SOCIAL COUNSELLING: CURRENT STATE AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to provide a theoretical substantiation of the directions of improvement of social counselling in the context of a territorial community. The article reveals the relevance of the problem of social counselling, the need of finding effective ways to ensure it in the context of a deteriorating socio-economic situation in the country and declining general well-being of citizens. Research approaches to the essence and significance of the subject matter of the study have been examined, and personal understanding of the category of social counselling has been formed: social counselling is a professional activity aimed at helping people solve social, psychological, financial and other problems by providing information, advice, emotional support and developing strategies for overcoming difficulties. The legal support for social counselling has been studied, and its complexity has been noted due to the interconnection with a large number of other regulations, making it difficult for recipients of social services to understand. Features of social counselling in Ukraine have been studied, and the tendency to a rapid increase in the number of appeals from internally displaced persons, war veterans and other categories of the population in difficult life circumstances has been noted. Specifics of social counselling in the Lutsk city territorial community have been analysed, peculiarities of the functioning of the local department of social policy regarding counselling and informing community residents have been noted. Directions of improving the effectiveness of social counselling have been proposed including: implementation of the State Standard of Social Counselling Service, formation of a nationwide system of training and certification of social counsellors, development of online tools and digital platforms for social counselling, coordination of international activities on information exchange on social counselling, development of the institute of mobile multidisciplinary teams, integration of social counselling into administrative services of the territory, strengthening interagency coordination between social, medical, educational and law enforcement agencies, conducting public awareness campaigns aimed at fostering a positive attitude towards social counselling, providing psychological support to social counsellors, engaging civil society and volunteer organisations in providing social counselling, and implementation a system for monitoring and evaluating the quality of social counselling. Prospects for further research lie in the development of practical recommendations for improving social counselling in the post-war period.