3. The needs of social workers regarding case conference training

Yumi Nomura (assistant professor)

1. Introduction
We are now in an age that requires an even stronger ability to discuss social welfare
through cases in both the practical field and educational institutions. It goes without
saying that the Case Study is a necessary method from the point of view of socialworker practice. It is defined as a method of evaluation by examining systematicallymany characteristics of one individual, group, family or community, usually over anextended period (the Social Work Dictionary 5th ed. NASW). Whether or not a social
worker can evaluate his/her case adequately is a key determinant of the quality of theservice he/she provides. However, actually, social workers cannot always start andcontinue a case study due to various factors. “I sometimes hesitate and lose self
confidence with my practice”“Social workers’work is very hard,so they lose aspiration”
Social workers have serious assignment.

Kensaku Ohashi alleges that the types of cases through which teachers can educate
students are crucial and expresses his deep concern about the qualitative aspect ofthe current Japanese social welfare education using the phrase “teachers withoutcases.” Is it possible for Japanese social worker training institutions aiming to develop
more practical human resources to discuss the realities of numerous cases in welfare
situations?

2. Contents of today’s presentation
First, I want to discuss the revision of the Certified Social Workers and Certified Care
Workers Act and the situation surrounding specialist social workers. Subsequently, I
will discuss part of the questionnaire results of the needs of current social workers
regarding case conference training, and present my proposed model to conclude thepresentation.
3. Direction of the revision of the Social Workers Act
The Certified Social Workers and Certified Care Workers Act that is Japan’s national
certification of social workers was enacted 23 years ago in 1987. Since the enactment,
we have seen many complicated and multilayered livelihood problems that require anapproach materialized through the wisdom of various specialists together with thediversification of people’s lifestyles.
The Japanese Association of Schools of Social Work together with educational
institutions including universities that control social welfare education and Japanese
Associations of Schools of Certified Social Workers together with training institutions
that offer social work training programs jointly submitted the “Proposal for the1National Examination System of Social Workers” in 2006. In the proposal, they
proposed that social workers could perform their specialties in any field as ageneralist social worker and insisted that the training of generalist social workers is anurgent task.
The Certified Social Workers and Certified Care Workers Act was revised in 2007 withthe aim of realizing the “development of better practical human resources,”“expansion of occupational fields,” “promotion of appointment and utilization,”“improvement of social position,” and “improvement of training programs.” The 22nd
national examination was held in January 2010. Demonstrating its further practicality,
successful candidates will now be announced five days before graduation beginning
this year so that candidates can learn if they are certified before seeking employment,
though traditionally the results were announced after graduation on March 31.
Therefore, it has become a major issue for students whether they can attend thegraduation ceremony in their long-sleeved kimonos prepared especially for theceremony with certification, instead of waiting for the announcement to know if they
have received certification.

4. Recent trends surrounding social workers
In the social worker certification system, discussions and considerations focus on thesystem that develops specialist social workers and certified social workers in Japan.
This is because immediate examination of the system to develop specialist socialworkers and specialist social care workers was included in the partial revision of theSocial Welfare Act in 2007 as a supplementary resolution for approval in the House ofCouncilors.
The supplementary resolution is designed to prevent the incidence of social workers
that are incapable of managing assignments because of the difference in theworkplaces of social workers in need of support and the difference in approaches tothe on-the-job training (OJT) in the workplace, and improve the certification of socialworkers qualitatively to create a situation where specialists manage even moredifficult social needs. Discussions are being held by the Japanese Association ofSchools of Certified Social Workers, Japanese Association of Social Workers in
Health Services, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare under the initiative of
the Japanese Association of Certified Social Workers.
5. Requests to develop more practical human resources
Specialist social workers capable of managing more advanced practices now underconsideration are required to have even higher practical ability. That is, they are
required to have the ability to discuss practices through cases; namely, they shouldbe able to document practices, discuss written cases, manage case conferences,
analyze assignments extracted from case conferences, summarize them as a casestudy, and present studied cases.
In the most advanced specialist training program currently offered by the Japanese
Association of Social Workers in Health Services that is the specialist organization ofmedical social workers, it is mandatory for applicants to submit three cases in the2given form with analysis. The three cases are the critical factor for the training
program in deciding whether or not the applicant is suitable. The Japanese
Association of Certified Social Workers has added subcommittees that require
members to submit case reports in academic meetings. The national examination
asks examinees to answer case problems that were not evident in the examination
when it first started. In addition, practice hours are increased and teachers are asked
if they can give students more practical education because of the revision of thecurriculum. The ability to discuss social welfare through cases is desired even morestrongly both in educational institutions and welfare situations.
6. Current situation of case conferences
In Japan, there are actually many workplaces that have no senior associates who canmanage a case conference, that do not offer sufficient time for case discussion, andthat are too busy to allocate time for documentation. It seems that neither casediscussion nor case review has been established.
Let me show you two actual data.
One is data from the survey conducted in 2006. This survey covered 12,944 facilities
that employed officials engaged in social welfare practice across the country. I divided
the practices into 17 items and asked the respondents how many hours they spent oneach item per day. I focused on items like “coordination inside and outside the facilityand organization” as the subjects to be discussed in the case conference. Judging
from the results, I do not think the execution rate is especially low because, taken alltogether, an execution rate of 58% is the fourth highest rate.
The other is the result of the questionnaire I conducted for medical social workers
with less than three years’ experience after they underwent the case conference
training program. Naturally there were replies from them indicating their lack ofexperience in case conferences, as evidenced in comments such as “I seldom havecase conferences in my workplace,” “I have never discussed a case,” and “I havenever had this kind of experience before in my life.”
I also found other responses, such as “I always upset my superior in caseconferences,” “I am not good at case conferences because I am uncomfortable withothers knowing my practices, thus giving me a lack of confidence,” “I cannot express
my practices in proper terms because I hold back in my daily affairs, “I found that I
only listened to what was being discussed while hiding behind the backs of seniorsocial workers.” From these responses, it was evident that the respondents recognize
case conferences as something that they are not good at because case conferences
are not presented to them in the correct way. At the same time, I realized that there
are certain physical and psychological aspects to case conferences that make themseem like a special event in which it is difficult to participate without confidence,
because some said, “Although I have never experienced a case conference, I am
determined to pluck up the courage to participate in a local meeting for case studies.”
7. Objective of this report
I want to cover case conferences that are indispensable to the qualitative3

improvement of social workers. The Doshisha Educational Research Center of SocialWelfare was established inside Doshisha University, and its first duty in planning andproviding a case conference training program for current social workers was to clarify
their needs for the case conference training program.
8. Research method
To start the model training, I gave two focus group interviews to 14 practitioners in thehealthcare and welfare field who are advisors to this center on problems with caseconferences for current welfare workers.
Next, I gave a questionnaire survey to the participants of the model training programthat I conducted in 2007 and 2008. I asked them the following seven questions as thequestionnaire items.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

How did you learn about the training program?
What did you expect from the training program before participating in it?
To what degree were you satisfied with the training program?
What changes did you find after participating in the training program?
How did you feel about comfortableness in the group?
What is your impression of the training program?
What do you expect of future training programs?

I classified the items for free description using the KJ method.
9. Results 1
I organized the results obtained from the focus group interviews for the 14 advisors
into the following two segments. One is the problems faced by current social workers,
and the other is problems faced by specialists. The following answers to the firstproblem were obtained.
1. I am at a loss as to whether I am taking the right direction.
2. Failure cases are rarely revealed.
3. What should I do to improve my assessment ability? I improved myassessment ability, which enabled me to create a support program.
4. I found it necessary to discuss what motivated us to address case studies
and research and participate in the training program in the workplace wheresocial workers are exhausted.
5. No one can develop his/her ability unless he/she makes efforts to improve it.
6. I want a researcher to help me.
7. The facility will remain unchanged even if only one of the staff members
participate in the training program because the on-site approach in the facility
is important.
The following answers to the second problem were obtained.
1. I find workers unable to grasp the concept of social working, even though
they have social worker certification.
2. Because there are many small-group workplaces, a superior’s value and4ethics often ruin many social workers.
3. Social workers have the reputation that they are not as adept at talking about
success cases as nurses and doctors.
4. We should discuss social welfare more through cases. It is time to realize
how important it is for social workers to discuss problems through cases.
From the interviews about case conferences, I found that by not organizing caseconferences social workers developed a sense of crisis that leads to a crisis in any
specialist task.
10. Results 2
A total of 245 people participated in the two model training programs, and most ofthem were social workers. In addition to social workers, 23 teachers in the social
welfare program and 24 graduate school students also participated in the two modeltraining programs. Because of the time constraint, I want to report only (2) What did
you expect from the training program before participating, and (7) What do you expectfrom future training programs?
I classified the answers to “What did you expect from the training program beforeparticipating?” into the following eight groups.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

I am impressed by the title and lecturer.
I want to know the specific procedures of case conferences.
I want to study case conference theory from the very beginning.
I want to use the training program as a reference for my research andeducational practice.
I want to confirm how much I have progressed in this training program.
I want to improve my skill as an instructor of an organization.
I want to get advice on specific matters that I had difficulty in settling in thecase conference.
I want to establish associations with many people.

On the other hand, I classified the answers to “What do you expect from future
training programs?” into the following four groups.
1. I want the case conference to be a participative program where teachers andsocial workers can collaborate.
2. I want the case conference to be a place where universities and officials inwelfare situations have discussions.
3. I want the case conference to be a place where I can select and learn themethods to practice social welfare best suited to me.
4. I want the case conference to be a place where current social workers canreceive training continuously.
11. Conclusion
I studied the needs of case conferences and reached the following conclusions.
1) Social workers want to learn theory.
52) They want to apply it in both research and practice.
3) However, they want the case conference to be a place for maximum
communication and learning.
I want to point out the necessity to understand the specialty system of social workthrough cases and, as another pillar, systematize us as specialists through thediscussion on personal experiences and values. I propose a training model thatincorporates these two viewpoints to conclude my presentation. Thank you for yourkind attention.

※17 Items for social work practice1)
Psychologicalsupport2) Collecting
Information

6) Support for 7)
daily life andImprovement
operationandadjustment ofthelivingenvironment3) Drawing a 4) Evaluation
support plan

8)
Coordination
insideandoutside
thefacilityandinstitution11) Support for 12) Approach13) Complaint
systematization to
the processing
and activities
improvementof the socialwelfare systemand service16) Researchand training17) Move, rest,etc.

65)
Information
provision9) Activities
10) Making
involved in the recordsandmanagement
documentsand operationofaffiliatedfacilities
andinstitutions
14) Promotion 15) Humanof activities to resources
spreaddevelopment
knowledge andunderstandingof
socialwelfare