Social Services and Social Policy

Social work should guarantee the accessibility to social services to satisfy the vital needs of an individual and to create living conditions which would be reasonable to human level. The states establish the laws which should to create the legal systems of social services. Those legislations states who has a right to social services and when that services should be provided.

The law of Republic of Lithuania on Social services gives the concept of social services: "Social services denote the provision of assistance to individuals in various non-monetary forms as well as in care funds. (Article 2. 1.)". Lithuania started to create this concept of social services after the declaration of independence in 1991. Lithuania even had not the social policy while in Britain in 1948 were three departments responsible for personal social services: health department (responsible for public health and various aspects of this), welfare department (responsible for residential care and help to elderly and disabled people), and Children's departments, responsible for child care. Now Lithuania has such departments and they deals with community problems, but in Lithuania such work is done just by the officers of social policy, especially in laws is declared that it depends and on social workers. However, the Britain's social policy made progress in community, because there is strong idea of community care and this help is not an institution, it is done by voluntary people who are not indifferent to others problems. Unfortunately, Lithuanians think that the state should take care of people, but they don't realize that they are the state and can do much more than the government...

All in all, social services are needed all over the world, and they are guaranteed in many countries, but young countries such as Lithuania has mach work to do to make better tomorrow to its citizens.

Self-assessment of Online Listening to Podcasts

I had listened two podcasts:

• "Little girl with extra limbs" at ABC News: Good morning America (07 Nov 2007) - http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Podcasting/


• "Work - life balance or work - family balance?" (07 Nov 2007) at site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/02/2007_45_wed.shtml

I had an aim to self-assess what skills do I have to listening tasks, especially how I can understand the authentic speech.

I have to admit that I still find difficulties in listening tasks. I needed to listen to podcast not once, but I had listened for three times and sometimes, where the vocabulary was hard to recognize, for more for the complete understanding. But I think that it is because of unknown specific words, and when later I recognize them, it becomes easy to understand the clear meaning. The rate of podcast presenter's speech wasn't too fast, it was suitable "to catch" the words, but when speaks a person, asked to give interview, he naturally talks a little faster. Of course, those interviewed people speak with their accent and use such expressions that sometimes it is complicated to catch the meaning, but this does not make the podcast difficult. The hardest situation is when there are many annoying voices on the background, so then I need to listen for more times of the podcast.

These podcasts helped me to realize how well I am ready to pass my English exam. Well... I am a little afraid of it, but I hope that I will be able to accept this challenge.

Why Do Teens Try to Kill Themselves?

It is hard to imagine what reasons lead the young people to commit a suicide. Many teens who wanted to end their lifes say that in this way they tried to escape from situation, which seemed impossible to deal with at that moment or they tried to get relief from really bad thoughts or feelings. There are much more reasons why teens want to end the life - it may be because of loss, hurt, rejection, anger, guilt, worry or disappointment of friends or family members. Furthermore, these teenagers feel that they are unloved, unwanted or victimized.

On the other point of view, lots of people sometimes feel like this but they just not even think about a possibility to commit a suicide; they can get through it and they have hope that everything can be just alright and see the positive sides of life. Unfortunately, the suicidal teens are not able to deal with life's setbacks and difficulties because they have depression. "Depression leads people to focus mostly on failures and disappointments, to emphasise the negative side of their situations, and to downplay their own capabilities or worth." So depression effects a person's thoughts and in this state the person does not see when the problem can be overcome. Unlikely, teens are "vulnerable to depression". The studies of biology had showed that this is because of activeness of hormones and the changes of sleep cycles, which both change dramatically during adolescence and effect mood.

The good new is that depression is treatable - most teens get better with the rightful help. To add to this, the most close people to teens should pay attention to their moods, they should talk to them and be interested in their problems to avoid the depression which can lead a teenager to commit a suicide.