Reflective Essay On Social Work

Having the opportunity to hear from a variety of professionals in the social work field was the perfect addition to our course syllabus as many of my classmates are approaching their helping careers. For me personally, these speakers were able to reinforce what I desire to study during graduate school. The speakers were also able to provide me with different avenues I may want to study or pursue for a job opportunity once I have my masters degree.

This section of the paper will discuss the definition of social work, values associated with social work and arguments for and against the use of systems theory in social work practice. Social work can be described as a field of study that encompasses individuals and their environment. Social work can be defined as work trained professionals do to elevate stressors of individuals so they may become more self-sufficient and empowered to live to their fullest potential.

The journey towards the attainment of the Bachelor of the social work degree has been an enlightening and educational experience, as the individual is exposed to the realities of many social and political issues in the society. As a student, I ventured into the degree, with minimal insight as to how the degree can influence and shape the way I perceive the social world, and the way I relate these matters to myself. However, throughout my endeavour, which encompasses years of theoretical studies, and two intensive placements at two drastically different organisations, I believe I have accumulated the bare minimal knowledge to possess a solid foundation about the unfairness and inequality that people in disadvantaged conditions face. Social workers are predominantly found in welfare organisations which Howe (as cited in Limber, 2015) suggested largely influences the practice, direction and values of the social worker, and impacts on their ability to act autonomously (Lymbery, 2015). During my placements, there was a dominant theme that frequently stood out and enticed my attention. This was the accepted practice of focusing on the individual’s problem, as opposed to the social problems that existed and the lack of acknowledgement about the social restrictions of the human agency that limited self-determination. The realization that organisations were managed this way was important in ensuring that I made a proactive effort to understand and untangle the reasons behind such

In this essay I will discuss what learning from K216 materials has been useful to me whilst working with vulnerable and/or disadvantaged service users in my student placement, and what learning I have applied to my practice. Throughout I will look at how my learning informed what I decided to do, how I went about doing this and my understanding of the practice. I will discuss learning in respect of two areas of social work, which are ‘Communication’ and ‘Working collaboratively’. For ‘Communication’ I will focus on communication with service users with disabilities and/ or additional needs and I will explore a case of a mother who I had a telephone call with who was in crisis and in a highly emotional state. With ‘Working collaboratively’,

One of the key things that stood out for me while doing this course and before has made me realize that social work is harder than I thought it would be. There are many critical aspects of social work that help us work with clients. One of the biggest things that have stood out for me was that helping people is more complicated than I thought there are so many critical things in the process that work to help others. Therefore it is not as easy as I expected it would be. The main reasons that I wanted to do this course was because I ultimately wanted to do to help people. I have learned that many factors come into play in the field of social work, including levels of practice, ethics and critical reflection and self-care.

Lying on a school assignment is something I’ve never done until now. My thought process that lead me to lie on my field exercise assignment was the pressure of being a student who complete all work assignment on time and the pressure of dealing with family issues at the time when finals were approaching. I didn’t think about the outcome of my actions I just wanted to finish my work and be done with class work, so I could focus on my finals. When I received my paper back from Dr. Nsonwu I thought I was in the clear; when I flipped to the back page to see what grade I was given my heart sank when I saw a note that read “please see me”. Walking down to Dr. Nsonwu’s office my heart was racing and I feared the worst.

ASSIGNMENT TITLE: Choose at least two social work theories; explain their main principles, advantages and disadvantages and apply them to the assessment, planning and intervention in one of the case studies provided below. Discuss your rationale for choosing the theories selected.

At this point in my schooling, it is becoming harder and harder to get to the end. It seems like there is no end in sight. Even though I know this is not the case, it is still a struggle to get there. When I first started school I was excited and full of life. There were so many new things to learn and much knowledge to be applied to various situations. Now, I feel as if it is too much. I am slowly starting to hate to come to class. The stress of so many different papers, projects, group assignments and keep in mind I have a family and life, have taken their toll on me mentally. I feel as if I am not learning anything. We test, test and test some more. I feel like a professional test taker. When I ask what does all of this have to do with social

I grew up in a family of civil service workers. With lots of nurses, police officers and firemen around, you learn that importance of giving back. My grandmother and mother always volunteered and ingrained that quality in me. I was thought that a loving family no matter how poor economical could still give back to the community.

Mrs. Matthews was an only child raised by her natural mother. Later in her life, she reported her stepfather was good to her. Mrs. matters related she had a "good childhood." Her mother passed away in 2007 and "she was my everything." Mrs. Matthews related she is still grieving for her mother and her weight gain has been increasing since that time. She was raised in a small town at the poverty level. She described herself in childhood and adolescence as Active, happy and outgoing. In school she generally received average grades and had many friends. She got along well with others and had no problems in school that she could remember. She planned to complete her education after graduating high school however dropped out to support her family

Writer will thank students for participating and give them gift baskets which will include a rose, a monthly planner, and the resources discussed above, mood changing nail polish and bracelets with their initial and flower pendant.

As a mother of three, I am used to looking after my children and often forget about myself/ health. However, as a Master of Social Work Student (graduate school student), I learned to look at my own well-being; physical and mental health. If I am not healthy/ well, I would not be able to properly care for others.

When I emailed the Faculty of Social Work after my first rejection letter I assumed there was a mistake and retold them my duties as a social worker, stated my confusion and asked for clarification as to what they want as experience. The replied back to my first email stating that my position was not relevant enough to social services and then mentioned information about the appeal process. My second email was me directly asking for a set of guidelines to follow and to describe the tasks that would count as experience in their view. They responded to that by saying that they do not have a set of guidelines to follow and did not provided me with any definition. The only thing they could send me was a list of social work jobs to use as examples in which case I need a social worker degree in order to work these positions. From this information I am still unclear of what they expect and

Throughout my progression through the social work curriculum, I have become interested in working in two different settings, hospitals or schools. I decided to pursue a service learning opportunity that would allow me to work with a population in one of these settings. Dream Outside the Box gives me this opportunity. Dream Outside the Box is an organization founded on the premise of going into “dream deserts”, schools where students are not likely to pursue higher education, to teach them about future careers in the hopes of sparking a desire to attend a four-year college or a technical college. Every Friday my role at Bells Hill Elementary School is to teach these students about different potential careers that they could pursue such as physics, chemistry, etc. This is an important program that I will continue to work with even after this assignment is completed.

Earlier this year I heard that there might be an opening at the High School Media Center this Fall and was very happy to see that that is the case. I am very interested in the Assistant's position and am hopeful that you will call me for an interview.