Service Difficulties, Internal Resolution Mechanisms, and the Needs of Social Services in Hungary—The Baseline of a Development Problem Map

Zoltán Csizmadia (), Krisztina Kóbor, Péter Tóth and Tamara Zsuzsanna Böcz
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Zoltán Csizmadia: Department of Social Studies and Sociology, Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Széchenyi István University, H-9022 Győr, Hungary
Krisztina Kóbor: Department of Social Studies and Sociology, Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Széchenyi István University, H-9022 Győr, Hungary
Péter Tóth: Department of Social Studies and Sociology, Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Széchenyi István University, H-9022 Győr, Hungary
Tamara Zsuzsanna Böcz: Department of Social Studies and Sociology, Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Széchenyi István University, H-9022 Győr, Hungary

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-18

Abstract: This study focuses on the current service/care difficulties and challenges that social institutions in Hungary are facing during their daily operations; how they can react to them utilizing their internal resources, mechanisms, and capacities; and what concrete, tangible needs and demands are emerging in terms of methodological professional support, potential forms, interventions, and direction for professional development. A total of 24 general and 55 specific service and operational problems were identified and assessed in eight different service areas (family and child welfare services, family and child welfare centers, respite care for children, care for the homeless, addiction intervention, care for people with disabilities, care for psychiatric patients, specialized care for the elderly, and basic services for the elderly). The empirical base of the study uses a database of 201 online questionnaires completed by a professional target group working for social service providers in two counties (Győr-Moson-Sopron and Veszprém), representing 166 social service providers. The questionnaires were completed between November and December of 2022. The findings will be used to develop a professional support and development problem map. Social institutions face complex and serious service/care difficulties and challenges in their daily operations. Three distinctive basic problems clearly stand out in both severity and significance from the complex set of factors assessed. The biggest problem in the social care system is clearly the complex challenge of low wages, followed by the administrative burdens in the ranking of operational difficulties, and the third key factor was the psycho-mental workload of staff.

Keywords: general and specific operational problems; problem mapping; social services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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