In: Journal of community practice: organizing, planning, development, and change sponsored by the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA), Band 22, Heft 3, S. 408-410
Mobile apps have increasingly become an innovative tool that can provide information and resources to those who have service needs but often lack access to and knowledge about how to improve their well-being in today's society. In China, although the number of Internet users has increased substantively, there has been little discussion on how mobile apps can help social workers in their delivery of behavioral health services. This article features three highly used apps that facilitate behavioral health care service delivery in the United States and provides recommendations for developing apps for social work practice in China.
In the post-welfare reform era, increased discretion has been given to frontline staff for day-today welfare policy implementation. To determine how frontline staff address the complex needs of welfare program participants in this new policy environment, the decision-making processes of welfare staff (N = 52) in 11 San Francisco Bay Area county social service agencies were assessed through a case vignette using a Web-based survey design. We examined staff decision making in four areas: problem recognition, goal formulation, information search processes, and evaluation. The results suggest that the high level of staff discretion apparent in the day-to-day implementation of welfare policy may have important implications for participants. Several recommendations for policy, practice, and future research are presented.