 1997).

On this note, proper referencing is important in order to demonstrate to or inform the reader where the information or evidence has come from and prevent accusations of plagiarism. Legitimate referencing shows the reader that the statements or arguments are not independent thoughts of the writer, but rather those of previous researchers (Dryjanska, 2017; Simmons, 2004). Due to this, appropriate referencing enables the reader to search for the source of the information by using the references list if they wish to read up further on the subject (Simmons, 2004; Kazdin, 1992). Therefore, proper referencing using APA style guarantees that all sources are properly cited and referenced as well as enabling the reader to understand what are arguments of other researchers and what is independent thought and critical analysis from the writer, thus avoiding plagiarism.

APA style referencing is a relatively easy referencing style to learn and remember (Cook & Murowchick, 2014; Adair & Vohra, 2003), such as the use of ‘&’ instead of ‘and’ in citations and references. Further to this, when citing sources, the name of the author or authors should be provided followed by the date of publication. In the first instance, all authors’ names should be cited unless there are more than 6 authors wherein the first 6 are cited followed by ‘et al’ and then the date. After the first instance, for more than 3 authors, the source should be cited as the first author and then ‘et al’ and the date (DeCleene & Fogo, 2012; Adair & Vohra, 2003), such as Smith et al (date). Therefore, as APA style is one of the most frequently used forms of referencing (Dryjanska, 2017; Gaffney, 2016; DeCleene & Fogo, 2012), having knowledge of this style means that a student can quickly scan through a journal article or book and instantly know who said what and when.

In spite of this, though, empirical research has indicated that skills with referencing and citing work develops over two years at university (Gaffney, 2016). For example, a quantitative study by Gaffney (2016) was performed to see how undergraduates’ skills in APA style referencing progressed over two years. It was found that “Data from year two demonstrated improvement” (Gaffney, 2016, p.148). As such, this short quote is useful as it provides concise information about the findings, but can also be used as an example of APA style quotations within research in which the author, date and page number must be cited and the quote within speech marks and in Italics (Cook & Murowchick, 2014). Quotations using APA style referencing should not be overly long and used infrequently, generally when there is no other way to state or explain what has been said within the source (Walsh & Shapiro, 2006).

On the other hand, there are other referencing styles that are just as popular within psychological research and academic writing, such as that of Harvard referencing style, which is particular popular in the UK and in UK universities (Martin, 2007). Nonetheless, many researchers and psychologists believe APA style referencing to be one of the best styles, and such skills have been shown to be easily transferred to other forms of referencing styles and disciplines (Cook & Murowchick, 2014). Likewise, by learning APA style referencing, students will conform to the standards of referencing for many scientific and academic journals (Gaffney, 2016; Cook & Murowchick, 2014; Simmons, 2004), meaning that in the future if they wished to publish a scientific article, they would already possess the necessary referencing skills to help with their submission. Consequently, gaining APA referencing skills is highly useful for reporting in a standardised and frequently used style, but it can also be used to easily pick up other referencing styles. In light of this, the 6th edition of the Manual of the American Psychological Association is a useful means by which to follow a standardised guide to presenting reports and psychological literature in a scientific and standardised manner (Dryjanska, 2017; DeCleene & Fogo, 2012).

In conclusion, this essay has discussed of the importance of APA style referencing within psychological literature, but also acted as an example of how to cite and reference a psychology essay in APA style. Following a particular referencing style is important within psychological literature as it sets a standard of reporting by which all psychological research can follow, making it easy for psychologists and students to understand where evidence and information has come from. Likewise, within academic essays, the use of APA style referencing means that the evidence presented within essays reflects scientific research reporting. To close, this essay can be used as an example for students to learn how sources should be cited and referenced in the APA style.

References:

Adair, J. G., & Vohra, N. (2003). The explosion of knowledge, references, and citations:
Psychology’s unique response to a crisis. American Psychologist, 58(1), 15-23.

Cook, K. E., & Murowchick, E. (2014). Do Literature Review Skills Transfer from One
Course to Another?. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 13(1), 3-11.

DeCleene, K. E., & Fogo, J. (2012). Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association. Occupational therapy in health care, 26(1), 90-92.

Dryjanska, L. (2017). An organizational scandal in psychology: social representations of
Hoffman Report in Europe. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 1-15.

Gaffney, A. L. H. (2016). Revising and Reflecting: How Assessment of APA Style
Evolved Over Two Assessment Cycles in an Undergraduate Communication Program. Journal of Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness, 5(2), 148-167.

Kazdin, A. E. (1992). Research Design in Clinical Psychology (Vol. 3). US: Boston: Allyn
and Bacon.

Madigan, R., Johnson, S., & Linton, P. (1995). The language of psychology: APA style as
epistemology. American Psychologist, 50(6), 428-436.

Martin, D. W. (2007). Doing Psychology Experiments. UK: Cengage Learning.

Polkinghorne, D. E. (1997). Reporting qualitative research as practice. In W. G. Tierney. &
Y. S. Lincoln. (Eds). Representation and the text: Re-framing the narrative voice. US: State University of New York Press.

Safer, M. A., & Tang, R. (2009). The psychology of referencing in psychology journal
articles. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(1), 51-53.

Simmons, B. A. (2004). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
Technical Communication, 51(1), 113-115.

Walsh, R., & Shapiro, S. L. (2006). The meeting of meditative disciplines and Western
psychology: a mutually enriching dialogue. American Psychologist, 61(3), 227-239.

This work was produced by one of our professional writers as a learning aid to help you with your studies

There are a number of relevant factors for re-incarceration rates and criminality among youth offenders. For example, having a substantial history of adverse childhood experiences has been shown to increase the likelihood that a young offender will be re-incarcerated (Hawthorne et al., 2012). Maltreatment by caregivers and neglect, specifically, have been shown to increase recidivism rates for youth (Spinhoven et al., 2010). Moreover, a criminogenic environment after the original detention of the young offender and a lack of aftercare each have been shown to increase the chance of re-incarceration among young offenders (Farrall, Bottoms & Shapland, 2011). Thus, there are a number of considerable social factors that contribute to the re-incarceration of youth offenders. Given such social factors, it is important for researchers to reveal the utility in social interventions, specifically in relation to incarceration rates and criminality.

Concerning psychology specifically, there are a number of benefits to social interventions for youth offenders. This project will explore the different ways in which social interventions that aim at reducing criminality in young offenders provide utility. Social interventions for the reduction of crime can be described as taking the position that reducing crime can be at least partially understood by “the interaction between individuals and their socio-cultural and natural environments which are viewed as important in shaping options and choices for that person. Accordingly, crime and desistance from crime are reciprocally influenced by the conditions and contexts in which they occur” (White & Graham, 2015: p. 12). Unlike clinical and formal interventions, social interventions are focused on improving social aspects of the lives of youths, effectively discouraging young offenders from committing crimes and participating in delinquent or antisocial behaviour. The current project features an examination of the utility of social interventions that aim at the prevention of the re-incarceration of young offenders by decreasing the criminality of such offenders.

Social Intervention and Legal Processes

The processes, including social interventions, that young offenders experience after an arrest differ dramatically from area to area. Such processes are typically complicated and include various individuals who become responsible for ensuring that the proper interventions occur to help prevent future incarcerations. After an arrest, a number of juvenile justice stakeholders must decide how the youth is to be processed through the court system, if at all. Such stakeholders include officers of the court, attorneys, judges, magistrates, and other officials. The option to release a youth offender with no referral for intervention services is available, though often intervention of some sort is crucial in preventing future incarceration (Hawthorne et al., 2012). Meanwhile, there are various community-based services that offer an alternative to the traditional justice system route. A study by Petrosino, Turpin-Petrosino, and Guckenburg (2010) revealed that traditional juvenile court processing was likely to increase criminal behaviour compared to social and community-based interventions. There is, therefore, a prominent place in juvenile courts for social interventions.

Rationale behind Social Intervention

In general, there can be utility in any social intervention when it is executed correctly. The rationale behind social interventions is that by increasing social support, social inclusion, or the influence and availability of role models, young offenders have fewer opportunities to commit crimes or engage in deviant or antisocial behaviour and are discouraged from participating in such behaviour (Kelly, 2012). Simons and Burt (2011) revealed that persistent exposure to various adverse environmental and social conditions negatively contributed to increased incarceration rates among some youths. Such adverse environmental and social conditions include community crime, racial and socioeconomic discrimination, harsh and abusive parenting, deviant peer activities and poor neighborhood efficacy (Simons & Burt, 2011). Thus, social interventions provide relief from the conditions that can encourage criminal activity, while encouraging positive behaviours.

School-based Social Intervention

School-based social interventions have been shown to be effective at reducing incarceration rates among at-risk youths and youth offenders. (Allen-Meares, Montgomery, & Kim, 2013). School-based social interventions include after-school, extracurricular programmes that are sponsored by or held at local schools and colleges. Because such programmes are voluntary for most youths, it is typically a goal of school-based social programmes to launch campaigns to attract at-risk youths and keep retention rates high (Allen-Meares, Montgomery, & Kim, 2013). Yet, for young offenders, school-based social interventions may be perceived as being extensions of mandatory school programmes. This can be off-putting to young offenders, especially those who have unsupportive or lack positive social circles. In large cities, young offenders can be required to participate in school-based programmes that are not their principal schools. This offers an opportunity for young offenders to connect socially with members of another school. After all, many students connect better with students from schools other than their own (Cooper, Allen, & Bettez, 2009). In some cases, young offenders may even seek a transfer to the school in which they were assigned. The utility in school-based social interventions, therefore, is that they offer opportunities for young offenders to expand their social circles, replace their more deviant or less-supportive social circles, and even switch to a more compatible school. Each of these opportunities can set such young offenders on the right path and away from deviant and criminal behaviour.

Community-based Social Intervention

Community-based social interventions include a number of programmes and conditions. Many community-based social interventions involve public officials being responsible for young offenders, such that young offenders are required to periodically report to such officials. Barnes et al. (2010) investigated the effects of decreasing the intensity of community supervision for low-risk youth offenders. In Philadelphia, many youth offenders are required to participate in community supervision programmes in which the youths are monitored and supervised by community officials. One social programme in Philadelphia sought to identify low-risk youth offenders and decrease the intensity of such community supervision in the hope that by treating low-risk youths less like criminals will help reduce re-incarceration rates (Barnes et al., 2010).

Barnes et al. (2010) relied on a random forecasting model to determine the severity of crimes committed by youths in Philadelphia. In all, 1,559 youth offenders were identified as being low-risk given the severity of their crimes committed. These offenders were randomly assigned to either the typical community supervision mandatory office visits or much fewer visits. Participants in the typical community supervision group were required an average of 4.5 probation visits per year compared to 2.4 for the participants in the low community supervision group (Barnes et al. 2010). The results of a one-year follow-up in which re-incarceration rates were measured, the researchers found that lower-intensity had no significant effect on re-incarceration rates. Thus, the researchers concluded that lower intensities of community supervision are required for low-risk youth offenders. The utility in community-based social interventions is the increased accountability that they require of the young offenders. However, as was shown in the Barnes et al. (2010) study, community-based social interventions can be very flexible and still remain effective.

Sports-based Social Intervention

Sports programmes as social interventions for youth offenders have emerged as promising solutions to youth incarceration. Kelly (2011) argues that recent international enthusiasm for sports programmes as social interventions has increased substantially. Kelly (2011) holds that sports programmes can be viewed as encouraging social inclusion strategies, which increase the positive social involvement of youth and discourage youth participation in illegal activities and antisocial behaviour. Sports programmes have become increasingly included as part of various youth-targeted initiatives, especially for at-risk youth or past youth offenders. For example, Positive Futures is a social intervention programme that was developed in England and Wales to discourage antisocial and deviant activities by encouraging the youth to participate in various positive social activities, especially sports activities.

In a study by Kelly (2011), the ways in which sports-based interventions promote social inclusion were examined. The results revealed that all programmes achieved at least some degree of success, in terms of helping to prevent incarceration. However, many of the sport-based programmes had poor retention rates. Even so, some were able to obtain high retention rates for the programmes, ultimately keeping at-risk youth out of trouble. It was revealed in this study that “sports-based interventions risk legitimating a reductive analysis of these complex processes, highlighting individual deficits and de-emphasizing structural inequalities” (Kelly, 2011: p. 139). Like most other social interventions, sport-based interventions must specifically seek to prevent antisocial and illicit behaviours, rather than simply providing a social refuge for youth (Kelly, 2011). Otherwise, there is a severe risk for low retention rates and ineffective intervention.

In another study by Kelly (2012), sports-based social interventions in England were examined to determine their efficacy at reducing youth crime and antisocial behaviour. The sports-based programmes in Kelly (2012) intended to help transform, particularly at-risk youths, by fostering supportive and mentoring relationships between the youths and their mentors. Effectively, the programmes providing youths with various sport-related alternative activities in controlled environments, while helping the youth handle adverse situations and deal with problems in an effective manner. Some of the participants in these programmes were assigned to the programmes by court officials, as parts of justice programmes. Kelly (2012) revealed that most of the programmes successfully transformed how participating youths deal with adverse situations and reduced antisocial behaviour. However, because this study was qualitative, the results were consequently, not quantitatively verifiable. Nevertheless, Kelly (2011; 2012) revealed that social intervention programmes, and sports-based social intervention programmes in particular, can be effective at reducing incarceration in youths by not only providing such youths with alternative social activities, but perhaps more importantly providing social inclusion into peer groups and educating the at-risk youths on appropriate responses to problems.

Multimodal Social Intervention

Boisjoli, Vitaro, Lacourse, Barker, and Tremblay (2007) examined the effects of a two-year intervention programme for adolescent boys who have exhibited high levels of disruptive behaviour on the future criminal behaviour and academic performance of the boys. The two-year programme in this study involved multimodal intervention strategies to help prevent maladjustment for the adolescents. The researchers met with the students, as well as their parents and teachers to foster a positive social and educational environment for such students. The results of Boisioli et al. (2007) revealed that, compared to a control group, adolescents who participated in the two-year programme were significantly less likely to have a criminal record and significantly more likely to complete high school. The multimodal approach to social intervention may be the most effective, as it is highly inclusive of various types of social intervention, including school-based, community-based, and sport-based intervention. The utility of multimodal social interventions is not only the sum of the utility of any included social intervention types. Rather, multimodal social interventions provide a much more holistic approach to criminality in young offenders. Such an approach may be ideal for at-risk youths who lack positive social circles and who have troubled family lives (Boisioli et al., 2007).

Conclusion and Discussion

The current project focuses on ways in which social interventions help prevent the re-incarceration of young offenders by decreasing the criminality in such offenders. Unlike clinical and formal interventions, social interventions tend to aim at improving the social aspects in the lives of young offenders, discouraging them from committing crimes and participating in delinquent or antisocial behaviour. In addition, social interventions provide relief from the conditions that can encourage criminal activity, while encouraging positive behaviours. In fact, traditional juvenile court processes were likely to increase criminal behaviour compared to social and community-based interventions (Petrosino, Turpin-Petrosino, & Guckenburg, 2010). School-based social interventions offer opportunities for young offenders to expand or replace their social circles and even switch to schools that are more suitable for them (Allen-Meares, Montgomery, & Kim, 2013). In contrast, community-based social interventions increase accountability in young offenders (Barnes et al, 2010). Two studies by Kelly (2011; 2012) showed that sports-based social intervention programmes can be effective at reducing incarceration in youth by providing young offenders with alternative social activities and increasing their feelings of social inclusion.

This project has featured an explanation of the many different types of social interventions and the utility of each. There are several common threads that seem to run through all or most of the types of social interventions. First, social interventions tend to provide many opportunities for young offenders to engage in positive and social activities, during which they cannot easily participate in deviant or criminal behaviour. Second, social interventions discourage deviance and criminal behaviour by encouraging involvement in positive social circles. Finally, social interventions tend to increase feelings of social inclusion among young offenders. Such feelings of social inclusion may discourage criminality by giving young offenders the belief that if they commit criminal acts, people that they care about will consequently be disappointed (Kelly, 2011). Social intervention can provide unique utility and complement other interventions, such as legal, formal, and clinical interventions.

References

Allen-Meares, P., Montgomery, K. L., & Kim, J. S. (2013) School-based Social Work Interventions: A Cross-national Systematic Review. Social work, 58(3), pp.253-262.

Boisjoli, R., Vitaro, F., Lacourse, E., Barker, E. and Tremblay, R. (2007) Impact and clinical significance of a preventive intervention for disruptive boys. British Journal of Psychiatry, 191, pp.415-419.

Barnes, G. C., Ahlman, L., Gill, C., Sherman, L. W., Kurtz, E., & Malvestuto, R. (2010) Low-intensity Community Supervision for Low-Risk Offenders: A Randomized, Controlled Trial. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 6(2), pp.159-189.

Cooper, C. W., Allen, R. M., & Bettez, S. C. (2009) Forming Culturally Responsive Learning Communities in Demographically Changing Schools. The handbook of leadership and professional learning communities, 103-114.

Farrall, S., Bottoms, A., & Shapland, J. (2010) Social Structures and Desistance from Crime. European Journal of Criminology, 7(6), pp.546-570.

Hawthorne, W. B., Folsom, D. P., Sommerfeld, D. H., Lanouette, N. M., Lewis, M., Aarons, G. A., … & Jeste, D. V. (2012) Incarceration among Adults who are in the Public Mental Health System: Rates, Risk Factors, and Short-term Outcomes. Psychiatric Services, 63(1), pp.26-32.

Kelly, L. (2011) ‘Social Inclusion’ through Sports-based Interventions? Critical Social Policy, 31(1), pp.126-150.

Kelly, L. (2012) Sports-based interventions and the local governance of youth crime and antisocial behavior. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 2, pp.1-27.

Petrosino, A., Guckenburg, S., & Turpin-Petrosino, C. (2010) Formal System Processing of Juveniles: Effects on Delinquency: A Systematic Review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 6(1), pp.1-80.

Simons, R. L., & Burt, C. H. (2011) Learning to Be Bad: Adverse Social Conditions, Social Schemas, and Crime. Criminology, 49(2), pp.553-598.

Spinhoven, P., Elzinga, B. M., Hovens, J. G., Roelofs, K., Zitman, F. G., van Oppen, P., & Penninx, B. W. (2010) The Specificity of Childhood Adversities and Negative Life Events across the Life Span to Anxiety and Depressive Disorders. Journal of affective disorders, 126(1), pp.103-112.

White, R., & Graham, H. (2015) Greening Justice: Examining the Interfaces of Criminal, Social and Ecological Justice. British Journal of Criminology, 55(5), pp.1-21.

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Sexual harassment in the workplace may be understood as unwanted sexual advances or obscene acts or language (McDonald & Charlesworth, 2016). Although sexual harassment in the workplace may be perpetuated against men, it has tended to be considered a gendered problem that is more severe for women than men (Holland et al., 2016). This is because for most perpetrators, the purpose of sexual harassment is not aimed at sexual gratification, but the assertion of power and dominance (Lim & Cortina, 2005). Sexual harassment represents one of the ways in which men in the workplace attempt to assert their dominance over women through aggressive behaviour. This essay will consider the causes, effects and how this might inform ways in which sexual harassment may be appropriately tackled.

Sexual harassment may be defined as the repeated deliberate unsolicited behaviour towards another person of a sexual nature. This can include verbal comments, gestures or physical actions (Harris et al. 2017). Increasing discussion on sexual harassment with the publicised #MeToo movement, where the prevalence of sexual harassment and abuse is becoming more apparent (Zarkov et al., 2018). However, Zarkov et al. (2018) notes that despite the significant level of publicity given to these instances, they have also served to restrict the definition of problem behaviour to abuse by the powerful rather than something that occurs in everyday interactions. Sexual harassment may be difficult to identify in practice because it can take different forms. Whereas it may be simpler to identify what McDonald (2012) labels the ‘sledgehammer’ form which is the single prominent act of sexual harassment, it is less clear when it relates to the ‘dripping tap’ form, which consists of mundane everyday instances rather than a single instance.

Workplace sexual harassment is worthy of close attention because it is exacerbated by the development of a workplace culture that renders harassing behaviour accepted. Bowling et al. (2006) propose a model that connects the potential causes of workplace harassment with its effects. Three potential causes of harassment are identified: the victim, the perpetrator and the environment. This suggests that environmental and individual difference factors contribute to harassment. Although the victim’s personal characteristics are likely to have an effect on the likelihood of harassment taking place, the organisation’s climate and human resources systems are also likely to have a significant impact. This is because these support systems affect the impact that harassment can have upon the victim and this can exacerbate the negative impact of harassment.

Although this model that emphasises the importance of environmental factors was more directly concerned with the prevalence of workplace harassment in general, the identification of underlying factors is relevant to how sexual harassment can be exacerbated in some contexts but not in others (Bowling et al., 2006). Willness et al. (2007) provide a meta-analysis that draws on 41 studies to identify the impact of situational factors upon the likelihood of sexual harassment taking place. These include the lack of sanctions for offenders, the risk that victims might undertake if they complain, and this is supported by the fact that organisations that have well-designed mechanisms that allow for the practice to be reported and for perpetrators to be disciplined.

McLaughlin et al. (2012) suggests that it is incorrect to suppose that all sexual harassment takes place with female subordinates being harassed by male superiors as power-threat theories suggest that women in authority might be more likely targets. The notion that sexual harassment in the workplace is more likely to be perpetuated by co-workers or supervisors is emphasised by Willness et al. (2007). However, McLaughlin et al. (2012) suggest that this may not be the case because women having authority over male co-workers challenge their presumptive superiority. This may be exacerbated by the tendency to view women in positions of power as undeserving of their position, and for such women to be isolated with fewer support networks. This then leads to masculine overcompensation and may lead to harassment becoming part of the collective practice of others. The results of this investigation demonstrated that women in positions of authority did experience sexual harassment on a regular basis. It can be argued that being in a position of power should provide women with the opportunity to tackle such harassment, but the fact that such women might be relatively isolated could mean that the position of authority did not lead to greater resources to tackle such harassment. In fact, it appeared to contribute to a greater unwillingness of women to respond to harassment because it would be seen as a sign of weakness and confirm the perspective that the women were unsuited for their position.

Lim and Cortina (2005) suggest that harassment is related to broader incivility among participants. This suggests that there may be a case to consider both as part of the same spectrum, rather than study them separately. The same cause of dominance and power might prompt workplace incivility as might result in sexual harassment (Lim & Cortina, 2005). However, workplaces that tackle sexual harassment are less concerned with matters of incivility. There is perhaps less clarity in what might consider incivility in such cases, which might account for it to be given less attention in the workplace. Different workplace cultures might have an impact on what constitutes incivility, with some considering swearing to be uncivil, whereas in other cases this might lead to stronger working relationships. Nevertheless, through appropriate education, the extent to which workplace cultures can adjust to provide an inclusive environment should be considered; workplace cultures are not static, and they need not exclude groups as a means of making in-groups cohesive.

The fact that it might be associated could be considered an important corollary to sexual harassment, but perhaps this is related more closely to the fact that it is the ease with which negative practices in the workplace can be dealt with rather than the notion that there is an underlying problem that can be assessed independently. The focus should be upon mechanisms that allow those affected by incivility to have such concerns addressed, and it is perhaps the lack of these mechanisms that cause this link rather than the notion that a lack of politeness is the thin end of sexual harassment. Nevertheless, McDonald (2012) supports this association, arguing that individuals who experience sexual harassment often experience multiple forms of harassing behaviour. Rather than focusing solely upon the notion of incivility as something associated with sexual harassment, this analysis considers that some forms of behaviour, such as sexually offensive humour or the use of sexual imagery in language can prove damaging because it identifies the workplace as a masculinised space. This can then contribute to the tendency to perpetuate discrimination in socially acceptable forms. Furthermore, the impact of this behaviour can be more significant that some studies suggest because such behaviour may provide an indication of longer-term stress for the victim.

The effects of sexual harassment in the workplace can be substantial. These can include a number of factors related to the victim’s ability to carry out work effectively (McLaughlin et al., 2017). Inter-personnel working may be affected. More significantly, organisational commitment is likely to have a significant impact, and this is largely because victims consider the organisation to have had an impact (Salman et al., 2016). A significant impact that is often observed is organisational withdrawal, where the victim will avoid the tasks associated with work and this behaviour would be characterised by lateness, absenteeism, or neglectfulness (McLaughlin et al., 2017). It may also result in the employee quitting work or searching for new employment. Therefore, where an organisation neglects to provide formal reporting procedures, the victims might react to harassment by withdrawing from work, avoid contact with the source of their stress, and this can result in significant organisational problems. The loss of productivity is an often-cited effect of sexual harassment, and this can involve the loss of productivity in the whole workforce or group rather than simply the victim’s tendency to reduce their own productivity (Salman et al., 2016). This is because the workplace productivity is often affected by teamwork, and therefore, the negative effects of sexual harassment can have a substantial impact.

The psychological consequences of sexual harassment for the victim might be more severe. Fitzgerald et al. (1997) provide an integrated model for sexual harassment that identifies the personal impact upon the victim’s life satisfaction can be severe. This is more closely associated with stress related responses, such as sadness, depression, or negative mood. It is less commonly claimed as a traumatic experience for victims, although there is clearly a wide range of responses that might be appropriately measured. Willness et al. (2007) suggest that there should be less attention paid to sexual harassment as a traumatic experience because this is usually associated with more serious crimes and involves elements such as emotional numbing, flashbacks or sleep disturbances. Furthermore, there are limited number of studies that consider the effect of sexual harassment upon the physical health of the victim. McDonald (2012) suggests that the impact of sexual harassment should be considered as more severe than these approaches suggest, and the argument that the effect is not significantly traumatising should not be used as an argument to then presume that it is less serious than it is.

McDonald (2012) notes ways in which outrage can be dampened: instances may be covered-up and take place away from witnesses. It may also include the devaluing of the victim through criticisms of performance, or it can include claiming that the actions were interpreted negatively. Claims may also be made that the process has been dealt with in an official capacity, and that therefore the airing of grievances constitutes redress (Bowling et al., 2006). Finally, there may be threats that reduce the likelihood of the harassment going reported such as tactics that include withholding references, the threat of dismissal or the tactic that includes allocating unwelcome jobs to the victim (McDonald, 2012). Bribery might include the opposite of these actions. However, in such cases it is important for the perpetrator to recognise the seriousness of his or her acts, and therefore such tactics function in cases where it is recognised that harassment has taken place. A masculinised workplace culture, for example, may mean that such behaviour is not regarded as harmful in the first place, and is considered to simply constitute ‘banter’ or part of an over-familiar working relationship Bowling et al. (2006).

This apparent defence that it is difficult for perpetrators to know whether they are committing sexual harassment is problematic. To some extent, a workplace culture that becomes masculinised and provides the environment where sexualised imagery becomes common may then lead to harassment that could be unintentional (Bowling et al. 2006). However, this argument does not mean it does not constitute harassment. Furthermore, the fact that such an argument is used to defend perpetrators against charges of sexual harassment makes it very tenuous. For this reason, some of the most successful responses to sexual harassment constitute the education of workers in appropriate conduct that allows them to avoid sexually harassing behaviour (Zarkov et al., 2018). More significantly, the notion of sexual harassment may refer to unwanted sexual advances or the making of obscene remarks; this seems to place the onus upon definition upon the victim to decide what constitutes something unwanted or not. It also ignores the extent to which sexual harassment may come from a sexualised culture that develops through workplace interactions.

In conclusion, the causes and the impact of sexual harassment suggest a problem that might be characterised in both simple terms and more complex ones. In simple terms, any confusion about sexual harassment should involve the perpetrator imagining themselves as the recipient, and consider whether it would be considered objectionable from that perspective. Alternatively, it simply involves the potential perpetrator conducting minimal research and identifying what might be construed as problematic behaviour. However, the development of a workplace culture that supports sexual harassment together with the lack of appropriate ways to tackle the problem at a managerial level means that much sexual harassment goes unchecked. This suggests that this might be considered principally as a managerial problem and one which might be resolved by the development of appropriate reporting methods, suitable redress, and support given to victims. There is a clear evidence of how workplace sexual harassment takes place, its effects on victims, and this evidence points clearly to a set of well-researched approaches that can be used to tackle this issue.

References

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