Editorial

In 2015 we celebrate twenty-five years from the resumption of social work activities Romania, in the first stage, with the emergence of non-governmental organizations, the first initiatives in the field of public institutions, through the actions of specialists trained in Romania or outside the country. The low number of social workers in 1990, associated with the severity of social problems already known in the international community (institutionalized children, disabled persons) required the first steps to qualify specialists in the field, resulting in the establishment of social work departments in the most important Romanian universities and the reconstruction of the educational system for social work. This was the reason why the first issue of the year was dedicated to some investigations that present characteristics of health and social services in the last quarter century in Romania, in a diachronic and synchronic manner.

The first number of 2015 begins with an analysis of the child protection sector, published by Melania Mabe Popa, from the University of South Carolina, USA, Phd in social work of the Graduate School of Social Work, Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. It describes the results of a qualitative study on the issue of international adoption in Romania.

The following describes a chronological and content analysis of the educational system in the field, in the article of Emilia Sorescu, Romanian social work education - history, standards and perspectives. The development at high quality standards of university education is noteworthy, by involving personalities with significant results in the downturns of Romanian social services.

The concerns for quality education in the field are also analyzed by Denizia Gal with a description of the development of gerontological social work, addressing the gerontological and geriatric care and assistance in a transdisciplinary manner.

The issue of people with disabilities is published in the article of three university teachers from Timişoara, Loreni Elena Baciu, Teodor Mircea Alexiu and Andreea Bîrneanu. The institutional and legislative developments in Romania, associated with important provisions deriving from social policies of the European Commission are explicitly and diachronically described.

In the article Roma social integration policies after a quarter of a century of post-communism in Romania, Theofild Andrei Lazăr, Melinda Dincă and Roxana Ungureanu publish in a detailed manner the most important contributions after 1990 in the Romanian issue of integration measures of Roma people.

An original perspective on child protection in Romania is described in the work of Ion Petrică, Empiricism of State-Church Relationing in the Field of Social Work and Assistance in Post-December Romania’s Regions (focused on child protection).

Carmen Aurora Bărbat is publishing an article on a field that is insufficiently addressed in the literature of social work, Psychosocial Issues in Palliative Care Tasks for Social Workers, referring to important multidisciplinary components and descriptions of reference institutions in Romania.

The research of authors Ion Petrică and Lavinia Elisabeta Popp analyses an area with multiple debates in the field: The importance of the Dialogue between Social Work and Religiousness in the Context of European Romania's Social Reality, in a Social Work Public Institution.

The results of a research conducted by Mihai-Bogdan Iovu, Patricia Runcan and Remus Runcan are continuing the concerns in the field of social work education, with reference to the students in the field.

The article of Simona Bodogai describes the results of a qualitative study of the problem of sexual minorities, the role of the social worker, referring to explicit intervention methods.

The interest and research content published in this issue are encouraging us to propose the creation of a collective volume on the history of social work in Romania, with reference to the evolution and regression of the institutions, legislation, the educational or professional community in the field.