Methods Related to Adults’Greif in the Professional Conception of Social Work

Jan Kanak

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The text aims to answer the question: Which methods of social work could be used to provide services to grieving adults within the professional conception of social work with individuals? THEORETICAL BASE: The theoretical basis of the text is grounded in Person-in-Environment (PIE) in its post-modern variation, especially in the theoretical foundation of a paradigm of new mobilities. This conception enables us to use humanistically-oriented theories of grief and mourning (which is the second major theoretical background of the study). METHODS: Theoretical adaptation was used. Literature related to working with grief was viewed through the prism of PIE. OUTCOMES: Methods of work with grief described in the literature refer primarily to therapeutically-conceived social work. The paper offers methods primarily related to greif as communicative action. The described methods are related to Reflective life planning, specifically to its part of ontological security, as well as to less stable parts of planning. SOCIAL WORK IMPLICATIONS: I perceive the text as part of a discussion about the professional concept of social work, as well as a basic articulation of professionally conceived contact with grief and mourning in the general settings of social work.

Keywords

social work, professional specificity, grief, methods

p. 69-88