Being a social worker is often a challenging, yet rewarding career. Social workers are responsible for helping individuals, families, and groups of people to cope with problems they’re facing to improve their patients’ lives. Social workers are also trained caseworkers in social service agencies who perform several functions which they use different components of the practice framework, the theoretical underpinnings to in order to build helping relationships. After interviewing a caseworker in a specific social agency there were advantages and disadvantages of methods along with challenges encountered in working in that specific agency. With all of this the functions, roles and responsibilities of a caseworker is what helps any agency to uphold …show more content…
Much of this paradigm dates back to the work of social work theoretician and practitioner William Gordon. Gordon was instrumental in conceptualizing the framework that the understanding and practice social work involved not only internal matters of the respective minds and environments but of their interactions and relationships as well (Heinonen & Spearman, 2001). The ‘ecosystems framework’ is complemented by concepts supported in ‘systems theory’ and ‘ecology’. ‘Systems theory’ stresses the effects of interacting elements where multiple elements are themselves whole, interact and combine to form a whole, and have relationships with other wholes (Heinonen & Spearman, 2001). An open, interactive, system may receive nourishment and sustainability from within itself and from its relationships with others (Heinenon & Spearman, 2001). A system that is closed, or isolated, may become increasingly vulnerable and experience entropy. Such a system manifests itself as problems for a client. ‘Ecology’ also emphasizes the correlation between the dynamics of permeation and health with a context of person-interaction-environment; in this case possible harmful issues with a client, their respective environment, and/or the interactions (Heinenon & Spearman, 2001). The ‘ecosystems framework’ could then be combined with other frameworks of the social work profession and its respective practices. (Bunnell,
As kids, many of us grow up with stories of super heroes and people of greater power that help the helpless. We grow up thinking that only bad things happen in stories where heroic mutants can fix it. As adults, we start to see how messy the world is and wish those super heroes in stories were real. Just like Marvel has their Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the real world has social workers, who act as agents of change. An agent of change in the field of Social Work seeks to improve or restructure parts of the system that could be flawed or in some way harming people’s well-being.
The case worker along with the client, payee, guardian, or other responsible parties collectedly create the service plan. The case worker present the ideal, but it is the client’s job to complete all paperwork, applications, or request outside services. Sometimes creating that balance of self –determination and vulnerable is often times a challenge, because the values and belief of a client can be totally different from a social worker. Even though case workers feel strongly about a situation it is the clients right to do as their please. For example, I and Level 5 caseworker were doing visit one day.
In this paper, I will assess my identity and my personal history and how it relates to social work professions. I first address my personal history and cultural background, where I came from, as well as my experience in working in the community. I then talk about my overall strengths, both in personal and professional lives. My strengths are listening skills, open-mindedness, respect for diversity and eagerness to learn and improve my weaknesses. Afterward, I discuss my weaknesses, such as nonassertive communication skill and low self-esteem problems, and how I plan to address these issues.
The social care sector The social care sector is made up of various support systems; social work, personal care and social support. This helps service users who need help overcoming the barriers of an, illness, disability, age or poverty. The social care sector covers all occupations whose aim is to help people overcome difficulties related to physical, mental, environmental or lifestyle problems at any stage in their lives.
In addition, challenges can arise when there is no commonality in identities or when identities between myself and a client are radically different. In these times, as a social worker who has a degree of power in a relationship with people seeking help, that I must acknowledge to myself that my power can impede on inclusively practicing and remain self-aware (Gelfand, Sullivan, & Steinhouse,
Modern social workers are frequently tasked with certain objectives by their agencies, which leave little room for any work beyond specific treatments and timeframes (Gitterman & Knight, 2016). Although social workers are bound to the set of ethics put forth by the NASW, practitioners are often limited to focusing on the issues of the individual rather than the larger societal issues that may be behind those concerns. Additionally, many social work students end up working in direct practice, rather than macro work. There is a need for social workers to engage at the macro level in order to facilitate community organization and empowerment. Critics suggest this theory may not take into account the unique experiences of each individual and perhaps key characteristics of the individual or group are not taken into consideration (Sadan, 1997).
Introduction This paper outlines the person-in-environment’s concepts and the advantages of this approach. In the following part, I will also share the experiences that how the concept affected me when I was facing any life challenge and how it influences me in coping the problems. The Understanding of Person-In-Environment’s Concepts After learning about the person-in-environment’s concepts, it is believed that these concepts can be applied across social work practice and guide the social workers seek to recognize the interaction between the clients and the environment. In person-in-environment perspective, the concept of person describes service users' developmental and functioning abilities in the society, which based on the environmental
Social workers are there to help meet the basic needs of human, also with the need of helping encourage, mentoring, and empower human struggles in society and poverty. The code is designed for many reasons. It identifies core values in which a social worker mission is based, the code summarize broad ethnic principle such as; challenge injustices, respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person, behave in a trustworthy manner, and help people in need and to address social problems. The code is generally designed to help people with relevant needs to there every day life. These codes help apply better and relationship with the worker to client.
Social work is a profession that dedicates its efforts to ensure the well-being of individuals and the well-being of the society as a whole. The primary mission of social workers is to meet the fundamental needs of every person, especially the ones with special needs such as those who are oppressed, vulnerable and the people living in poverty. As a social worker, I intend to use these core values such as service, integrity, and dignity as guidelines to my work to make a difference in the lives of as many needy people as I can. My main goal will be to offer services to needy people to help them solve and overcome social problems that they encounter each day in their lives.
This is difficult process and should be coupled with use of theoretical approaches. Adams et al (2008) advocates that social workers need to use an eclectic approach to their practice by selecting different elements from theories in order to produce one approach appropriate for the individual’s needs. Epstein (1992) suggests that to overcome the limitations of theories continuous reflection and debate is vital to incorporate complex
A) Values and ideology: Describe the values of social work and ideology that you think are most important to your future practice and why you have selected them? The values and ideologies that are most important to my future practice include respect for the inherent dignity and worth of persons, service to humanity and competence in professional practice. First, my value of providing respect for the inherent dignity and worth of persons is important to me and my future practice because it allows me to see the uniqueness in all my clients and subsequent cases. Moreover, it further guides me to allow my clients to be self-determined individuals.
In social work practice, applying an ecological approach can be best understood as looking at persons, families, cultures, communities, and policies and to identify and intervene upon strengths and weaknesses in the transactional processes between these systems. Holistic thinking can provide a paradigm for understanding how systems and their interactions can maintain an individual 's behavior. Bronfenbrenner (1979), suggests four levels of ecological components as a useful framework for understanding how individual or family processes are influenced by hierarchical environmental systems. Evaluation of approach. Demonstrate critical thinking by using our discussion of theory and EBP to critically appraise the strengths and limitations of the approach at your first field placement.
This is as to how the social worker and the population interact. It involves the people making sense in their interaction. This theory enables the social worker to study the behaviour of the people he or she is involved with. This is demostrated on her role as a consellor and educator.
Introduction Person-in-Environment Framework In our practice as social workers, we are urged to view and understand human behavior as a set of complex interactions between individuals and their environment. This is known as the person-in-environment framework. This framework encourages us to acknowledge the influence of environment on our lives and provides a beneficial framework to think about and understand human behavior (Hutchinson, 2017). Understanding our work from this perspective allows us to approach our clients from a multi-dimensional stance, taking into consideration how various factors, including but not limited to, race, class, age and gender create individual identity and shapes an individual’s experience in the context of
Erasmus Mundus Master in Social Work with Families and Children 4th edition - 2016-2018 1st Semester Name: Rojika Maharjan 1. Social work has evolved with different “theories in social work”; either concepts derived from other social sciences such as psychology or sociology or “theories for social work” which are the core philosophy of social work practice specified to give a professional purpose and approach to practice (Healy, 2014). a) Regarding the context of children and families, system theory and strength theory are appropriate. i)