Direct Social Work Experience

I believe that the overall theme of this article was to show the different theories that are used by Social Workers on a daily basis. By understanding the different theories mentioned in this article you could better understand how to work through different cases. This article also showed that not all theories are helpful despite what one may believe. In this article, it also mentions that before using a specific theory/case management style you should be sure to evaluate the person of interest. I found this article to be very useful and it helped me better understand how each theory is supposed to work and how important it is to evaluate clients before choosing theories.

In the book Social Work Skills for Beginning Direct Practice talks about the Life Model of Social Work Practice. The principal of the model is to, “Empowerment and as such is particularly sensitive to culture, physical, and social context” (Cummings, et. al, pg. 49, 2012). This model is a way to guide social workers to assess clients in stress levels, coping skills and to be able to seek intervention that will help their client.

Working in social care is about providing personal and practical support to help people live their lives. You could be supporting someone with a physical disability, autism, dementia or a mental health condition. You could be working in a care home, out in your local community, in a hospital or from someone's home (providing care in someone's home is often called domiciliary care. There are lots of different roles in social care depending on what you want to do, who you want to work with and where you'd like to work.

During this practicum at the Durham Children 's Aid Society (CAS), I have taken advantage of numerous learning opportunities to develop skills and enhance my social work practice. These assignments align with the goals and tasks outlined with in my Learning Agreement and relate to the organizational, community, social work, and professional contexts of practice. This summary will highlight how I have met each of these key learning outcomes.

The implications for social work from this evaluation of this program is that it is a way to help social workers empower the clients to take care of themselves. Social workers are largely concerned with empowering people to be the one in control of their own development (Sogren, Jones, Nathaniel, & Cameron-Padmore, 2012). Because this program is built on education and knowledge it is empowering in and of itself, but when workers are able to build upon the knowledge with therapy they empower the client even more than the class alone (Sogren, M., Jones, A., Nathaniel, K., & Cameron-Padmore, J.

Social workers need to turn themselves and the client in order to provide effective treatment. This is similar to therapeutic alliance, a social worker must be well rounded. If a social worker is completely professional the client may feel inferior and hold back their emotions and actions. We need to tune into ourselves and the client to make sure that we are both being direct in our communication, and to get in touch with feelings the client may have (Shulman, 2012, p. 72).

Boyle, S. W., Hull, Jr., G. H., Mather, J. H., Smith, L. L., & Farley, O. W. (2009). Direct practice in social work (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education

My goal in coming to SSA was to gain the theoretical knowledge and skillset needed to be an effective social work administrator at the federal level. Specifically, I wanted to learn the research and best practices for supporting and empowering some of our nation’s most vulnerable populations—children, mothers, and women living in poverty—in order to implement effective social policy. I strongly believe that to be an effective policymaker, I needed to understand the needs of human services policy beneficiaries and service-users and how these individuals are shaped by their social, physical, and emotional environments. The direct practice curriculum exposed me to a variety of tools, such as anti-oppressive practice, cultural competency framework,

In this paper, I will be discussing of an organization that caters social services and contributes to the social work field. In addition, I will go in details where the organization is financed from and what is the mission of the organization. Moreover, I will discuss of the structure that the organizations conduct to accomplished their missions and explain the organization 's different services provided under their organizations umbrella. Furthermore, I will discuss of the organization accountability to their services, overall impact, and the power in organization. Lastly, I will explanatory the workers role in the organizations and discuss of my overall experience referring to my future social work profession.

Choosing to pursue this education to become a Social Service Worker has been a life long passion; living a so called “roller coaster” of a life and being subjected to many things, enjoyable and regretful has helped me in many ways to comprehend what it is to truly have human empathy and compassion for others. A veteran at life in its lowest and highest forms, and feeling completely alone and hopeless at times; being subjected to sexual and physical abuse, seeing what alcohol and drugs do to families, how poverty effects children and loved ones. Fortunately there were a few individuals that reached out, bring me up out of the darkness. This is something that I feel in my heart that needs to be given back, for me to provide someone the empowerment that others have given me, to show that there is hope and give reason to keep going, individuals who feel desperate, help to raise their chances, dreams and the basic needs of life. Having the knowledge of education to give these resources for expert referrals to assist people in desperate times, so they can live the life that is deserving and fulfilling to them, therefore this is my ultimate goal!

All through the text, Direct Social Practice: Theory and Skills, exemplifies the author’s writings, and brings to light such great insights to the profession of social workers. The text gives guidelines, values and competencies within the profession and stresses the approaches, theory’s and systems to help guide social workers to complete

Social work embodies diverse theoretical structure that can be applied in the practice. However, there are two current approaches that are guiding social workers’ performance in a conventional or progressive practice. A conventional approach tends to maintain the social order, and thus it is aligned with societal values and institutions. On the other hand, a progressive approach criticizes “the status quo”, and aims to change social structures.

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) is a national association of educational programs and individuals that confirms and improves the quality of social work education to become a professional job. CSWE puts in a countless amount of effort to strive for this mission by setting up a bachelor's and master’s degree programs in social work. On the other hand, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world, with approximately 132,000 members. To be more specific, NASW has a determination to intensify the maturity and developmental process of its members. The main goal is to retain professional standards and to create fair social policies. NASW progresses

Social Work is a discipline that can be a very rewarding experience for both the worker and the client. The practice involves working with individuals, families, or groups who are struggling to cope with life`s challenges. The social worker must combine his or her personal qualities, creative abilities, and social concerns with the professional knowledge in order to help client’s social functioning or prevent social problems from developing (Bradford W. Sheafor, 2008, p. 34). Social work practice seeks to promote human well-being, while addressing the processes by which individuals and groups are marginalized or diminished in their capacity to participate as citizens (Ian O'Connor, 2006, p. 1).

For this reflective journal, I have decided to draw parallels between approaches to social work that I have learned in my placement, and what I have learned during my academic career at Carleton University. Placement thus far, has been an eye-opening and rich experience, which has taught me about the profession that I aspire to be a part of. I am a third year student, and much of my time spent at Carleton, has been studying theories, and becoming exposed to different schools of thought. Theories are incredibly beneficial, to teach and inform the practice of the next generation of social workers. However, placement has provided me with the opportunity to apply theoretical ideals, to real life social work practice.