Text 2. Social Service

Social service is also called  welfare service,  or  social work,  any of numerous publicly or privately provided services that help disadvantaged, distressed, or vulnerable persons or groups. The term social service also denotes the profession engaged in rendering such services. The basic concerns of social welfare—poverty, disability and disease, the dependent young and elderly—are as old as society itself.

There exists no universal vocabulary of social welfare. In some countries a distinction is drawn between “social services,” denoting programs, such as health care and education, that serve the general population, and “welfare services,” denoting aid directed to vulnerable groups, such as the poor, the disabled, or the delinquent.

In the advanced industrial societies the personal social services is made of statutory, voluntary, and private sectors of welfare provision. In such social security systems assistance is provided to specific categories of people. This social security system aims to reduce poverty and to organize social policy.

The majority of social services help individuals who are unable, whether temporarily or permanently, to cope with the problems of everyday living. Recipients include families faced with loss of income or illness; children and youths whose physical or moral welfare is at risk; the sick; the disabled; the elderly; and the unemployed. Where necessary, the services play a key role in the care and control of juvenile delinquents and other socially deviant groups, such as drug and alcohol abusers.

Any family can experience crises that it is powerless to control. A very small number of families experience such intractable problems that they require almost continuous help from social services. Some of these families present problems of deviant behaviour, including family violence and children’s abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, and crime and delinquency. Caseworkers generally deal with all questions of family life for promotion of social welfare. Family welfare programs seek to preserve and strengthen the family unit through both economic assistance, where available, and personal assistance with a variety of services. Personal assistance services include marriage, maternal, prenatal, and infant care programs; family planning services; family-life education, which promotes both the enrichment of family relationships and the improvement of home economics; “home-help” or “homemaker” services providing household assistance to families burdened with chronic illness, handicaps, or other dependencies; and care of the aged.

(2212)

Notes:

vulnerable – уязвимый, ранимый;

juvenile delinquent – малолетний преступник;

caseworker - служащий, изучающий условия жизни неблагополучных семей и лиц, нуждающихся в материальной или моральной поддержке.

burden with – отягощать, обременять.

Text 3. Family, Elderly and Children Welfare

Social philosophers and caseworkers generally regard family life as the ideal context for the promotion of social welfare. Family welfare programs seek to preserve and strengthen the family unit through both economic assistance, where available, and personal assistance with a variety of services.

Personal assistance services include marriage counseling in most developed countries and in urban centres of developing countries; maternal, prenatal, and infant care programs; family planning services; family-life education, which promotes both the enrichment of family relationships and the improvement of home economics; “home-help” or “homemaker” services providing household assistance to families burdened with chronic illness, handicaps, or other dependencies; and care of the aged through such programs as in-home meal services, transportation, regular visitation, and reduced-cost medicines.

The elderly now constitute the largest single client group using personal social services worldwide. In all advanced industrial societies the proportion of infirm elderly is on the increase, and, although they constitute only a small minority of the retired population, their claim on social services is disproportionately heavy. Because social care for the elderly is often labour-intensive, most countries give full support to the promotion of family care and the expansion and rationalization of informal care on a voluntary or quasi-voluntary basis. Services include transportation, friendly visiting, home delivery of hot meals, nurse visitation, and reduced-cost medical supplies. Senior centres sponsor group activities such as crafts, entertainment, outings, and meals on a regular basis. Nursing homes, variously funded, provide medical and custodial care for those who are unable to live independently. Paradoxically, the majority of elderly people lead independent lives, seldom utilizing personal social services. Indeed, fit elderly people are increasingly in demand as a source of voluntary service.

A paramount concern in all family welfare programs is the welfare of children. Whenever possible, children's services are rendered within the setting of home life. Income assistance to parents may help ensure the basic security of the family structure. Maternal, prenatal, and child health-care programs are important in all societies but especially so in those affected by widespread disease and malnutrition; infant and maternal mortality rates are in fact the most basic indexes of child welfare. The increasing number of working mothers worldwide has given rise to day-care services ranging from simple custodial supervision to educational and health-care programs. In some countries, industries are required to provide such facilities for their employees, in recognition of the changing economic pressures on family life.

While the family unit is imbued with great value by most child-welfare programs, these programs must also address the special needs of unwed mothers and their children, broken families, and children whose families, although intact, are sources of abuse and neglect rather than love and nurture. Attitudes vary greatly among the world's societies toward pregnancy out of wedlock. Historically, social and even physical persecution have been common in some communities, but most modern societies recognize a responsibility toward the welfare of unmarried mothers and their children. In industrial countries, and in some developing countries through private charity, services typically include medical care and delivery and counseling regarding the decision to keep the baby or to give it up for adoption. In many countries institutional homes provide for the care both of unwed expectant mothers and of mothers and babies after delivery, in a setting sheltered from the often rigid strictures of family and community. Procedures of adoption vary considerably worldwide, but arrangements are frequently carried out by social service agencies in cooperation with legal authorities.

Whereas orphans once made up the majority of children living in institutional homes, the number of children who lose both parents through death has been greatly reduced by medical advances. Institutional and foster care are now provided mainly to children whose home lives have been disrupted, permanently or temporarily, by marital discord, financial hardship, parental irresponsibility, neglect, or abuse. While foster care might be considered preferable because it offers the intimate atmosphere of family living, some children, such as those severely affected by parental abuse or emotional disturbance, may adjust more comfortably to the more impersonal environment of an institution. Although it cannot be determined conclusively whether the increasing incidence of reported child abuse is attributable to falling standards of parental care or to improved detection and reporting, much effort has been invested in supervision, social education, and cooperation between personal social services and health care, education, police, and housing authorities.

(4384)

Notes:

caseworker - служащий, изучающий условия жизни неблагополучных семей и лиц, нуждающихся в материальной или моральной поддержке;

burden with – отягощать, обременять;

infirm elderly – немощные пожилые люди;

quasi-voluntary – частично добровольный;

paramount – главный;

unwed mothers – мать-одиночка.