Social Work As A Profession

My understanding of the social work profession and its core values is that social workers are caregivers, they provide assistance to people in need, and they address social problems. The social worker goal is the improvement of society to ameliorate the lives of individuals in need. The social work profession mission is to enhance the well-being of people and to assist them in meeting their basic needs, with particular emphasis on the needs of the poor, and the vulnerable individual. The Social Work profession has six core values. These core values are the foundation of the social work profession. The social worker incorporates these core values into his daily practices. Service to others is one of the fundamental values of social work. Social workers goal is serving others and putting the needs of their clients ahead of their own. Social justice is another core value of social work. Social workers aim at improving the lives of the disadvantaged, vulnerable people who are less fortunate or unable to advocate for themselves. Social workers understand the essential value of every human life, regardless of ethnic background, cultural differences or religious beliefs. Their goal is to respect the dignity and worth of every person. Another key value of social work is integrity. The social workers conduct themselves in a trustworthy, honest, and responsible manner at all times. Competence is another important core value of the social work profession. The

Working in the world of Social Work can be many things; educating, adventurous, and at times emotional fulfilling and or draining. Every person brings their own contributions as well as their own strategies and problem solving techniques that are set by the social work guidelines. Getting into the world of social work can be intimidating, stressful and many questions are often internally asked. As an aspiring social worker I have had the opportunity to meet up with Tracey Hodgins; a micro social worker who has been in the industry for 15 years, and has had a Bachelor of Social Work Degree for 13 years. She is the mother of a friend of mine who agreed to let me interview her. Currently she is Adult probation officer; she deals with managing

I interviewed Kim, a LICSW working in private practice in Providence along with her two brothers. She takes on a person-centered approach to her therapy and is very focused on helping her clients achieve their goals, whether it be overcoming grief or dealing with a large adjustment in their lives. Kim certainly appears to be running a very successful practice and by being able to speak to her directly, I learned much more about the social work field.

The paradigms of social work practice are based on the ideologies of social and agency policies to advocate for change, and to make good decisions about people’s lives. “Social work is, by its nature and professional ethics, is concerned with the well-being of all members of society” (Segal, 2013, p. 2). Social policies are based on the principles of social justice, non-discrimination, improving people’s lives, and advocating for social change for improving individual lives to self-determination and self-efficacy. It is apparent that social change has been “influenced by war, economic crisis, demographic changes, and the international threat that affect public and professional sentiment concerning the systematic changes in developing community

With its original intentions of enforcing punishment for weapons, drugs, and severe violent incidents, zero tolerance has evolved to a very critical policy that arguably pushes more minority boys out of school and into the criminal justice system. As many refuse to try to connect present day issues of race within law enforcement, this issue is a pressing issue for the social work profession. Battling against a social injustice issue as such, that presents with so many disproportionate, becomes difficult in working with youth in Ward 7. To hear the youth say, “Why does any of this matter, when I walk outside my door and can be arrested or killed in a day by an officer?” are saddened concepts and theories to work against. In areas where poverty is so prevalent, national mainstream news that flicker across your news screen here and there, are constant realities. To be progressive in treatment one day, but the next day a kid is arrested because he was late to school and the administration would not let him into the building, kills the mindset of success of anyone. A constant barrier most time diminishes a dream.

The events or experiences that led to me to choose social work as a career are events that took place in my life and my and childhood. I had a very hard childhood growing up. I grew up underprivileged and lived in poverty. I suffered a lot of trauma as a child; my mother and father were not able to care for me and my brother due to their use of drugs and criminal behavior. I and my brother lived with my grandmother who had a drinking problem, but managed to do the best she can to care for me and my brother. At a young age, I was raped and the state was forced to remove me from my home. I went from foster home to foster home feeling alone and that no one cared. One thing that always stayed with me was the role my social worker played in my life. I felt like she was the one person that was there for me and if ever I felt like I had no one, I knew that I had her.

The field of social work touches the lives of every American. According to the National Association of Social Workers, “social work is the professional activity of helping individuals, groups, or communities to enhance or restore their capacity for social functioning and to create societal conditions favorable to their goals.”(Zastrow p.34) The focus or purpose of social work is to help meet the basic needs of people, especially those in need to obtain services; counseling and psychotherapy of individuals, families and groups; helping community and groups to provide or improve social and health services; and participate in the improvement and development of social

#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.

Being admitted into the Social Work graduate program is one of the stepping stone to complete my own goals that I have to fulfillment what it means to be an individual that brings social change into the society and will be able to compliment the goals I have step for myself when it comes to academics. Coming into this point within my life has not been easier nor a smooth path, my I am confident that the goals I have for myself will be achieve through a master’s degree of Social Work.

In order for a person to develop a set of values they must analyze their lives and determine what is important to them. The time period in which a person was born, their cultural origins, religion, and life experiences all affect what their values will be. In the same way, the social work profession established its values by analyzing its origins, its successes and its failures. This paper looks at social work’s journey as a profession and its resulting values. This paper then discusses my personal life experience, my values, and how they make me compatible with the social work profession.

Boundaries are an important core value in social work. Social workers are generally compassionate people, but they also need to recognize that they have to set limits. They need to accept that they cannot be available to serve everyone’s needs and wants. This was the case when I worked as an adjunct instructor. One of my students took a couple of individual tutorial classes from me. She was a conscientious student, excelling in her school work and at times she would contact me about her academic and career goals. Over the course of her studies, we found out that we had mutual cousins and would share some our family experiences growing up. We called each other “cousin.” However, she had little contact with her nine siblings, which struck me as rather odd. As a social worker, she provided me an experience that was unique, and I learned some lessons from it.

My vision of the social work field is being able to help people in need and being the person that people can look back on and remember as a huge help in time of need. I think my core values and beliefs will help me be an effective social worker and help me succeed in this field. It is in my belief that a person should never be knocked down when they are going through hardships, and rather empowering them. I also believe that not everyone could be a social worker because it takes a certain kind of empathetic and self-aware person. I truly believe that my upbringing has humbled me to understand and not be judgmental of people’s issues since I’ve seen a lot in my short twenty-one years.

My understanding of the profession of social work is to enhance human well-being and to help meet the basic needs of all society, especially the needs of the most vulnerable, oppressed, and the needs of the people living in poverty. Social work leading duties are to promote social justice and social change on behalf of clients.

“Social Work! Do you have to go to University for that? I always thought that social work was just 90% common sense and 10% good heart!” The social work profession aims to help people. Specifically, social work is defined as ‘an art, a science, and a profession that helps people solve personal, group, and community problems and attain satisfying personal, group and community relationships’ (Farley, Smith & Boyle, 2012, p. 7). Helping people is very common human characteristic, thus possessing the component of common sense. If someone needs help, we help them. We, as humans, share this understanding. However, we aren’t the only profession that has a similar job description. For example, Nursing is described as ‘the job of taking care of people who are sick, injured, or old’ (Merriam-Webster.com. 2011). Nurses also are in the helping field; however, that profession isn’t considered ‘90% common sense’. Both descriptions of social work and nursing are essential saying that they help others. However, it’s the idea of helping others that possess that aspect of common sense. The act of nursing and the act of social work aren’t common sense. There is training involved and knowledge required to be able to take on the title of each profession.

Social work, as a profession, has developed greatly over the years. As an actual profession, social work did not truly begin until the 1900s. In the 1920s schools of social work developed uniform standards for the training and education used. These standards were developed by the American Association of Schools of Social Work, which later merged and became the Council on Social Work Education. This is the group that currently regulates curriculum taught by social work schools. In 1955 the National Association of Social Workers was founded. This entity helped to bring professionalism to the social work profession, and set a uniform set of ethical codes and rules for social workers to abide by.