Changes That Social Workers Face Today

Throughout history, social welfare policies have gained attention from society and our government. Each era has expanded the social responsibility and awareness on issues that affect the social work profession. After reading the chapter, I thought the Great Depression and the New Deal era appeared to have the strongest social responsibility. From this era, many social welfare programs were created to benefit those in need of services.

How has social work evolved or changed for the better from the 1960s till present time?

Working in a rural setting as a professional in any field brings many challenges. However, working as a social worker in a rural setting brings on a different set of challenges. The job of a social worker is to provide services to clients to assist the client in addressing a deficit. The challenges faced by a social worker can make or break the service delivery and impact the progress a client can make. These challenges can deal with services, resources, and/or the code of ethics. Some examples of how a rural area can affect these areas are:

This piece of writing is going to demonstrate an understanding of diversity, difference and also discuss the implications for social work practice. It will include an understanding of theories and concepts in relation to diversity where it will address the needs of diverse communities, individuals and groups, exploring differences in relation to culture, ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, social class and economic wellbeing. It will also demonstrate an understanding of principle of working in an anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory way.

Loss of home, loved ones, independence, identity, and a sense that the world is no longer safe are all central to the experience of a disaster such as the 2009 Victorian ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires. Most people will suffer a degree of distress in the short-term and only some will have more chronic long-term conditions such as PTSD and the impact of trauma can be felt by those not directly affected. The social workers at the community centre providing counselling services for those affected can use the information and research gathered here to focus on recovery that is holistic to enable affected communities to return back to a ‘normative’ society. Some of the key knowledge garnered from the literature

Social workers is a particularly hazardous profession due to high burnout rates, anxiety, substance use, depression, and suicide (Shanafelt, Boone, Tan, Dyrbye, Sotile, Satele, Oreskovich, 2012). Studies have found that there are two key factors were identified as relevant to social work burnout: age and setting (Brewer & Shapard, 2004; Schwartz, et al. 2007). The team found that younger social workers reported lower personal accomplishment, higher psychological strain, and higher levels of depersonalization than older social workers (Schwartz, et al., 2007).

I like your thesis statement. It is true to reform a program, jobs, but where by few employers are willing to hire them because of their criminal record they will end up right back to the prison. Like you said after they finished a person sentence and reintegrating back into to society get a job and make a living there will be less likely to go back to prison. Again finding a job will reduce overcrowded and save money for the state

Modern social workers participate actively in helping people to obtain rights, services, benefits and opportunities that they might not otherwise obtain through micro policy advocacy, ?often prioritize the needs of vulnerable populations when they engage in advocacy? (Jansson, 2016, p. 21). Through community immersion, the social worker gains an understanding of the community attributes and desiderata, requiring them to utilize their experience and expertise to advocate policies that will satisfy the client?s needs (NASW, n.d.). Furthermore, when social workers immerse themselves in the community, it becomes an act of care and concern to serve the community. Compelling them to implement new changes, depict workable intervention schemes, and generate attainable treatment plans to satisfy the needs of the individuals, families and community.

“As a process, empowerment actively engages people in decisions about their well being, potential life satisfaction, and the outcomes of realizing control over their lives to the extent possible” (Hepworth, Rooney, Rooney, & Strom-Gottfried, 2013, p.442). An empowerment framework examines the environmental circumstances that may be unjustly imposed on a client. The focus of this approach is to help individuals or groups of individuals regain a sense of control of their situation and make decisions on their own behalf. Social workers can assist clients in discovering their strengths and teaching the client that they do have the ability to make change. According to Dustin and Montgomery “Individuals should have a sense of control over their own lives (as cited in Ishizuka, & Husain, 2015, p. 971) and be able to exercise self determination and choice”.

Everyone has different challenges they must overcome in this life; however, all people must face the reality of death. While the transition to death seems naturally uncontrollable, many people are now expressing their wishes concerning end-of-life care. The various choices individuals have about if, when, and how to end their life have been expanding in not only recent decades, but in recent years. Therefore, it is important for social workers to be abreast on how this topic affects clients and the overall profession. Andrew McCormick, a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, wrote “Self-Determination, the Right to Die, and Culture: A Literature Review” to show social workers how the complexities surrounding the right-to-die movement affect their interactions with clients. This critical analysis will explore the points of McCormick’s review and the suggestions he has for social workers. He positively considers the value of self-determination in addition to the need for cultural competency. Even though he is right to mention that this issue is not ethically clear at all times for social workers, he does not apply the strengths perspective or the value of empowerment to his article. Furthermore, he does not empower social workers by informing them of how they can overcome their potential personal bias and fear of death and the right-to-die issue.

Social work has been around since the early 1800’s and first became prevalent before the Civil War era and before a flood of immigration occurred. The career was first developed in England and was brought to the United States where it became a popular pastime of the kind hearted and wealthy. Untrained proto-social workers, known as “friendly visitors”, sought to help the poor individuals through moral persuasion and personal example. They were able to be positive role models within the poor communities and supported them with resources such as food, water, and even shelter. The most notable social changes that had an influence on the development of social work were the series of economic depressions,

Finding a job in this field should be relatively easy. According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, the employment of social workers is projected to grow around 12 percent from 2014- 2024. This growth is much faster than most other occupations. The increased demand for social services and health care will lead to the employment growth.

My vision of the social work field is being able to help people in need and being the person that people can look back on and remember as a huge help in time of need. I think my core values and beliefs will help me be an effective social worker and help me succeed in this field. It is in my belief that a person should never be knocked down when they are going through hardships, and rather empowering them. I also believe that not everyone could be a social worker because it takes a certain kind of empathetic and self-aware person. I truly believe that my upbringing has humbled me to understand and not be judgmental of people’s issues since I’ve seen a lot in my short twenty-one years.

The potential problem of social workers and lawyers/magistrates or judges working together is that social worker might not be mindful of legal expectations and requirements (Kennedy & Richards, 2007). The roles and functions of lawyer and social worker are very dissimilar as well as their histories, cultures and rituals (Kennedy & Richards, 2007). Lawyer’s purposes are limited and tangible so they find it difficult to understand that social worker’s purposes are not (Rice & Day, 2014). Social workers find law as a part of their solution but not the complete resolution of the problem (Dickens, 2008). Their main goal is to pursuit equitable access to social, economic, environmental and political resources (Kennedy & Richards, 2007). Law

Law has come to play a very important part in social work practice. It can be said that the understanding of law underpins and provides duties and power, whilst understanding the statutory legal requirements is essential for effective, fair, anti-discriminatory practice (Brammer 2007). Due to the shear amount of laws and legislation that have been passed or updated over the last decade, the role of the social worker, metaphorically speaking could be said to have become somewhat of a chameleon, forever adapting to their legal environment, whilst trying hard to remain true to the traditional values of the role of a social worker. It is this conflict between law and social work values that will be analyzed in this paper. From looking at the values that underpin the modern day social worker and then looking at some of the main legislation relating to adult services such as the Mental Health Act 2007, the Community Care Act 1996, Mental Capacity Act 2005 the relationship between these Acts’ and how they sit with social work values will then be discussed.