Reflective Practice In Social Work

This essay will demonstrate an understanding of the theory of reflective practice within healthcare and nursing. Furthermore, the essay will identify and analyse the different models of reflective practice, the effectiveness of the models and how healthcare professionals can apply this within their profession. Also, the barriers that may prevent a healthcare professional from reflecting will be discussed in this essay and how it will impact the quality of care delivered to patients.

In social work practice, client assessments are important because they allow social workers to gather information from clients. This information helps the acting social worker better understand clients presenting problems. The assessment also helps social workers evaluate a client’s progress and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions used. In this paper, a multidimensional assessment will be performed on a client I have been working with at my internship placement, Urban Ministries of Durham. Once all relevant information is presented, and intervention and treatment plan will be discussed.

This competency was put into action by completing two assignments that were related to determining the essential public health services. The first assignment was watching a video about gun violence in Chicago and determining how many of the essential public health services were being met at the time. In this particular video I was able to identify four essential public health services that were covered. The first services I identified was “mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health problems (Turnock, 2011 p. 226) which in the video was being represented by the Chicago’s trauma united and Northwestern Hospital’s new rule that when a patient comes in who has been shot they call the community based violence advocates to help with the victim (Brackett, 2013). The next service I identified was “inform, educate, and empower people about health issues” (Turnock, 2011 p. 226) which was being met by the Harper High School’s Becoming A Man (BAM) program that teaches high risk students about how they can control their dangerous behaviors and actions to help them prevent gun violence (Brackett, 2013). The next service I found in the video was “research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems” (Turnock, 2011 p. 226) which was being addressed by President Obama’s

My role as senior support worker is to work alongside management to provide an effective service to vulnerable adults with mental health living in the community; it is important to offer professional leadership and positive team work skills. At the beginning of my employment as a senior support worker in mental health there was minimal knowledge and experience in supporting vulnerable adults within this specific area, however CQC fundamental standards which everyone in health and social care can expect remain transferable.

Before beginning the Master of Social Work program at Laurier I figured I had a strong understanding of what social work was. However, I quickly learned that I had only scratched the surface. I knew oppression existed, but I never understood the depth of it. I now know that I was afraid of it. It was easy for me to stay silent, because it was such a comfortable position to be in. Doing nothing meant I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. This was influenced by the privilege I had.

Social work practice works with many people in different situations, needing concise help from professionals. This assistance includes a range of skills such as; identifying the problem or problems, apply and use evidence based practice and theories and critical reflection. All these skills are integral parts of best practice in social work, and are needed by all service users.

The service user I am currently working with is P (26) single parent and B (15-month-old) infant. She was referred to our service via the orthopaedic nurse, to get access to relevant service within her community. B has complicated health needs and requires specialist children centre groups, due to her low immune system. The family are isolated and find it challenging to socialise, and require support finding playgroups for her child. Additionally, P has a new partner and she has made me aware that he emotionally abusing her and feels more isolated due to his controlling behaviour. He prevents her from seeing old friends and changed requested her to change her number. P has made me aware that R does not trust her, and accuses her of being intimate

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’,

According to Duffy (2016), there are two different types of social work practice when it comes to working alongside a disadvantaged population. The first kind, is used more often and is called conventional social work approach, which focuses its attention on undertaking assessment and ensuring that individuals are families are received the correct support through organised services and support. On the other hand, critical social work, the less utilized approach aims to challenge the inequalities and oppression in society, by targeting the societal structure via activism and research, in order to bring forth criticism and questions on discourses attached to particular marginalised groups. The author proposes that both social work practices are important, however, critical social work should be emphasized on more frequently, especially with groups such as the ageing population as it targets the stubborn discourses (Duffy, 2016). Mattsson broadens critical social work, by relating it to critical reflection. Critical theorists have proposed critical reflection as a method to understand how social work practices can uphold oppression due to seemingly everyday actions, words and attitudes. Therefore, this can have an implication on how social workers execute their practice, as ordinary and structural features of bureaucratic hierarchies may senselessly abide social workers to uphold and reproduce social oppression, even though they might be well-intentioned. Critical reflection

Today’s session was conducted by second year placement social work students and service users. The issue they covered was about the relevance of working in partnership within the social care profession.

making Practice-Based Learning work Reflection on PRACTICE A resource commissioned by the Making Practice Based Learning Work project, an educational development project funded through FDTL Phase 4 Project Number 174/02 and produced by staff from the University of Ulster. www.practicebasedlearning.org Author Patricia McClure School of Health Sciences, University of Ulster www.practicebasedlearning.org contents Reflection on Practice 02

Self-awareness and the use of self is a key component in social work practice. Depending upon how one integrates their personal being and accompanying thoughts, experiences, emotions, and consciousness into the helping profession has a profound impact on whether that integration is positive or negative, particularly when it comes to that of one’s relationships with their clients. While remaining impartial is often critical to effective social work practice, the complete separation of self from one’s professional practice is not only impossible to realize, but would arguably have less of a meaningful impact with one’s relations with clients as well as self. Understanding the use of self and the importance of self-awareness in the social work profession is the first step in establishing a healthy means of practicing and the impact that our own individuality has when interacting with clients. In this paper I will analyze, and further critically reflect upon, four academic journals on the topic of the use of self in social work; later applying this learning to an experience from my field placement.

Professional knowledge is no longer viewed as just consisting of a standardised, explicit and fixed knowledge base. It is now seen as knowledge which exists in use, is ethical in its use and is changed by experience.

Every worthwhile journey begins with one step. My social work journey began when I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Utah in 2003. I thought my next step would be to immediately pursue a graduate degree. In my undergraduate career I had taken numerous classes from the College of Social and Behavioral Science and had done well in those classes. In my Social Work as a Profession course I had an assignment to shadow a social worker and write a paper about my experience. I chose to shadow my father-in-law, a social worker with over 30 years of experience, and in my paper I expressed my desire to go into the social work field. I knew I liked helping people. I knew I liked problem solving and critical thinking. I thought my 22 year-old self was ready to embark on that journey, but I wasn’t. I realize now that what I lacked at graduation was one crucial step… perspective. Over the past twelve years I have gained that much needed perspective and have taken many steps forward in my journey, and with those steps and that increased perspective, I now feel more fully prepared to begin my social work career.

Social Work’s core philosophy and values are centered around social justice and social well-being. Oppression, injustice, discrimination, and violence are antithetical to the social work profession. Social Work believes in strength-based approaches and the person-in-environment perspective to cater the needs and welfare of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society at large. Generally, the target populations for social work are vulnerable, marginalized, and oppressed people; however, social workers provide services to people with a wide range of problems, such as poverty, addiction, mental illness, etc. to empower them to meet their own needs. Historically, the social work profession started its operation by providing neighborhood