Maria Lehtinen University of Jyväskylä STRENGTHS BASED PRACTICE: THE METHOD´S USEFULNESS IN FINNISH SOCIAL WORK WITH FAMILIES AND CHILDREN

In this presentation, I´m going to tell you What is my research about. Why I´m interested in the topic. What is strengths based social work and why is it a useful method in social work according to earlier research. Which methods are being used in Finland. What methods I will use in my research. What sources am I using. Feel free to ask questions at any point of my presentation.

My research question is What is strengths based practice and is the method useful in Finnish social work with families and children?

Hypotheses My hypotheses are simply: NO, they don´t use the method here and YES, It would be great, if they did.

Why I chose this topic I´m interested in social work with children and families. I´ve been doing social work in this field for two years and I´ve used the solution-centered approach (Furman & Ahola) in my work. This approach has a lot of similarities to strengths based social work and I find it effective. I´m interested in methods´ effectiveness in social work.

Strengths based practice is… …a way of doing social work. It´s all about focusing on client´s strengths and resources instead of problems The method is closely related to the concept of empowerment There are many opinions about method´s effectiveness and usefulness in social work.

In Finland Social work is problem-centered. There is not much information/theory about methods that has been used in Finnish social work, especially there is not much research about methods´ effectiveness

How to use the strengths based method During the social work process, social worker and a client set goals “empowering questions” Social worker can for example ask: What are the strengths you have, that have helped you to survive trough this English course? What is it, that has made you come this far in this course?  Social worker challenges the client work on his/her situation

Research methods Participants: social workers who work with families and children in Peruspalvelukeskus Oiva –liikelaitos (Päijät-Häme). I’m going to collect the information by sending the participants an inquiry including open questions. This is a qualitative research. I´m going to use grounded theory method when analyzing the answers.

Conclusions In this section I will examine, is the strengths based method a useful method in the social work with families and children. I will try to answer the following questions: Why is the method usefull in social work with families and chilrden according to the answers? Why is it working/ why not? What are the limitations of this method? Grounded theory  induction  the earlier research doesn´t play a big role

References Bernard, B. (2006). Using strengths based practice to tap the resilience of families. In D. Saleebey (Ed.) Strengths perspective in social work practice ( ). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon McMillen, J. C., Morris, L. & Sherraden, M. (2004). Ending social work´s grudge match: Problems versus strengths. In Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services 85 (3). Pp Rapp, C.A., Saleebey, D. & Sullivan, W.P (2006). The future of strengths-based social work. In Delay, J. G (Ed.) Advances in social work (79-90). Bloomington, Indiana: Trafford Publishing Raunio, K (2009). Olennainen sosiaalityössä (2nd ed.). Helsinki: Hakapaino.

Today I told you about strengths based method and my research about strengths based method in Finnish social work with families and children. Questions, comments, suggestions?

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