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Proverbs are an important feature of any language worldwide. In Africa, for instance, people in their everyday conversations use proverbs to add special effects and flavour. However, the inclusion of proverbs in speech goes beyond mere decoration. As a repository of African knowledge and culture, proverbs serve as a medium for educating present and future generations about society's cultural values, beliefs, and ethics. In this powerful role, proverbs may have significant effects on speakers and their listeners. While these effects may be positive, in terms of their references to certain groups of people, proverbs may have telling effects. In this paper, we examined samples of Ghanaian Akan proverbs on mental and physical disabilities and their meanings, using critical discourse analysis and guided by labeling theory. We conclude that Akan proverbs predominantly label people with disabilities negatively, thereby leading to their stigmatization, marginalization, and exclusion. We recommend using proverbs with negative connotations for people with disabilities as a tool to educate society on how not to treat people with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting in December 2019 in Wuhan China, the novel coronavirus (COVID 19) disease has reached 216 countries with 6, 140, 934 confirmed cases and 373, 548 deaths as at 2nd June, 2020 globally Ghana, with an estimated population of 31,014,508 has recorded 8, 297 confirmed cases, 2, 986 recoveries and 38 deaths with 5, 273 active cases as at the same date. All but one of the 16 administrative regions have recorded confirmed cases with the highest case numbers in the more urban regions of the country. Considering that one of the highest risk populations in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak is the elderly population, this brief essay examines the state of elderly care in Ghana in relation to this pandemic. The paper reflects on the state of care needs for the elderly, current elderly care systems, inadequacy of data on elderly population and social work practice in Ghana. It also raises questions on the preparedness of current elderly care systems and general social work practice in Ghana amidst COVID 19. The paper recommends professionalization of geriatric care and formalization of community-based care for the elderly in Ghana as the way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to contribute to the indigenisation discourse by illustrating how dominant discourses and cultural practices explain and perpetuate social problems. We argue that focussing on the fundamental issue of a cultural conceptualisation of social problems will contribute positively to the development of the indigenous social work practice framework. As social work education forms an important foundation for how future social work practices will be performed, we interviewed 15 social work practicum students in Ghana about the cultural underpinnings of social problems. Themes developed from the interview data suggest that culture plays a key role in conceptualising social problems in Ghana. Although not often, culture tends to underpin and perpetuate social problems, such as streetism, child marriage and child neglect. Social work practice within the indigenous framework should aim at addressing the negative impacts of the cultural undertones of social problems. Social work practitioners should increase advocacy and knowledge sharing on the cultural explanations of social problems and collaborate with community leaders to change cultural values and norms that have negative ripple effects on children, young people and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social workers and anthropologists encounter different representations of mediation as a professional practice: On the one hand, Social Work is grounded in mediation as expert knowledge that helps others to resolve interpersonal disputes. For example, mediation as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) can enable court cases to resolve without formal trials. On the other hand, Anthropology is grounded in mediation as a research field site and by past intervention experience of anthropologists. As mediation professionalized and became mandated across public institutions, anthropologists became strong ADR critics. Academic debate between mediation proponents and critics ended as critics abandoned research in the 1990s and 2000s. My initial research goal was to pick up from past empirical study. Research was conducted in Australia, Ghana, and the United States in two areas of mediation practice; resolving parenting disputes between adults who are separating or not married, and "elder mediation" cases involving older adults. Initial findings reified past debate through data that supported proponents and critics. Further insight was gained through return to fieldwork using an expanded, ethnographic case study design. This article provides a journey through a seemingly intractable divide that was ultimately resolved through prolonged time in fieldwork focused on understanding client perspectives. I show how social work and anthropology scholars of professional mediation have been positioned on opposite sides of an expert knowledge/fieldwork research boundary. This boundary can be made productive through open exchange about mediation as a practice that evolves through an interplay of expert knowledge, intervention practice, and client engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued that to be able to practice in a culturally sensitive manner, social workers in Ghana have to adopt strategies that are relevant for their socio-cultural context. Nonetheless, it remains unclear how social workers are implementing culturally sensitive social work approaches. This research investigated the various strategies that social workers have used in implementing culturally sensitive social work approaches. It has been revealed that in a bid to make their practice and education culturally sensitive, social work educators make use of local wise sayings, cases and examples, while practitioners were found to rely a lot on family dispute resolution strategies as well as the traditional authority system as part of practice techniques. This research argues that the emphasis of a culturally sensitive social work approach must be on teaching practitioners and educators how to negotiate the demands of culture, social work values, ethics and constitutional law and secondly, for educators to develop an understanding of their context and to use that understanding to explain social work concepts in a way that students can identify with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting parental participation is one of the complex and delicate areas of child protection practice. Several authors argue that ensuring the participation of service users in child protection is a way to ensure a fit between service user needs and services. Studies on parental participation exist in some countries in the Western world, however, this is lacking in Ghana. This is the first study in Ghana to explore child protection workers and parents' experiences on participatory practices. Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 8 child protection workers and 19 parents, this study reports participants' experiences of participatory practices. Workers indicated they ensured transparency and diversity while promoting participatory practices and parents reported their engagement in decision making as a prominent feature of their participation in case meetings. Barriers to participation were identified by the participants. The study findings suggested some measures to be put in place to overcome these barriers to ensure the full participation of parents during case meetings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the challenges and coping strategies among Liberian refugees in Ghana. Using a qualitative research design, 40 participants were purposively recruited at a refugee settlement in Ghana. Four focus group discussions and sixteen in-depth interviews were conducted. The focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were audio-taped, transcribed, coded, and analyzed thematically based on the objectives of the study. The findings indicated that the refugees experienced challenges related to disruption in social networks, disputes over resources, high rate of unemployment, and increased level of criminal activities. The study also revealed that the refugees included in this study resorted to religion, spirituality, and income earning activities as their coping strategies. The findings offer insights for social workers, policy actors, and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, part of a larger ethnography, explores the interaction of national inheritance laws and local culture in the everyday lives of Ghanaian (Akan) women who have been widowed. Property ownership is fundamental to women’s economic survival, empowerment, and liberation from abusive relationships. Yet millions of women around the world, especially those in developing nations lose their rights to own, inherit, and manage property following the deaths of their husbands. This research took place in two cities and two villages each in the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions. Methods included participant observation conducted over a four-month period in and around the homes of women who had been widowed and focused observations of women’s interactions with family members in the home. In-depth interviews conducted in Twi with 20 widows, five from each site, focused on women’s experiences of widowhood. Thirteen women described property rights violations occurring when they were vulnerable due to bereavement and/or widowhood rites, and resulting in long-term economic challenges for them and their children. Their experiences suggest that local, customary laws have constrained the implementation of national, progressive laws to eliminate gender discrimination in inheritance. Women also described their sources of resilience including social support from family and friends, spirituality, and their own advocacy for other women. We discuss implications for international social work, especially developing an understanding of local challenges and resources foundational to the design and implementation of effective, culturally sensitive policy, and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]