Professor Jana Levická: Social work accompanies a person throughout their life. They receive their first contribution at birth, their last after death

She has been working in academia for many years, but she also has experience from a facility for mentally disabled men and the Ministry of Labor. In an interview with Prof. PhDr. Jana Levická, PhD., you will read:

• what she considers to be the most acute problems of social work in Slovakia;
• why social work cannot ignore environmental risks and the environment;
• how marginalized Roma communities in Slovakia developed after 1990;
• what skills and competencies should social work students take with them into practice.

When I did my research and found your publications, they touched on various aspects of social work - perhaps unrelated to the layman. What all falls under social work?

The role of social work is to contribute to improving the quality of life of as many people as possible. If I were to explain it to a layperson, I would use a metaphor from medicine – just as there are general practitioners and specialists, a social worker is a kind of general expert on various life problems. He or she collaborates with other experts as needed. If I were to express it in terms of benefits, which is perhaps more understandable, the first contribution a citizen receives is at the birth of a child, the last is the contribution for funeral expenses. And everything in between is social work.

Before entering academia, you also worked at the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (MPSVR), but also at the district court in the field of social work. You were in the field, you encountered real problems of people. Did any of these experiences subsequently translate into academia?

Certainly yes. My first real contact with practice was in a facility for mentally disabled adult men, where I started as a teacher and later as a head of education. I think it was one of the best schools I could have gotten, because I saw how large facilities with a capacity of about 150 clients work.

At the same time, I worked with the Association of Friends of Mentally Disabled People, later I worked at the detached workplace of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in the Social Welfare Services Center in Trnava, and for a while I headed the social affairs department in the district. However, I must admit that I am not an ideal official – I do not always know how to obey meaningless orders. For example, once they asked me to delay the payment of benefits in material need just before Easter. I could not imagine that people would not receive money at that time, so I refused. Gradually, I realized that I could do more from academia than in conflicts with the administration.

You named some specific problems that you did not like in social service facilities. Do you think that anything has improved over the years? Has it moved forward?

I will give a specific example from a facility that I visited as a methodologist and I did not like many things at the time. The current director documented just such a change in the book Butterflies from the Other Bank. Older photographs show a shabby institution that looked very bad. Today, it is not only one of the most beautiful social service homes in the region, but also proof that a shift is possible. I think that a lot has been done inside the facilities and most of the workers are trying to do their job as well as possible.

However, what we have not managed to do is convince the relevant ministry of the importance of social work. Between 1950 and 1989, social work was reduced mainly to administration carried out within the state administration, although other areas also functioned in practice. We have not yet managed to fully restore the breadth and importance that social work has abroad. This process simply needs time.

At the same time, it is not a very attractive topic for politicians. If we look at the situation of home caregivers, for example – they are often practically constantly with their loved ones, they do not have holidays or time off. Do you think this care is sufficiently valued?

Politicians pay attention to these topics especially before elections, because it is a sensitive agenda that affects a large number of people. Many experience it directly in their families, others through acquaintances or neighbors. Unfortunately, interest often lasts only until the elections – the changes we need require a whole-of-society effort, not just the efforts of one ministry. Some problems, especially in social services, are often defended by saying that the European Union “forced” them on us – however, it creates frameworks for the quality of social services and it is up to individual states to set them. For example, the fact that we have facilities with a maximum capacity of 40 clients was put into law by ourselves, although it is very difficult from an economic point of view.

At the same time, we subscribed to the idea of ​​community care, that is, to allow as many people as possible to remain in their natural environment, because that is where they feel best. I also have such an experience from my family – my father was at home for five and a half years. The problem, however, is that the support for so-called informal caregivers, i.e. family members, is still insufficient. And this is despite the latest changes by Minister Tomáš.

How do you think the system should support people who care for their loved ones at home?

A big step forward was the introduction of the so-called respite service, which is supposed to allow caregivers to relax for a certain period of time – for example, to go on vacation or to a spa. The problem is that in practice it is often provided when the facility has a free place, not when the caregiver really needs it. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health then came up with such a hybrid – in the form of a field respite service. To be fair, that is also help, and significant, but the service was originally planned as residential, which is a difference.

We also need to be aware of the economic side of things. Informal caregivers actually save the state a lot of money, because care in a facility is much more expensive. That is why there has been a long-term discussion about their work being considered employment and being adequately financially valued.

So, in your opinion, are finances the main problem of social services?

Social work and social services simply cannot be done without money. It is very sad, for example, that experienced workers are leaving the state administration and going to work in supermarkets. These are people with many years of experience who perform very demanding work that requires professional knowledge and a great deal of empathy. Nevertheless, it happens that they leave the profession simply because the financial valuation of their work is not only lower than the salary of employees in some retail chains, but it also means a low future pension.

We mentioned a specific area – care for loved ones. However, if you had to name the most acute problems of social work in Slovakia from your professional point of view, what would it be?

If I had to mention one fundamental area, it would be demographic development. We have a declining birth rate and a decreasing young generation that is supposed to provide for the social system in the future. At the same time, people are living longer. It is increasingly common for a person aged around 65 to still work and at the same time take care of a parent who is over 80. And we expect them to be able to handle this full-time care. Or these are people shortly before reaching retirement age. It is questionable how to set up this system so that family members have the motivation to provide such care. Another problem is the lack of places in year-round care facilities and, in some cases, the amount of the monthly fee for the services provided.

And as for salaries in social services, I sometimes feel that when adjusting tariff salaries, not all job positions are considered. Many are below the minimum wage and directors have to match employees' salaries with personal evaluations. It is a paradoxical situation that has not been systematically resolved in the long term.

And yet it is physically and mentally demanding work... Let's move on to another topic. You wrote the book Environmental Social Work. How is social work related to the environment?

I will return to what we mentioned at the beginning - the goal of social work is to improve the quality of people's lives. One of the basic prerequisites for a quality life is a healthy environment. How can people who live in a polluted or health-risk environment live a quality life? It is enough to remember some areas in eastern Slovakia - for example, tailings ponds or the recent case in Nižná Sláná, where contaminated water leaked from a mine. That is why we devoted this topic to research, we implemented the APVV project called Environmental Justice in Social Work. Social work looks at these problems a little differently than, for example, the natural sciences. We do not analyze the chemical composition of soil or water - we are primarily interested in how people live in such an environment.

Environmental social work has been developing abroad for a long time, and an important part of it is the principle of empowerment – ​​that is, strengthening people's abilities to exercise their rights, in this case the right to a healthy environment.

Why is it important to perceive environmental risks from the perspective of social work? And who does it actually concern? Because, for example, marginalized Roma communities seem to be solving existential issues.

Social work is an applied discipline that also relies on knowledge from other fields, such as medicine or psychology. If we want to improve the quality of people's lives, we cannot ignore the environment in which they live. In eastern Slovakia, for example, it has long been shown that areas with a strong ecological burden have a higher incidence of oncological diseases, more spontaneous abortions and more children born with birth defects. Such problems also have broader social consequences. One of them is that people from these areas often leave for work in other cities. In the regions, the elderly population is left, who will increasingly need social services. The question is who will provide them.

As for Nižná Sláná, the problem is still not solved. It has been known about for many years, and the Public Health Office, for example, recommended that people living around the Sláná River not eat root vegetables that they have grown themselves, because they contain increased amounts of arsenic.

Is that a solution?

For whom? Maybe for the office, certainly not for the people who live there.

I will return to the Roma communities. It is true that marginalized Roma communities often live in such conditions that environmental issues are not their priority. That is why there are community centers where social workers work, and one of their tasks is to guide the residents of the settlements not to worsen their environment themselves. At the same time, I ask the question whether it is at all possible that in the 21st century we still have settlements without basic infrastructure. There are places where several thousand people, including children, live without running water, sewage or electricity, and they carry water from the stream. And then on the other hand we hear complaints from the majority that Roma children are given tablets for learning. That, in my opinion, is complete nonsense.

Many people who do not have personal experience with people from marginalized communities sometimes feel that society is more likely to "sympathize" with these people - they mention, for example, benefits or even those aforementioned tablets for children. How do you think society can be educated and made more sensitive to realize the conditions in which these people really live? For example, we were together with students to document life in one such community during a photography workshop. When you see it with your own eyes, you start to look at it completely differently. And when we were then on a mobility in Kenya and visited slums, it was not such a shock.

Because we also have our slums in Slovakia, right?

Exactly. You have also researched Roma communities in Slovakia and their development after 1990. What do you think would help change the perspective of society, how can it be made more sensitive?

The media play a big role. If they mainly feature negative stories about people living in poverty, this naturally affects society's view. In Slovakia, almost a fifth of the population lives below the poverty line, and this applies to both Roma and non-Roma children. We should focus more on the next generation – namely, children who can enter the labor market in the future.

I know from my own experience that many Roma can do their jobs very well. I have a PhD student who is Roma, one of my successful PhD students is an associate professor of social work and the director of a reeducation center. Another former Roma student of mine works at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, another Roma friend worked as a pediatrician for many years... This also shows that not all Roma are just recipients of benefits. At the same time, however, we must distinguish between Roma communities and marginalized communities so as not to generalize. Not all Roma live in such conditions. It is interesting that the media pays relatively little attention to those Roma men and women who have managed to get out of poverty and successfully integrate into society.

I am also a little sad that so-called ethnically sensitive social work, which seeks to better understand a specific ethnic group and work with them in a sensitive manner, is not being developed much in our country. This approach has developed more significantly, for example, in the USA or Canada when working with indigenous populations.

Let's move on to another minority. For the past four years, war has been going on in neighboring Ukraine, and many people have come to Slovakia to join work and school groups. How do social work and social policy address this group?

One of the prominent figures in social work was Jane Addams, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Social work has long been dedicated to peace issues, because wars bring suffering to individuals and entire families. Addams was already a prominent pacifist at the beginning of the 20th century and fought against the outbreak of World War I and for its end. Contemporary social work, which seeks to mitigate the consequences of war conflicts, continues this tradition. A very strong wave of such activities arose, for example, after World War II, when social workers helped children who survived the Holocaust or lost their parents. A similar situation exists in Ukraine today.

Among the volunteers who personally went to help war-torn Ukraine were several social workers. However, several others joined in helping at home, and UCM also launched a fundraiser to support Ukraine. But the most beautiful examples are to be found in Ukraine. For example, I saw centers for children that had air-raid shelters modified to resemble children's playrooms, so that the children would experience the situation at least a little less traumatically. Nevertheless, I think that many of them will carry these experiences into adulthood.

How do you think the integration of Ukrainian migrants into Slovak society is going?

During the first wave of Ukrainian refugees, Slovakia adopted several social measures, often supported by financial subsidies, so that these people could integrate here. The problem, however, is that the war lasts a long time and some situations gradually become more complicated. Sometimes tensions arise between the local population and migrants. I remember, for example, the situation in Trnava, when the city wanted to help Ukrainian mothers and recommended that Ukrainian children be admitted to kindergartens. Some principals understood this in such a way that they began to give preference to Ukrainian children over children from Trnava, and some of them did not get into kindergartens, which caused great emotions. However, the situation was eventually calmed down.

With the inclusion of Ukrainians in our society, it is similar to other social groups. In the long run, work is the most important thing. When a person has a stable job, he can take care of himself and his family and does not have to rely on social assistance.

Let's go back from broader social problems to your work and students. Social work has a strong practical character – do students also complete an internship during their studies? Where do they usually work and where do they then apply themselves?

Yes, social work is a profession that relies heavily on practical training. Students have case study seminars, social-psychological training and also complete supervised professional internships. They carry out this in social service facilities – for example, in social service homes, facilities for the elderly, in day care centers, in centers for children and families or in labor, social affairs and family offices.

We have very good cooperation, for example, with the Trnava Archdiocesan Charity, which works with homeless people, with people at risk of poverty and also deals with street work. Students also do internships in public administration and in non-profit organizations, for example, in the STORM association or in safe houses for women at risk of domestic violence.

What do you think could improve professional internships even more?

Financial resources, for example for travel expenses, would certainly help. We could also send students to top facilities in Slovakia. One such facility is the facility in Červenica in eastern Slovakia for deaf-blind children. Imagine that children are taught there from birth to signal hunger or pain, to communicate or to manage basic tasks. It is an extremely demanding and at the same time admirable job.

What competencies or skills should a social work graduate have when entering practice?

A social worker must be able to assess a client's situation and its impact on their everyday life. The ability to communicate is also important - not only with the client, but also with the family or other professionals. In addition to professional knowledge, personal competencies are also very important. Being able to manage the emotions of clients, but also your own. This work is demanding precisely in terms of managing emotions. Sometimes you want to scream from helplessness, sometimes cry from despair and sometimes you experience joy from the fact that you were able to help and that it made sense. The so-called Self-instrumentalization – the ability to take care of oneself as a work tool. A social worker who can maintain a balance between work and personal life can be really useful to clients. A burned out and tired social worker is useless to them.

What is the long-term interest in studying social work?

I have experienced times when we had over a thousand applicants and accepted around twenty-five. Today we are happy to fill groups of around thirty students. This is largely due to the image of the profession in society. On the one hand, it is perceived as a demanding job, on the other hand, the opinion has spread that anyone can do social work. Finances also play a big role. Social workers often have a lower salary than the average wage in the national economy. To this day, the argument is that it is a job that must be done with the heart. That is nice, but even a surgeon must have a relationship with his work - and at the same time expect to be paid adequately for it.

If we had a different system of financing universities, which was not based on the number of students, small groups would be ideal for this profession. Abroad, social work is among the so-called regulated professions, which is also reflected in education. Social work cannot be taught well in large groups. We expect our graduates to approach clients individually, and at the same time we want to ensure such an approach during their studies.

You are also the head of the Research Center for Social Isolation and Social Development. What activities do you engage in within this center?

The center was established during the Covid pandemic as part of a university project - at that time, more talk began to be had about the negative consequences of social isolation on people's psyche and lives. We are mainly dedicated to researching social isolation and supporting social development of people. Also under the influence of this center, we have prepared a new study program, Human Development in Social Work, which is focused on individual human development.

In addition to research, we also do practical activities. One of them is the AKSET group - Active Seniors Trnava, which was created spontaneously during a conversation with a friend after her retirement. We started with four of us, today the group has more than thirty members. We meet at the faculty, organize trips, sometimes we go to the museum, the theater or on a trip, for example to Dolná Krupá. At the same time, it is also an interesting research space for me, I talk to seniors about their life experiences and what such meetings mean to them.

Finally, let's mention one more update moment – ​​the third week of March is the annual World Social Work Day.

Yes, this year it falls on March 17. When you entered the office, my colleagues and I were just talking about how we will celebrate this day. I also tell the students that just as we celebrate birthdays or name days at home, we should also celebrate this holiday – it is a holiday of our professional community. We don't know exactly what form it will take yet, but we will definitely prepare some activities (in the meantime, the faculty has published a program of activities – ed.).