The difficult living conditions in modern society often cause social problems and an increase in the number of socially vulnerable citizens. Many people, finding themselves in a difficult situation, are not able to cope with problems of a psychological, social nature. A special technology of work aimed at solving these problems is the social support of the individual.
What is social support?
Social support is a special form of social support for citizens, people in need.
This concept includes not only the work of social services, but also the participation in the process of socialization and assistance to a specific person (or family) of representatives of various fields of activity (medical workers, lawyers, teachers, psychologists, etc.).
From the first of January 2015 to the present day, a law has been in force in the Russian Federation that regulates the work of social services. It discusses in detail the issues of social support, reveals the basic principles, tasks and technologies for implementing this process.
According to this resolution, social support is the support of needy segments of the population and those who find themselves in difficult life circumstances:
- guardians or legal representatives of children;
- families in which children with disabilities and children with disabilities are brought up;
- low-income families;
- families raising three or more minor children;
- single-parent families;
- people with alcohol and drug addiction, leading an asocial lifestyle;
- children (adolescents) registered in the children's room of the police;
- pregnant women who are in difficult circumstances.
Goals and objectives of social support
The main goal of social support is to help the client to overcome the difficulties of life that have befallen him; reduction of their negative impact on human life and health; and ideally - support in completely getting rid of the consequences of these life troubles.
The tasks that are set before the specialists providing social support are:
- assistance to the client in social adaptation, adaptation to new living conditions;
- rehabilitation of a person and removing him from the crisis;
- health care, help in the fight against bad habits;
- restoration or enhancement of a person’s status in society;
- teaching the client the skills of interaction with members of society and self-realization.
Social Support Service
Social support is provided by qualified social workers.
The social support service is not one organization, but a whole system of bodies that, interacting with each other, ensure the equality of all members of society, give them the opportunity to rehabilitate themselves and take an active position in society.
This is an official organization with its own regulatory documents, charter and regulations. Only qualified specialists who have supporting documents can be employees of the CCC.
Absolutely anyone can turn to the CCC for help, regardless of gender, age, social status, or work capacity.
The technology of social support varies depending on the specific situation and type.
Principles of social support
The activities of the social support center are based on the following fundamental principles:
- Social rehabilitation and adaptation services are provided only by highly qualified specialists with appropriate professional training and knowledge of methods and technologies of social support for citizens.
- Social support is carried out with the voluntary consent of customers. This process cannot be forced. Specialists working with a needy person protect their rights and without fail take into account the interests of the ward.
- The client himself must take an active part in social adaptation. The task of specialists is to reveal the personal potential of a person, to help him find himself in society.
- All specialists involved in social support should have equal access to documentation, track and record the dynamics of each individual case.
- The principle of sequence and coordination of actions for social support of citizens should be taken into account without fail. All stages of relief work must be clear, consistent, and well thought out.
- Confidentiality in the process of social support is one of the fundamental principles.
- A specialist who provides social support for children and adults is personally responsible for their actions and the result of work.
Services that are provided in the SS process
What are they like?
This is informing citizens (about the right to receive social benefits, about the contacts of the necessary services and organizations).
Psychological services:
- diagnosis of psychological characteristics of the person;
- psychological counseling;
- psychocorrectional work;
- training in psychological methods of interaction with society;
Social and educational services:
- educational work;
- assistance in resolving conflicts between children and parents;
- teaching parents how to effectively communicate with children, effective educational impact;
- organization of joint events;
- pedagogical counseling of parents.
- medical services aimed at improving and maintaining the health of the client;
- legal services, which consist of advisory work and direct legal protection of citizens;
- socio-economic services.
Types of social support
Social support can be of several types. We list the main ones:
- Social and domestic.
- Medical and social support. It is aimed at creating conditions that favorably affect the health status of the client, help in healing and monitoring the human condition.
- Social and pedagogical support. This is preventive work to prevent deviations in behavior, creating the conditions for the correct educational impact on the personality of the child, the formation of value orientations.
- Psychological and social - support of psychological adaptation to new social conditions, correction of a person’s psychological state.
- Social and labor - assistance in employment and professional self-determination of a person.
- Social and legal support - assistance to the client in resolving legal issues.
Social and pedagogical support
This is a system of measures to create favorable conditions for the development of positive relations between children and adults in the educational environment. You need to understand that this is a professional activity carried out by teachers and psychologists in conjunction with children and their parents.
ATP can take both collective and individual forms. Their choice depends on the specific problem and the characteristics of the participants in the educational process.
Family social support
Very often SS is needed not by a specific person, but by the whole family. This is especially true for dysfunctional families or those in which parents cannot cope with their own child.
Social support is provided by the centers of social services for families, children and youth. Their activities are clearly regulated by law.
The primary task facing the employees of this organization is to identify families who find themselves in difficult life circumstances. Further, the center’s staff assesses needs, develops and implements a number of activities aimed at supporting and assisting a specific section of society.
In some cases, when parents lead an asocial lifestyle, drink and do not work, the social service can temporarily withdraw children and transfer them to state support.