Importance Of Self Awareness In Social Work

1755 Words8 Pages

Introduction In any helping process, it should be guided by goals as they support the process ("Crafting Goals and Objectives", n.d.). Thus, as the head of the social service agency, I would work with both social workers to develop their goals.
Goals
The first goal for Mr A and Mrs B is to eliminate misunderstandings through effective communication and learning more about each other. By developing a common goal, it provides a platform for them to interact and lower communication barriers. Hence, this would enhance their understanding of each other’s perspective and rationale behind their decisions. Mr A’s second goal is to find a mentor who could guide him in his personal development including developing critical thinking perspective …show more content…

According to Kaushik (2017), National Association of Social Workers (NAWS) emphasised that self-awareness is significant in culturally competent social work practice as one way of respecting the importance of multicultural identities in people’s lives. By enhancing the social workers’ self-awareness, they would develop a better understanding of how their thoughts towards certain issues including corporal punishment, came about. For example, they will realise that living in different countries give them different experiences and in turn this influence their attitudes. Thus, the skill of self-awareness enables the social workers to understand how past experiences are affecting their approach to understanding differences.
Social Work Skills: Empathy Empathy is an important skill for without it social workers would be unable to fully understand the other party’s point of view in each situation (Ruben, …show more content…

Between the principles, three has been chosen to be implemented in the agency. The first principle is, “Always try to increase your knowledge and understanding about aspects of others’ identity that are different from your own”. This is important because Singapore prides itself as a diverse society (Benner, 2016). This means that a person living in Singapore is bound to meet people who are very different from themselves. Hence, to minimise misunderstandings, it is vital to increase knowledge and understanding about others. In the agency, the social workers can overcome differences by encouraging them to mingle in an informal or social setting. For example, the agency can bring together individuals with common needs or interests ranging from various cultural backgrounds. Additionally, the agency can consider organising staff dialogues and team building. These programs provide a valuable opportunity for employees to interact, connect with each other and share their experiences. Thus, through setting up ways for staff to connect with each other, it can help enhance their knowledge and understanding of another person’s

Open Document