Dilemmi etici e criteri di scelta degli assistenti sociali dei servizi per l'infanzia e la famiglia

The thesis investigate the impact of macro changes on the decision-making process and the dilemmas faced by the social workers involved in child and family services. It explore if and how the criteria used by social workers in order to decide “what is good” and “what is right” have changed and how they managed dilemmas typical of social work. The study analyses the ethical dilemmas that arouses from the field work and how has changed the reference to values. It consider the impact of changes in the Welfare system (with the shortage of resources and managerialism) and the changes in the legal system (with the different role of Justice in relation to the right of the parents and the right of the child). The research is a descriptive study based on in-depth interviews with 32 social workers, carried in 2009 – 2010 in Lombardia region (Italy), selected following three different dimensions: seniority of the social worker, urban or rural context, level of specialization. The results show that the dilemmas can be grouped in two main categories: one is concerning the relationship between social workers and the organization. Here, we argue that managerial contexts cause a ‘divorce’ in the values held by professionals and the institutional mandate. The second category is related to the ‘dilemmatic structure’ of child protection work, which is characterized by the task of constantly balancing the need for protection of the child and the need to help parents, and is related to the efficacy of intervention.