Introduction To Social Work Lecture Notes PDF

Introduction to Social Work Madeha Ashraf Department of Psychology, NUML Social Welfare The terms social work and social welfare are often confused and sometimes used synonymously. Social welfare has a broader meaning and encompasses social work, public welfare, and other relate...

Introduction to Social Work Madeha Ashraf Department of Psychology, NUML Social Welfare The terms social work and social welfare are often confused and sometimes used synonymously. Social welfare has a broader meaning and encompasses social work, public welfare, and other related programs and activities. Social welfare is described as the organized system of social services and institutions, designed to aid individuals and groups to attain satisfying standards of life and health, (Friedlander, 1980). Social Welfare Social welfare encompasses the well-being and interests of large number of people, including their physical, educational, mental, emotional, spiritual, and economic needs. As reported in the Social Security Bulletin, expenditures for social welfare under public law amounted to 1,434.6 billion in the fiscal year 1994. Many professionals deliver social welfare services, but social workers have always been prominent welfare service providers. The U.S. Labor Department projects there will be more than 650,000 social workers by the year 2005. Minimum traditional standards required a Master of Social Work degree for the professional social worker. Social Work Social work may be defined as an art, a science, a profession that helps people to solve personal, group (especially family), and community problems and to attain satisfying personal, group, and community relationships through social work practice. The major focus is on reducing problems in human relationships and on enriching living through improved human interaction. Social work is an art it requires great skills to understand people and to help them to help themselves. It is a beginning science because of its problem-solving method and its attempt to be objective in ascertaining facts and in developing principles and operational concepts. Social Work Social work seeks to enhance the social functioning of individuals, singly and in groups, through activities focused upon their social relationships which constitute the interaction between man and his environment. (CSWE, 1959)  These activities can be grouped into three functions: Restoration of impaired capacity. Provision of individual and social resources. Prevention of social dysfunction. The basic functions of social work are intertwined and interdependent. Social Work Restoration of impaired social functioning may be subdivided into curative and rehabilitative aspects. Its curative aspects are to eliminate factors that have caused the breakdown of functioning, and its rehabilitative aspects, are to reorganize and rebuild interaction patterns. Illustrations of restoration would include assistance in obtaining a hearing aid for a partially deaf child or helping a rejected lonely child to be placed in a foster home. The rehabilitative aspect might be helping the one child to psychologically accept and live with the hearing aid and supporting the other child as he or she adjusts to the new foster home. Provision of resources, social and individual, for more effective Social Work The developmental aspects The educational spectrum is are designed to further the designed to acquaint the effectiveness of existing public with specific conditions social resources or to bring to and needs for new or full flower personal capacity changing social resources. for more effective social interaction. Again, this could be illustrated by public talks An example would be the given by staff members of a services of a family service Family Service Society, in society that help Mr. and Mrs. which counseling services are Y, through individual and described as a resource for conjoint interviews to alleviating marriage and understand each other better family problems. Social Work The third function, the prevention of social dysfunction, involves early discovery, control, and elimination of conditions and situations that potentially could hamper effective social functioning. Two main divisions are the prevention of problems in the area of interaction between individuals and groups and the prevention of social ills. Premarital counseling is an example of prevention. That through this process couples will be able to anticipate possible difficulties in marital interaction. Prevention of social ills ordinarily falls within the area of community organization. An example would be a community developing a youth center  Types of social work: The role of a social worker can appear overwhelming at first glance, which is why social workers specialize in hyper-specific roles that focus on empowering others and the community they are a part of. These different aspects of social work can be seen on three levels: Micro Social Work: Becoming a social worker, for many, boils down to working on micro social work, which is providing one-on-one social work, family, and small group services. These micro social work services can be in aid of housing, substance abuse counseling, or more. Mezzo Social Work: Working at the community level, the social worker services here are focused on small community levels like schools, neighborhoods, and city districts. Like micro social work, many services at the mezzo levels can range from substance abuse to economic issues and domestic issues at home, and much more. Macro Social Work: As a broad field, macro social work is focused on fixing societal structure by examining the systemic issues that are prevalent across nations and certain demographics. The role of a social worker at the macro level is to help push policies to assist marginalized communities that have been systematically persecuted. Distinguishing Characteristics of Social Work Focus is on the wholeness and totality of the person. Emphasis is on the importance of the family in molding and influencing behavior. Utilization of community resources in helping people to solve problems is very important. Use of the supervisory process provides for guidance and direction of inexperienced workers and for the continuing growth of the experienced. Social work has a unique educational program involving class work and practical fieldwork experience. Tradition social work emphasizes three basic process casework, group, and community organization. Social work has distinctive professional bodies, (NASW, CSWE). Cont… The relationship is the key in the social work process. Social work has an orientation in psychiatric concepts and places considerable stress on understanding people. The social in social work emphasizes on social interactions and resultant social functioning and malfunctioning. Social work recognizes that social problems and human behavior inhere to a considerable degree in the social institutions of humanity. Most social workers are employed in agency settings. The basic aim of social work is to help clients help themselves or to help a community to help itself. Traditionally, social workers have provided services to individuals and families. Sociology and Social Work Sociology Social Work The sociologist is particularly The social worker is concerned concerned about the how, when, and about helping these same people to why people behave as they do in solve the problems they have and to association with others. improve social functioning. The sociologist is particularly The social worker tries to understand interested in the why of human the client, make a diagnosis, and interaction. proceed with treatment, helping to solve the problems and change the situations for better adjustments. Psychiatry and Social Work The psychiatrist deals with the treatment of illness and the medical model. Places stress on intrapersonal dynamics, often delving into and handling unconscious motivation and related factors. The social worker focuses on problems and strengths in human relationships. The social worker utilizes environmental and community resources, usually operating within the conscious level of behavior. Psychiatry and Social Work Psychiatry tends to focus on pathology and the healing of illness. The psychiatrist is particularly interested in the internal dynamics of individual and group behavior. Social work concentrates on strengths and the development of potential. The social worker is especially concerned about social functioning involving social and community factors and interactions. Psychology and Social Work Psychology is the study of the mind it seeks to study, explain, and change behavior. The psychologist is interested in understanding the individual and their behavior. Their main focus is on individual behavior. The social worker focuses on the person in their environment. The social worker is particularly interested in the social functioning and relationships of clients and in utilizing community resources to meet clients’ personal and social problems. Counseling and Social Work School counselors are generally trained in educational psychology, and work tends to be short-termed. Marriage counselors receive graduate training from several disciplines, including social work. Rehabilitation counselors are usually trained in educational psychology and utilize testing. The social worker tends to be more intensive, works with the student longer, focuses on family constellation, and utilizes community resources. Marriage counseling is one particular emphasis in social work practice. The social worker usually assists with emotional and/or family problems, has fewer cases, and works with clients more Social Work Scope in the World Today Social work is becoming more important because thousands of people are benefiting from its services and are telling their friends and associates who have problems of its many values and services. Social work is here to stay and in decades ahead it will likely grow and expand its services, helping more people with personal, family, and community problems, especially related to adequate social functioning The use of models: the social work diamond Use of models: One way of helping to make sense of complex situations Other terms: framework, approach, construct, or theory Not descriptive but analytic Model is a starting point for reflection, analysis, and application If it helps you to understand things, use it; if not, look for another that works better, or another to complement it (life is complicated, so you are likely to need more than one model at a time), or adapt it – But above all, use it, test it.  The key model of social work  between the four points of a diamond its duties to the state, its obligations to service users, its responsibilities to its own professional standards, and its accountability to organizational imperatives. Walter Lorenz proposes a model of social work that uses the first three of these points in his book Social Work in a Changing Europe (1994) Lorenz  the challenge for social work is to stay balanced between the three points, holding them in creative tension  State: Social policy, social work and other social professions as parts of the machinery of state support and control. Profession: Social policy, social work and other social professions as ‘top- down’, expert-led activities. Service users: Social policy, social work and other social professions as ‘bottom- up’, user-led activities Organization: Social policy, social work and other social professions as activities that are shaped by their organizational setting  Important feature of the diamond is that there are tensions within each of the four points as well as between them. So, within the state there may sometimes be a conflict between political priorities and court decisions, and there is often tension between central and local government. There may be tensions between different service users (e.g. a child and parent), and between service user groups, particularly in a world of limited resources. Organizations are torn between being lean and efficient, or flexible and open.  Social Construction of Social Work Theory Social construction is a sociological theory of knowledge that consider how social phenomena develop in social contexts When we say that something is socially constructed, we are focusing on its dependence on contingent variables of our social selves  Assumptions The underlying assumption on which social construction is typically based: Reality Knowledge Learning Reality Knowledge Learning Introduction to Social Work Social Work and social welfare are based on three premises: That the person is important That he or she has personal, family, and community problems resulting from interaction with others That something can be done to alleviate these problems and enrich the individual's life