Tiltai

The professional development of health-care workers is a key prerequisite for professional success, and its effectiveness contributes to the quality of health-care services at any level of health-care institution. Health-care professionals face constant changes, as a challenge to adapt to the competitive environment around them. This makes it important to ensure that health-care workers have effective training to meet their professional development needs. Thus, the aim of this study is to analyse the theoretical assumptions of professional development, and to reveal the attitudes of health-care professionals towards the needs and specifics of professional development. The study has indicated that the professional development for health-care workers is result-oriented, yet of insufficient quality, with organisational, financial and other problems. It has been found that the planning and implementation of professional development for health-care professionals is subject to specific requirements. The combination of these requirements and the way they are evolving imply that the needs and specifics of health-care professionals in the field of professional development need to be addressed beyond doubt.

The childcare system in Lithuania is going through extensive changes in order to ensure the preparation and assessment of people who want to care for or adopt a child, on-call guardians have appeared, care centres have started operating in all municipalities, a unified agreement of guardians (carers), on-call guardians, adoptive parents and community children has been approved, as has the GIMK training and counselling programme for nursing home workers. Individuals who want to become a child’s guardian are trained and evaluated, and mutual support groups have started being organised. This is one of the measures aimed at strengthening, supporting and providing assistance to guardians (care givers), and there is an opportunity to solve issues relating to child custody. There are more and more guardians (care givers) who face difficulties in communicating with the ward, their relationship is strained, and the child experiences learning and adaptation difficulties, as a result of which the guardianship process is becoming more and more complicated. The current problem is manifestations of non-constructive behaviour that arise in adolescence, which worsen if these problems are not solved. A frequent guardian (carer) turns to care centre specialists, social workers and psychologists for help. Children’s guardians (carers) need constant qualified assistance from specialists and the state, because only in this way can guardians properly and competently perform their duty and meet the child’s needs and interests. This article analyses the experience of a mutual support group for care givers, and presents a qualitative study. The results of the study confirm the effectiveness of this type of support, and allow us to predict and design other support measures for care givers.

The article analyses the prospects for small and medium-size farms relating to the development of the ‘From Farm to School’ model in the Klaipėda region. The research aimed to reveal the possibilities for involving farmers in the Klaipėda region in cooperation with educational institutions in order to provide them with farm products/services. Questions relevant to the study were discussed during a focused group discussion with representatives of small and medium-size farms in the Klaipėda region: Are farmers interested in providing services and products to educational institutions? How do they evaluate the public procurement system? What are the possible cooperation opportunities and obstacles? etc. The results show that the needs and expectations for cooperation between Klaipėda region farmers, municipal employees and educational institutions as buyers of services basically coincide. The participants in the research agreed that the food from local growers is good, and they would like children to be fed quality food from local farms in schools. However, the results of the study assumed the insufficient literacy of small and medium-size farmers in order to effectively develop cooperation with educational institutions. Therefore, the article aims to raise awareness of representatives of small and medium-size farms and all interested groups about the ‘From Farm to School’ model, which could have an impact on the better involvement of farmers, and strengthen the connection between local farming communities and educational institutions. Better awareness could help to develop targeted actions of interested parties in order to shorten food supply chains, improve the quality of food in school meals, and promote the supply of products from small and medium-size farms to educational institutions in the Klaipėda region. The research also aims to contribute to the goals of the national Sustainable Development Strategy, by developing knowledge on how it is possible to preserve or restore natural ecosystems with the help of the activities and services of small and medium-size farms.

Scientific journal Tiltai / Bridges / Brücken published by Klaipėda University (established in 1991) is devoted to the issues of social sciences, and seeking academic dialogue, also to other human and society functioning-related humanities and biomedical sciences, with expand and interpret different social phenomena and current issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. The publications attempts at analysing and solving actual problems of economy, management, demography, social geography, geopolitics, political sciences, history, education, religious, regional planning and land use, other social problems. Science has no borders. Therefore scientific cooperation is one of the most important elements in the progress of world’s community. Scientists from different countries of the world are kindly invited to write for and contribute to the journal.

The Venclova House-Museum is probably the most discussed museum in Lithuania today. Not only are the museum’s activities and the communication of the collection discussed, but also the general question of the need for and value of this museum. In February and March 2022, a study of the museum’s performance was carried out on the Internet. The research highlighted the main and the most debated problems relating to the communication of the museum, as well as identifying fundamental communication errors which have been made by this cultural heritage communication institution. During the research, parallels between the process of museum decolonisation (which is currently taking place in museums all over world), and the main communicational issues of the Venclova House-Museum were also identified. The study includes a semantic analysis of the museum’s performance on the Internet, a qualitative content analysis of discussions on Facebook, and semi-structured interviews with participants in the discussion.

This article highlights the need to increase the variety of support available to health-care professionals to maintain their mental health and reduce stigma. The medical profession involves caring for the well-being of others. Resources of positive emotion are exhausted over time. The body becomes susceptible to stress. The extracts from interviews and case studies presented in this article illustrate well the quality of life of medical staff in the Covid-19 period. If this state persists for a long time, it can lead to the complete exhaustion of physical and mental health, which affects a person’s motivation, attitude and behaviour towards their health, work, relationships and life. Pre-existing negative attitudes towards the promotion and improvement of mental health have had a negative impact on health and have led to suicide. It should be noted that the suicide risk rate among doctors is twice as high as in the general population. The importance of maintaining the mental hygiene of medical staff during the Covid-19 period, as a prerequisite for a quality lifestyle, is emphasised.

A number of studies confirm that working in care for the elderly is seen as very unattractive, physically and psychologically demanding, badly paid, and lacking in career opportunities. As a result, few people choose to work in this field, and there is a growing shortage of labour in the provision of services for older people. Attracting young individuals to the field is an even greater challenge. The paper analyses the results of interviews with young people who provide care services directly for the elderly. The authors seek answers to the questions, what are the personal characteristics of young people who work with the elderly, what are they looking for, and what do they find in this work? The aim of the article is to highlight positive aspects of caring for the elderly. The results show that young people (the interviewees) construct a discourse of meaningful, inspiring and motivating activities when talking about their work. This image of care presented by young workers is different to the notion of ‘dirty’ work that is often reflected in the public discourse when describing work in care institutions for the elderly. The results of the study confirm that the research participants emphasise the congruence between their care work and their personal values and experiences, and strive for a positive career identity. The use of positive experience can serve to create a more positive image of care work for the elderly.

This article presents the points of view of case managers about the possibilities of cooperating with social educators in providing assistance to adolescents who do not attend school. The article was based on an analysis of academic and normative literature, and on the findings of qualitative research conducted by the authors. The analysis of the qualitative research data highlighted the following findings: in the opinion of case managers, cooperation with social educators could be strengthened by joint meetings, workshops and joint supervisions. An algorithm of consistent cooperation was created in order to achieve changes and positive outcomes for the child’s well-being.

The article analyses the dynamics of domestic violence in the city of Klaipėda during the period from 2010 to 2020. The analysis of reported cases of violence is intended to reveal the functioning reality of the Republic of Lithuania’s Law on Protection against Domestic Violence (LPADV) adopted in 2011, and to evaluate the fact that violence, as a conditionally marginalised phenomenon for a long time, is raised to the level of an actual social problem. In evaluating the dynamics of this phenomenon over the ten-year period, the authors reject the hypothesis that cultural traditions of violence have changed over the years. During the period analysed, domestic violence has established itself as one of the most widespread violent crimes in Lithuania, overshadowing other forms of violence. The article introduces four indicators of sociological assessment, which consist of the abuser’s family situation, gender, recurrent criminality, and associations between age cohorts, in a focused manner, which reveals the social effects of the adoption of the law, demonstrating ‘the disclosure’ of the known but deliberately ‘overlooked’ reality by the LPADV. The analysis of segments of violence presented in the article suggests the development of specific measures for the prevention of domestic violence and programme strategies, because not only is the legal regulation of domestic violence significant, but so is the identification of target groups that go beyond popular stereotypes of this phenomenon.

The article analyses the situation of access to help for women who have experienced sexual abuse in the family environment, and identifies the problems they face after experiencing sexual abuse in a close relationship. The problem of violence against women in Lithuania was raised relatively recently, only after the restoration of independence. The first studies were carried out in the 1990s, but the public did not realise the extent of the problem until much later, and it was only in 2011 when the Law on Protection against Violence in a Close Environment was adopted, which was the start of systematic state support for victims of violence. It is only in recent years that we have started to talk about the problem of violence in specific groups, such as sexual violence in a close relationship. It has also been noted that one type of violence, physical violence, dominates in both research and anti-violence practice, while sexual violence is perhaps the most silent, both within the family environment and outside it. The aim of this article is to highlight the problems faced by women experiencing sexual violence in a close relationship, and the possibilities for accessing help.