My social work training

A place for my social work training i choose a local government in my native town Shalchininkay. In my town there is a special institution called "Center of social support" and local government co-ordinates work of this institution. This institution is not very old, actually it works about 7 years and the main aim of this institution to help people who need social security.

The main aim of my a month-long training was to work with clients and to analyse one case on my own. Also, i had to analyse institution's work, watch social worker 's job, her main functions. But still i had many other activities. Some of them i liked some disliked. It was very interesting to watch real job of social worker who has bachelor's degree because many other workers doesn't have it. We often go to villages, to poor people, families whom need social help. I communicate with those people, during my training i was in 5 different families with social worker.

Some of them needed help at home, like cook, wash something and etc. Others just wanted to communicate because they live alone and don't have any neighbours. I saw how difficult people live and i understood that in Lithuania still there is very poor social security, government doesn't attach great importance.

I was touch to work with documents, because it is very important part of social worker's job. I had to fill them too and i think this was very useful and i liked this activity. But still it was more interesting to go somewhere, communicate, try to help people, give something for them like food, clothes.

To sum up, i am glad that i had this a month-long training because it was great practical experience for me and i think it is more useful than reading a book about client, cases and so on.

Self - assessment on online listening to podcasts

I have listened to these podcasts : http://a.media.abcnews.com/podcasts/071025exclusiva_eng.mp3;



http://a.media.abcnews.com/podcasts/071104tw_pre.mp3;




I have listened two quite difficult for me podcasts. I had to listen it three times because from the first time it was even difficult to understand the main point of speech.



When i listened the podcasts the third time i understood everything quite well. But still the biggest problem is that the topic wasn't easy for me and i think my vocabulary is poor. It was very important that the rate of speech wasn't too fast because when the speaker speaks very fast i really can't understand the meaning. That's why sometimes listening for me can be easy and sometimes i don't understand it at all.




Also it was very important to concentrate on authentic American speech because they often speak faster than British people. So, as i said before vocabularly is very important. Than you can understand much more than i did.



The topics i have chosen to listen was interesting for me and i tried to understand as more as it is possible.




In conclusion, i can say that i am not very good at listening and i think i am not well prepared form my listening paper exam. I need more practise in order to concentrate on topic.

Autism

Autism is a brain developmental disorder characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, and restricted and repetitive behavior. Autism affects many parts of the brain; how this occurs is poorly understood. Parents usually notice signs in the first year or two of their child's life. Early intervention may help children gain self-care and social skills, although few of these interventions are supported by scientific studies.

There are three distinctive behaviors that characterize autism. Autistic children have difficulties with social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, and repetitive behaviors or narrow, obsessive interests. As early as infancy, a baby with autism may be unresponsive to people or focus intently on one item to the exclusion of others for long periods of time. A child with autism may appear to develop normally and then withdraw and become indifferent to social engagement. Children with autism may fail to respond to their name and often avoid eye contact with other people. They have difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling because they can’t understand social cues, such as tone of voice or facial expressions, and don’t watch other people’s faces for clues about appropriate behavior. They lack empathy.

How is autism diagnosed?

Doctors will often use a questionnaire or other screening instrument to gather information about a child’s development and behavior. Some screening instruments rely solely on parent observations; others rely on a combination of parent and doctor observations. If screening instruments indicate the possibility of autism, doctors will ask for a more comprehensive evaluation. Autism is a complex disorder. A comprehensive evaluation requires a multidisciplinary team including a psychologist, neurologist, psychiatrist, speech therapist, and other professionals who diagnose children with ASDs.

What role does inheritance play?

Recent studies strongly suggest that some people have a genetic predisposition to autism. . In families with one autistic child, the risk of having a second child with the disorder is approximately 5 percent, or one in 20.

How is autism treated?

Educational/behavioral interventions: Therapists use highly structured and intensive skill-oriented training sessions to help children develop social and language skills.
Medications: Doctors often prescribe an antidepressant medication to handle symptoms of anxiety, depression, or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Other therapies: There are a number of controversial therapies or interventions available for autistic children, but few, if any, are supported by scientific studies. Parents should use caution before adopting any of these treatments.

In conclusion, I would like to say that these children can start a normal life during their adulthood, but it is very important that parents and other relatives help to these children because communication is a very important “medication”.

Violence in the family

Violence against somebody is a big social problem. It is sad that in Lithuania level of violence is quite high. The family is a system, which means that violence in any part of the family equals violence in every part. Usually the victims are women and children and that is not a surprise. Men more often than women use alchohol, are more agressive, feel powerful. Women are the first who feel men agression. Woman abuse is a primary indicator of child abuse and vice versa.



There are some kind of institutions that help these women and children, for example, Mother's and child's lodging-house but there is another problem. Often people who regularly feel violence in the family are afraid to say it for anybody, they keep their mouth shut. In that situation most of all suffer children who also feel abuse. Most people who work with children of alcoholics are well aware that these children often suffer from physical violence against them by a drunken parent. Many children of alcoholics have mothers who are abused and the mother's abuse affects the child in significant ways:



- They are at high risk for alcohol and drug use;

- sexual acting out;

- running away frpm their homes;

- isolation;

- fear ;

- finally, suicide..



Coping with problem of violence, a lot of attention should be payed to chilren psychical problems because children who are raised in violent homes may learn to repeat the family patterns either by becoming abusers or battered themselves as adults. Boys who have witnessed abuse of their mothers are 10 times more likely to batter their female partners as adults ("Women and Violence," Hearings before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, August/December 1990).



To sum it up, i would like to say that social workers often meet with this phenomenon and try to help victims of violence but still The solution to stopping violence in the family is up to each of us. When we understand this critical social issue, we will overcome our fear of working with battered families, and we will be able to reach out and draw them back into a sane and safe world.

Choosing a Student Exchange Program to Come to the US

Today we have listened a podcast about exchange programs in US. Actually, i was always interested in these programs because i hope there will be a chance to take part in it one day i our university. I think exchange programs are very good and useful thing because you can see other country, meet new people and of course study interesting and important things connected with your future profession. Also you can get a big work experience.
It was easy to understand what was said in podcast because of easy vocabulary. I have understood everything from the first time. This time listening was easier than previous one.

Today we have listened podcast about Virginia's shooting. It was interesting task and i like it. But is was quite difficult to understand all things that was said in podcast because in classroom there were a lot of as and we all listened the same podcast. It was too loudly and i understood what was said in podcast only after listening second time and reading the text.
I think Virginia shooting was horrible event and i am very glad that in Lithuania there wasn't such incidents. It is sad that so many innocent students die because of one person's problems and i can't understand why police didn't close the university after morning shooting. However, now it is too late think about it because nobody will return those dead students. After such events i often think that people can be very unfair and rude. I hope i won't meet such people.

"Employment law" summary

Employment law is a law that protects workers rights, gives some guarantees that are important for all workers, like minimum wage or compensation from being dismissed.

In English people who work have the main rights. According to Employments Protection Act employees have right to compensation if they are dismissed, women have right to time off and also return to work after having the baby, men over 65 and women over 60 are not entitled to compensation for redundancy. Also according to other acts people can't be discriminated at work, their race or sex is not important and men or women must get equal pay for equal work.

In some cases EC gives better protection than English law and also there are some differences, for example, Sunday trading. Right to strike in Britain should be supported by a majority vote of the workers.

In Japan employees don't have so many legal rights but still they once hired work all life and don't change the place. They get insurance benefits and many workers are able to live in a big cities.

Employment law is very important part of law which defends employees rights and gives guarantees.