'Evidence based practices play vital role in social work'

Two-day national-level student social workers symposium ends

Evidence based practices play a vital role in social work, said Roshani Nilaya School of Social work Principal Sophia N Fernandes.

She was delivering her presidential address at the valedictory of ‘Spandana - 2013,’ a two-day national-level student social workers’ symposium on ‘Convergence of Social work methods for social transformation’ at School of Social Work Roshni Nilaya in Mangalore on Friday.

The social service becomes meaningful when it is assisted by ethical practices. Efforts should be made in team work to discover the truth through social service and one should not forget the core values, she said.

Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat MGNREGA Ombudsmen Sheena Shetty, the chief guest and also the collge alumni, told that the cause of social work should be in making the people self reliable. Another Alumni K H Abdulla said that though the degree of social work is not income oriented, it will earn a lot of respect for its students in the minds of people and social service is nothing but God’s service.

The programme was inaugurated by Department of Collegiate Education Joint Director Dr Devanand R Gaonkar on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion, he said that corruption is like cancer. It eats up the nation. India suffers due to four weaknesses such as Indians are persistent to say truth, they are not open to change, many do not have belief in secularistic democracy and many are accused of crimes but very few are punished. Hence, there is a need to be honest, humane, have civic sense and non-corrupt, he stressed.

Though money can buy you many things, it cannot give you true happiness, friends, health and peace of mind, he said.

US Health and Human Service Full Bright Visiting Lecturer Dr Susan Becker spoke on 'Evidence - Based social work' in her key note address. "Though evidence based practice is much discussed, it is not clearly defined and not yet implemented," she said.

She also emphasised that knowledge needs to be managed more effectively than in the past.  The challenge is to rethink our view of what knowledge is and how best to facilitate its rapid generation, sharing and application.

“Ask, Acquire, Appraise, Apply and Assess are the five important steps in evidence based practice," she said.

Souvenir of Spandana - 2013 was released on the occasion. School of Social Work Roshni Nilaya Principal Dr Sophia N Fernandes presided over the programme.

Session on 'Social work methods- An overview' and panel discussion on 'Use of primary methods in various settings' was held on Thursday. Session on 'Current trends in social work research' and panel discussion on 'Evidence based social work' was held on Friday.