About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

27 Int'l Soc. Work 1 (1984)

handle is hein.journals/intsocwk27 and id is 1 raw text is: 












W E begin this issue with an article
          by Chandra   Dave  on services for
          the aged in Denmark., It can truly
be  said that these are probably among  the
best in the world today. They  can serve as
a model  to others but, unfortunately, finan-
cial constraints would make their replicabi-
lity impossible  at this stage among   less
affluent countries.
  The  last issue of 1983 included an article
on  the beginnings of the foster care move-
ment  in the 19th century. Although  foster
care placement  as a temporary  service has
become   accepted  practice, atleast in the
Western  countries, the hope that it would
act as a  stabilising influence on the child
pending  long-term  plans being  made  has
often remained  unfulfilled. John Pardeck,
in his study on the working  of the system
in the U.S.A., looks at some of the factors
which  appear to affect the child's constant
movement  from  one foster home to another.
Though   limited in scope, the study throws
up some  interesting and unexpected results.
  The  population to be  found  in the new
development  towns of Israel is as varied as
that in  the country  as a  whole.  Esther
Shurka's interesting study of Attitudes To-
wards  Disability and Rehabilitation Among
Political and Professional Leaders in Israeli
Development   Towns   assumes   that such
attitudes reflect as well as influence those
of the general  population of these towns.
She  finds that the opinions of the political
and professional leaders in several important
respects relating to the disabled and their
rehabilitation are similar, and  concludes
that they characterise a society in transition
from  traditional to modern values.
  James  Midgley provides a sweeping  over-
view  of social assistance schemes in third
world  countries in his article which should
be of considerable interest to social welfare


                   EDITORIAL
policy makers  and  planners in these coun-
tries. He  makes  a  cogent plea  for refor-
mulation  of the anachronistic social assist-
ance  schemes  operating currently in deve-
loping countries, most of whom  have a colo-
nial past. The schemes continue to be based
on  the  Poor Laws   of the Western   world
long after they have been abandoned  by the
latter. Midgley suggests an over hauling of
these schemes  and  their organised integra-
tion into the developmental programmes   of
the countries in question.
  From   Pakistan comes  a  small study  on
the  rehabilitation of psychiatric  patients
written by  Orya  Maqbool  Abbasi.  As  the
author  acknowledges, rehabilitation services
in general and for the mentally ill in parti-
cular, are still in their infancy in most deve-
loping  countries. Hence  it is even  more
essential to constantly  evaluate whatever
little is being done in this area so that its
efficacy is enhanced.

  The  debate on the relevance of traditional,
Western  oriented, social work practice re-
ferred  to in  the last issue continues  in
Stephen Chan's  article Casework With Un-
employed   African Youth.   His  argument
for a change  holds good  for all countries,
particularly at ihis time when the world  is
in the throes of an economic recession. But
it is specially relevant for the developing
countries where this recession has exacerbat-
ed  the already overwhelming   problems  of
poverty and  its concomitants.
  We   are sorry to inform  our  readers of
the sad demise  of Dr. Mary  Lee, President
of the National  Council of Social Welfare
of South Korea.  She was a strong supporter
of the Journal and we  shall sorely miss her
interest in and concern for it.

                       Ashraf  Macchiwalla
                         Acting Editor

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most