Advocacy As A Social Worker

At community level, the social worker plays the role of advocacy. She is persuasive, assertive, and patient in her day-to-day encounter with patients. She is a community organizer; she coordinates financial aid to long-term residents without sponsorship and serves as a liaison to some of the patients she cares for. It is vital for the human service professional to provide information about social issues that are likely to affect the public (O'Hagan, 2007).

Traditionally, Social Workers are seen as human rights workers who advocate for the people to ensure equal access to all services by ensuring services are in place to meet human rights such as the right to

There are many different type of social workers and what they do. Child and Family social workers protect vulnerable children and support families in need of assistance. Assess client’s needs, strengths, and support network to determine their goals. Develop plans to improve their client’s well-being. Help clients adjust to changes and challenges in their lives, such as divorce, illness or unemployment. Research and refer clients to community resource, such child care, heath care and food stamps. Help clients work with government agencies to apply for and receive benefits such as medicare. Respond to crisis situations such as child abuse. Advocate for and help clients get resource that would improve their well-being. Follow up with clients to ensure that their situations have improved.

Abstract The roles of a social worker are many and although it may be seen to most as a simple profession, it is of great value. A social worker has to broaden his or her horizon to see things in a new perspective. One must be able to understand, empower and help individuals, families or groups to overcome some of lives most difficult obstacles. As a social worker you are supposed to be able to appreciate the perspectives of all parties involved.

The Advocate role implies that the social worker must interfere for the client and talk on the behalf of his or her client if necessary, so that she or he can received help and advice if

As social works one of our roles are to advocate not only for our clients but overall communities. This

Your personal goals surrounding advocacy. As a social worker and advocate it’s imperative to set personal goals surrounding advocacy. According to Hoefer (2015), “Meeting client needs, both material and emotional, should be uppermost in the minds of social worker advocates” (p.35). One goal would be to advocate for fair and justifiable access to public services and benefits for my participants. Many time they arrive to shelter without any transportation and no public access in site. Advocate for equivalent treatment and protection under the law and challenge biases, that affect the defenseless and underprivileged. Another personal goal is to only concentrate on advocacy without any other

Although social workers are expected to advocate for their clients, many social activities revolve around individual advocacy. Advocacy is the cornerstone on which social work is built. It is very important that it is framed in three sections of the NASW (2008) (pg. 61) Code of Ethics. Advocacy for those individuals, communities, and systems is not just a proposed activity for social workers it is a requisite.

Clients, especially in the poorer and more vulnerable settings that social workers work in, are often unaware of their rights and the actions that they need to adopt in order to lead a healthier, safer life. This is where advocacy comes in where social workers make clients aware of their rights, responsibilities, and more 'enlightened' and healthier forms of conduct. In my case, this is Planned Parenthood where I teach a mother who already has many children how to prevent herself from having more; or I may teach an adolescent the rudiments of sex education and hand her contraceptives.

Social workers assist individuals, groups or communities restore or enhance social functioning through creating living conditions favorable to their goal or need. Social workers are trained professionals that help people overcome some of life’s most difficult challenges such as poverty, discrimination, abuse, addiction, physical illness, educational issues, mental illness, disability, unemployment, etc. They accomplish this through counseling individuals, families and communities; teaching them how to cope with the stresses of everyday life. From a political standpoint, social workers spend time and money on campaigns that elect public officials that are committed to social work values. Sound public policies enable social workers to meet human needs, be fairly compensated and promote social justice. Overall I perceive social work as a “take action” profession. Often times, we as human beings complain and talk about what needs to be done but do not do anything beyond that. Social workers are hands on. They are not just talking about what “should” be done but they are doing something to better our communities. Social workers are about making a difference in society by helping others out that are in need for various reasons. If you are very sick and in need of assistance to perform normal, everyday functions, social workers can assist

Social workers play many roles in aiding to serve low income persons. A big part of social work is working with the low-income individuals by advocating for income, employment and social policies in hopes to make a difference in families and individual’s lives (Wheeler & McClain, 2015). Advocating in social work is a big part in helping promote economic justice and overall wellness of everyone in society (Wheeler & McClain, 2015). Through the years social workers have remained strong advocators on affordable and safe housing for those in need (Mizrahi & Davis, 2011). Social workers have been the ones who consistently advocate that housing is a need and a basic human right.

Advocacy is defined as any action that speaks in favor of, recommends, argues for a cause, supports or defends or pleads on behalf of others. Originally, advocates were referred to as “ombudsmen”, which means an official appointed to investigate individuals’ complaints against maladministration. In the 1970s rape crisis centers were the first to empower their clients. These pioneers in advocacy were victims and knew first hand what the injured victims were going through. Advocacy is described as being ‘at heart of social work’. It’s a key function of social work practice in terms of helping service users become independent from service providers and in the process of developing the skills to advocate for themselves. The notion of advocacy as a mechanism is to promote social justice is an element of other advocacy definitions from various sources. Social justice reflects the activism of advocacy and has been explained as an idea that mobilizes people to act in order to bring about change.

As a developing social worker, it is understood that the process of becoming a competent practitioner is endless. Therefore, it is important to engage in methods that extend my learning; preparing me to effectively advocate for clients in the future. The methods that will be important in extending my learning is diversifying my professional activities, researching and gathering information to assess clients’ situations, and seeking personal therapy. Engaging in these activities will not only improve how I advocate for clients but will help me understand the community/environment around me and how it affects myself and others.

As a social worker it is important to engage in policy practice. It is a part of the profession, whether you like it or not. It is an aspect that can change the way things are done for clients in a good way or bad. If you want to be more affective in practice, advocating for policies is one way of making sure your clients receive what they deserve. Chapin (2011) talks about how as a social worker you cannot take on every social policy issue, but it is important to consider the policies that affect your client population.

Social workers promote social justice and social change with and on behalf of clients. “Clients” is used inclusively to refer to individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Social workers are sensitive to cultural and ethnic diversity and strive to end discrimination, oppression, poverty, and other forms of social injustice. These activities may be in the form of direct practice, community organizing, supervision, consultation administration, advocacy, social and political action, policy development and application, education, research and evaluation. Social workers seek to enhance the capacity of people to address their own needs. They also seek to promote the