engleski

Motivation and obstacles for introducing supervision of social workers in retirement and nursing homes

Due to current demographic trends and the expected increase in the population of elderly people in Croatia, the increase of elderly social work clients is expected as well. Therefore, it is necessary to provide the social workers with additional training in the field of gerontology and include them in supervision, as a professional support method incorporating the learning process and supporting the professional and personal growth. International experience shows that supervision of gerontology and geriatrics professionals has certain characteristics resulting from the population these professionals work with. Social workers working in retirement and nursing homes face specific problems and needs of the elderly, as well as illnesses and deaths of clients. The obstacles that professionals, especially the younger ones, can encounter in their work with the elderly also include prejudice and stereotypes. In Croatia, supervision is a relatively new method of professional support to social workers. Supervision refers to specific professional guidance, training and development of professionals aimed at ensuring and developing quality communication and cooperation in the professional context. The ultimate aim is providing clients with quality services. This type of supervision is not obligatory for social workers in Croatia, but it is very popular among professionals in the social welfare sector working with children, young people and families. In contrast, initial initiatives for introducing supervision for social workers into residence homes were not successful and social workers were not eager to join the offered supervision groups. Therefore, a qualitative research was conducted aimed at examining to what extant social workers were familiar with supervision, their experience, motivation, expectations and obstacles for introducing supervision of social workers in retirement and nursing homes. The research has been conducted by interviewing all female social workers (11 of them) employed in retirement homes in Zagreb, the capital city of the Republic of Croatia. The results indicate that the social workers, although they do not have direct experience with supervision, are informed and recognize the purpose and aims of supervision as a professional help to professionals working in caring professions. They consider the management to be responsible for the absence of supervision in retirement and nursing homes. The social workers have expressed their professional needs and reasons for inclusion into supervision (for instance, death of clients, lack of willingness to cooperate and accusation of clients' families, unpleasant feelings associated with the work, etc.), as well as reasons for reluctance to join supervision (for instance, presence of their superiors and lack of trust). They expect that the supervision would reduce the level of their professional stress. Also, the means of organizing supervision (time, place and freedom to decide whether to join) have proved to be crucial for their involvement. Since social workers in retirement and nursing homes are in general rarely included into lifelong learning programmes, the further motivation for their participation in supervision should be included as a part of the necessary lifelong professional development programmes.

Supervision; social workers; retirement and nursing home

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