The role of the social worker is not to change people, treat people, or help people cope, but to nourish, encourage, assist, and unleash the strengths within people. They
Who would like to believe that “... no child will face horrors of poverty, homelessness, abuse and neglect, and inadequate health care or live in an environment where crime, alcohol, tobacco, and drug abuse are the norm” (Colby and Dziegielewski 216). Social work in general is such a broad field, one must be well informed about the varying areas encompassed within it. With each area there are certain aspects that makes each unique in its own way. Each works toward the same end goal which is bettering helpless individuals and providing them with correct resources to ensure continual growth within their lives. One of my favorite areas, that was also connected to the social worker I interviewed was child welfare services. Through the usage of three viable sources: a textbook, a phone interview, and an scholarly article child welfare services is examined through a social working perspective.
Social Work is a career defined as “work carried out by trained personal with the aim of alleviating the conditions of those in need of help or welfare”. Social work varies in several fields, social workers work as part of multi-disciplinary teams with child welfare organizations, adoption and foster care agencies, hospitals, schools, prisons, mental health institutions, and more. Social work may leave the impression that it’s an easy field because it is assumed that all social workers do is serve others and manage paperwork but that is only a small chunk of the job. Social workers must deal with the ethical and emotional aspect of helping others. As a social worker, it is critical to comply with the National Association of Social Workers
What more good to do in society than assisting children for a better, deserved lifestyle. Social working is nothing but a helping field that opens doors to kids that started off with nothing. “At times social workers will fail to overcome countless cases where the clients were given there undivided attention, and the best help one can receive but knowing you did the best you could in a case is what helps you move forward, and the cases you do succeed are the ones that over look that bad ones” (Martinez). Personally, I view this level of field work rewarding than anything else. The salary one receives as a social worker isn’t compared to the importance of the job itself and the difference you make in the life of young child, and the feeling of succeeding, I am sure, will be
Previous to my two social work courses, I knew very little about social work. I have seen two movies, Precious and Fathers and Daughters, that have shown the work and responsibilities of a social worker. In the movie Precious, a teenage girl who was raised in Harlem, was subjected to physical, mental and sexual abuse. A social worker, Ms. Weiss, was assigned to her case to help her cope with her troubling life. Ms. Weiss displays the emotional struggle social workers go through while working with people who have been abused. We see this during the scene when Precious tells the detailed story of her sexual abuse from her father and Ms. Weiss cannot hold back her tears. I could see how that would be a very challenging fragment of social work
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).
You’re a Youth Social Worker called out to a school to assess a child. Once in front of the child they say “I want to kill myself and never go back”. As a Youth Social worker in today’s society, you never know what’s going to come across your desk. You wonder, what are you going to see or hear when talking to them? How do you help? Will you be able to gain their trust? Will you be able to handle the stress? These are some of the questions that will be addressed.
According to the National Association of Social Work, “The primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty. A historic and defining feature of social work is the profession’s focus on individual well-being in a social context and the well-being of society. Fundamental to social work is attention to the environmental forces that create, contribute to, and address problems in living.”
Imagine that a child is out there living under a roof with bruises, scars, giving no sense on how to be loved or knowing what a true meaning of a father and mother signifies is a very big fear to not being able to do anything about it. Do not let the past affect the present of the future of a child that does not deserve the cruelty, hunger, homeless. Anyone can have their career planned out but to know how to do the major key points to be successful is the part most struggle in. Learning how to do the higher risks cases and the ones that take excessive amount of extra work is what depends on how hard they want to work to make it. Social workers are the angels that the children and families have been searching for to find peace and love within
I personally view social work as a structured, multi-faceted platform that provides necessary, practical assistance and aid to those who direly need it. This comes in numerous different forms and reaches across all walks of life, but ultimately, the unequivocal similarity that all social workers in any branch of social work share is the ability to plant and foster seeds of positivity and growth in even the darkest, bleakest of places. I have experienced the transformative power of this very work firsthand and, frankly, I believe social work to be one of the most admirable and necessary professions to exist. As the late journalist Alexander Chase so aptly put it, “Social work is a Band-Aid on the festering wounds of society.” It is the role of social workers to clean up, to the best of their ability, the mess that is left behind in the lives of so many people because of social, economic, familial, or systemic shortcomings. While it is impossible for social workers to wholly rewire the system or entirely eliminate pervasive social problems, they are the ones who are on-site after the damage has been done, toolkit in hand, first-aid kit in hand, prepared to dirty their hands, ready to work their magic. And I am interested in becoming one of those workers and doing just that for families of addicts, trying my absolute best to enable others to flourish into the person they are meant to be, which they would not otherwise have had the luxury of accomplishing. I am interested in
“The primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well being and help meet the basic human needs of all people with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed and living in poverty.” (1)
As stated by the International Federation of Social Workers, social work can be defined as a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. Many people don’t even know what social workers are or that they even exist at all. Social workers can be found in a multitude of settings, but a big place where they are common is in schools. School social workers can help students who may struggle with social change situations, development issues, and more. However, one of the biggest things that school social workers help students with is behavior issues related to
Values and ethics are important in the field of social work because they serve as guidelines for behavior and conduct. What is social work exactly? A very simple and brief response is helping those in need and providing said persons with resources they could not attain on their own. It’s always aspiring to educate one’s self on new resources, information and newly developed theories. This is more than a career; this is a decision that makes one question the direction of their moral compass.
Social work is a broad field that supports individuals, groups and communities of people by addressing issues that may interfere with living healthy and fulfilling lives. A few of the issues social workers address are addiction, trauma, poverty, abuse and mental illness, criminal justice, education, social justice, healthcare, employment, food and housing. The goal of social work practice (micro/macro) is to hopefully give clients, groups of people and communities the resources they need to maintain change through reducing risk factors and increasing/strengthening protective factors.
#1 A: Social work can be defined as a broad profession, with the sole purpose of improving the lives and relieving the hardships of the members of a population. Social work addresses many problems for the well being of society, including: health care, criminal justice and domestic violence, economic and public policies, child and family welfare, as well as homelessness. Social workers are trained professionals with the education and tools necessary to address problems from several different perspectives, with the intention of helping the masses and not just individuals. Social workers have the ability to inform people in need of resources available to help them achieve a wide variety of goals, whether personal social mobility, or financial independence.