Introduction
The link between health, wellbeing and the social gradient i.e. social class, economic status, poverty, is well established. Local and global inequalities in health are measurable and represent major human rights issues affecting the marginalized and oppressed in most countries. Currently in Europe, national states are working toward new economic and organisational structures for the delivery of health and social care services to achieve equitable outcomes. At the same time, medical and technological advances have resulted in dramatic changes in the provision of care and services, the promotion of health and wellbeing and the delivery of rehabilitation, palliative and aged care. While the growing empowerment of health and social care consumers has resulted in a demand for increased choice and more personalised and tailored series.
The history of professional Social Work is rooted in the emergence of medical social work during the early 1900s in USA, Australia, and United Kingdom. However, new frontiers in health and social care effect the global south and north and create both challenges and opportunities for the profession’s international relevance in addressing health equality and social justice. Tensions between competing economic, medical, social and human rights agendas are set to test practitioners, educators, academics and students of social work.
Special Edition
The purpose of the special edition is to explore the implications of working in dynamic and often controversial health contexts for social work practice, education, and research and theory development. Social work is an established interdisciplinary and transnational health care practice, contributing effective skills, interventions and technologies and providing measurable outcomes for health and wellbeing. Social work education seeks to offer state of the art teaching and learning opportunities to prepare students for working in interdisciplinary teams caring for individuals, families and communities. Social work students and practitioners are encouraged to undertake active leadership in health systems responding to the complex health and social needs of culturally diverse communities. Social work research evidences new interventions and sources of knowledge in collaboration with other health care disciplines and consumers of health services. Social work academics offer radical theories and insights as to achieving social justice and equality through health and social care policy, legislation and practices. Contributions representing advances in best and creative practice, education and research in social work in health care settings are therefore invited, together with interdisciplinary and international submissions.
Possible topic
The following topics are merely a guide:
- Health inequalities and social policy i.e. human rights, personalisation and consumer choice, organisational contexts, health care costs and funding
- Specialist fields of practice i.e. hospital social work, rehabilitation and ambulatory care, mental health, child and family health, youth health, palliative care, trauma work, community and public health care, aged and dementia care, migrant and refugee health
- Ethics and values in health care, cultural tensions, controversies
- New practices and use of technologies in health and home care, interdisciplinary teamwork and decision-making
- Educating and supporting health care practitioners and emerging theories in health care
Instructions
Manuscripts are to be submitted as academic articles in the range between 5,000 - 10,000 words (including its title, biography, abstracts, key words, the main body, list of sources, explanatory notes). See the website for further details on the format (here) and instructions for authors (here).
All submissions must include discussion of implications for social work practice, education, research, theory or ethics at the individual, community or policy level. We encourage prospective authors to contact the Guest Editor, Janet Anand, Professor in International Social Work, University of Eastern Finland at janet.anand@uef.fi
We are also looking for book reviews and reseach notes.
Book review is the standard literary genre. So please observe all review requirements. In the end of review could be answer to the question – „In what way does the book contribute to social work, respectively to social workers and workers in practice, education or research?“ Scope of review is set at 1,000 - 2,000 words. Reviews must contain the bibliographic data on the book (e.g. Daniel et al.: Vodáčková, Crisis intervention, Portal, Prague, 2002) and the name of the review author along with the contact. Please connect also copy of title page of the reviewed book.
Research Note is short text (1,000 – 1,500 words) about research activities on your faculty or department, about interesting dissertation thesis, project etc.
Submission Deadline
The deadline for submissions for this special edition is March 10st, 2018.
Two versions of the manuscript should be submitted to the editor’s office, sent via e-mail to the administrator of the academic papers who will also provide you with additional information upon request: barbora.grundelova@osu.cz. One of these versions should be free of any information which would lead to the identification of the author. The other one should be a complete version of the article.