Social Work Observation Essay

Patient is a 51 year old Caucasian female living alone in her own home. The patient has a history and current syntoms of geralized anxity disorder, social phoina and panic attacks, which she takes madications for and sees a psychrist 2-3 times per month in Havasu. Patinets lives with six cats and the house environment is somewhat cluttered. The patinet is orinally from Glendale, CA., has a brother in Palmdale, CA, who is stays in contact with sometimes. Pt has a daughter in Big River, who is not supportive of her, but has three grandchildren who visit her.

P4- when looking at strategies and communication techniques used with different individuals with different needs whom need to overcome different challenges many aspects must be looked at. A challenge Patrick may face may be awareness and knowledge, he may face this as well as others. Patrick may be aware that he has HIV however he may not be aware how much this will effect him and he may not be aware how to deal with it as he may lack the knowledge. In order to overcome this Patrick could educate himself in depth on HIV, this will help him come to terms with it and will also help him to help others understand HIV. A challenge Alice may face might be acceptance or belief, she may not have the determination to become alcohol free and therefore

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.

Rational for the observations The rational for using these observations retrospectively is to make sense of the whole person Amy’s life history, looking over her notes, why had she not engaged historically? Why the resistance? I wanted to understand how and why this was happening not just respond to the immediate crisis, rehouse and decontaminate her home for the behavioural pattern to be repeated. This method allowed me to explore theories of human growth and development and evaluate them with criticality (Monette et. 2014).

My understanding of Human Services is to help people who need additional help and guidence to move forward with their life. Sometimes people need help with external problems such as the loss of a job, the need for food or housing or for help getting out of a dangerous situation or mental and physical health crisis. The Human Services practitioner is a professional who acts as an agent to assist and or empower individulas, groups, families and communities to help them function more effectivly in all areas of life and improve living condition. Human Service professional will always advocate for their clients and will never give up on them and make sure to strive for the clients well being as long as the client want to change.

During my time at placement I was given the role of a Nursery Assistant; My duties were to plan and prepare activities for children, read stories, nappy change them, observe and make notes for use in their reports. I was also a key worker for one child, I had to monitor their progress and share information about their development with their parents and carers. The setting was a warm and welcoming environment, I found that all of the staff were very friendly and reassuring. The placement lasted for four weeks and I worked from Monday to Friday from 8:30AM to 5:30PM. On my first day I arrived at 10AM for my induction and was introduced by the manager of the setting to the other members of staff.

First of all, I had the opportunity to interview Kim Bartells who’s a Licensed Social Worker (LSW) in Michealsen Health Center and learn more about her role as a social work. Before I started interviewing Kim, I asked her if it was alright with her if I recorded the conversation and she said it was fine with it. I started the interview with asking what type of population Michealsen Health Center serves and she told me it was mostly elderly people. Kim works in a “Microlevel intervention involves working with individuals--- separately, in families, or in small groups---to facilitate change in individual behavior or in relationship” (DuBois and Miley 69). This types of individuals she is working with are elderly residents “who utilize long-term care experience a combination of physical or cognitive limitation that require some level of assistance in activities of daily living” (DuBois and Miley 314-315) and their families as well.

Portfolio Part B: Reflection on the overall learning within the module Prior to starting this course the MA Social Work course and the PPSWP module I felt very confident in the aspects of communicating effectively and working with a diverse range of people, and after the reading the professional capabilities framework I believe that I hold the same personal values which is expected of a social worker. The PCF6 talks about the importance of critical reflection and reflective practice explaining that it helps improve accountability, professional development and helps to you understand your own tacit knowledge and gain new knowledge, which improves outcomes and experiences for social workers. (Capabilities within the PCF, 2016) For this reflection

From time to time, social work practitioners face different challenges and one of such example is being confronted with ethical dilemmas. An ethical dilemma is defined as “when the social worker sees himself or herself as facing a choice between two equally unwelcoming alternatives, which may involve a conflict of moral values, and it is not clear which choice will be the right one” (Banks, 2012). Ethical dilemmas can occur in the context of either client or organisational-related conflict situations at work. The first ethical dilemma is when the patient refuses medical treatment and services because he or she would not accept that there is any problem.

Practice based on empirical knowledge helps reduce bias, enables workers to study interpretations, perspectives or alternative solutions, and makes social workers more accountable for their decisions JD Hudson (1997). The dialogue between theory and practice In the past and present, there is hesitation among practitioners in social work to adapt theory and research because they feel that the reference to theory is the loss of connection with reality when practicing social work. In order for the social worker to be an effective practitioner, man must have a sound theoretical basis and this is not easy to achieve.

The career that I am considering as a future possibility is the clinical social worker. Clinical social work is a specialty practice area of social work which focuses on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental illness, emotional, and other behavioral disturbances. These practices can happen individually, in a group and/or in family therapy, which is common treatment styles. Social workers that provide these services are required to be licensed or certified at the clinical level in their state of practice. To become a licensed clinical social worker student who did not earn a bachelors of social work, must complete a traditional masters of a social work program that typically takes two to four years depending on whether a student attends full-time or part-time.

I began college as a freshman at Central Michigan University thinking I was going to become an elementary teacher. I knew I wanted to make an impact on peoples lives but after my first week of classes, I remember telling myself becoming a teacher is not how I wanted to do it. I went to my counselor and added a social work course to my schedule. I had finally found courses I enjoyed taking and academically excelled in. Which brings me to where I am now, pursuing my degree in social work.

Interning at DFCS has most certainly impacted my personal, professional, and academic goals. Before my internship, I knew I wanted to pursue my Master of Social Work after graduation and had some ideas about potential careers within the social work realm. My internship with DFCS has truly solidified my desire to pursue an MSW. While I have enjoyed my placement at DFCS, the internship has shown me that I don’t think DFCS is necessarily the agency I would like to work with after graduating with my masters. My work with DFCS (and seeing how many of our clients struggle with substance abuse) has solidified my thoughts that I would like to one day work as a substance abuse and mental health counselor.

Living arrangements are very important in this development. Retirement, a main change that occurs during this period, is a step that involves living arrangement, change in life style, and possible change in social interaction. Teas and Benignton discuss this retirement stage when living arrangement change and many elders should cope with such change. The idea of retirement has been a recently new accepted life style during late adulthood due to the life expectancy increase and the rise of urban America (1982, pg. 21). Living arrangements do not necessary depict one’s well-being.

Much discussion is devoted to the literature regarding group work as it remains an integral part of the social work field. Group work is important as “the need to belong is one of the most basic and powerful human needs as well as the most social” (Ashford, & Lecroy, 2008, pg. 140). Group work is found to be an effective intervention and has become a major treatment modality in the mental health services (Knight, 2017; Clements, 2008). This intervention has been found just as effective as an individual intervention (Knight, 2017). Groups have played an instrumental part in transforming how the social work field thinks about the helping process for clients.