Self Awareness On Social Work Practice

A career in Social Work requires conviction to personal values that reflect and uphold the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics. Professional ethics are the foundation of social work, as the trade has an innate obligation to endorse ethical principles and basic values to advocate for the wellness of others. The core values adopted by all social workers, as distinguished by NASW, are service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. As a Clinical Social Worker, I will honor the NASW Code of Ethics in addition to my personal values of respect, self determination, responsibility, motivation, and wisdom. My personal values complement the NASW Code of Ethics and will resonate in my work as a social worker.

Personal values and professional values run parallel in the social work field. Recognizing and managing your personal values while working with clients is an important task. Concentrating on your professional values is required for a social worker to assist her client to the best of her ability. During my internship there have been a number of cases that I have had to practice managing my personal values.

Social workers deal with intense situations daily. It is important that social workers are aware of how they are affected by these interactions. Priscilla Dass-Brailsford explains in her book, that countertransference, vicarious trauma (VT), secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue and satisfaction, and burnout are all different ways that counselors can be affected (Dass-Brailsford, 2007). This is where it is important for social workers to have a plan of self-care and stress management resources to use.

It is important for a social worker to remember their motivations for joining the profession as this will have a continued and lasting impact on their working practice. Whether unconsciously or intentionally a social worker will have agendas to achieve, whilst these may be noble and not necessarily detrimental to working practice, self-awareness is necessary to

For a majority of my life, I wanted to be a pediatrician when I grew up. I had wanted to be a pediatrician due to my passion to work with children, in addition to enhancing the lives of children. As I continued to grow up, I realized that science is not my strong suit and I would never survive medical school. I do not recall how I learned about the profession of social work, but around the eighth grade I have known that social work was the profession that I wanted to pursue. The idea of helping others is what initially struck me as compelling because I did not understand social work in it’s entirety, but I knew that I would relish a life of helping other individuals.

Value Orientations are an important aspect to social work practice. It is critical that social workers do not let their personal values interfere with their daily work ethic. In addition, social works must keep an objective outlook on the issues they confront because values differ across cultures, race, ethnicity, etc. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical self-reflection on my personal values.

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.

I would ask questions about the social part of the job. I wouldn’t say that socializing is a strength of mine, but i still do better than most people. The reason is because when working in groups, I tend to have trouble unless I’m the leader. I'm not a control freak or anything. If anything, people usually say I’m a good leader.Most of the time, when I depend on other people, things never go my way. So now, when I work in a group, most of the time I'm either alone or I put together my own group. I would ask what kinds of skills are needed while I'm working at that location.

Self-reflection and correction in social work practice is important for continued learning and professional development. Without self-awareness, social workers cannot separate their personal feelings, values, and attitudes from their professional. This is important because we need to focus on the needs of the client, not what we think they need. Knowing how to separate our personal feelings and values from our professional feelings and values will prevent us from getting burnout and help us maintain professional boundaries.

However, there are ways that my bias comes into play when it comes to social work values. When I think something is right, it might actually be wrong due to the values social work has. Once I learn to set my personal matters behind I actually could see what needs to be addressed. Since I am unaware of what all my biases are on top of my head, I still have time to learn about them and put them aside to help the client I am working with. I don’t want the client to think that if I put my values into it, I’m not focusing on them when I’m there to help the client achieve after what needs done. If I think something is right with my values, it actually might not be the right way to handle a situation. Due to the values social workers have it shows us more of

As competent and ethical social workers, we strive to meet the clients where they are at, however, we ourselves need to be aware and acknowledge where we are at in terms of our own biases, vulnerabilities, traumatic events, cultural values and personal experiences. To effectively provide the best possible services, we have to be self-aware of our own vulnerabilities and do our own work to ensure we do not further harm the clients. Self-awareness is an ongoing process. We are constantly growing and experiencing new things, we ebb and flow, confirming or revoking set beliefs and biases or creating new ones. Therefore, as ethical social workers, it is our obligation to practice mindfulness and self-awareness.

Social-work is all about paperwork. I am surprised that the state of Nevada does not have a program, yet, to facilitate and speed the documentation process. In my opinion, All the case managers should have an I pad or equivalent equipment that they can take everywhere, so all the forms and documentation would be synchronized automatically with the system. Clients can sign with their finger, and it will be only one step process. It will save so much time and it will be more organized. Aging And Disability division provide wonderful services to help the elderly and handicap communities with their needs, Currently, there are more than 700 people on the waiting list to receive their services. There are more than 60 social workers, working for Aging and Disability division, but they can only handle so many clients at a time. Each of them handle a portfolio of about 50 clients. In my opinion, documentation is the most time consuming process. Integrating better technology will reduce the time it takes for the documentation process. It will make social workers more efficient in their job, allowing them to take on a bigger case loads. Therefore, the number people in the waiting list will be reduce and the number of people receiving help will

My current understanding of social work is that it is a profession which helps different people achieve various goals or obtain different types of services. Social workers may work with very young children or they may work with the elderly or any age group in between. Social workers are often advocates for underprivileged groups of people. Social work is often categorized into three main groups, micro, mezzo, and macro social work (Cummins, Pedrick, Sevel, 2012). In micro social work, social workers, “work with individuals, in families or in groups, and in public, not-for-profit, or private agencies” (Cummins, Pedrick, Sevel, 2012). In mezzo social work, social workers, “work in program and policy development or research evaluation within community agencies or private corporations” (Cummins, Pedrick, Sevel, 2012). Lastly, macro social workers, “may be involved with community organizing and development, or working in the political arena as a state or federal employee, elected official, policy analyst, or lobbyist” (Cummins, Pedrick, Sevel, 2012). No matter what area of social work a person works in social workers need to be culturally competent, and follow the social work mission and values.

As a social worker, I will demonstrate cultural competence to ensure self- determination to my client by incorporating standard 3- cross culture knowledge in my practice. In order to provide effective service to my client I will research their cultural background, gain further knowledge and understanding from my colleagues and clients.

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.