© British Association of Social Workers
The Resource Worker Project: Evaluating a Specialist Social Work Service for Severely Disabled Children and their Families
Caroline Glendinning is a Research Fellow in the Social Policy Research Unit, University of York.
Please address reprint requests and correspondence to Caroline Glendinning at the Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, Heslington, York Y01 5DD.
Summary
Accumulated research evidence revealed the continued fragmentation of support services for families caring for a severely disabled child; while parents themselves repeatedly reported the lack of a comprehensive source of information and advice. The resource worker project was designed to assess whether the levels and coherence of services to the families of severely disabled children could be improved through the intervention of specialist social workers. The activities of the social workers were extensively documented and multiple methods of data collection were used to evaluate their intervention, in comparison with a matched group of families who continued to receive the normal generic services. According to a number of ‘outcome’ measures—for example families' use of services, facilities and professional expertise; the incidence and severity of stress among parents; the mental and physical well-being of various family members—changes occurring as a result of the intervention were, apparently, neither large scale nor consistent. Nevertheless parents were virtually unanimous in their positive and enthusiastic appreciation of the help and support they had received. The implications of these findings for the evaluation of social work intervention are discussed; and attention is drawn to the importance of evaluating intervention of this kind, as the long term support of families with severely dependent members is likely to place increasing demands on social work and social services resources in the future.