In my thesis, I researched what has a significant impact on different treatmens of users visiting the departments of exercise of rights to public funds. The way social workers help and provide support varies not only in different social work centres in Slovenia but also within individual social work centres. This should not happen due to the fact that the most vulnerable users who need comprehensive help and support are entering this area.
When dealing with the topic I initially focused on the field of exercise of rights to public funds as well as on the organisational conditions for employees. Secondly, I focused on the possible effects of social workers' personality traits on helping users and providing support. In the second part of my thesis, I illustrated the qualitative research results which helped me interpret the views of students at the Faculty of Social Work on the work of social workers in this field.
Although my research showed that putting social work in practice differs from one social worker to another, I see neoliberalisation as the main problem nowadays. Neoliberal logic changed the way social work centres operate. They were forced to submit to the requests of the state and start operating in accordance with administrative procedures, which led to bureaucratisation. Moreover, since the government is saving money, the social work centres have to deal with the increased lack of human resources. Individual workers are stressed, overworked, burned out and are therefore no longer capable of empathy. As also evident in the research, the establishment of a working relationship which in our field proves crucial for providing support and help is mainly affected by lack of time. This is why social work centres should be able to employ more social workers, and, more importantly, spare them bureaucratic work. Only in flexible working-time arrangements they will be able to fully integrate social work concepts in their activities.
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