The Social Work Profession PDF

THE SOCIAL WORK PROFESSION Dole-outs/acts of altruism: The giving of material aid to those in need, out of sense of kindness Social Work Profession: A discipline that requires specific competencies in order to be of real help to people, and ultimately to be able to contribute to nation-building....

THE SOCIAL WORK PROFESSION Dole-outs/acts of altruism: The giving of material aid to those in need, out of sense of kindness Social Work Profession: A discipline that requires specific competencies in order to be of real help to people, and ultimately to be able to contribute to nation-building. This is a profession that is practiced independently or as a part of the team in many different fields. Social Functioning: Social work’s focus of concern. This is the relation between the coping activity of people and the demand of the environment. This is the “people coping” and “environmental demand” – two aspects of living in society combined. This means the interaction between the individual and his situation or environment. Three Functions of Social Work Activities Focused upon Social Relationships: 1. Restoration of impaired capacities 2. Provision of individual and social resources 3. Prevention of social dysfunction Symbiotic: Each needing the other for its own life and growth, and each reaching out to the other with all the strength it can command at a given moment The Social Worker’s Field of Intervention Lies at the Point where Two Forces Meet: 1. The individual’s impetus toward health, growth and belonging, 2. and the organized efforts to society to integrate its parts into a productive and dynamic whole Person-in-his-life-situation Complex: A simultaneous dual focus on man and his environment Social Environment: A network of overlapping social systems and social situations, including ecological systems, cultures and institutions. Social Situation: An impinging segment of the social environment. This is a smaller, more immediate environment that “has meaning for the individual and that is uniquely perceived and interpreted by him, in which he has a one or more status – roles and identities, is a group member and a role performer”. Person’s Coping Capacity is Influenced by: 1. Physical Condition 2. Attitudes 3. Values 4. Knowledge 5. Skills 6. Perceptions of Reality Social Worker’s Job Assignment: Involves “mediating” or “matching”, or striking a balance between people’s coping ability and environmental/situational demands Social Role: Defined as the socially recognized pattern of behaviors and activities expected from an individual occupying a certain position in society. Social Work Interventions in Enhancing Individual’s Social Functioning: 1. Change strategies toward the individual 2. Change strategies toward environment 3. Change strategies toward individual and environment The Functions of Social Work: 1. To assist individuals and groups to identify and resolve or minimize problems arising out of a disequilibrium between themselves and the environment.  Curative Aspect: Seeks to remove factors which have caused the breakdown in the person’s social functioning.  Rehabilitative Aspect: Tries to put back the person to a normal or healthy state of social functioning. 2. To identify potential areas of disequilibrium between individuals or groups and the environment in order to prevent the occurrence of disequilibrium.  Preventive Function: Involves the early discovery, control, and elimination of those conditions or situations which may have a harmful effect on social functioning. 3. To seek out, identify, and strengthen the maximum potential in individuals, groups, and communities.  Developmental Function: The aim is both to help the individual make maximum use of his own potentials and capacities as well as to further the effectiveness of available social or community resources. This usually has an educational aspect. Five Elements as Constituting the Distinguishing Attributes of a Profession (Ernest Greenwood): 1. Systematic Body of Theory (Knowledge): The skills that characterize a profession flow from and are supported by a fund of knowledge that has been organized into an internally consistent system. Theory: Serves as a base in terms of which the professional rationalizes his operations in concrete situations. Three Types of Knowledge: 1. Tested Knowledge: Knowledge that has been established through scientific study (research) 2. Hypothetical Knowledge: “unproved theory” 3. Assumptive Knowledge: “practice wisdom” 2. Professional Authority: Extensive education in the systematic theory of her discipline provides the professional with a type of knowledge which the layman does not have. 3. Community Sanction: Recognition of the professional authority is expressed in the professional-community relationship. Powers & Privileges: 1. Training Centers 2. Admission into the profession 3. Standards for professional performance Commission for Higher Education: This has the authority to accredit schools to have a profession’s control over the community’s training centers as one of the powers and privileges of community sanction. Professional Peers: Generally considered the best judge of whether one has engaged in malpractice or unethical behavior Board for Social Workers of the Professional Regulation Commission: Proper body to which complaints about Social Work profession malpractice can be reported. 4. Regulative Code of Ethics: This code serves to check possible abuses which can arise out of a profession’s exercise of authority, and its accompanying powers and privileges. Informal Discipline: Comes in the form of subtle and the not-so- subtle pressures that co-professionals exert upon one another, such as in the use of consultation and referral. o Consultation: The practice of inviting a colleague to participate in some aspect of the work being done in relation to a client’s need o Referral: Facilitating a client’s access to a colleague who can provide help other than what the worker can or is already providing. Formal Discipline: Exercised by the professional associations, which usually have some system of censuring unprofessional behavior o Professional Regulation Commission: Upon the recommendation of the Board for Social Workers, has caused the suspension or the holding of the registration of social workers for varied forms of malpractice 5. Professional Culture: Consists of its values, norms and symbols Social Values: Refer to the basic and fundamental beliefs of a professional group, practically the reason for its existence. Professional Norms: The accepted standards of behavior of doing things, which guide the professional in various situations Symbols of a Profession: These are the “meaning-laden items” including emblems, insignias, dress, history, its idioms and vocabulary, and its stereotypes of the professional, the client, and the layman. Professional Hierarchy: A factor which affects that society’s attitude towards the professions and occupations, which in turn affects such matters as programs and funding priorities Hierarchy: Based mainly on a Western-established set of criteria for judging occupations CHAPTER 4 THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND VALUE FOUNDATION OF SOCIAL WORK Five Main Criteria which Distinguish a Profession from an Occupation (Boehm): 1. A profession is expected to be responsible to the public interest and to contribute through its service to the advancement of social well-being and to be accountable to the public for the manner and standards with which it conducts its activities. 2. A profession should possess a relatively coherent, systematic and transmissible body of knowledge rooted in scientific theories which enables the practitioner of the profession to utilize concepts and principles and to apply them to specific situations rather than to use as a rule of thumb. The professional practitioner must have “know why” as well as “know how”. 3. The professional practitioner must adhere to an identifiable body of values, and display attitudes which stem from these values and which determine the relationship of the professional person with his colleagues, the recipients of his service, and the community. 4. A profession must have a body of skill, which is the result of the fusion of attitudes and knowledge. 5. The members of the profession must be organize and consider themselves as members of a group whose knowledge, skills, attitudes and norms of conduct they share and to whose advancement they are dedicated. Three Essential Components of Profession: 1. Value: Worth which man attaches to certain things, systems, or persons within the realm of usefulness, truth, goodness or beauty. William Gordon states that to “value” something is to “prefer” it. These actually are the source of our attitudes and determine our relationships with others. 2. Knowledge: Refers to what is thought to be, as confirmed by reality. This is established by the highest standards of objectivity and rationality of which man is capable. It is then concerned with facts and information. 3. Skill: Ability, expertness, or proficiency gained from practice and knowledge. This is developed through practice and is often called “art”. Professional Skill: Refers to one’s ability to apply the knowledge and values of one’s profession in her work with people. Philosophical Foundation: An encompassing term referring to the body of principles on which are rooted the professional’s attitudes and guides professional conduct or behavior. Man has worth and Dignity: Social work philosophy is based here. Democratic Theory: Views man as having worth because he is capable of reason, of rational analysis and choice. The Values of Social Work (Curriculum Study sponsored by Council on SW Education): 1. Each person has the right to self-fulfillment, deriving his inherent capacity and thrust toward that goal. 2. Each person has the obligation, as a member of society, to seek ways of self fulfillment that contribute to the common good. 3. Society has the obligation to facilitate the self-fulfillment of the individual and the right to enrichment through the contribution of its individual members. 4. Each person requires for the harmonious development of his powers socially provided and socially safeguarded opportunities for satisfying his basic needs in the physical, psychological, economic, cultural, aesthetic, and spiritual realm. 5. As society becomes more complex and interdependent, increasingly specialized social organization is required to facilitate the individual’s effort at self-realization. 6. To permit both self-realization and contribution to society by the individual, social organization must make available socially-provided devices for needs-satisfaction as wide in range, variety, and quality as the general welfare allows. Implied in these Values are the Following Concepts (Curriculum Study): 1. The concept of human potentials and capacities. 2. The concept of social responsibility. Corollary to this is the concept of right and responsibilities which means that every right carries corresponding duty or responsibility. 3. The concept of equal opportunities: This is premised on the ideal of social justice, two elements of which are fairness and equality 4. The concept of social provision: This refers to the desirability of providing social resources for the satisfaction of human needs for the goal of human welfare. Different Views About Man (Leonard Schneiderman): 1. Natural vs Transcendental View Naturalistic view: Man is part of nature. He can be studied and understood scientifically as we do the rest of nature. Transcendental view: Holds that science can never fully explain man, partly due to our ignorance, and partly because man has a potential to transcend the natural order of things, to choose, to create, and to be rational. 2. Man as Social, Asocial, or Anti-Social Social: Men aspire to live on good terms with others, to be part of and to contribute to group life, making personal goals subservient to group goals. Asocial: Discreet individuals who come together to form groups for their mutual protection and safety. Democracy’s View of Man: Man is viewed as capable of reason, of rational analysis and choice. Dominant Values of the Filipino: 1. Social Acceptance: Being taken as one’s fellows for what one is, or believes he is, and being treated in accordance with his status. Smooth Interpersonal Relations (SIR): A facility at getting along with others in such a way as to avoid outward signs of conflict. It is believed to be acquired and preserved principally by 3 means: a) Pakikisama: Which means “giving in”, “concession” or following the lead or suggestion of another b) Euphemism: Stating of an unpleasant truth, opinion or request as pleasantly as possible c) Use of a go-between or “tulay”: Which means a third party who will carry a message, assuage of bruise, or prevent an injury Amor Propio: Term used to refer to the sensitivity to personal affront and functions to protect the individual against loss of social acceptance. o Hiya: Value closely related to the value of amor propio which means “sense of shame” 2. Emotional Closeness and Security in a Family: This value is believed to be facilitated through the following: a) Sacrificing individual interest for the good of the family b) Parental striving to give their children an education even at a great cost to themselves c) Older children sacrificing for younger siblings d) Mothers, especially, making sacrifices for the family. 3. The Authority Value: The belief is that families will remain close if someone exerts firm authority, and that such person must be respected and obeyed. Respect for traditions and rituals: Closely related to the value of authority. Examples are: a) “Panalangin”: (literally prayer) which refers to the blessing or grace one obtains for good behavior b) “bahala na”: Fatalism God: Considered the ultimate source of authority 4. Personalism: This value attaches major importance to the personal factor which guarantees intimacy, warmth, and security of kinship and friends in getting things done. “tiwala” (trust) “kilala” (personal preference) “walang pakielam (non-interference) 5. Utang na Loob: This value literally means debt of gratitude. It compels the recipient to show his gratitude properly by returning a favor “with interest” to be sure that he does not remain in the other’s debt. 6. Patience, Suffering, and Endurance: This is a cultural belief that a person must suffer before he can gain happiness, and related to it is that which many still believe, that women, particularly, must suffer in silence. Proverbs: Tell us about the nature of Filipino life and culture, provide us the insights into the psychology of the people, and reflect our values and ethics. Social Work Principles: 1. Acceptance of people as they are: This is dealing with the client as he is in reality. This also means people have strengths and weaknesses, and capacities and limitations. 2. Participation of the Client in Problem-Solving: The client is there, and has a part in the entire problem- solving process. 3. Self-Determination as a right of the client: The client, who is in economic, personal, or social need, has the right to determine what his needs are and how they should be met. 4. Individualization of clients: The recognition and understanding of each client’s unique qualities and the differential use of principles and methods in assisting each toward a better adjustment. 5. Confidentiality: Provide the client protection, within the limits of the law, from harm that might result from his divulging information to the worker. 6. Worker Self-awareness: The social worker is always conscious that her role is to make use of her professional relationship with her client in a way that will enhance primarily the client’s development rather than her own. 7. Client-worker relationship: This should be controlled and purposive. It comes to be formed on the basis of expectations from the parties who compromise the relationship Purpose: Denotes the object for which something exists. Direction: Refers to where the relationship between the worker and client should move in order to achieve its purpose. Ambivalence: Introduced into psychiatry by noted psychiatrist, Bleuer is based on the proposition that the human mind functions in a dualistic way that conflict between its opposing tendencies (ambivalence) often results. Transference: A concept from Freudian psycho-therapy. It is believed to take place when the client unconsciously transfers the social worker attributes or characteristics of some important or powerful persons in his early life. Counter-transference: Worker’s unconscious response to the client’s unconscious transference. Psycho-analysis: Generally considered the best way by which one gets to avoid the transference and counter-transference, since it brings out into the open early emotions which the conscious mind has forgotten. Ethics: The science that treats of morals and right conduct. Professional ethics: The system of ethical principles and rules of conduct generally accepted by the members of a professional group, based on the philosophy, values, and guiding principles of that profession Two Aspects of Professional Ethics: 1. Profession’s Code of Ethics which is the written expression of some of these principles and rules of conduct for the guidance of the professional group 2. Unwritten principles and rules of conduct which usually have the same force as the Code. Purposes served by a Profession’s Code of Ethics: 1. It helps check abuses which can result from the powers and privileges accompanying the monopoly enjoyed by a profession. 2. It provides the community some protection against abuses by members of the profession. 3. It set forth basic principles which serve as guidelines to members of the profession, and which are helpful in the socialization of future professionals 4. It sets guidelines for relationships, if not specific duties of members to each other, to their clients, and to other groups. 5. It is a useful resource for the enrichment or improvement of the professional curriculum. Ethical Dilemmas: 1. Manipulation 2. Advocacy 3. Conflicting Loyalties 4. Cultural and other Realities CHAPTER 5 THE KNOWLEDGE FOUNDATION OOF SOCIAL WORK Knowledge base of social work: Is a comprehensive topic which encompasses the facts and theories, skills and attitudes, necessary for effective, efficient practice. (Alfred Kadushin) Values: Answers the question whether a proposition is right or wrong Knowledge: Answers the question as to whether something is true or false Three Areas that Denote the Areas of Substantive Knowledge in Social Work: 1. Social Welfare Policy and Services: (Also referred as Social Welfare Policy, Programs and Services) Concerned with the organization, administration, and operation of social welfare programs and services which are established in society in order to meet human needs, and problems, the development of these policies and programs, the interrelationship of the agencies which undertake them, and the nature of needs being served. 2. Human Behavior and Social Environment: Concerned with the material necessary for understanding the client in his problem situation, the dynamics of individual and group behavior, and of group and community processes which affect or influence the individual, the group and the community. It is also concerned with content about normal and deviant behavior. 3. Social Work Practice: (Social Work Methods) Concerned with the actual process by which the social worker helps her client – an individual, group, or community, the methods and techniques of helping, the resources necessary for helping, as well as the appropriate attitudes that facilitate the helping process. Field Instruction: Aimed at providing the student with opportunities for integration for learning in the three areas by way of supervised social work practice in selected settings, completes the curriculum plan. Social Welfare Policy, Programs, and Services: The keywords are social welfare, social needs, problems, and provisions. The aims for studying this area are: a) To help in preparation of competent practitioners who will be engaged in the provision of social services and in efforts toward necessary social change b) To help students acquire an ability for critical analysis of the problems and conditions in society and its major institutions c) To help in the students’ development of a commitment to the profession and its responsibility for the promotion of social welfare goals and services, and the prevention of social problems. Human Behavior and the Social Environment: This knowledge area focuses on knowledge about the individual as a bio-psycho-social being, the interaction between him/her and the physical, social, cultural, political and economic forces in the environment which affect behavior. This area of curriculum aims to: a) Enhance/further the students’ understanding of individual and collective behavior b) Develop the students’ capacity to critically assess the state of theory and knowledge about man and his social environment, as it relates to social work practice, and to begin to see their role in contributing to its development. Bio-psycho-social being: Means that there are inseparable, interacting forces – biological, psychological and social that influence human behavior and personality. Biological components: Include the individual’s state of health and nutrition, genetics and natural physical endowments at birth, normal biological growth and development, as well as any deviation from normal functioning including illnesses and physical disabilities. Psychological components: Concerned with the individual’s personality, comprising what is commonly termed “inner states”, which has three aspects: a) Cognitive (perceptual or intellectual) b) Emotional (feelings) c) Conative (striving, tendency to do actively or purposefully) Societal components: Includes the following elements: a) Societal: Aggregate data and social patterns which help create the social climate in which we live, regardless of whether or not people are aware or accept them, such as poverty and unemployment b) Institutional: Organizational arrangements in society, such as family, government, education, and social services c) Status: Characteristics of persons and their position in society as seen in the way persons are described. d) Normative: The forms in which social behavior are expressed, and the social rules that shape these forms. These forms and rules reflect the values of society which are, in turn, influence by the existing culture e) Interactive: The type of interaction and perception of interactions made of self and others that are a basis of behavior Culture: Refers to the knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, etc. that constitute the way of life of a people or society Two Aspects of Physical Environment: 1. Natural environment: which makes demands, set constraints and provides resources (climate, topography, amount of rainfall and ozone levels) 2. Constructed environments: such as homes, offices and hospitals which can have psychological effects (very limited space, no windows, poor ventilation and seating arrangements that prevent interaction) Social Work Practice area aims to help the students: 1. Understand and appreciate the philosophical (value) and scientific (knowledge) components of social work practice 2. Understand the inter-relationship of knowledge, value and skill, and their use in problem-solving 3. Develop a beginning identification with the social work profession 4. Develop self- awareness and self-discipline 5. Acquire knowledge and skills in the social work problem-solving processes 6. Understand the different professional roles performed by social workers in different agencies and organizations engaged in the provision of social services