Types of technologies for social work with families. Modern technologies for working with families

A family is a small group based on marriage and/or consanguinity, the members of which are united cohabitation and housekeeping, emotional connection, mutual responsibilities towards each other.
A social institution is also called a family, i.e. a stable form of relationships between people, within which the main part is carried out Everyday life people, i.e. sexual relations, childbirth and the primary socialization of children, a significant part of domestic care, educational and medical services, especially in relation to children and the elderly. Family is the strongest source of emotional reactions, providing a person with support, understanding, and recreation in favorable circumstances.
Sociologists and anthropologists compare family structure in different societies along six dimensions: family form, marriage form, power distribution pattern, choice of partner, place of residence, and origin and mode of inheritance of property.
Family form. The term "kinship" means a set of social relationships based on certain factors. These include biological ties, marriage and legal rules, rules regarding adoption, guardianship, etc. In the general system of kinship relations, there are two main types of family structure.
A nuclear family consists of adult parents and children who depend on them.
The extended family (as opposed to the first type of family structure) includes the nuclear family and many relatives, such as grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, and cousins.
In most societies, the nuclear family is considered an important, perhaps even the basic, social unit.
Form of marriage. Monogamy is marriage between one man and one woman. Polygamy is a marriage between one and more other individuals.
A marriage between one man and several women is called polygyny; marriage between one woman and several men is called
polyandry.
Another form is group marriage - between several men and several women.
Since most societies have a male to female ratio of approximately 1:1, polygyny is not widely practiced even in societies where it is considered preferable. Otherwise, the number of unmarried men would significantly exceed the number of men with
several wives
What factors contribute to the predominance of one form of marriage rather than another? Some scholars have emphasized the importance of economic factors in certain societies. For example, in Tibet, land owned by a family is inherited by all sons together. It is not divided into separate plots that are too small to support each brother's family. Therefore, the brothers use this land together and have common wife(Kenkel, 1977).
In addition to economic factors, other factors also play an important role. For example, polygyny is beneficial for women in societies where many men die in war.
Most family systems in which extended families are considered the norm are patriarchal. This term denotes the power of men over other family members. This type of power is considered generally accepted and often legalized in Thailand, Japan, Germany, Iran, Brazil, etc. In a matriarchal family system, power rightfully belongs to the wife and mother. Such systems are rare.
IN last years there was a transition from a patriarchal to an egalitarian family system. This is mainly due to the increase in the number of working women in many industrialized countries. Under such a system, influence and power are distributed almost equally between husband and wife.
The rules governing marriage outside certain groups (such as families or clans) are the rules of exogamy. Along with them, there are rules of endogamy, which prescribe marriage within certain groups. Endogamy was characteristic of the caste system, for example, that developed in India. The best known rule of endogamy is the prohibition of incest, which excludes marriage or sexual relations between persons considered close blood relatives.
In some countries, such as the United States, most newlyweds prefer neolocal residence - this means that they live separately from their parents. In societies where patrilocal residence is the norm, the newlywed leaves the family and lives with her husband's family or near his parents' home. In a society where matrilocal residence is the norm, newlyweds are expected to live with or near the bride's parents.
Knowledge of its pedigree and the rules of inheritance of property is important to assist the family. There are three types of systems for determining ancestry and rules for inheriting property. The most common lineage is the male line, where the main family ties exist between father, son and grandson. In some cases, kinship is determined through the female line. We are talking about systems for determining ancestry through the wife's line. The mother's property becomes the property of the daughter, and the main support for the young family is provided by the wife's brother. In our society, a family system based on two-way pedigree has become widespread. It is common in 40% of the world's cultures. In such systems, when determining kinship, equal consideration is given to blood relatives from the father's and mother's side.
Over the past 200 years, the main changes in the functions of the family are associated with its destruction as a cooperative labor association, as well as with the limitation of the ability to transfer family status from parents to children.
Among the main functions of the family, the socialization of children should be noted, although other groups also take part in it. With the emergence and development of industrial society and the state, the functions of the family to ensure the well-being of its members changed radically.
In accordance with modern version the concept of conflict theory, the family is the place where economic production and redistribution of material resources take place; in this case, a conflict arises between the interests of each family member and its other members, as well as society as a whole.
Main functions of families:
generative (reproductive), ensuring procreation and continuation of the human race;
the function of primary socialization of children is an educational function that allows children to provide educational communication with their parents;
economic and household - meeting their daily needs for nutrition, personal hygiene, care in case of illness, etc. The family comes to the aid of those members who find themselves in difficult situations economic situation;
supports the working ability of family members. Since household services have become more expensive and reduced, the importance of the household function, carried out in the family most often at a primitive level, without mechanization, has increased;
hedonic function (function of healthy sex), allowing people in the family to have a normal sex life that promotes healthy image life. Practice shows that family people live longer than those without families. Satisfying this need through irregular relationships with casual partners places an unnecessary psychological burden on a person and increases the possibility of illness;
recreational function - restoration (recreation) of physical and mental forces spent at work. "My home is my castle";
psychotherapeutic function - providing an emotional refuge where a person is accepted and supported for who he is. It is now increasingly difficult to perform this function, since all family members experience stress, so everyone should not only expect psychological support from family members, but also provide it themselves.
External conditions quite actively influence emotional atmosphere families.
In Russia there are over 40 thousand. families. The average family size is 3.23 people, families of two people - 34%.
Nuclear families (married couples without children or with children) - 67%.
The number of children in a family is 1.1 children for every Russian family, or 1.63 for every family with children.
Large families are rare: 5.7% of the total number of families, or 9.4% of the number of families with children.
Most families with children are complete, but 13% are incomplete, i.e. one of the parents is absent in them, and for every 14 single-parent families there is one “father’s” family.
The reasons for the appearance of single-parent families are the following:
widowhood (widows - 18.2%, widowers - 2.5%) due to higher mortality among men;
the birth of a child in a de facto marriage (without registration), and the age of the mothers is 15 years (3.3 thousand), 16 years (14.5 thousand), 17 years (40 thousand);
divorce (in Russia in 2000 the divorce rate was 3.4%, in 1990 - 3.8%.
Young families - the first three years of marriage. These families face certain problems:
such a family is economically dependent on its parents if they marry at an early age;
the family lives on the parents’ property or rents living space;
the family produces children, which requires additional funds;
problem of earnings due to unemployment;
adaptation of newlyweds, failures in relationships, which often leads to divorce
(30% in the first five years).
Elderly families. Since in the Russian Federation the average life expectancy of women is 12 years longer than the average life expectancy of men, these families consist of one member. As a rule, they are low-income, so they are the main clients of the social service system.
Actual marriage (without registration). According to experts, we have about or more than 2 million of them. Moreover, the average period of such marriages is short.
Marginal families (tag§o - edge (Latin - located on the edge), who cannot solve their problems on their own, constantly need social support.
Problematic families in need of help due to: incurable illnesses of relatives, their unstable psyche. In addition, the sources of emerging problems in the family may be determined by the economic situation in the country. The inability to provide for one's family causes depression and increases suicidal tendencies and alcoholism.
Another problem in the family is violence towards each other, not only physical, but also social (prohibition to work, struggle for leadership, release of negative emotions on children and women).
Forms of cruel treatment are not limited to beating, they include any violent attack on the personality of a family member, on his right to dispose of his physical, mental or other abilities. This is moral and psychological violence when one of the family members, who has the opportunity to determine the behavior of other members, prevents his household from communicating with those friends and neighbors with whom they would like, the husband prevents his wife from being employed outside the home, preventing her from going to work or forcing her to leave work, etc. In the same vein lies the desire to prevent any of the family members from acquiring education or advanced training. Manifestations of emotional and psychological cruelty such as ridicule, insults, humiliating comparisons, and unfounded criticism can be traumatic. Such behavioral acts and psychological atmosphere have a destructive effect on relationships between family members and on the psychosomatic health of those subjected to insults. The most dangerous type of abuse for personality, health and life is physical and sexual violence. They can be combined or carried out separately.
Physical violence involves family member(s) physically hurting, injuring, or killing other members (especially children and women). This can occur in the form of beatings, shaking, squeezing, burning, biting, etc. There are also situations when children are given poisonous or psychotropic substances, dangerous drugs or alcohol.
Sexual abuse is when minor children can be used by adults to satisfy their sexual needs. This can be touching, caresses, sexual intercourse, masturbation, oral or anal sex, as well as other lewd acts, including demonstration of sex.
there's pornography in various types. Physical violence is often used to force children to engage in depraved acts. However, sometimes emotionally rejected and socially neglected children use their sexual resources to “bribe” adults in order to attract their attention and gain protection.
Physical and sexual abuse has a devastating impact on adults, and even more so on children. Survivors are characterized by long-term depressive states, anxiety attacks, fear of touch and contact, nightmares, feelings of isolation and low self-esteem.
The problem of family domestic violence is only partly related to external social difficulties, aggravating under the influence of the general psychopathology of the socio-psychological situation in the country. Family cruelty serves as a means of outburst of aggressiveness, accumulated under the influence of traumatic conditions of existence, on the weakest and most defenseless: in the family these are women and children. It is also explained by the traditions of suppression and cruelty that take place in traditional cultures, with low competence in regulating one’s psychological states, and the lack of skills for substitutive discharge of negative tensions.
However, in addition to this, we should talk about some personal predisposition to domestic violence and to being a victim of violence: it has been noted that women who are beaten by their husbands in their first marriage are often abused in their second marriage. In technologies for stabilizing family relationships, a social worker must take into account personal risk factors, as well as options in which social therapy will necessarily be ineffective.
Protecting weaker family members, especially children, from domestic abuse is one of the most important tasks of a social worker. Sometimes those being abused are intimidated or unable to talk about what is happening to them due to misunderstanding, young age, intellectual and mental limitations, or other objective reasons. As a rule, this type of behavior is hidden from the eyes of others. In some cases, no traces remain, or they quickly disappear. Therefore, it is advisable to know the direct and indirect signs, which may indicate the presence of abuse in the family towards children. These are aggressive, irritable behavior, alienation, indifference, excessive compliance or caution, excessive sexual awareness beyond one’s age, abdominal pain of unknown origin, problems with eating from systematic overeating to complete loss of appetite, restless sleep, nightmares, bedwetting.
In addition, there may be emphasized secrecy in the relationship between an adult and a child, fear of a particular person, and a clear reluctance to be alone with him. Sometimes parents do not allow their child to attend school.
Such children participate little or not at all in school activities. They have few or no friends. Children are lagging behind in development and learning worse. The child does not trust adults, especially those who are close. He may run away from home, attempt suicide, or injure himself. In addition, signs of beatings, abrasions or burns on the skin, bleeding in the whites of the eyes, or traces of blood or semen on clothing may indicate abuse.
The combination of such signs should be the reason for a serious study of the situation in the family. Participation in the diagnosis of a social work specialist, a psychologist, a doctor, and sometimes an employee of the internal affairs agency should give an objective picture of what is happening and will help stop abuse of an adult or minor family member. As a rule, there is a need to immediately remove the child from such a family and place him in a social rehabilitation institution, which can be done by local guardianship and trusteeship authorities. Manifestation of cruelty towards children, uncorrected behavior of adults can serve as a pretext for initiating a case for deprivation of parental rights or criminal prosecution of the perpetrator of cruel treatment.
Technologies used in cases of family cruelty also include social shelters (hotels, shelters), which provide an opportunity for women and children (there are also shelters for men who are abused in the family abroad) to spend a period of crisis aggravation of the family situation in a safe place. However, as a rule, limiting yourself to only this type of help is not enough, because unresolved family conflicts last a long time, periodically escalating. Therefore, to resolve most of them, it is necessary to resort to medium-term assistance programs aimed at stabilizing the family and restoring its functional ties.
This level social work, aimed at stabilizing family ties, includes the normalization of relations between spouses, between parents and children, and the relationships of all these family members with others.
At the heart of the problems of all types of families is the question of the purpose of the family in modern world. Having emerged as the main form of life, the family initially concentrated in itself all the main functions of servicing human activity. Gradually freeing itself from a number of these functions, sharing them with other social institutions, the family was faced with the fact that today it is difficult to identify some specific type of activity that can only be carried out by the family or that can only be carried out in the family. In essence, all functions that once belonged primarily to the family can now be carried out outside it. In this regard, the question arises whether the family remains a fundamental social institution, outside of which human existence is impossible.
This theoretical question is reinforced by the increasing instability of the family lifestyle, the increase in crisis phenomena that are characteristic of both our country, which is experiencing socio-economic difficulties, and economically prosperous countries that have not experienced such a sharp drop in the standard of living of their population in recent years.
Instability is expressed in the increasing number of divorces and the danger of divorce for each family. The number of divorces per year in our country is one of the highest in the world.
Instability family life is manifested in a constant reduction in the number of children per married couple. Almost every country entering the industrial era is experiencing the so-called “first demographic transition” from unregulated fertility at the level of “natural fertility”, when a woman (married couple) gives birth to as many children as can be physiologically born in such conditions, to birth control, free choice of the number of children and the timing of their birth. Such a transition occurs very quickly, almost within the lifetime of one generation, and all attempts to prevent this in the form of legal or religious sanctions are powerless. Practice shows that if legal modern methods For birth control in a certain country, families either find them in other countries or resort to illegal, archaic methods that are more risky and harmful to a woman’s health.
Currently, most industrialized countries are faced with a “second demographic transition” from small families to predominantly one-child families. This is caused not by economic, but by social reasons, since all previously existing external incentives to have many children have become a thing of the past. Today, families and individuals have a need primarily for one child, and not for children, but the means and effort that they perceive as necessary to invest in this child are increasing sharply. “Investing in children” necessarily includes expenses to provide them with high level health, an acceptable and comfortable standard of living, a stock of impressions, the acquisition of things that are socially necessary for children or teenagers. The most expensive part of these costs is achieving the required level of education. The state controls the minimum required level of such training by establishing compulsory education for everyone (secondary in our country), most often free, but the prospects for future development and the need for a successful social start make demands for the highest possible quality of education, which almost everywhere is now not only paid, but and expensive.
Against the backdrop of a general decline in the birth rate, there is an increase in its share outside marriage, so that today almost every fifth child in our country is born outside the registered marriage of their parents. This can be partly explained by the weakening of external pressure from moral standards and a more liberal attitude towards illegitimate children. Sometimes this can be considered as an indicator indicating the spread of actual marriage.
In our conditions, this phenomenon can also be interpreted as a crisis desire to minimize the family: men do not consider themselves obligated to connect their lives with a woman and their child, although sometimes they agree to register themselves as fathers and provide them with financial assistance for a more or less long time. Often, women who give birth out of wedlock belong to socially disadvantaged segments of the population: migrant workers, temporary migrants, the unemployed or people from families of the unemployed.
Finally, the emergence and establishment of loneliness as an attractive and comfortable lifestyle as a stable life scenario can be considered a sign of the instability of a family lifestyle. Previously, a person without a family was considered either inferior or unhappy. Currently, there is emerging (primarily in the most developed countries of the world) a significant layer of people who find pleasure in this type of existence.
Analysis of the situation of the family in modern society is by no means only of theoretical significance. The development, approval and implementation of state family policy, which includes an extremely large-scale and expensive set of measures, depends on the correct answer to the question about objective trends in family development. Wrong decisions in this area will lead to unsatisfactory and even negative consequences. Thus, the belief that it is possible, using a rather primitive system of economic and legal measures (increased benefits, longer parental leave, etc.) to influence the demographic behavior of people in the field of fertility, forces government agencies to resort to large-scale programs that leads only to the deformation of the existing demographic structure, and not at all to a change in the fertility strategy.
For social work, the wrong orientation can be the reason for setting unrealistic goals and choosing ineffective technologies and methods. Therefore, the issues of analyzing social reality and choosing strategies that are adequate to the objective course of things are directly related to its content and organization.
The social problems of single-parent families are associated with poverty, which is caused by the presence of only one labor income in the family, sometimes there is no labor income at all, and the family is forced to live on unemployment benefits or child benefits. A woman's income, as a rule, is significantly lower than a man's due to her lag on the social ladder caused by childcare responsibilities. Income from child support, in the case where children are entitled to it and actually receive it, as a rule, covers no more than half the cost of their maintenance.
Socio-economic problems are not common to all single-parent families; in any case, they are easier to solve. Even more complex and without a clear solution are the socio-psychological problems present in the intrapersonal sphere and interpersonal relationships of members of single-parent families, especially children. Considering that the vast majority of single-parent families consist of a mother and her children, these problems mainly concern women.
A category of single-parent families that has recently become widespread is single-parent extended families, which are formed, as a rule, from the ruins of some social catastrophe. Parents of young children have died, are in prison, have gone on the run, have been deprived of parental rights, or are indulged in rampant drunkenness. Most often, it is for these reasons that the generation of grandparents has to support and raise their grandchildren. Recently, employees of social protection authorities have been talking about the emergence of single-parent extended families due to the departure of parents abroad. Such families, of course, have a low level of income, the basis of which is pensions and salaries of the elderly. A number of difficulties stem from the poor health of older people, their weaker adaptive abilities, and their inability to adapt to the realities of our time. Unfortunately, they sometimes cannot provide the position of dominance, authority, and ability to control the situation necessary for raising children, which is why their students often exhibit deviant forms of behavior.
Large families, which once made up the majority in Russia (at the beginning of the 20th century in the European part of the country there were an average of eight children per family), now steadily occupy a small share (7.5%) of the total number of families. Moreover, a certain part is made up of accidental large families, when instead of the desired second flight, twins are born immediately, or a child is born as a result of K1MM or errors in contraception and the inability to resort to means of abortion.
Other large families can be divided into three categories. Firstly, this is a conscious, purposeful large family, which can be associated with national traditions or religious precepts. Sometimes cultural and ideological incentives are possible, sometimes the embodiment of traditions parental family. Such families have many difficulties associated with low income, crowded housing, workload of parents, especially the mother, and their state of health, but at least the parents have motivation to raise children.
The second group consists of families formed as a result of the second and subsequent marriages of the mother (less often the father), in which new children are born. Research shows that such families can be different, including quite prosperous ones, but the echo of the existence of an incomplete family within their framework remains.
The third group consists of families of disabled people, which are characterized by economic difficulties associated with the collapse of the production and rehabilitation system, previously based on the work of disabled people, and the limited labor and adaptive ability of its members. Disabled people are generally very limited in their life activities, since the formation of a barrier-free environment is just beginning. The introduction of programs aimed at adapting the existing environment to the needs and capabilities of people with disabilities is still limited by both a lack of funds and organizational obstacles.
Families raising disabled children have all the problems associated with disability (low income, limitations in life activities, etc.), but their acceptance of such problems is often voluntary, since at the birth of a disabled child with an incorrigible pathology, parents often have the opportunity to refuse from such children with the aim of placing them for permanent care in a specialized boarding school. The network of institutions providing assistance to parents in such activities is still far from sufficient. Caring for a sick child, disabled since childhood, is often incompatible with outside work. Therefore, the mother, as a rule, is forced to leave her job or leave her favorite job in favor of a more flexible schedule, closer, but lower paid.
Family problems, consisting in the pathologization of relationships between spouses, between parents and children, according to general rule do not depend on social status families and can befall a wealthy, intelligent family with the same probability as a low-income or poorly educated one. Social workers can currently provide assistance to such a family mainly at the stage of crisis, at the time of conflict or disintegration. But most social institutions are not yet able to work on the prevention of family dysfunctions and establish family communications beyond the pre-crisis stage. Meanwhile, this is one of the most important tasks of social work in a stable society. As the social situation in Russia improves, when the tasks of ensuring survival recede into the background, family problems
therapy, improvement and stabilization of family relationships will come to the fore.
Technologies of social work with families can be discussed in relation to families of various categories of clients: disabled people, pensioners, military personnel, refugees, etc. Types and forms social assistance aimed at preserving the family as a social institution in general and each specific family group in need of support can be divided into emergency, aimed at family survival (emergency assistance, urgent social assistance, immediate removal from the family of children who are in danger or left without parental care); for social work aimed at maintaining family stability, and social work aimed at the social development of the family and its members.
Each family goes through a regularly changing chain of stages, determined by the age of the family and the characteristics of its functioning. The following stages can be distinguished in the life cycle of a family:
marriage;
mutual adaptation;
birth of children;
children growing up and leaving the family;
aging and death of one or both spouses.
The restructuring of structural ties and relationships in the family causes its temporary weakening, for example, during the birth of the first child, during the period of “critical” growth of children. The number of divorces increases significantly during these periods, so families need social assistance. Each of the above periods of the family has its own characteristics that must be taken into account when working with the family.
Women
Women represent a socio-demographic category of the population that differs in a number of ways physiological characteristics, specific hormonal status, position in the social structure. The assignment to female or male gender is fixed at the birth of the baby and is recorded in documents as the passport gender. Belonging to a particular gender prescribes the social position of the individual and the corresponding set of social problems. The main reason for identifying women as a special socio-demographic group and a specific category of social work clients is their generative function, i.e. fertility, which is a biological prerequisite for a number of cultural and social consequences.
This ability, on the one hand, ensured the continuation of the race and therefore was respected from the first stages of the existence of the human race. On the other hand, it could pose a great danger to the fragile life support system of traditional societies of the past, in which obtaining food was always associated with great difficulties, and every “extra mouth” threatened to lead the rest to malnutrition and hunger. Therefore, in patriarchal societies, the ideology of feminophobia has developed - fear of women and hostility towards them.
In addition, the subordinate role of women in the gender-role division of labor, the ability for the vast majority of women to independently provide for themselves and children in ways approved by society led to the entrenchment of ideas about their inferiority, the need for leadership from a man, and the limitation of all their life activities exclusively to the family circle, about the “natural biological purpose” of a woman. Unfortunately, many of our compatriots begin to understand all the inertia and incorrectness of such ideas only when they take the trouble to extend the idea of ​​“natural biological destiny” to men and realize with surprise that the entire life of the “stronger sex” in such a coordinate system comes down to a rather short-term and most often a single act.
Started in the 60s. XX century A wave of active women's movements in various countries, especially in the United States, stimulated intensive research into the status, various characteristics and position of women. Moreover, all social structures began to revise their attitudes, taking into account the point of view of women. The awareness of the oppression of women has affected the personal views and social practices of most people. Many social workers have taken a critical look at established views and have participated in redefining the knowledge base and practices of social work in areas of life affecting women, such as social policies, programs and services. This is especially important since women make up the majority of social service clients.
Demographic characteristics of women. Women prevail over men in the population structure: more than half of the population are women. There are more boys among newborns (on average there are 105-107 boys per 100 girls). However, with age, the number of men relative to women gradually decreases among all nationalities. So, starting from 25-29 years old, the number of women begins to exceed the number of men, and in age group There were only 67 men for every 100 women 65 years and older. This is the result of worse survival in infancy and higher mortality at all ages in men compared to women. The life expectancy of men is approximately 7-7.5 years less than that of women. There are more adult women than adult men. With age, the proportion of women increases in all age and ethnic groups. Among the elderly, the number of women significantly exceeds the number of men.
Health. Life expectancy has traditionally been the main indicator of the physical condition of the population. As noted above, the average life expectancy of women is significantly longer than that of men.
Recorded mortality rates by age cohort from diseases such as cerebral paralysis, malignant tumors, diseases of the cardiovascular system, pneumonia and influenza, as well as accidents, murders and suicides are significantly lower in women than in men.
The youth
Youth is a socio-demographic group, the main quantitative characteristic of which is age indicators (16-30 years).
Young people are represented in various social classes; their position significantly depends on their social class affiliation. Youth status is considered as the position of young people in society. It is characterized by many indicators, including the socio-demographic structure of youth, legal status, education and upbringing, economic status and economic activity, place and role in politics, lifestyle, value guidelines, health.
For young people of different ages There are varying degrees of acquisition of rights and responsibilities. This is due to different amounts of legal capacity, as well as a number of specially established rights and responsibilities of young people and minors.
Youth is divided into categories: school, student, worker, rural, young entrepreneurs, etc. Each youth social group has its own economic, social, sociocultural characteristics. The psychological characteristics of young people largely depend on age periods - adolescence, adolescence, youth. The most socially vulnerable period is adolescence and early adolescence, when a young person begins an independent life. Receipt vocational education, employment, housing problems, leisure, recreation - all these issues can be successfully resolved only with the support of society. The state creates certain favorable conditions for development, successful entry young man V public relations on the rights of an independent subject, contributes to the realization of his personal capabilities. The state implements similar measures through its youth policy.
Young people, as a socio-demographic group, are classified as social risk groups. The lack of life experience, social criteria for behavior and lifestyle creates conditions for deviant, antisocial behavior - joining criminal teenage groups, becoming involved in drugs, alcohol, wasting time, etc. Young people should always be at the center of social work; they need to be provided with social support and assistance.

In old age, certain changes occur in the human body, energy potential decreases, the amount of water, salts and microelements decreases, oxygen metabolism and blood supply to the brain deteriorate, and a number of other unfavorable physiological phenomena are observed. There is increased psychological fatigue, slowness of perception, reaction and thinking, memory deteriorates, motivation for activity weakens, and changes in emotional sphere: focus on one’s interests, touchiness, suspicion, irritability, etc.

Technologies of social work with older people

Physiological and psychological changes occur against the background of a change in the social status of the individual associated with the limitation or cessation of work activity, transformation of lifestyle and communication. Practice shows that a break from work in some cases has a negative impact on vitality, health and mental health of people. The well-being of older people is largely determined by the relationships that have developed in the family.

The incidence rate in elderly people is 2 times higher, and in old age – 6 times higher than in young people. Chronic diseases accumulate with a tendency towards gradual progression and disability. Health problems among older people cannot be fully compensated by social measures, because their health reserves are largely depleted.

Population aging is accompanied by a process of declining living standards. The majority of Russian pensioners are experiencing the consequences of a sharp decline in living standards to the greatest extent.

The financial situation becomes most difficult for pensioners aged 61–65 years, which is associated with a drop in income levels due to the retirement of men, and the age of 71–75 years, when the death of one of the spouses sharply increases the proportion of lonely elderly people.

The average pension in the country is 3,300 rubles. (2009). The minimum pension in Russia ensures the existence of a pensioner approximately at the level of a German prisoner of war in 1941.

Social benefit for an unemployed refugee in the European Union is about 800 euros. In Germany, the average pension is 1000 euros, living wage 600 euros.

State pension in America - $800, in 10 years you can earn - 7.5% (the funded part of the pension) in 59.9 years no more than $2000 per year. You can use the savings portion earlier, but only for the purchase of one house or upon termination. Cumulative part pensions are inherited

Deterioration of the diet and minimization of expenses for socio-cultural needs increase the vulnerability of the elderly person in the family and, ultimately, affect the state of health and life expectancy after retirement age. Average life expectancy:

UK – 77.3

Russia – 65

France –78.2

Sweden –78.7

Japan - 80.

In almost half of the families of older people, almost the entire budget is spent on food, although there is a deterioration in the quality of food, and the consumption of dairy products, fish products, vegetables and fruits is reduced.

In most families, expenses on other items are cut to a minimum: no more than 1/6 of the share can be used to purchase clothes, shoes, and other essential items. In general, consumption at the level of minimal sufficiency is maintained through the use of previously purchased durable items.

According to experts, the situation of older people in the Russian Federation is characterized by three main features:

1) unsatisfactory health status of this category of citizens;

2) their low income;

3) loneliness.

A change in the social status of a person in old age, caused primarily by the cessation or restriction of work activity, the transformation of value guidelines, the very way of life and communication, as well as the emergence of various difficulties in both social and everyday and psychological adaptation to new conditions, dictates the need to develop and implementation of specific approaches, forms and methods of social work with older people.

The importance of everyday attention to solving social problems of this category of citizens is also increasing due to the increase in the proportion of older people in the structure of the Russian population, which has been observed in the last decade not only in our country, but throughout the world.

In organizing social work with older people, it is necessary to take into account all the specifics of their social status not only in general, but also of each person individually, their needs, requirements, biological and social capabilities, certain regional and other features of life.

It should be noted that scientists and practitioners have approached the problem of old age and its definition from different points of view: biological, physiological, psychological, functional, chronological, sociological, etc. And hence the specificity of solving problems of social and social status, role and places in the family, and organizations of social security and services, social rehabilitation, social care for the elderly, etc.

The aging process varies widely among different population groups and individuals, and it is also necessary to take into account age characteristics within the group of people itself.

As you know, in everyday understanding, elderly people are people who have retired. However, this is not true, since the retirement age is different countries different:

UK 62 – 60

Russia 60 – 55

USA 65 – 62

France 60 – 55

Chile 65 – 60

Sweden 62.5 – 60

Japan 65 – 65.

However, women tend to retire earlier than men. So, in our country, they have the right to receive an old-age pension from the age of 60, while men - from the age of 65. In addition, the Law “On pension provision in the Russian Federation" there are differences in retirement age and for different social and professional groups. However, in the vast majority of countries in the world, older people include citizens aged 60 years and older.

For a social worker, a number of social and psychological factors related to the lifestyle and standard of living of older people, family situation, ability and desire to work, health status, social and living conditions, etc. are also of great importance.

Experience shows that older people are very different people. Among them there are healthy and sick; living in families and living alone; happy with retirement and life and unhappy, despairing of life; inactive homebodies and cheerful, optimistic people who play sports, lead an active lifestyle, etc.

Therefore, in order to successfully work with older people, a social worker needs to know their socio-economic status, character traits, material and spiritual needs, and health status. A change in a person’s social status in old age, first of all, negatively affects his moral and financial situation, negatively affects his mental state, reduces his resistance to diseases and adaptation to environmental changes.

With the transition to the category of older people, pensioners, not only the relationship between a person and society, but also value orientations often radically change. The way of life itself, the daily routine, goals and objectives, and circle of friends also change.

With age, the value hierarchy of self-esteem changes. Older people pay less attention to their appearance, but more to their internal and physical condition.

The main principles of activity in the field of social services for elderly citizens are: provision of state guarantees; ensuring equal opportunities in receiving social services and their accessibility; continuity of all types of social services; orientation of social services to the individual needs of citizens; priority of measures for social adaptation, etc.

Social protection of older people at the present stage is carried out in two main directions - social security and social assistance.

In accordance with current legislation, social security for elderly citizens is aimed at protecting their financial situation, providing cash and in-kind assistance, and strengthening the system of social services for people. In the Russian Federation, several models of social services for older people have developed and are in operation.

The most important models of social services have become such as social services at home; semi-stationary services in day (night) departments of social service institutions; stationary social services in boarding homes, boarding houses, etc.; urgent social services; social advisory assistance; provision of living space in special homes for the elderly, etc.

Centers for social services and rehabilitation of the disabled and elderly are becoming the predominant model of non-stationary social services.

In accordance with the Regulations, centers may have various social service units in their structure: departments day stay the elderly and disabled, social assistance at home, emergency social assistance services, etc.

The tasks of the center include:

♦– identification of the elderly and other people in need of social support;

♦– determination of specific types and forms of assistance, provision of various social and everyday services of a one-time or permanent nature; analysis of social services for the population;

♦ – involvement of various state and non-state structures in resolving issues of providing social, medical, social, psychological, legal assistance to elderly people and other people in need.

For example, social service centers for pensioners are now available in every city. In 2001, social assistance departments, day care departments, and emergency social assistance points were created in such centers, and the task of the latter was to provide emergency assistance medicines, food, clothing and shoes, free food and overnight accommodation for citizens in need, etc.

The most important part of the center’s work is social services

home for single elderly people: purchase and delivery of food, provision of medicines, organization of cleaning in the apartment, various social services and their payment (handing over linen to the laundry, clothes to be cleaned, insulation of window frames and doors, etc.), information and consulting, etc.

Social workers maintain contact with the work collectives where their wards previously worked, ensure that they do not forget, provide assistance and show attention to their former employees.

An analysis of the main activities of social service centers indicates that this model of social service, focused on working with older people, has become most widespread and recognized and is the most typical. However, it does not yet cover many categories of older people who feel the need for socio-psychological assistance, communication, socio-legal consultations, and adaptation to new conditions.

Social service centers are becoming effective non-stationary forms social support elderly people and other categories of the population of the Russian Federation.

It was noted that home-based services for the elderly and disabled began in 1985, then two years later, the first territorial center for social services and 10 departments of social assistance at home were opened. By the beginning of 1990, 10.5 thousand people used the help of individual workers and up to 200 people attended day care in three such centers.

Social service at home is one of the main types of social work with older people. Its main goal is to maximally prolong the stay of citizens in their usual habitat, support their personal and social status, and protect their rights and legitimate interests.

The main home-based services guaranteed by the state include:

♦ catering and home delivery of food;

♦– assistance in purchasing medicines and essential goods; assistance in obtaining medical care and escort to medical institutions;

♦– assistance in maintaining living conditions in accordance with hygienic requirements;

♦–assistance in organizing funeral services and burying lonely dead;

♦– organization of various social services (housing repairs, provision of fuel, cultivation of personal plots, water delivery, payment of utilities, etc.);

♦– assistance in paperwork, incl. to establish assessment and guardianship, exchange of housing, placement in inpatient institutions of social protection authorities.

Social assistance departments at home, as a rule, are organized at municipal social service centers or local social welfare authorities.

In accordance with the current Regulations, social services at home can be provided on a permanent or temporary basis (up to 6 months). The department is created to serve at least 60 pensioners and disabled people living in rural areas, as well as in the urban private sector, which does not have public amenities, and in urban areas there are at least 120 pensioners and disabled people.

Social services at home are provided free of charge, with partial payment or for full payment. Single elderly citizens and disabled people who do not receive a pension supplement for care or who have able-bodied relatives who are required to support them by law but live separately, as well as those living in families whose per capita income is below the minimum level established for the region are provided free of charge.

Thus, the main activities of the department of social assistance at home are: identification and registration of pensioners and disabled people in need of service; provision of social, domestic and other necessary assistance at home; assistance in providing persons served with benefits and advantages established by current legislation.

Departments of social assistance at home were created as an experiment in 1987 and received wide recognition from the elderly and disabled people of our country and rapid development in all regions of the Russian Federation.

Any social work technology cannot be implemented without taking into account the characteristics of both objects and subjects of activity, their condition, resources and motives. So, to solve the problems of social protection of older people, certain objective and subjective conditions and prerequisites are necessary, which determines the difference in the technology of social work with them. In one case, for example, family psychotherapy is used, in another a visit to specialized centers, in a third financial assistance is provided.

One of acute problems An elderly person requiring the use of innovative social technologies is loneliness.

Under the influence of psychological and social trauma, the possibility of manifestation is blocked. communicative competence an elderly person. Blocking disrupts the expression of individual subjectivity in communication, leads to deformation of the elderly person’s relationships with other people, and frustration. Elimination of destruction can be ensured by complex social therapy, synthesizing all three main levels of communication:

Interpersonal, personal-group and personal-social. To do this, it is necessary that the psyche of an elderly person switches to a mode of reflexive functioning. The transition to this mode is ensured:

Intensification of efforts (which allows you to mobilize human reserve capabilities);

Replacing the means of achieving the goal (reevaluation and selection of more acceptable ones);

Replacing the goals themselves;

Reassessment of the entire situation (intensification of efforts, use of new means of achieving goals also form a new look at the situation, at one’s personal attitude towards it, which leads to reassessment).

This technology works if the reflection mechanism is activated, but to activate it, an affective release is required - catharsis. The method that forms the catharsis of the individual through the improvisational role interaction of the individual with the group is psychodrama. The use of psychodrama corrects communication disorders of an elderly person, making his life fulfilling.

To carry out work with families, municipal social services have “Family and Children Support Units”.

The tasks of the Family and Children Support Department in the municipal institution “Center for Work with the Population” include:

♦– identification, together with state, public, charitable and other organizations (bodies and institutions of education, healthcare, internal affairs, employment) of the causes and factors of social disadvantage of specific families and children, their needs for various types of assistance, creation of a data bank for this category of families with kids;

♦– determination and provision of specific types and forms of services to families and children within the functions of the department;

♦– implementation of social patronage for families and children;

♦– providing services to families and children to solve their problems of self-sufficiency, realizing their own capabilities to overcome difficult life situations;

♦– attracting enterprises, institutions, organizations various forms property and public organizations to resolve issues of providing assistance to families and children registered with the Department;

♦– analysis of the current system of services provided in their area of ​​activity, forecasting their needs and preparing proposals for the development of the sphere of social services.

Secondly, these are children and adolescents:

♦– who find themselves in unfavorable family conditions that threaten their health and development;

♦– orphaned or left without parental care;

♦– those in need of placement due to the cancellation and invalidation of adoption or guardianship;

♦– having difficulties in relationships with other people;

♦– those experiencing acute conflict situations with parents, teachers, neighbors, and acquaintances.

The department also distinguishes the category of former pupils of orphanages and boarding schools.

Citizens have the right to contact the Department in person, by telephone, or send a written statement or request.

The functions of the Family and Children Support Unit in the municipal institution “Center for Work with the Population” are:

♦– identification of orphans, children left without parental care and minors who do not have normal conditions for upbringing in the family;

♦– registration of families and orphans, as well as children left without parental care, to provide psychological and pedagogical assistance;

♦– systematic visits to children registered with the Department, monitoring the living conditions of minors who do not have normal conditions for raising in a family;

♦– systematic visits to families raising children under guardianship (trusteeship), foster families registered with the Department;

♦– determination of tasks, forms and methods of social pedagogical work, ways to solve personal and social problems of families and children;

♦– introduction into practice of new types and forms of assistance to families and children who find themselves in difficult life situations;

♦ – attracting resources from organizations and institutions of healthcare, education, employment services, guardianship and trusteeship authorities, internal affairs, public and religious organizations and associations to solve problems of families and children. Determining the necessary forms of assistance and the frequency (permanently, temporarily, on a one-time basis) of its provision;

♦– providing patronage to families with unfavorable psychological and socio-pedagogical conditions;

♦– providing assistance to parents in raising children and overcoming pedagogical errors and conflict situations with children, family conflicts;

♦– consulting parents, legal representatives and other interested parties on psychological and pedagogical issues (especially age and individual development children, overcoming pedagogical neglect, family conflicts, methodology family education, interpersonal and intra-family relations and etc.);

♦– organizing the activities of self-help groups, creating communication clubs, developing and conducting cycles of conversations, round tables, providing assistance in legal assistance to families and children;

♦– organization of family and children's holidays, competitions and contests;

♦– assistance in obtaining benefits, allowances, compensation and other payments, material and in-kind assistance, loans, alimony, improving housing conditions in accordance with current legislation, and obtaining housing subsidies;

♦– assistance in organizing the employment of children and parents;

♦– consideration of proposals, applications and complaints of citizens on the protection and protection of the rights and interests of minors.

Information about problem families comes to the department from schools, district clinics, neighbors or relatives.

During the initial examination of the family, an act of examining the living conditions of the family is drawn up, and when a decision is made to register, a social passport of the family is filled out, which reflects the personal characteristics of each of its members, the category of disadvantage, the social status of the family is determined, and the relationship between the spouses and children.

Work with the family is carried out taking into account the personal characteristics of all its members, which are reflected in individual work plans: with parents - on activating the internal resource of the family, with children - on social adaptation and rehabilitation.

All department employees take part in drawing up an individual work plan. Each social work specialist is assigned his own microdistrict.

The main subjects for implementing the activities of the Family and Children Support Unit are a social worker and a social teacher.

The object of influence of social work specialists can be all adult family members, the child and the family itself, as a whole, as a collective.

Acting in the interests of the child, a social worker and a social teacher are called upon to provide necessary help and family support. Their tasks include establishing contacts with the family, identifying family problems and difficulties, encouraging family members to participate in joint activities, providing intermediary services in establishing connections with other specialists (psychologists, medical workers, representatives of law enforcement agencies and guardianship authorities, etc.).

When working with a family, employees of the family and children support department usually play three roles: advisor, consultant, defender.

Advisor – informs the family about the importance and possibility of interaction between parents and children in the family; talks about the developmental characteristics of the child; gives pedagogical advice on raising children.

Consultant – advises on family law issues; issues of interpersonal interaction in the family; explains to parents how to create the conditions necessary for the normal development and upbringing of a child in the family.

Defender - protects the rights of the child in cases when one has to deal with the detachment of parents from the process of raising children.

In the practice of socio-pedagogical work with families, mainly two forms of work are used, short-term and long-term.

Among the short-term forms, there are crisis-intervention and problem-oriented models of interaction.

The crisis intervention model of working with families involves providing assistance directly in crisis situations, which may be caused by changes in the natural life cycle of the family or by random traumatic circumstances.

The problem-oriented model is aimed at solving specific practical problems stated and recognized by the family, that is, at the center of this model is the requirement that professionals providing assistance concentrate their efforts on the problem that the family has recognized and is willing to work on. This model prescribes solving the problem through joint efforts. The work is carried out in a collaborative spirit with an emphasis on stimulating the capacity of family members to resolve their own difficulties. Successfully solving a problem creates a positive experience for solving subsequent problem situations on your own.

Long-term forms of work include socio-pedagogical patronage and supervision.

Consulting work and educational training are universal, as they are used in both short-term and long-term forms of work.

Family diagnostics is a constant component in the activities of social work specialists. Carrying out diagnostic procedures requires compliance with a number of principles: complexity, objectivity, sufficiency, consistency, etc. You should not expand the diagnosis if there are no necessary indications. A new study can only be undertaken based on an analysis of previous diagnostic information. You should start with an initial diagnosis of parents’ complaints, and then, having studied the validity of these complaints, identify the causes of these violations.

During the initial diagnosis, it is important to understand the nature of the complaint or problem, which can be justified, partially justified and unfounded. It is necessary to find out how the parents themselves understand the problem, whether they correctly see its causes, and what kind of help they expect from a specialist.

The main purpose of diagnostics is to draw a conclusion about the state of a particular family and the trends characteristic of a particular family.

The diagnostic techniques used are traditional: observation, questionnaires, surveys, testing, conversations. A special group consists of methods for studying the family through the eyes of a child: drawing methods, game tasks, methods for commenting on pictures, methods for completing a story, methods for unfinished sentences, etc.

When working with families, department specialists often resort to social patronage or supervision. Social patronage is the form of the closest interaction with the family, when a social worker or social teacher is at its disposal for a long time, is aware of everything that is happening, influencing the essence of events. The term of patronage is not limited. Work within the framework of patronage includes several stages. However, the boundaries of the stages are arbitrary.

11.Technology of social work with victims of violence

Victims of violence can be children, women, and the elderly. Types of violence

The specificity of psychosocial assistance to victims of violence is that it is aimed at positively changing the environment in which the victim of violence finds himself. Assistance is aimed primarily at identifying cases of physical and emotional abuse. Traditional measures taken in various countries include:

♦ providing shelter to women, and, if necessary, women with children, for a period of 1 to 7 days and up to six months;

♦ conducting educational work among the population;

♦ telephone consultation;

providing women with complete information about social, psychological, legal and medical assistance;

♦ creating a supportive environment

In cases where a child is a victim of violence, work should be organized with those who are responsible for his upbringing - teachers and parents, and the formation of their motivation for change, providing them with assistance in this.

Mental trauma caused by parental abuse can lead to serious disabilities. The child can take on the role of an “eternal victim,” again and again finding himself in situations of violence, or he himself can become an aggressor, increasing general level cruelty in society. Therefore it is necessary psychological work on the resocialization of the child: assistance in overcoming the consequences of a traumatic event, expanding the role repertoire, developing communication and other social skills. The problem is seen as an intrapersonal problem for both the child and the adult. This is group dysfunction, a lack of skills for constructive interaction between people. The work is carried out by a team of specialists from different fields, covering various aspects of the problem - employees of the psychological, medical and social center, with the involvement of social workers from the school and the municipality.

Working with parents about child abuse. Parents, as a rule, seek help not with problems in their behavior towards their children or with a desire to change, but with complaints about the child. As noted above, a child subjected to mental or physical abuse may behave as an aggressor, broadcasting cruelty towards parents, towards other people, or as a victim, “attracting” cruel treatment from peers and teachers. It is these manifestations that are the content of the complaints of parents turning to crisis centers.

The family work scheme includes the following elements:

1. Taking into account the information identified at the initial appointment, treatment goals are determined, such as improvement emotional state child, the formation of a “helping environment” at school and in the family.

2. Expanding the circle of supportive adults. Help in choosing a school for a child where he could receive support class teacher and a school psychologist.

3. Psychotherapeutic assistance to the child using various approaches.

4. Individual psychotherapy for the mother.

5. Initial appointment with a social teacher at the crisis center. Gathering information, clarifying the situation in the family. Formation of primary motivation in parents for psychological changes, long-term work with consultants, psychological support for the child. Meeting of center and school specialists. Development of a general strategy and program for working with families.

6. Individual psychotherapy for a child. Individual psychotherapy for parents. Group psychotherapy for parents

Throughout all stages, social support for the family is provided. Social educators supervise the family. Working with such a family is a long-term process.

Family is a small group based on marriage or consanguinity, the members of which are connected by a common life, mutual moral responsibility and mutual assistance, the relationship between husband and wife, parents and children. In sociological research, it is important to take into account the average family size, the composition of families based on various grounds (the number of generations in the family, the number and completeness of married couples, the number and age of minor children), and the division of families along social and class lines.

nuclear family consisting of parents and their dependent children, or a married couple. If the family structure, in addition to spouses and children, includes other relatives (parents of spouses, their brothers, sisters, grandchildren), then it is called extended.

Family problems:

Socio-economic- standard of living of the family, its budget

Social and household- related to providing families with housing, living conditions, as well as the consumer budget of the average family

Socio-psychological- marital compatibility, family conflicts, family cohesion as a small group, domestic violence.

Problems of stability of a modern family the state and dynamics of family divorces.

Problems of family education: In this group of problems, the state of family education, types of families according to the criterion of education, parental roles, the child's position in the family

Families at risk.(refugees, low-income people, families raising families with disabilities, military personnel)

a social worker is called upon to perform the following functions:

· diagnostic (studying the characteristics of the family, identifying its potential);

· security and protective (legal support for the family, ensuring its social guarantees, creating conditions for the realization of its rights and freedoms);

· organizational and communicative (organization of communication, initiation of joint activities, joint leisure, creativity);

· social-psychological-pedagogical (psychological - pedagogical education family members, emergency psychological assistance, preventive support and patronage);

· prognostic (modeling situations and developing specific targeted assistance programs);

· coordination (establishing and maintaining the unification of efforts of departments of assistance to families and children, social assistance to the population, departments of family problems of internal affairs bodies, social teachers of educational institutions, rehabilitation centers and services).

Social work with families consists of:

1. Social protection of the family is a multi-level system of predominantly government measures to ensure minimum social guarantees, rights, benefits and freedoms of a normally functioning family in a situation of risk in the interests of the harmonious development of the family, individual and society.

Currently in Russia there are four main forms of social protection for families with children:

· Cash payments family for children in connection with the birth, maintenance and upbringing of children (benefits and pensions).

· Labor, tax, housing, credit, medical and other benefits for families with children, parents and children.

· Legal, medical, psychological, pedagogical and economic consulting, parental education, scientific and practical conferences and congresses.

· Federal, regional targeted and social programs such as “Family Planning”, “Children of Russia”, “Affordable Housing for Young Families” and others.

2. Social support for families involves formal and informal activities and relationships between specialists and families temporarily finding themselves in difficult circumstances.

3. Family social services are the activities of social services to provide social, social, medical, psychological, pedagogical, social and legal services and material assistance, carry out social adaptation and rehabilitation of citizens in difficult life situations. An invaluable role in this today is played by 190 territorial Centers for social assistance to families and children, 444 departments for working with families and children, in social service centers and 203 other social service institutions for families and children (40), whose attention covers at least four groups of families:

· large, single-parent, childless, divorcing, young, families of minor parents;

· low-income people with terminally ill people;

· families with an unfavorable psychological climate, with emotionally conflictual relationships, with the pedagogical failure of parents and harsh treatment of children;

· families containing persons leading an immoral, criminal lifestyle, those who have been convicted or who have returned from prison.

The technology of social work with families is developing in the following directions. To overcome the low level of employment of labor resources, comprehensive regional programs are being created to create and preserve jobs, vocational training is being carried out in new, scarce professions and upgrading the skills of people left without work.

The timeliness of payment of wages in organizations of various forms of ownership is monitored. Such control is carried out by the state labor inspectorate.

State benefits for children are paid, first of all, such benefits are received by low-income families, children from such families are given free vouchers for summer recreation;

Particular attention is paid to disabled children. Boarding houses equipped with special equipment are built for them.

Needy citizens are provided with financial and in-kind assistance - in the form of free or discounted hot meals, free or discounted food packages, and provision of fuel for the winter.

Families in conflict are provided with psychological assistance. IN special attention Specialist social workers are needed by families whose social functioning is difficult, i.e. families at social risk.

The causes of dysfunction in family relationships are varied:

• · economic - the cost of living is below the poverty line due to the excessive dependency burden on one working family member; low salary level or non-payment; unemployment; families of pensioners who, even with the maximum pension amount, remain below the poverty line;
• · antisocial - alcoholism of the family or one of its members, drug addiction, prostitution, child vagrancy, deviation;
• · psychological and ethical - cruelty, aggressiveness, rudeness, conflict, jealousy, adultery, selfishness, greed, imbalance of character;
• · medical - chronic infectious (eg tuberculosis) and venereal (eg syphilis) diseases, mental and sexual deviations (deviations), impotence or infertility of spouses.

The end of a long (but not always) period of disorganization married life may become a divorce.

The classification of motives and reasons for divorce is quite extensive, but the main ones can be identified: illness of one of the spouses; barren marriage; forced separation; physical abuse; betrayal, having another family; drunkenness (or other manifestations of deviation); "did not get along"; parental intervention; fell in love with (a) another (guy); deprivation of liberty; frivolous marriage; physical discrepancy.

The motivation for divorce behavior is extremely contradictory, not to mention the fact that the very motives for divorce contain both subjective and objective aspects (motives).

The subjective motives put forward by divorcing spouses are always varied. Most often, it is difficult to judge from them the real reasons for divorce, because... the real motive can often be replaced by another of the same kind.

A social work specialist must identify the real motive for divorce and take the necessary preventive actions.

Behind the motives that appear in divorce proceedings, there may be other motives that are completely ignored. Behind the peculiar cliché “they don’t get along” there may actually be a complex psychological incompatibility, but most often the term itself plays the role of a defense mechanism.

Divorce motivation has its own specifics and characteristics associated with the severity of chronic conflicts and contradictions between spouses, which result in dissatisfaction with the marital relationship.

There can be many reasons or pretexts for dissatisfaction. It all depends on what people expect from marriage, from the other partner, from family life [ibid.].

There have always been, are and will be discrepancies between ideal representatives and real relationships between people. This is the most common motive for dissatisfaction with marital life.

It is important for a specialist to understand not only the causes of divorce in order to prevent it, if possible, but also the ability to assist in overcoming its consequences.

Consequences of divorce:

• · most divorced men and women for a long time do not have the opportunity or desire to enter into remarriage;
• · a significant proportion of divorced women with children do not marry at all;
• · the childbearing potential of divorced women remains unrealized, which has an extremely negative impact on the fertility process;
• · as a result of divorces, the number of single-parent families in which a child is raised by one of the parents is increasing;
• · raising a child in a single-parent family increases the likelihood of deviant and delinquent behavior among adolescents;
• · divorce creates traumatic situations that can cause neuropsychic disorders in both parents and children;
• · the main problem of divorced spouses is loneliness.

The social worker must recognize the causes of dysfunction in family relationships and find effective ways problem solving [ibid].

Technologies used in cases of family cruelty also include the organization of social shelters (hotels, shelters), which provide an opportunity for women and children (there are also shelters abroad for men subjected to domestic abuse) to wait out the crisis of the family situation in a safe place. But one cannot limit oneself to this type of help only, because unresolved family conflicts periodically escalate. Therefore, it is necessary to resort to medium-term assistance programs aimed at stabilizing the family, restoring its functional ties, normalizing relations between spouses, between parents and children, and the relationships of all these family members with others. Working with “difficult” children and adolescents involves diagnosing the family and school situation, identifying the child’s primary social network, and a mandatory analysis of his medical, social and intellectual-psychological status.

Based on the data obtained, a program is drawn up to work with the child’s family, resolve his school problems, involve him in a more favorable social network. Such a program is carried out by a team of specialists, including a social worker, social teacher, psychologist, and sometimes a lawyer, with the possible involvement of law enforcement agencies, cultural and sports centers. In the course of such work, socio-psychological counseling of the family is carried out in parallel in order to eliminate mutual misunderstanding, unproductive types of family interaction, and conflict in relationships; socio-legal counseling, which allows the family to realize and learn to defend their rights in relationships with the social environment, primarily with the educational system; pedagogical consultation, as well as pedagogical assistance that helps to overcome the school difficulties of the child (children). Psychocorrectional measures, changes in the self-esteem of adults and children, the elimination of negative stereotypes and the development of a friendly and respectful attitude towards each other are also of great importance [ibid.].

When working with the family of an alcoholic, diagnosis involves identifying the main cause of alcohol abuse and accompanying circumstances. The causes of alcohol abuse may be a family predisposition, some features of personal status (personality instability, infantilism, addiction), traditions of the family or social environment, an illusory attempt to escape from problems.

A program of work with the drug addict, his family, and social environment is drawn up - these include therapeutic measures, consultations, psychotherapy and psychocorrection, possibly social and labor rehabilitation of the alcoholic himself and his family. Medical rehabilitation of alcohol abusers is ineffective. After rehabilitation, the patient returns to the same environment in which he developed the alcohol habit; the family, wittingly or unwittingly, contributes to the resumption of his former habit. If a person does not have a strong will, then his personal resources are not enough to prevent such tendencies.

Therefore, working with such a family involves creating motivation for the client and his family to lead an alcohol-free lifestyle and build a different system of relationships. Work with a conflict family or a family in which the emotional climate is unsatisfactory begins, as a rule, after a statement from one of the spouses, although sometimes the reason for stating serious internal family problems There may be observations from a school or social teacher, a pediatrician, who notes the negative psychosomatic consequences of family tension on the health of children. The difficulties encountered may be due to any of the above reasons. It should be noted that external difficulties - material and economic restrictions, uncertainty about the future, unemployment, etc. - as a rule, only aggravate family conflicts and reveal their true causes. Negative personality traits, primarily hysteria and psychasthenicity, compensated in the process of socialization or self-education, under the influence of external reasons can be re-actualized and become the cause of constant conflicts. Actively used methods include the so-called yes-therapy - an autodiagnostic and psychocorrective technique, with the help of which conflicting spouses rationalize their generally negative emotional and mental relationships [ibid.].

It must be said that awareness of a real family problem has not only diagnostic, but also therapeutic significance, since a detected and realized difficulty forces family members to reconsider their behavior.

Technologies for correcting family relationships are numerous; their choice is determined both by the circumstances of a specific social situation, including the characterological traits of clients, and by the personal qualities of the family therapy specialist himself, his tastes and preferences. Unfortunately, not all types of family dysfunction can be corrected, and this depends not only on the insufficiency or inadequacy of the efforts of a family work specialist. Sometimes it is possible with a high degree of probability to predict an unfavorable prognosis for the future of a family union even before its conclusion. Some types of problems are solvable in the early stages, but become more complex as resolution is delayed.

A social worker should not consider the situation hopeless, no matter how the relations between family members become strained, but it should be remembered that resolving family problems is, first of all, a matter of free choice and responsible behavior of the family members themselves. Without them willpower and persistence, the most effective social technology will not succeed.

Thus, one of the main priorities in Russian social policy is social support for families with children. In any case, when an individual, family, or group is provided with services that prevent the loss of their social status, they speak of providing them with support.

Social support for the family is provided in two main forms: direct or indirect. At the same time, factors of indirect impact include socio-cultural, socio-ecological, educational policies, social support technologies, government laws and regulations. The state’s activities in the sphere of economics, legal framework, and healthcare have a direct impact on the family social support system. Targeted family support is provided by local authorities, churches and society. Direct regulation is aimed directly at the family or at the social processes occurring in it. Indirect - on living conditions and the immediate environment of the family. Consequently, family stability depends simultaneously on both external sociocultural influences and internal interactions. Moreover, it should be taken into account that all of the listed environmental factors are constantly changing, new factors arise with consequences that the family is not able to cope with on its own.

Contemporary issues Russia, which is at the stage of transformations and reforms, has updated the development of technologies for social work with families. The use of a technological approach allows for the most effective and competent interaction between a social work specialist and a family [ibid].

Thus, each social work technology has its own limits of application. They are determined by a variety of objective and subjective circumstances. The task of a social worker, psychologist, teacher is to correctly draw the boundaries of the applicability of this technology to a given difficult life situation.

In the 21st century, what comes to the forefront of social work is no longer what is done and how, but by whom it is done. Technologies are open to development, but knowledge alone is far from enough. We need high-quality skills and abilities, synthesized with positive personal qualities. A qualified professional, who is a versatile, full-fledged personality, is the main and only subject capable of correctly drawing the boundaries of considering difficult life situations in which children find themselves.

A social service specialist, be it an organizer or a performer, builds certain models of his professional activity, achieving maximum rationalization of their own efforts. Understanding the tasks of social work is directly or indirectly embodied in certain procedures for the specialist’s actions and their sequence. However, the effectiveness of these algorithms is determined, first of all, by the situation, which develops as a set of formed objective conditions and subjective driving forces.

The scope of applicability of technology to a situation determines the technological potential of social work models, that is, the possible speed and feasibility of algorithmization of theoretical provisions. Only a professionally trained social worker is able to adequately form a model of his actions, discover the boundaries of the current situation and carefully “invest” social technology within these boundaries.