Unit 6 Social Work Practice PDF

1. The social worker shall endeavor to contribute his utmost to nation building. 2. The social worker shall give paramount importance to the well being of those whom he helps. 3. The social worker shall accept with respect and understanding his clients, colle...

1. The social worker shall endeavor to contribute his utmost to nation building. 2. The social worker shall give paramount importance to the well being of those whom he helps. 3. The social worker shall accept with respect and understanding his clients, colleagues, and all those who come within his sphere of professional activity. 4. The social worker shall engage in social action which according to his convictions will further the best interests of the people and country. 5. The social worker shall create and avail of opportunities for continuing professional growth. 6. The social worker shall at all times conduct himself in accordance with the standards of the social work profession. Unit Six. The Scope of Social Work Practice Alle-Corliss, Lupe & Randy (1998). Human Service Agencies, An Orientation to Fieldwork. NY: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co. Beckett, Chris and Nigel Horner (2016). Essential Theory for Social Work Practice, 2nd ed., London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Kirst-Ashman, Karen K. (2007). Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare, 2nd ed., Singapore: Thomson Brooks/Cole. Morales, Armando and Bradford Sheafor (1995). Social Work: A Profession of Many Faces, 7th ed. Schulman, Lawrence (2006). The Skills of Helping Individuals, Families, Groups and Organizations. Singapore: Brooks/Cole. Sheafor, Bradford W. and Charles Horejsi (2015). Techniques and Guidelines for Social Work Practice, 10th ed., Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Thompson, Neil and Paul Stepney, editors (2018). Social Work Theory and Methods: The Essentials. NY: Routledge Zastrow, Charles H. (1992). The Practice of Social Work, 6th ed., Singapore, Brooks/Cole Publishing A. The Methods of Social Work Practice Method – is a way of doing something. It implies regularity and orderliness in action. 1. Primary/Direct Methods – helping methods that involve fact-to-face contact with clients. o Types of Primary Methods a. Social Casework – aimed at helping individuals on a one-to-one basis to meet personal and social problems. ▪ It may be geared to helping clients adjust to the environment or changing certain social and economic pressures that adversely affect them. ▪ Casework Activities o Counseling o Helping unemployed people secure training/employment o Placing homeless children in adoptive or foster homes o Providing protective services to abused children and their families 46  o Finding nursing homes for the elderly or sick o Helping alcoholics acknowledge their drinking problem o Probation and parole of law offenders o Providing services to single parents o Working in medical/mental hospitals as member of a rehabilitation team b. Case Management – defined as a procedure to plan, seek, and monitor services from different social agencies and staff on behalf of a client. ▪ Usually, one agency takes primary responsibility for the client and assigns a case manager, who coordinates services, advocates for the client, and sometimes controls resources and purchases services for the client. ▪ Case managers link clients to needed resources that exist in complex service delivery networks and orchestrate the delivery of services in a timely fashion. ▪ Case managers must have extensive knowledge of community resources, rights of clients, policies and procedures of various agencies and must be skilled in mediation and advocacy. c. Social Group Work – aimed at the intellectual, emotional, and social development of individuals through group activities. ▪ Group work objectives o Socialization o Curbing delinquency o Changing socially unacceptable values o Helping achieve better relations between cultural and racial groups o Information exchange o Recreation ▪ Activities/Focus of Groups o Arts and crafts o Dancing o Sports o Games o Nature study o Photography o Dramatics o Music o Woodwork o Home management o First aid o Discussion of topics such as politics, sex, marriage, selection of a career, religion, etc. d. Group Therapy – aimed at facilitating the social, behavioral, and emotional adjustment of individuals through the group process. 47  ▪ Participants in group therapy usually have emotional, interactional, or behavioral difficulties. ▪ Advantages of group therapy over one-to-one counseling: o The operation of the helper therapy principle – it is therapeutic for the helper (who can be any member in the group) to feel s/he has been helpful to others. o Group pressure is often more effective in changing an individual’s maladaptive behavior. o Group therapy is a time saver as it enables the therapist to treat several people simultaneously. e. Family Therapy – a type of group therapy aimed at helping families with interactional, behavioral, and emotional problems. ▪ A variety of problems are dealt with in family therapy &/or counseling. Example: communication problems and disagreements between parents and youths on choice of friends, drinking, drug abuse, domestic tasks, curfew hours, sexual values and behavior, study habits and grades received, and choice of dates. f. Community Organization – an intervention process used by social workers and other professionals to help individuals, groups and collectives of people with common interests or from the same geographic areas to deal with social problems and to enhance social well being through planned collective action. ▪ C.O. aims at stimulating and assisting the local community to evaluate, plan, and coordinate efforts to provide for the community’s health, welfare and recreation needs. ▪ The activities include encouraging/fostering citizen participation, coordinating efforts between agencies or groups, public relations and public education, research, planning, and being a resource person, catalyst in stimulating and encouraging community action, etc. 1. Secondary/Indirect Methods – these are helping methods that do not entail working directly or face-to-face with clients, but through staff and other agencies and groups on behalf of clients. a. Social Policy Analysis – the systematic evaluation of a policy and the process by which it was formulated. ▪ Social workers consider whether the process and results were clear, equitable, legal, rational, compatible with social values, superior to other alternatives, cost- effective, and explicit. 48  ▪ The analysis frequently identifies shortcomings in the policy and recommends modifications in the policy that are designed to alleviate these shortcomings. b. Social Welfare Administration – involves directing the overall program of a social service agency. ▪ In social work, the term administration is often used synonymously with management ▪ Administrative functions o Setting up organizational goals o Setting up an organizational structure o Analyzing social conditions in the community o Setting agency program activities o Making decisions about what services will be provided o Coordinating activities to achieve the selected goal o Securing funds for the agency’s operations o Employing and supervising staff o Administering financial affairs o Monitoring and making necessary changes in processes and structure to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of social services. c. Research – the systematic investigation, inquiry, and study of a problem for the purpose of adding more knowledge to already existing ones in a form that is communicable and verifiable. ▪ The purpose is to produce knowledge for social work use, application and practice. ▪ Functions of Research o To provide a framework for practice activities using a scientific orientation in obtaining the best results possible. o To build knowledge for practice, generate and refine concepts, determine the evidence for generalization and theories, and ascertain the effectiveness of practice methods. o To provide specific data for decision, action, program operation, or efforts at social change. The main strategy of social work research is the study of phenomena by naturalistic methods, that is, without experimental manipulation. 3. Generalist Practice/Integrated Method – the application of an eclectic knowledge base, professional values, and wide range of skills to target any size system for change. 49  Generalist practice or integrated method targets any size system (individual, group, community) for change within the context of four primary processes: a. It emphasizes client empowerment; b. It involves working effectively within an organizational structure and doing so under supervision. c. It requires the assumption of a wide range of professional roles. d. It involves the application of critical thinking skills to the planned change process. Generalist practice describes a social work practitioner whose knowledge and skills encompass a broad spectrum and who assesses problems and their solutions comprehensively. B. Social Work Practice Levels 1. Micro level – working on a one-to-one basis with an individual. It involves interpersonal helping, direct practice, or clinical practice. Focuses on repairing, maintaining, and strengthening a person’s intimate interactions; e.g., exchanges between husband and wife, parent and child, family members. 2. Mezzo level – working with and other small groups. It is concerned with interpersonal relations that are somewhat less intimate than those associated with family life, but more personally meaningful than those which occur among organizational and institutional representatives, e.g., peers at work, neighbors. 3. Macro level – working with organizations and communities seeking changes in statutes and social policies. It involves work with an organization, community or even society as a whole. The worker engages in activities such as administration, fund-raising, policy analysis, class advocacy, and social resource development. C. Social Work Practice Settings Practice settings refer to the location where social work is carried out. Throughout most of history, social work has been an agency-based profession. Human service organizations establish the necessary policies and supply the administrative structure to make the program available to recipients. The type of practice setting determines: a. who will be the clients b. how clients will be protected from incompetent practice 50  c. the degree of flexibility the worker has in providing services to clients. The fundamental goal of human service agencies: To use the scarce resources available to provide the most and best service possible; to this end, agencies must operate both efficiently and effectively. o Efficiency – represents the efforts of the agency to achieve the maximum output of services with a minimum input of resources. o Effectiveness – refers to the qualitative aspects of service, or the degree to which an agency achieves its goals. Types of Agency Settings a. Primary Setting – the functions of the agency are the direct purview of social welfare and social work. b. Secondary Setting – agencies whose primary function is not social welfare but provide social services to support their main function. D. Fields of Social Work Practice Children Open community Youth Persons with Disability Family Ethnic communities Aged Health/Medical field Criminal justice Industry Unit Seven. Components of Social Work Practice De Guzman, Leonora (1992). Introduction to Social Work. Q.C.: New Day Publishers. Hepworth, Dean H. et al., (2006). Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skills, 7th ed., Singapore: Thomson Brooks/Cole Morales, Armando and Bradford Sheafor (1995). Social Work: A Profession of Many Faces, 7th ed. Sheafor, Bradford W. and Charles Horejsi (2015). Techniques and Guidelines for Social Work Practice, 10th ed., U.S: Allyn and Bacon. Thompson, Neil and Paul Stepney, editors (2018). Social Work Theory and Methods: The Essentials. NY: Routledge A. The Client – an individual, couple, family, group, organization, or community that is impelled by either internal or external sources to secure social work service because current solutions are not working in their lives. Types of Clients a. Applicant/Walk in – refers to persons who request social work services. b. Referral – persons who were identified by external sources such as teachers, doctors, employers, family members, etc., to be in need of help and whose situations are brought to the attention of social workers. c. Involuntary – people who respond to perceived requirements to seek help as a result of pressure from other persons or legal sources. 51