DIGI COMMUNITY
When we think of digitalization, there is an enormous amount of it around us in our everyday life, as well as in our work. However, there are still many things that digitalization can improve and change. I highlight examples in my article from the point of view of child protection, which field I work in. I work in a foster care unit where minors under the age of 18 live. For some reason, the children cannot live with their own parents, in which case they have been placed in a foster care unit. The investment can last from a few months to several years.
In general, on the healthcare side, there has been an increase in digital and remote receptions in recent years, which is still not used very much on the social care side. Child welfare is often remedial, proactive, and evaluative, in which case remote meetings may be excluded, but in foster care, the client work could well be accompanied and supported by digital services. In the child welfare work itself, we use digital services a lot, for example from the perspective of customer information systems and recording, but the actual customer work using digital services is less.
Further down in the article, I will also highlight situations and perspectives where digital services could be possible in customer encounters in child protection foster care.
DIGITALIZATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Through social media, the data-driven society has also brought challenges to the lives of children and young people that society struggles with. Digitalization puts new pressures on children and young people, for example from the point of view of how I look and what kind of clothes I wear. Children and young people have a big struggle and comparison about whether I am the same as others and good enough as I am. The identities of children and young people are growing more and more also on social media platforms, which means growing and increasing pressures on children and young people.
The pressures of parenting have certainly increased with social media. Social media is full of accounts, celebrities and posts about ideal families, which can put families in an unequal position and add to the pressures of parenting. Parents may wonder if I am a good, beautiful or rich enough parent for my children. The good side is also that, for example, tiktok applications have also found a place for ordinary people to share everyday content, so parents can have a good time watching and following the normal everyday life and parenting through social media. In addition, crimes against children and young people have increased with social media.
However, we employees have a big job to correct and support children or young people and parents to increase their sense of sufficiency to improve their self-esteem and self-image, and to accept themselves while appreciating themselves. Unfortunately, social media doesn’t always help these things.
I recognize the challenges of digitalization in society, compared to my own customer base and from the point of view of negatively affecting the well-being of parents and young people. Perhaps, from a future point of view, it is important from the point of view to increase the well-being of society to consider how to eradicate and remove the disadvantages of social media completely or at least to a minimum. Who would come up with a tool that recognizes meanness, bullying and harassment on social media.
INTERACTION AND DIGITALIZATION
The most important thing in working for child protection is interaction. Interaction can never be completely replaced by digitization, but could it still be used to support interaction? A big problem is separating the parents and the child from each other, although in some situations it can be in the child’s best interest. However, there are situations where there are good conditions for returning home, in which case the interaction between the child and the parent should be supported and encouraged. However, children and young people can be placed further away from their parents, in which case the child or young person does not see their parents often. Could digitization be used more then? For a long time there have been cell phones and telephones with which to keep in touch, but could we make more use of video contact, for example teams and skype, so that the employee would also be able to assess the quality of the interaction between the child or young person and the parent and, if necessary, support the interaction between them from the point of view of joint meetings.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, on the healthcare side, in my own work at the time as a youth psychiatrist, remote video appointments increased. Many parents, families or young people found remote meetings more pleasant than face-to-face meetings. It would also be good to use this concept around child protection, when face-to-face meetings are not necessary. There are sometimes situations where the meetings must be carried out with home visits to assess the growth conditions, but there are also situations where the meetings are for exchanging information and maintaining customer relationships. This could also be more cost-effective from a cost perspective.
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK AND DIGITALIZATION
One of the important things with which we can develop the company’s operations, services and quality is collecting customer feedback. Assessing and supporting occupational well-being is also important. Feedback is collected through discussion and interaction with children and employees. For feedback to improve the company’s operating models and develop management, the collection of feedback should be of higher quality. It is important that feedback can be measured and evaluated through some electronic method or tool.
DIGITAL METHODS IN CHILD PROTECTION WORK
Working with methods is one of the most important areas in child protection work. Most of the method work takes place in face-to-face interaction situations, which is when the interaction is best supported in the work. I do not rule out that a good digital method could not have impressive results. It is especially easier and more comfortable for young people today to work on things digitally, because today’s society is more digitized than, for example, in our youth.
I could also think, for example, that it would be more pleasant for children, young people and parents to familiarize themselves with the electronic material banks at the beginning of the investment, rather than the piles of paper, which they have already accumulated during customer service. On the health care side, for example, self-care programs are already in use, from which employees can monitor the customer’s commitment and motivation according to when the self-care program has progressed. This could also be one concrete way to increase the involvement of child protection clients in their own progress and rehabilitation. From the perspective of families, children and young people, this could be a working innovation.
THE RISKS OF AN OPEN DIGITAL SOCIETY
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entered into force in May 2016, and its application in member states began in May 2018. It applies in the public and private sectors.
For example, an open digital society has brought with it big risks related to information security, privacy and the protection of personal data. Cyber-attacks can steal and misuse personal data, which is one big cyber data risk. There is also a risk of people’s personal information falling into the wrong hands.
EU countries are in a strong position in the digital economy and business-to-business trade, and artificial intelligence, for example, is one factor that also brings risks to society. Because of artificial intelligence, society can indeed benefit from, for example, better healthcare.
I work in the private sector, and in our work, the protection of private people’s data must be considered, so that they do not fall into the wrong hands.
CHATGPT AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
I asked the following questions in the ChatGPT chat. Can child protection foster care be high-quality child protection and how can the management of the child protection foster care unit be improved? Here’s what ChatGPT replied to me in abbreviated form:
1. Can child protection foster care be high-quality child protection?
Yes, child protection fosters care can be high-quality child protection, but its success depends on many factors. High-quality foster care means that the child can secure the conditions for growth, development and well-being in a situation where he cannot live in his own biological family. Good foster care considers the child’s individual needs and offers a safe, stable growth platform and emotional support.
2. The management of the child welfare foster care unit can be improved in several ways, focusing on both operational and human factors. Here are some key areas where management can be developed: Leadership clarity and presence, training and continuous development, open communication.
Good management in a foster care unit is primarily because employees and children feel safe and supported, and that the unit’s operations meet the children’s needs as well as possible.
I was convinced by the answers, because the answers were exactly what I would have answered myself if I had been asked the above-mentioned questions.
It is very difficult to think about what problems there would have been with the answers, because I signed all the answers. At first, I wondered if empathy could be a factor that artificial intelligence is unable to consider. In my opinion, artificial intelligence also reinforces one’s own competence
SELF-ASSESSMENT
I found the assignment very interesting, but also challenging at times. I noticed that I also found a negative perspective on digitalization changes, but without recognizing them, things cannot be fixed, and they cannot be addressed.
Vocational vocabulary is challenging in child protection work, not in my native language, especially since languages are not my strong point. On the other hand, from the point of view of self-development and development, the assignment and the entire course are very necessary. The threshold to use a foreign language increase when there is no real reason or compulsion to use it. If only you knew how to challenge yourself more and use foreign languages in your work, when you don’t even necessarily need them. Fortunately, from time to time in my work I meet clients and families whose mother tongue is not Finnish.
I’ve been thinking for a long time that from the point of view of strengthening your own language skills, it would be important to listen to, for example, audio books in English. This task promoted the idea of it, and I looked for professional literature in English related to my studies to listen to.
However, the task also concretely gave me a lot of means, as well as a new perspective on my own work in working with children, young people and families from the perspective of digitalization. In addition, I got ideas and a new perspective even for my first-person job in managing employees. I plan to use digital services in the mid-term evaluations of the development discussions, so there will be room for more interaction in the development discussions, when in the mid-term evaluation the employee has already thought about the themes of the development discussion in advance. In addition, I was left wondering how to measure, for example, the change in the ability to work at certain time intervals. Could the measurement intervals be the intervals of the development discussions, and in the evaluation, in addition to the metrics, work well-being, job satisfaction and coping at work can also be used with a digital evaluation tool. I recognize in myself that it is easy to make use of already existing old materials, even if digital services provide many new tools for our work. In our work, however, we use a system that enables the planning and construction of surveys, which could be of great benefit to support our own work.
Also, artificial intelligence and especially ChatGPT convinced me, because I have been very skeptical about artificial intelligence in child protection work.
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