Ahead of the National Day of Social Workers, the Armenian Association of Social Workers organized a meeting on the topic "Possibilities of applying the minimum standards of social services and the unified toolkit of case management".

The meeting was started by the president of the association, Mira Antonyan, who made a speech of welcome and thanked the participants for being present and showing dedication towards the topic. In particular, she mentioned:

“This is the universal toolkit developed with a systemic approach, which is aimed at ensuring the most effective and unified case management. The toolkit is currently in the final stages of testing and development, in particular the administrative and case management methodology packages will soon be introduced as a core working tool for social sector professionals. The toolkit also provides a unified information platform for social workers on cases. Discussions and tests of the package of services and tools for clinical case management are planned soon, the need for which is also present in Armenia.”

Antonyan presented the video-methodological part of the toolkit, the logic of the included techniques and methods, and emphasized the need to implement the latter not only in the social services of the state sector, but also in all the organizations providing social services operating in Armenia, in order to demonstrate a systemic approach and ensure the highest possible level of service delivery efficiency.

In the second part of the meeting, association members Nune Geghamyan and Manya Karapetyan, who are members of the toolkit development team, presented its ideological basis.

“The toolkit was developed as a result of 3-6 months of heated discussions and study of international experiences. It was built with the logic of a complex approach and reflects the combination of public and state sector tools. The latter is as simplified and easy as possible from the point of view of analysis, because the fact of not creating additional complexity for social workers was also considered during the work. The toolkit includes assistance through all step of the process–from the registration of the case to the end of the case–and is aimed at revealing not only the vulnerability of the case but also the potential and characteristics of each case,” said Nune Geghamyan.

“All comments raised by testing organizations were taken into account and appropriate changes were made in order to ensure maximum flexibility and adequacy within process. After the implementation of the toolkit, we plan to provide support supervision for up to 12 months,” Manya Karapetyan added.

Along with the presentation, time was dedicated toward discussions and questions with the participants, to which the members of the development team of the toolkit responded and gave comprehensive and exhaustive answers.

One of the questions was about the techniques for filling out the needs assessment paperwork, specifically whether it is electronic/manual, and whether community social workers will also have access to the available information.

“The toolkit ensures maximum flexibility, because one part of it can be electronic– in particular filled out using certain gadgets–and the other part can be in the form of manual documents. Documents can always be subject to changes, depending on the information received from regular visits. In short, this is a living document, which will be available to community social workers as well,” answered Tatevik Karapetyan.

During the meeting, group discussions were organized on the topic "Principles of defining the minimum standards of social services". The discussions were coordinated by specialists who perform supervisory work in social services. Each group publicly presented the program proposed by their group regarding the topic and answered questions from the other groups.

At the end of the meeting, the participants formed a clear understanding of the features of the toolkit and emphasized the importance of similar meetings being held in the future. Participants expressed their desire and readiness to attend such meetings regularly. Members of the association urged participants to send further suggestions and comments to the email address of the Armenian Association of Social Workers. The meeting ended in a warm, cooperative and constructive atmosphere.