Quiz 9 PDF

# TEMA 9 Fundamentos, principios y objetivos de los Servicios Sociales. Información, atención y acogida de los usuarios en los Centros Municipales de Servicios Sociales. La atención de urgencias # Introducción The origin of Social Work must be placed in Great Britain at the end of the 19th centur...

# TEMA 9 Fundamentos, principios y objetivos de los Servicios Sociales. Información, atención y acogida de los usuarios en los Centros Municipales de Servicios Sociales. La atención de urgencias # Introducción The origin of Social Work must be placed in Great Britain at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, framed in a climate of social problems caused by the Industrial Revolution and economic liberalism, which gave rise to the need for social interventions. The nature, functions, and principles of Social Work cannot be analyzed from a single definition since it has been shaped by the combination of various factors: * The forms of social action or assistance existing at any given time. * The values prevailing with respect to the person. * Situations of need or psychosocial difficulty. * The development of the social sciences. As a means of social policy that aims to achieve the social well-being of the entire population, Social Services are configured as technical services that are made available to citizens in order to facilitate the human development process, "making their full social integration effective and offering the necessary support to prevent and overcome any possible obstacles that may hinder or impede this development." We can say, in a broad sense, that Social Services are one of the instruments that Welfare States use to materialize social rights. There are multiple definitions of Social Services, which vary depending on the perspective adopted. They are part of the general policy of Welfare State development, being configured as a public system that offers social protection and contributes to meeting the basic needs of citizens. Article 14 of the European Social Charter speaks of "the right to the benefits of Social Services" and, to guarantee the effective exercise of this right, urges the members of the Council of Europe to promote or organize services that, using the methods of a social service, contribute to the well-being and development of individuals and groups in the community, as well as their adaptation to the environment or social context. It is also stated that the participation of individuals and charitable organizations in the creation and maintenance of these services must be encouraged. From this approach, the basic components of Social Services for the European Social Charter can be outlined. For them, they are a method, an instrument, a technique that aims to achieve the greatest welfare of the individual, as well as integration into society; their purpose would not be limited to meeting basic needs, and finally, they would have the participation of individuals and associations as an essential element. The Council of Europe, in 1980, proposes the following definition: **All organisms** created to provide direct personal assistance to individuals, groups or communities, in order to promote their integration into society, excluding services concerned with ensuring a certain level through economic benefits. From a purely theoretical perspective, R. Timus connects the concept of Social Services with that of the Welfare State, stating that the objective of Social Services is to meet publicly recognized needs that markets or families cannot meet. In Spain, Carmen Alemán highlights that the concept of Social Services has evolved throughout history. In its origins, they were aimed at meeting the most obvious needs, and currently, a wider consolidation is planned, reaching all members of the community. She defines Social Services as instruments of social policy, which are available to both society and public authorities, in order to provide a valid response to the needs of individuals, groups, and communities for greater social well-being and to achieve a better quality of life. C. Alemán and M. García establish one of the most comprehensive definitions that have been developed on Social Services: they are configured as services, instruments, and public services of an organized technical nature. They are generally aimed at improving the quality of life and at preventing and eliminating social marginalization of all citizens and groups. In particular, they provide information, assistance, and care to sectors that, due to age, ethnicity, physical conditions..., have difficulties in social integration. For M. Moix, Social Services, are technical services offered to the public or to certain sectors thereof, on a regular and continuous basis, by the most diverse public or private organizations, in order to achieve or increase social well-being. Those services carried out for the sake of charity or according to common sense are excluded from the definition. D. Casado and E. Guillen develop a definition of Social Services stating that, such a system must meet certain structured elements: * **Moderately far-reaching technical activities:** * Aimed at preventing deficiencies, rehabilitation of capabilities, social accessibility or caring for those affected or their families. * They are created or maintained by various production methods, but always with a certain degree of formalization and organization. * They are organized at the primary and secondary levels, and their areas or sectors of intervention are: family and minors, youth, old age, disabled, alcoholism and drug addiction, delinquency and related problems, discrimination based on gender, ethnic minorities, poverty and marginalization, foreigners and disorganization * **Community organization:** Summarising, we could say that Social Services are a combination of services and benefits that, including other elements of Welfare State, are aimed at: * **The promotion and full development of all persons and groups within society, in order to achieve greater social well-being and a better quality of life in a convivial environment.** * **To prevent and eliminate the causes that lead to social exclusion and marginalisation.** All this is achieved through the public structures and services of the State Administration, Autonomous Communities and Local Corporations. Moreover, they must ensure the full and free development of the rights of individuals and groups, guaranteeing equality in society, as well as ensuring that social needs are met, adapting them to the changing social reality, without forgetting to prevent the circumstances leading to marginalization, as well as promoting the full integration of individuals and groups into community life. # 1. Fundamentos de los Servicios Sociales As is well known, assistance to the needy is as old as humanity itself. In primitive societies, assistance to the needy and helpless was assumed by the family, the tribe or the clan, as an aspect of the mutual support they gave each other. There is no doubt that the bonds that united the family, lineage, tribe or clan constituted the main motivation for mutual assistance and its sphere of implementation. The evolutionary development specific to societies led to the improvement of assistance systems born from the beginnings of history and which found their most institutionalized expression in the Middle Ages. From that perspective, the role played by the precursors of the profession is given central importance. However, within this current of thought, it is possible to distinguish three more or less divergent stances: * Those who indicate that the origin of Social Service is linked to assistance to those in need, as a human commitment from the dawn of humanity. Starting from that context, both public and private organizations, as well as societies themselves, would generate the organization of societies as a global context and within them, the organization of institutions, both public and private, whose purpose is to assist those in need. The second point of view of this thesis states that the origin of Social Service as a profession arises in the 60s, whereby all that has been done before is discounted. The reason given is that the profession experienced a very important methodological and theoretical review in that decade, known as "Reconceptualisation," which brought about substantial changes in the methodology and in the underlying paradigm of the discipline. Those who accept this theory state that only from that moment can we speak of a profession. Before that, social service was nothing more than an organized activity to provide assistance to the poorest. One of the most debated points of view in the Reconceptualisation process is that the practice of social service grounds the theory. This premise explains the fact that the profession requires more than just "a desire to help" to carry out its work and must base its interventions on the theories that the social sciences offer us. There is a third current that combines both points of view. Thus, Natalio Kisnerman indicates that the Social Service process is dialectical. Overcoming each stage creates a new one that contains and negates it. The stage of Social Assistance constituted the thesis and lasted from 1869 to 1917. For many years, it was possible to confront another form of assistance, and in doing so, Social Service emerged, negating social assistance. From the 60s onwards, movements of Reconceptualisation deny Social Service and seek to overcome it. Kisnerman adds that the origin of the profession arises from a sequence of stages, linked to intervention through models with the need to create an instrumental method for the development of social assistance. Then, we move on to a level where the need arises from the preparation of a professional. Subsequently, we reach a third level that demands this professional to systematize their work and the organization of social services. Finally, the current level requires this professional to be able to develop theory based on their practical experience. Thus, there are many who believe that, in social service, three models of intervention have traditionally been given, among them José Lucena Dantas, who states: * **The Assistance Model**: Which would have emerged from the 19th century until the 1930s, particularly in the United States, and was basically situated in the development of Social Case strategies. * **The Adjustment Model**: This would have emerged between the 1930s and 1960. Its objective was the institutionalization of practice. However, it is argued that this model did nothing more than generate processes of "adaptation" of people to the social system. * **The Development and Social Change Model**: From the 1960s to the present day. In this period, we can also see two currents: revolutionary Social Service with ideological commitment and Social Service for development, eminently scientific. **José Lucena Dantas's contribution (in Batista 1980) links the stages to the models of intervention:** **The Assistance model** - Middle Ages to the 19th century, and - The United States up to the 1930s, when casework assumes the psychosocial framework. **The Adjustment model** - Institutionalization of practices known as Social Service. - Adjustment or adaptation of "individuals" to the social system. The antecedents of the history of Social Work indicate that assistance to the needy, transformed into Social Assistance, had been provided in a disorganized manner and generally by individuals. However, from the 15th century onwards, some individuals began to consider it necessary to organize this Assistance and the need to prepare the people in charge of carrying it out. Social Work, through its history, has undergone a series of changes regarding its conceptualization and its scope of intervention. Initially, it arose out of the need for individuals to translate their altruistic goals into those of the most vulnerable groups in society, for which this activity began to be institutionalized gradually as a new profession. Social work as an activity dates back to the beginning of human history, where surely somebody needed something and somebody else was willing to give it to them. However, this discipline started to be systematized only at the beginning of the 19th century with Mary Ellen Richmond. The first contributions of a theoretical nature were made by Mary Richmond, considered the main precursor of the methods to be used by the profession, which led to the need to train people who were carrying out social actions, with the creation of the first school of charity in Amsterdam. Despite this progress, these contributions soon became obsolete because it was proving to be an overly assistance-oriented exercise, with almost no theoretical basis, facing with the advancements made by the social sciences and the increasingly demanding demands imposed by social reality. Nowadays, it is necessary to understand Social Work as a professional discipline that intervenes in reality with the aim of promoting social well-being within a framework of national development, Its main focus is on the complex relationship established between people, regardless of their social background. The goal is to enable people to fully develop their potential and abilities that enrich their lives and have the possibility of preventing dysfunctions. Professional Social Work aims to solve social problems and to bring about change. Therefore, social workers are defined as agents of change in society and in the lives of the people, families and communities for whom we work. To be an agent of change means being the professional who acts deliberately and in a planned way, both with regard to the problem, the client or their environment, in order to facilitate the planned change. From the perspective of values, Social Work has grown with humanitarian and democratic ideals, and its values are based on respect for equality, the value and the dignity of all people. From its beginnings, more than a century ago, the practice has focused on addressing human needs and developing human potential. Human rights and social justice constitute the motivation and justification for the action of Social Work. In solidarity with those who are disadvantaged, the profession fights to mitigate poverty and to liberate the vulnerable, excluded and oppressed, promoting the strengthening of these and their social inclusion. The values of Social Work are expressed in national and international codes of professional ethics. Thus, the Social Worker, as a true representative of the profession, becomes an external agent of promotion and social development and, as an external agent, is inserted into specific situations to collaborate in creating conditions that allow individuals and social groups in general, and popular groups in particular, to raise their level of awareness regarding the problems that affect them, as well as to equip them and organize themselves to promote individual and collective development. It is the person who carries out a study of socioeconomic conditions, patterns of life and interrelationships between the people involved. This study is based on serious research that covers all related fields, and uses the interview as a source of primary information. Taking all this into account, the fundamental characteristics of social work refer to two natures: * Theoretical or scientific-academic as an autonomous discipline: It requires: * A set of systematized knowledge. * Recognition of the interest and exclusivity of the service provided. * Establishing a suitable remuneration system. * A code of conduct or professional ethics. * Having the ability to study and/or transform a given object. * Technical or practice-oriented as a professional activity: It is: * An intervention aimed at the subject, focusing on the situation or problem at hand, providing an appropriate orientation so he/she can live a fulfilling life. The ethical awareness is a necessary part for professional practice according to Kisnerman. This is also a fundamental aspect of quality service. Social workers acknowledge a set of professional commitments that are recognized by the profession: 1. **Respect and promotion of the rights of individuals, groups and communities: The duty to respect and promote the autonomy of individuals, groups and communities, with special attention and sensitivity towards their social differences.** 2. **Equality: The duty to promote equality in the professional relationship and in relations between clients and institutions (the principle of collaboration and of empowerment, respectively).** 3. **Social justice: The duty to defend clients against social injustice and to apply the norms of social benefit distribution equitably, thus undertaking actions that transform them into fairer forms.** In 1994, the IFSW approved in its general assembly, held in Colombo, a Document on principles and criteria that should regulate the ethics of Social work. Its three objectives are: * **To formulate a set of basic principles for social work and adaptable to different contexts and cultures.** * **To identify ethically problematic areas in practice.** * **To provide guidance on the methods to be chosen to deal with and resolve ethical issues or problems.** These principles are the same as those contained in the Spanish Code of Ethics, which will be analyzed later. The problem areas identified are: when the social worker is faced with a situation of conflict between their own interests and those of the client, between clients and other individuals, between groups of clients, between groups of clients and the rest of the population... Also, the duty of the social worker to protect the interests of the client can easily come into conflict with demands for efficiency and effectiveness. For the resolution of issues or problems, social workers must consider the problems from the following bases: * The basic principles of the Declaration. * The ethical/moral and political context of the actions. * The nature of the actions. * The reasons for the actions. * The consequences of the actions. Experts in the field agree that the overriding objective of Social Services is to achieve a higher quality of life and social well-being for all, through general interventions aimed at preventing needs, providing assistance and integrating people and groups at risk, who, due to different personal and social circumstances, require actions specific to them. This objective, as general as it is, becomes concrete in what Casado calls tactical objectives: * **Assistance:** This involves meeting the needs of people using various resources to support basic living units. According to Ander-Egg's Social Work dictionary, assistance is the set of actions (governmental or not) that provide assistance to individuals or groups in need socially and/or economically. It also suggests that this assistance may be temporary or permanent. * **Rehabilitation:** This is aimed at integrating all individuals who are in a situation at risk of marginalization, through the promotion, strengthening of capabilities and development of the individual’s or group's skills, in order to recover lost functions and to dismantle those obstacles that hinder or impede social integration, their participation in political, cultural, economic, and social life... * **Prevention:** Involves addressing the causes that lead to marginalization and states of need in order to eliminate them. The prevention of exclusion could be achieved by improving structural circumstances that cause social problems and by acting on risk factors affecting the population, while at the same time strengthening protective factors. There are two forms of prevention: primary prevention, which refers to general social change interventions that eliminate inequality and improve the structural circumstances that are the source of need. Secondary prevention, on the other hand, refers to direct intervention carried out with the individual or risk group. The Plan Concertado for the Development of Basic Provision of Social Services in Local Corporations incorporates a perspective that points to a twofold purpose: * **The promotion and full development of all individuals and groups within society for greater social well-being and a better quality of life in their environment, and again, the prevention and elimination of the causes that lead to social exclusion and marginalization.** In its Article 7.3, the Law on Social Services of the Community of Madrid refers to the purpose of Social Services, stating that it is to promote social integration, equality of opportunities, personal autonomy, family cohabitation, participation of individuals and groups, through a promotional, preventative, protective and care function for social needs arising from situations of vulnerability, exclusion, neglect, helplessness, dependence, urgency or social emergency. # 2. Principios of the Servicios sociales When referring to principles, we are thinking about the criteria that regulate the actions of institutions and organizations dedicated to social services, and those of professionals working in this field. Article 8 of the Law on Social Services states that the Public System of Social Services shall be governed by the principles of universality, equality, equity, non-discrimination, singularity and solidarity, as well as by the principles of public and institutional responsibility, quality, planning and evaluation, effectiveness and efficiency, competition and coordination, universal accessibility, interdisciplinarity, person-centered care, proximity, digital impulse, innovation, networking, and promotion of social initiative and volunteering. 1. **Universality**: Social Services must be available and accessible to everyone, regardless of who is required to finance them. 2. **Equality**: The right to access and use social services without discrimination on grounds of race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, age, ideology, belief or any other personal or social condition. The principle of equality shall be compatible with positive discrimination that contributes to overcoming the disadvantages of an initial situation of inequality and facilitates social integration. 3. **Equity**: Implies fair treatment of all individuals, acknowledging diversity and eliminating any type of discrimination. 4. **Non-discrimination**: against any individual or group on grounds of race, religion, politics, sex, age, physical or mental condition, etc. 5. **Singularity**: Consideration of all individuals as unique beings with characteristics, needs, interests, and strengths that must be recognized and taken into account in any type of social intervention. 6. **Solidarity**: As an inspiring value in relationships between individuals and social groups, in order to promote cooperation among all for common well-being. 7. **Public responsibility**: in the promotion, planning, coordination, control, implementation, and evaluation of social services to meet identified needs, based on objective analysis, according to criteria of fairness and social justice. 8. **Quality**: Continuous improvement in the quality of social services, through a system of accreditation and continuous evaluation of results, as well as continuing professional development. 9. **Planning and evaluation**: Public authorities shall carry out their actions in the area of social services in a planned manner, so that it is possible to achieve the objectives of social policy. Evaluation makes it possible to assess whether the objectives have been met. 10. **Effectiveness and efficiency**: Effectiveness refers to the ability to achieve the objectives set out, while efficiency refers to the effective use of resources to achieve a given objective. This implies optimizing resources. 11. **Competition**: From different social agents and private initiatives, in meeting the social needs of the population, under the supervision of public administrations. 12. **Coordination**: Between public administrations, and between these and private initiatives, in order to establish coherent actions and joint programs of action, especially between those involved in the development of social well-being and the integral development of the individual, such as those in charge of employment, health, education, housing and culture. 13. **Universal Accessibility**: Public authorities shall guarantee that access to the benefits and services of social services is carried out under conditions of universal accessibility and design for all. 14. **Interdisciplinarity**: Teamwork and integration of contributions from various professions in the sphere of social intervention and any other that may be appropriate. 15. **Person-centered care**: Individualised care, based on a comprehensive assessment of each person's needs in their family, group and community environment. 16. **Proximity**: The provision of social services must be provided from the location closest to the individual, through an equitable allocation of resources that allows for the life and cohabitation of individuals. 17. **Digital progress**: Public authorities shall promote access to the Andalusian Public System of Social Services through the rational use of information and communication technologies, as well as social networks. 18. **Innovation**: Public authorities will promote the talent of entrepreneurs and civic innovators in the field of social issues, channeling the most valuable human talent to seek the best solutions, sharing successful practices and promoting their extension, and ensuring that adaptations are carried out with quality within the Andalusian Public System of Social Services. 19. **Networking**: It implies cooperation to achieve common goals. 20. **Promotion of social initiative and volunteering**. # 3. Objectives of the Servicios Sociales We consider Social Work to be a discipline that starts from the idea of the human being as a being in constant interaction with his or her surroundings and that aims at the relationships between human beings and between human beings and their environment, especially between groups and institutions. The term objective expresses the purpose or aim of an action, while the term function is used to express the specific activity that corresponds to an occupation. The objectives of Social Work constitute what we want to achieve through professional interventions, while the functions are those specific activities that we perform to reach those objectives. The development of professional practice, therefore, focuses on the relationships between people and the environment, relationships that significantly influence their capabilities and skills, relieve their distress and anguish, and make their individual and collective aspirations a reality. From this arise several general inter-related objectives: 1. **Promotion, restoration, conservation, or improvement of the functioning of individuals, families, social groups and communities, helping them to prevent risky situations and to use both interpersonal and intrapersonal resources, as well as those provided for social assistance.** 2. **Research, planning and development, and implementation of policies, services, and programs necessary to meet basic needs and to foster the development of skills and abilities.** 3. **Development and testing of knowledge and skills in relation to these objectives**. In the practice of Social Work, two categories of objectives and functions are clearly distinguished: a) **Sociological or essential objectives and functions:** These include interventions by social workers that are related to self-help and promotion, which consist of improving the perceptions and attitudes of individuals in order to contribute to their realization as active subjects in social well-being and pursue, therefore, self-determination of the person. To this end, the social worker assumes the role of advisor/social educator in the development of individual skills and abilities. Assistance-oriented interventions are aimed at transforming those environmental conditions that hinder the realization of the human being as an active subject in social well-being, allowing them access to basic social goods, and thus, the professional takes on the role of designer and implementer of social policies. b) **Methodological or instrumental objectives and functions**: These are a set of steps, activities, and techniques that guide the development of an intervention. To carry out these objectives, social intervention has historically assumed two different forms: direct intervention and indirect intervention. # 4. Information, attention and reception of users at the municipal centers of Social Services The program of information, orientation, and assessment represents the first level of action for the Public Social Services System and the gateway for citizens to access these services. It provides citizens with the opportunity to obtain information and to access existing social resources under conditions of equality and fairness. Its objectives are: 1. **To provide the citizen and the community in general with knowledge and access to social resources in a professional assistance relationship which guarantees a response that is appropriate to those needs recognised as belonging to the scope of action of Social Services.** 2. **To compensate for the lack of understanding of the Public Social Services System and other systems, to equalise opportunities of access to goods or resources that may be available to them, and to enable free choice.** 3. **To gather and analyse social demands and problems raised, with a view to implementing and improving them in future programmes, and to efficiently and effectively allocate available resources at all times to meet the identified social needs.** To provide information, it is necessary to be informed. Assuming that the resources and access to information are exhaustive, the Social Worker inevitably needs to "be informed" by the user they are assisting, about what is actually happening to them, and how the user communicates this information in many different ways, making it not always easy to grasp and interpret. Intuition should not be used as an almost exclusive guide. A tool that is certainly useful can become a generator of errors if it is not used appropriately. It is necessary to allow yourself to be informed and not to rush to give answers to what has not been formulated. Listen to the user, to find out not only the problem or problems they are seeking a solution to, but also what expectations they have of the service, what prior information they have about social services, and what personal resources they have. Information, provided by Social Services, is not unique. It is well known that information in matters of Social Services must be adapted to the personal, family or group conditions of the interviewee. Never, not even in the most regulated benefits or services, can information be provided in a standardized way, even if it seems self-evident that such services require prior knowledge of the characteristics of the individual, and are subject to considerable changes depending on the circumstances. Information is always placed within an interview, and an interview can go to a certain depth. The interview may be superficial, in which case it does not require going beyond a certain proximity to privacy, allowing the Social Worker to meet the demand for information, without the need to obtain more information than that offered in broad strokes. However, even in this first intervention, information requires adequate space for carrying out an interview which, although brief, can be no less thorough. Information, the first of the benefits provided by an Initial Attention Service, requires a private space, shared only by the user and the Social Worker, sufficiently isolated from the rest of the premises, so that the privacy of those using this Service is not compromised. It is inconceivable that this benefit is still offered at counters, open or shared offices, when no "deterrent" third degree is imposed on those who should facilitate and not obstruct the user’s access to the Social Worker. The guiding function of Initial Attention has a dual aspect, as it affects the user as a primary objective, but its influence is felt throughout the Social Services System, as it is integrated as a basic benefit. Assessment is not always a separate step within Initial Attention, since the number of demands that do not require an assessment with its own dedicated space must be taken into account. In those cases, assessment and orientation merge into a single moment. However, for obvious reasons, this orientation is never a mechanical response, and always creates differences, so that it could be considered a mere information service. When the nature of the situation described requires it, the Social Worker will need to analyze the information collected in the interview, and even consult with a member of the team or with other professionals, in order to be in a position to provide accurate guidance after a better evaluation. It will therefore be necessary to hold another interview. During Initial Attention, the number of interviews with the user must be kept to a minimum, but enough to ensure that appropriate guidance is provided to: * **Direct the user to the appropriate external resource, with information tailored to the actual situation.** * **Forward their demand to the municipal Social Services Network, the General Social Work Unit in the area, informing the user in the same way about the steps to be taken in the intervention process that has already begun.** It is not enough to remember that to help is not synonymous with resolving, because, despite this reality, a properly developed Initial Attention provides a guarantee that one of the basic objectives of Social Work is being met: to offer citizens, through qualified professionals, the Social Workers, access to information about the resources of different organizations, which are often disconnected and excessively fragmented in a society that isolates professionals by specializations and does not take the individual’s overall situation into account. Reception is the set of professional actions aimed at taking on the demand made by a person and its purpose is to get closer to this demand, understand it, assess its urgency and to foster the creation of a bond with the person making the demand, so that they feel welcome and are better prepared to receive the subsequent assessment. Reception and welcome are carried out through two actions in the Social Services centers: reception and welcome. Reception, which is the person’s first contact with the center, is generally carried out by administrative staff and includes taking the person’s initial details and scheduling a first appointment with a professional. Welcome is that first interview with a professional. The Social Worker, like other professionals at the Social Services Centre, has the first contact with the person, through this first welcome interview, which encompasses three dimensions: as a relationship, as a technique and as a process. A series of objectives are aimed to be fulfilled through this interview: * Active listening to the demand. * Gathering the essential minimum information. * Checking if there is any reason for priority in handling the information. * Providing information and orientation on possible actions, directing those demands that do not correspond to the centre to the most appropriate services. * Building rapport and establishing a bond. * Motivating the person to initiate the attendance process. * Scheduling an appointment or appointments with the professionals who will be involved in the assessment. The professional who carries out this welcome (whether the Social Worker or another professional from the team) must, in all cases, carry out an initial analysis of the person’s demand and/or their family, as well as their motivation and expectations, and strive to strengthen and support their desire to change. They will also collect information on other variables and complete the social file. # 5. Attention to Emergencies The Law 12/2022, of December 21, on Social Services of the Community of Madrid considers social emergencies to be "accidents, damage, disasters, pandemics or any other circumstance susceptible to causing serious damage to the population, which may lead to surprise states of vulnerability and social protection of a group of people, in accordance with legislation on the protection of public safety, civil protection and emergency management." Similarly, it considers a social emergency to be “the situation of an exceptional or extraordinary nature, or a worsening of personal or family circumstances, with an impact on the conditions of vulnerability that require an immediate response from the Public Social Services System". Social urgency is not an objective state of deprivation. It’s a subjective situation of need experienced by the person affected, and also, considered as such by the professional carrying out the intervention, i.e., they are situations of social risk, where the individual is not objectively in a situation of social deprivation. They’re situations that are the result of continual processes, where different social needs are manifested. Social urgency is part of the daily demands of any Primary Attention professional, and the strength of that Network is its ability to assess these situations and to prioritize intervention regarding them, in relation to other social demands, in order to prevent the development of ingrained processes of precarization and / or exclusion. Since the mid-80s, a series of changes have been taking place in Europe, which have generally changed the structure of European societies and have led to a greater incidence in social problems and ultimately social exclusion. The Spanish social structure has also been affected by these changes, including: * Transformations in the demographic structure: falling birth rate, shrinking family size, an increasing number of single-parent households, and people living alone, rising divorce and separation rates. * Difficulties in accessing housing, especially among young people. * Sectors of the population with precarious and temporary jobs. * Groups of the population that accumulate deficits of all kinds: educational, work-related, economic, health, etc., which reduces their ability to participate in society and leads to precarious states, which may lead to permanent exclusion. These phenomena foster weakness and poor integration in the sectors of the population most vulnerable and with fragile social support networks. Within this context, Social Urgency emerges. Social Urgency is a reality that is present in our society. It is the consequence of unforeseen events that often lead, in many cases, to states of deprivation. We live in what some sociologists define as "risk society", where citizens demand an organised and effective response from institutions to the situations that arise. In this sense, the *Samur Social*, as the *Social Emergency Service* in the City of Madrid, provides assistance to both individuals and groups when the people who live in or pass through our city find themselves, unexpectedly, in a situation of risk and social vulnerability, where, in many cases, the individual lacks the capacity for an independent response to unforeseen events. Topic 18 deals with the emergency response and social urgency in greater detail. # Bibliography * Ander-Egg, E.: Diccionario de Trabajo Social. Humanitas. Buenos Aires, 1982. * Benito, P.: Second phase: *The Social Work Unit–Area.* *Comprehensive care for the citizen in the Social Work Unit of the Area*. * Communications of the Social Services Centers of the City of Madrid. * Casado, D. and Guillen, E.: Introduction to Social Services. Ed. Popular. Madrid, 1997. * *The Official College of Social Workers of the Region of Murcia*. www.tsmu.org * Conde Megías, R.: *The Nature, object, objectives and functions of Social Work*. Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 2003. * General Directorate of Social Services and Care for Dependency. City Hall of Madrid. *Annual Report*. Madrid, April 2009. * *The Public System of Social Services*. www.mtas.es * Fernández Garcia, T. and Alemán Bracho, C.: Introduction to Social Work. Ed. Alianza. Madrid, 2003. * Fuentes, M. and Mormeneo, M.C.: *Criteria for intervention in General Social Services. Intervention design*. Communications from the Social Services Centers of the City of Madrid. * Law 11/2003 on Social Services of the Community of Madrid. * García, R.: *First phase: Social Work Unit. First Level of Social Services*. Communications from the Social Services Centers of the City of Madrid. * Mastangelo de Pamphilis, R.: *On the object of Social Work*. Lumen Humanitas, 2004. * *Report of the Social Emergency Service of the Community of Madrid*. 2013. * Moix Martínez, M.: *Introduction to social work*. Trivium. Madrid, 1991. * Moix Martínez, M: “*Social Work and Social Services. Their Concept*”, Rev. *Cuadernos de Trabajo Social*, volume 17. 2004. * Saledo Megales, D.: *The Evolution of the Principles of Social Work.* Actions and Social Research. University of Granada. * Morales, J.F. and Olza, M.: *Social Psychology and Social Work*. Madrid, 1996. * Strategic Plan for Social Services of the Community of Madrid (2008). * *The Organization and Operation Regulations of the Social Services Centers of the City Hall of Madrid*. * Salzberger-Wittenberg, I.: *The assistance relationship*. Amorrortu editores. Buenos Aires, 1990. * *Community Social Emergency Service of Madrid*. www.madrid.org. * Zamanillo, T. and Gaitán, L.: *How to understand social work,* Ed. Navarra. 1991.