|
|
Health and Social Impacts of Violence against Seniors and its Prevention
OLTOVÁ, Dagmar
This thesis deals with the health and social impacts of violence against elderly persons and the ways of its prevention. The objective of the practical part of the thesis was to map the health and social impacts and prevention of violence against seniors from the perspective of social workers. A secondary objective was to describe the experience of social workers with the consequences of violence against seniors. Another sub-objective was to obtain suggestions and recommendations of social workers regarding the prevention of violence against the elderly. On the basis of the objectives of the thesis, four research questions were determined: What are the health and social impacts of violence against seniors from the perspective of social workers? What are the experiences of social workers with the consequences of violence against seniors? What is the subjective view of social workers on the prevention of violence against seniors? What suggestions and recommendations the social workers offer to prevent violence against seniors? Qualitative approach, method of interview and technique of semi-structured interview were chosen with regard to the chosen theme. The research group consisted of six respondents. The collected data were processed by the method of clustering. Based on the research questions, the results were divided into four categories. From the perspective of the respondents, violence against seniors is a current but hidden problem. Work with victims requires the cooperation of workers from the health and social sectors. The respondents associate health consequences with the impacts on the psyche of seniors. According to the respondents, physical violence is not typical, but rather financial abuse and emotional pressure, which is why psychological consequences are the most common and the most serious. The answers even mentioned death of an elderly person, injuries, fractures and bruises. Respondents associate social impacts with social isolation, loss of financial means, change of permanent address and change of social status. The most frequent and most serious impacts, according to respondents, are social isolation and loss of financial means. Within their profession, five respondents encountered cases of violence against the elderly. The impacts of violence were diverse fractures, bruises, adapting to the situation, unsecured basic needs, accusations regarding the way of upbringing, loss of financial means, social isolation and hospitalization of an immobile woman. According to these five respondents, prevention of violence against seniors is insufficient. Non-profit organizations, organizations providing social services for the elderly and workers in helping professions should be more engaged in prevention. Also public should be informed better. According to the workers, public awareness of the problem is insufficient because violence against seniors is little talked about. However, two respondents believe that public awareness is sufficient. Prevention includes training of workers in helping professions. Four respondents do not have any experience with training in the area of prevention of violence against seniors. For a timely resolution of a victim's situation, the availability of services for victims of violence against seniors is crucial. All respondents agreed that the availability of services in the Region of South Bohemia is sufficient. The problem is in the low awareness of seniors about these specific services. At the conclusion of the research, I was interested in specific suggestions and recommendations of the respondents to prevent violence against the elderly. Respondents think that prevention needs to be improved. According to respondents, the prevention of violence against seniors could be enhanced by better coverage in the media, lectures and discussions provided by the police, training of workers, informing seniors and educating by social workers and doctors.
|
|
|
Health and social impacts of violence against children and its prevention
KLEMENTOVÁ, Zuzana
The diploma thesis deals with health and social impacts of child abuse and its prevention from the perspective of social workers. The theoretical part of the diploma thesis draws on scholarly resources and explains basic terms related to the topic. The first part focuses on violence, victims of violence and abuse in general. The second part describes the CAN syndrome and its history. Moreover, it informs about general attitude towards abuse, maltreatment and neglect in the society. The next chapter concentrates on risk factors of abuse, maltreatment and neglect respectively. The following part addresses health and social impacts of child abuse and the role of social workers when working with child victims of violence. Next, it focuses on legislation that deals with child abuse and services designated to help abused, neglected and maltreated children. The last section of the theoretical part concentrates on child abuse prevention that includes prevention programs and National Strategy on Prevention of Violence against Children in the Czech Republic for the period 2008-2018. The main aim of the thesis was to determine health and social impacts of violence and child abuse prevention from the perspective of a social worker. Next, three following sub-goals were specified: to identify the consequences of child abuse, to determine opinions of social workers on prevention of violence against children and to establish social workers' suggestions for prevention. To fulfill the aforementioned objectives, three research questions were defined: What are the health and social impacts of child abuse from the perspective of social workers? What is the subjective opinion of social workers on child abuse prevention? What are the suggestions and recommendations of social workers for violence prevention? The practical part was conducted by means of qualitative research strategy. The data were collected by a survey method, specifically by a semi-structured interview. The data were analyzed using a clustering method. The research group consisted of five respondents who were selected intentionally. The research group was chosen from the Registry of social services providers. Altogether seven organizations working with abused, maltreated and neglected children were selected. A social worker from each of these seven organizations was contacted. Consequently, five social workers agreed to participate in the research. These social workers were from the Authority of Social and Legal Protection of Children and from other non-governmental organizations. Two other social workers refused to take part in the research. The interviews were always held in the social workers' workplace. The research survey showed that the most common health and social impacts of child abuse are self-harm, mental disorders, identification with the role of a bully and problems in the future relationships. Most respondents stated that prevention of violence against children is sufficient but they added that there is still room for improvement. One respondent said that the level of prevention is inadequate because the process is uncoordinated and coherent methodology as well as continuous approach to children is missing. Furthermore, the research established that the respondents think it is vital to improve child abuse prevention by developing comprehensive methodology and integrating this topic to the school curriculum. All in all, the thesis focuses on a widely discussed topic child abuse is a worldwide up-to-date problem since it occurs very frequently. The purpose of this diploma thesis could be to call attention of the society to child abuse and inform about its occurrence. Next, this thesis could also prove useful in the area of child abuse prevention since it might serve as an information source for experts who deal with prevention of violence against children. It may also motivate people to improve current prevention methods.
|
guest ::
