Socialinis darbas

Contemporary social policy pays much attention to the ability of parents to secure a child’s future opportunities which would create opportunities and possibilities for the individual as a child-oriented social policy that anticipates the failure of the child as a future adult if the situation of families at social risk remains unchanged. It is expected that a woman will be the main carer of the children – she will recognise and satisfy all their needs. A social worker’s helping process starts with a suspicion that the child is suffering from neglect,  experiencing some form of violence from his or her immediate surroundings; the social worker proposes specific professional actions that would help the family to change the situation. The purpose of this article is to discuss how social workers involved in the research are constructing a helping process for a woman-mother who, because of alcohol consumption, does not provide enough care for her children. The article is based on a qualitative hermeneutical methodological perspective, which allows to highlight the concept of the role of social workers in the provision of a helping process to the mother as a representative of whole family. The study revealed that a woman-mother is the main person with whom a social worker interacts within a family because women are understood to be responsible for family relationships and its financial situation. It can be assumed that in cases where a woman-mother abuses alcohol, the participants of the study believe that a control process should be initiated, but no research participant presented a family situation in the
course of the research which would reflect the specific support provided by social workers to the dependent woman-mother.

Keywords: motherhood, family, social work, hermeneutics, children day care centre.