Professional action with a methodically correct approach or spontaneous reaction to the child’s needs? Professional distance or loving closeness? Reflective and competent specialist or would you prefer an authentic, real and human reference person? For the specialists in the offers in the home community, these and similar – of course very acute – questions arise in everyday life as well as in their professional discussion of their actions. Living and working with young people in the immediate family environment presents our cooperation partners with special challenges on a daily basis that do not arise in other areas of social work: the usual end of work and thus the change from a professional to a purely private role there is hardly any. The everyday and family tasks and requirements go hand in hand with the tasks and goals within the context of educational assistance and the requirement to provide a high-quality, professional service that is oriented towards professional maxims.
What does this mean specifically for the requirements for specialists who provide assistance in home-based community services?
Professional identity and principles of action in social work
First of all, any activity in the social field requires the development of a professional identity. This raises the question of what professional action actually is and what role the principles of social work play in it. One speaks of professional action when “skillful expertise is expressed in high-quality work” (cf. Ehlert 2019, n.p.). What is meant here is an action that does not proceed schematically and is not limited to simply following given instructions, since each case must be dealt with individually (cf. Pantucek-Eisenbacher 2015). Professional action is always required when there are complex problems for which there are no simple and clear solutions and more than just everyday knowledge is required to understand the problem and specialized specialist knowledge and knowledge of methods are required for a solution.” (cf. Scherr 2018S. 9).
There is certainly no lack of principles and maxims for those working in social work: empowerment, participation, subject orientation, resource orientation, multi-perspectivity, reflection, system orientation and socio-ecological orientation, multi-dimensionality and multi-perspectivity, openness, contextuality… the list could go on for a long time. In addition, there are a wide variety of approaches, pedagogical attitudes, methods and pedagogical focuses, which result in very individual professional approaches to the requirements of young people in education, care and support in each care center.
According to Meinhold (1994), “working principles or action-guiding orientation frameworks […] general principles that guide actions. […] In a sense, they represent the bridge between thinking and acting.”
According to Spatschek / Borrmann, the “central aspect for choosing a method is: […] the accuracy of the fit to the social problem to be addressed. The problems determine the choice of method.” At the same time, it is helpful to remember that the definition of the respective problem comes from the perspective of the addressees, the specialists and/or the structures (and the actors belonging to them). The specialists must clarify whether they are even responsible for dealing with the problem. In addition, the assessment of what is understood as a solution to the problem and thus as the target state to be achieved can differ between young people, specialists and structures.
So let’s summarize briefly:
- In addition to their basic pedagogical training, specialists in home-based programs require a high level of attention and sensitivity to whether and, if so, in what form, certain behavior or problems that arise among young people need to be addressed and changed and what goal is being pursued.
- It is also necessary to assess in which situation a completely automatic, possibly intrinsic reaction to the behavior of young people and their problems occurs, and when a methodically based approach based on professional maxims is required.
- In order to make this assessment in each individual case, the specialist must also be constantly aware of the reasons for the assistance measure as well as the origin and biography of the children and young people, as well as the agreed goals as part of the assistance planning.
Requirements for skilled workers in home-based services
These requirements lead to another point, namely the question of the personal suitability and personal skills and resources of the specialists. These so-called soft skills, in addition to a high level of professionalism and a good knowledge of methods, help to carry out the work as a parent or foster family successfully and for the benefit of the children and young people entrusted to them, as well as to protect yourself and your own family from overload.
There is a particular need for skilled workers in home-based community services
- height intrapersonal skills, such as resilience, the ability to self-reflect, authenticity, adaptability, self-discipline, creativity and a sense of responsibility
- very good Social and communicative skillssuch as empathy, intercultural competence, communication skills, conflict management, critical skills, motivational skills or negotiation skills
- pronounced Activity and action skills, such as personal initiative, decision-making ability, problem-solving ability or goal and solution orientation
(see www.studyflix.de)
In addition, there are pronounced and stable ones parenting skills and educational skillssuch as discipline, communication, self-care, empathy, orientation towards children’s needs.
It turns out that working with children and young people in the context of home-based activities places a wide range of demands on the caring professionals. Professional skills, methodological and pedagogical knowledge, personal as well as educational and parenting skills work together, complement each other, are mutually dependent and are inextricably linked. In addition, there are the effects of stress, crises and challenges from everyday family life or relationships, which play an important role in professional life, as it takes place entirely at home.
This also means that the specialists in the care centers have a high need for supervision, advice, support and reflection from outside. This in turn places special demands on the provider’s specialist services and requires sensitive, appreciative and supportive cooperation between independent and public youth welfare services and other cooperation partners.
Above all, it becomes clear how incredibly diverse, exciting and, above all, valuable the work of the specialists in the offers in the home community is and how highly the commitment of the entire family is valued.
Tobias Conzelmann
Lead specialist service for the Central region
2024
Sources: ww.dgsa.de, www.bmjsj.de, www.studyflix.de.,
2024-02-24 00:20:43
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