As people turn to nostalgia more frequently to ease anxiety and combat uncertainty, social work services are increasingly focusing on the use of nostalgia therapy. Based on the historical origin and application of nostalgia therapy, social work and nostalgia therapy are expected to further achieve integrated development. Social work not only needs to flexibly use the four service modes of narrative nostalgia, instrumental nostalgia, transitive nostalgia and integrative nostalgia, but also needs to follow the practical framework and action steps of style matching, contextual linking, memory redemption, narrative deconstruction, identity reconstruction and support allegory, and grasp the core technologies of aesthetic matching, nostalgia anchoring, space-time metaphor and life story.

The effective utilization of social workers’ professional expertise is critical in the development of scientifically grounded and diverse employment training models for individuals with disabilities. Interviews conducted in four cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, identified three fundamental challenges within the current disability employment training programs, including the lack of alignment with job vacancies, the insufficient practical training in real-world contexts, and the inadequate training in basic professional skills. An employment training program for visually impaired baristas, guided by a competency model and delivered by social workers in collaboration with professional baristas as trainers, undertook comprehensive, systematic, and innovative practical exploration. As a result, six out of seven participants achieved the proficiency level of intern barista, with four participants successfully securing employment. This case study has informed the development of a replicable and scalable “Competency-Based Social Worker-Involved Employment Training Model for Individuals with Disabilities.” This framework encompasses detailed descriptions of the approach, underlying principles, the dynamics between social workers and professional trainers, and the practical framework and procedural methodology employed.

The emergence of new quality productivity represents a significant leap in productivity and is driving profound transformation across various sectors of society through disruptive technologies and methods. With the establishment of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which serves as the main force in addressing social issues and meeting the needs of the people,the question of how the new local social work talent pool can achieve high-quality development in alignment with new quality productivity has become a prominent topic of discussion. Research has found that there is a bidirectional empowering coupling mechanism between the construction of social work talent and the development of new quality productivity. New quality productivity drives the iterative upgrading of the social work talent pool, while the social work talent pool supports the robust development of new quality productivity in practice, with high consistency in both developmental goals and value dimensions. In reality, the professional ecosystem of social work is continuously adapting to the development of new quality productivity. However, challenges remain, including a disconnect between the goals and content of social work talent development, insufficient support for building the talent pool, and ambiguous positioning of the talent pool. Therefore, it is essential to establish a cultivation positioning aimed at the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, construct a development mechanism centered on new quality productivity, and explore a practical path focused on “social work + digital intelligence” to promote the high-quality development of the new local social work talent pool.

Relying on the Diathesis-Stress Model and the tripartite model of depression and anxiety, this study examines how school interpersonal relationships (i.e., teacher-student relationship and peer relationship) influence the mental health of rural children (i.e., depression, anxiety, and stress) and compares the differences between left-behind and non-left-behind children. Using a sample of 452 rural children from W County in China, the study employs hierarchical regression analysis to reveal that peer relationship and teacher-student relationship significantly influence the mental health of rural children, with peer relationship exerting a stronger influence than teacher-student relationship. Furthermore, significant differences are found in how school interpersonal relationships affect levels of depression between left-behind and non-left-behind children, indicating that the impact of teacher-student relationship and peer relationship on depression is more pronounced among left-behind children. This study provides empirical evidence for the development of targeted social work intervention programs and offers suggestions for the improvement of relevant policies.

With the increasingly severe aging crisis in China, there is an urgent need for effective intervention measures to address the health issues faced by elderly women. This study, as part of the project “Living with Youthful Feeling: Rural Elderly Women’s Health Promotion Group”, selected 24 rural elderly women as research subjects. Adopting an unique perspective on subjective age, a series of health promotion group activities were designed and implemented. Using a classic experimental design, the effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated. The results indicated significant improvement in the experimental group regarding appearance age, and self-rated health levels, while no such changes were observed in the control group, demonstrating the effectiveness of the intervention. Social workers assisting rural elderly women in pursuing a “youthful feeling” not only enriched their life experiences and fostered a sense of youthfulness but also significantly improved their health levels. This intervention research has provided new insights for health promotion initiatives targeting elderly women.

In the context of comprehensive rural revitalization, the effective provision of public services in rural areas has become an important governance challenge. Government contracting and outsourcing, as a method to achieve “state-society” partnership, exhibit distinct administrative characteristics in their implementation. However, they also face challenges regarding weak autonomy, narrow coverage and disruptions in continuity. Adopting the perspective of cooperative production, this paper conducts extensive theoretical analysis and case review of the “Qiao Sao” project in S rural community, N city based on an analytical framework of “structure-process-value”. The study reveals that social work organizations can guide village level governance organizations into a structured process through service outsourcing, fostering a cooperative organizational structure for project operation that revitalizes local participation; By reengineering the whole process of cooperative planning, design, delivery and evaluation, a connected service chain is established to expand service coverage. Furthermore, by redefining rural publicity, the study highlights the co-creation of the high-quality and efficient service value, and the governance value that enhances participation, and the public value grounded in trust and collaberation. The interlinked mechanisms of structure creation, process reengineering and value co-creation provide meaningful insights for the grass-roots implementation of the project systems and the effective supply of rural public services.

Families who have lost their only child face multiple challenges due to the unexpected death of their sole offspring, requiring assistance and professional services from the government, communities, and social work agencies. This article examines the Golden Sunshine Social Work Service Project in X District of Shanghai as a case study. Guided by Demand Spillover Theory and oriented toward the specific needs of these bereaved families, the project constructs a layered social support system to alleviate familial and elderly care challenges, thereby effectively addressing the overflow of unmet needs in these households. Through analysis and reflection on the project’s service model, this study provides valuable insights for understanding, supporting, and serving urban families who have lost their only child, assists social work agencies in refining their service approaches, and explores innovative service models designed to assist these families.

The accessibility of basic public services in border areas, recognized as a disadvantaged zone in terms of public services, requires urgent attention. Taking the township social work stations in Jingxi City as an example, this article examines hows these border social work stations enhance the accessibility of basic public services through four key dimensions: “availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability”. The study found that the government optimizes the allocation of resources in border regions to achieve full coverage of social work stations in townships, which enhances the accessibility of basic public services. Social workers, following their commitment to assist individuals and informed by real-life practices, provide inclusive services to all border residents, thus promoting equal access to basic public services. Social work services emphasize empowering and improving the capacity of service users, which in turn promotes the acceptability of basic public services. Furthermore, Social workers also prioritize cultural sensitivity, respecting local cultural and ethnic customs to enhance the adaptability of basic public services. Border social work stations work together to promote the accessibility of basic public services in border areas by constructing a mechanism for the synergy of diverse service subjects, reshaping the mechanism of community publicity, and empowering border residents to form an internal and external cooperation mechanism with the community.

In a modern society characterized by diverse social structures and complex external environments, the estrangement between grassroots nonprofit organizations and local governments frequently occurs. Based on the open natural systems theory, this paper presents a case study of the evolving relationship between the S organization in Shandong Province and the local government, from initial collaboration to eventual estrangement. The study finds that the S organization’s need for funding and legitimacy, alongside the government’s operational pressures, initially facilitated their cooperation. However, following this period of collaboration, the needs of the S organization’s participants remain unmet, and the local government struggles to implement appropriate solutions. In this context, their relationship gradually becomes estranged. The imbalance in interactions, misalignment of goals, and conflict in operational logic during the collaboration are identified as the underlying causes of this relational shift.

China’s mandatory reporting system for child protection was established relatively late, and research on this system has yet to develop a clear framework. This article adopts the evidence-based method of systematic review to select, include and analyze Chinese research literature, aiming to outline the characteristics and orientations of existing studies on China’s mandatory reporting system for child protection. Through this systematic review, the paper identifies four primary orientations in China’s research regarding the mandatory reporting system: policy improvement, reporting mechanisms, theoretical linkage, and case identification. Additionally, through an in-depth analysis of each orientation, we propose four research initiatives for China’s mandatory child protection reporting system, including the development of a multidisciplinary theoretical framework, a shift towards localisation-oriented policy research, an expansion of research on the identification of the situation of each reporting subject, and an exploration of reporting mechanism at the social level.