In my master's thesis, I explored the experiences of families facing multiple challenges, in their interactions with professionals at the Social Work Center. The focus was on the experiences of families in their collaboration, the challenges encountered while working with the professionals, and how working with families facing multiple challenges has empowered them to live a life independently of professional help and support. Obtaining feedback from families regarding their experiences working with professionals is cruical for professionals to adapt their work to better meet their expectations and needs. In the theoretical introduction of my thesis, I addressed families facing multiple challenges and the related concept of family resilience, social work with families and the process of help and support, social work with families facing multiple challenges, individual working projects of help, the complexity of social work with families, the issue of fragmented assistance, reviewed foreign research on collaborating with families facing multiple challenges and emphasized the importance of the families' feedback. Additionally, I presented the services provided by the Social Work Center in supporting families facing multiple challenges and the LINK project, which the Faculty of Social Work implements in collaboration with the Social Work Center Spodnje Podravje.
I conducted a qualitative study with a colleague, where each of us conducted eight semi-standardized interviews with families or adult family members who had worked closely with the Social Work Center. In total, sixteen interviews were conducted. The measurement instrument used was a set of guidelines for semi-structured interviews. The collected data was analysed using qualitative analysis methods, including open, axial and relational coding. Analysis of all sixteen interviews revealed that many families had positive experiences in their interactions, while others faced various challenges (for example: frequent changes of social workers, disregard for the users’ voice, and social worker bias). The results demonstrated that working with professionals at the Social Work Center has empowered families facing multiple challenges to live a life independently of professional assistance.
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