Week 1-Basic Concepts PDF

The Basic Concepts of the Social Work Profession  SOCIAL WELFARE In its broadest sense "social welfare” covers practically everything that men do for the good of society. Characterized social welfare as an organized concern of all people for all people. Gertrude Wilson (ther...

The Basic Concepts of the Social Work Profession  SOCIAL WELFARE In its broadest sense "social welfare” covers practically everything that men do for the good of society. Characterized social welfare as an organized concern of all people for all people. Gertrude Wilson (there is no exemption) The organized system of social services and institutions, designed to aid individuals and groups to attain satisfying standards of life and health. Walter Friedlander Social welfare includes those laws, programs, benefits, and services which assure or strengthen provision for meeting social needs recognized as a basic to the well-being of the population and the better functioning of the social functioning. Elizabeth Wickenden 2  SOCIAL WELFARE This provisions may be directed towards strengthening existing arrangements; mitigating the hardships or handicaps of particular individuals and groups; pioneering new services; stimulating a better adaptation of the social structure including the creation of new programs as needed; or a combination of all these approaches to social needs. Elizabeth Wickenden Social welfare as all the organized social arrangements which have as their direct and primary objective the well-being of people in the social context. It includes the broad range of policies and services which are concerned with the various aspects of people’s lives- their income, security, health, housing, education, recreation, cultural traditions, among others. The Pre-Conference Working Committee for the XVth International Conference on Social Welfare 3  Society responds to unmet needs or problems through the following ways: 1. Individual and group efforts – These refer to systematic and voluntary efforts undertaken by individuals and/or groups in response to the unmet needs of people in a community. 2. Major Societal Institutions – The family, the church, the government cooperatives, and labor unions. 3. Social Agency – Whether under public and private auspices, a social agency is a major provision for helping people with their problems. 4 Two views or conception of Social Welfare: 1. Residual Formulation - Conceives social welfare as temporary, offered during emergency situation and withdrawn when the regular system – the family and the economic system - is again working properly. This kind of social welfare activities often carry the stigma of “doles”, or “charity” 2. Institutional Formulation - Sees social welfare as proper, legitimate function of modern society. That some individuals are not able to meet all their needs is considered a “normal” condition, and helping agencies are accepted as “regular” social institutions. 5  Categories of Social Welfare Program: 1. Social Security – This refers to the whole set of compulsory measures instituted to protect the individual and his family against the consequences of an unavoidable interruption or serious diminution of the earned income disposable for the maintenance of a reasonable standard of living. 2. Personal Social Services – These refer to the services functions which have major bearing upon personal problems, individual situations of stress, interpersonal helping or helping people in needs, and the provision of direct services in collaboration with workers from government and voluntary agencies. 3. Public Assistance – These refers to the material/concrete aid/supports provided, usually by government agencies, to people who have no means of income or means of support for themselves. 6  Social Services The collective concern of society for the well-being of its members, in turn, I expressed in the provision of concrete social services. Refers to the programs, services, and other activities provided under various auspices, to concretely answer the needs and problems of the members of the society. “Social welfare would be a meaningless term unless there are concrete demonstrations of its “concern for the well- being of human society” 7  Motivation and reasons for providing social services (welfare): 1. Humanitarian and Social Justice Goals – Rooted in the democratic idea of social justice and is based on the belief that man has the potential to realize himself except that physical, social, and other factors that sometime hinder or prevent him form realizing his potential. 2. Social Control Goal – Based on the recognition that needy, deprived, or disadvantaged groups may strike out individually or collectively against to what they consider to be alienating or offending society. 3. Economic Development Goal – Places priority on those programs designed to support increases in the production of goods and service, and other resources that will contribute to economic development. 8 Framework Social Work Individuals, Groups, Communities Admin and Supervision Philosophical Social Action/ Reform Knowledge Base (What) Base(Why) Social Research Philosophy Social welfare policies, programs and services Values Belief about man Human behavior and the Principles social environment Ethics Social Work Practice (How) Goal Helping Process Functions Helping Models and Approaches Elements Tools in Problem-Solving Skills 9 Social workers practice at three levels: (a) micro— working on a one-to-one basis with an individual; (b) mezzo—working with families and other small groups; and (c) macro—working with organizations and communities or seeking changes in statutes and social policies. 10  Social Work A profession which is concerned with man’s adjustment to his environment; a person in relation to that person’s social situation. Social work in its various forms addresses the multiple, complex transaction between people and their environment. Its mission is to enable all people to develop t h e i r f u l l p o t e n t i a l , e n r i ch t h e i r l i ve s, a n d p r e ve n t dysfunction. Professional social work is focused on problem solving and change. IASSW and IFSW DUAL FOCUS OF THE SOCIAL WORKER: 1. To mediate the person’s coping skills and 2. The demands from his environment 11  Social Functioning problems are caused by: 1. Personal Inadequacies – Sometimes pathologies and may be due to physiological factors like poor physical constitution, wrong attitudes and values, poor or unrealistic perception of reality, ignorance, and lack of skills. 2. Situational Inadequacies – Other conditions which are beyond man’s coping capacities. These refer to the lack of resources and opportunities such as the availability of employment, but only for highly skilled or trained workers or the existence of unjust or exploitative situation such as in the workplace in in the community. 3. Both Personal and Situational Inadequacies 12 IN SUMMARY: Social welfare focuses on the broader societal well-being, social services involve specific programs and assistance provided to individuals and groups, and social work involves the professional practice of helping people address personal and social problems to improve their lives. 13  QUIZ (Identification) 14 1. He defined social welfare as the organized system of social services and institutions, designed to aid individuals and groups attain satisfying standards of life and health. 2. This is where Social Worker or Professionals usually employed weather under Government Offices or Non-government Offices. 3. This refers to the whole set of compulsory measures instituted to protect the individuals and his family against the consequences of an unavailable interruption or serious diminution of the earned income disposable for the maintenance of a reasonable standards of living. 4. What are the two views or conception of Social Welfare? 5. Social Welfare encompasses the ____________ of all the members of Society including their physical, mental, emotional, social, economic, and spiritual. 15 6. This refers to the programs, services and other activities provided under various auspices, to concretely answer the needs and problems of society. 7. He sees that the social problems as structural or basically located in the economy and considers social services as partial compensation for the “socially generated disservices” and socially caused diswelfare”. 8. This goal is based on the recognition that the needy, deprived, or disadvantaged groups may strike out, individually and/or collectively, against what consider to be an alienating of offending society. 9. In what year does the Social Work Introduced as a systematic method of helping people in the field of public welfare in the Philippines, came to be officially recognized as a profession with the passage of a law by Congress in 1965, elevating Social Work to profession? 10. It is defined as the concern with the man’s adjustment to his environment and vice versa. 16 Answers 17 1. Walter Friedlander 2. Social Agency/ies 3. Social Security 4. Residual and Institutional 5. Well-being 6. Social Services 7. Personal inadequacies 8. Social Control Goal 9. Residual 10. Social Work 18