Social Work At Any Level

While practicing social work it is important to understand how an individual’s system and environment can

Social workers must strive “for a full understanding of the complex interactions between the client and all levels of the social and physical system as well as meaning that the client assigns to each of these interactions” (Andreae, 1996, p. 605).

In the professional field of Social Work, there are many terminologies that individuals outside of this group may not understand. During the process of assessing a problem in a family, there are different theoretical perspectives that helps social workers understand different aspects of family situations. There are eight theoretical perspectives that helps social workers understand family’s dynamic and situations. These theoretical perspectives are; system perspective, conflict perspective, exchange and choice perspective, social constructionist perspective, psychodynamic perspective, developmental perspective, social behavior perspective and humanistic perspective.

Social work professions need to understand the importance of how individuals interact both with other people and their environment, to have an understanding how individuals are affected by these interactions (Rogers, p. 2). According to Rogers (2016), “Social workers are knowledgeable about human behavior across the life course; the range of social systems in which people live; and the ways social systems promote or deter people in maintaining or achieving health and well-being. Social workers apply theories and knowledge from the liberal arts to understand biological, social, cultural, psychological, and spiritual development (p. 2). Their work with clients begins with assessments to evaluations of intervention and is based in and supports of the core value system of the profession.

According to Gardiner and Kosmitzki (2008), most recently the ecological perspective has become a leading approach towards addressing the relationships among persons and environment. In Essentials of Human Behavior, Hutchinson (2013) uses a multidimensional approach to better understand social work practice. Using this approach, one can analyze the connection between a client’s person, such as psychologically or biologically, a client’s environment, such as families or communities, and a client’s time, such as their linear time in past, present, or future. Specifically analyzing the environmental component, Uri Bronfenbrenner’s (1999) ecological perspective identifies four levels of systems a client may be associated with: microsystems, mesosystems, exosystems, and macrosystems.

On Chapter 2, The Developmental, Ecological-Systems Frameworks Haight and Taylor presented “the five levels of social context critical to human development: the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and macrochronological system” (Haight and Taylor, 2016, p. 32). I think that as future social workers we have to consider people in the environment and the presentation of these five levels of social context play an important

? My life experiences have molded me into a patient, emotionally matured and readily ready to, not only, sympathize with people, especially the disabled, but to also genuinely empathize with them in their daily struggles to live their dream life.

One of the most useful models for social workers to implement is the generalist model. Since the goal of social work is to work with individuals and assist them in solving their problems, the generalist model seeks to create three levels of practice to better aide the individuals in direct practice service (Farley, Smith, & Boyle, 2011). These three levels are the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. The micro level refers to the systems that directly impact a single individual, whereas the mezzo level refers to the small groups (such as marriages and families) that impact the individual. Furthermore, the macro level refers to the large systems, such as cultures and large organizations, which can influence the person. With the establishment of the generalist model, the social worker can better aide the client and work directly with him to help him solve any problems or concerns he may have, and this model has become the most common operational model in social work, though it does have both advantages and disadvantages.

Social workers have many different practices and approaches to draw on for work with individuals, families, communities and society as a whole. These approaches and techniques can be varied depending on the distinctive

This approach views client problems within the environment context in which they occur and it is a cornerstone of social work practice. It also looks at the way client’s problems can occur at the individual or environmental level or in the relationship between the two. When looking at the person in environment lens, I prefer to use a micro-mezzo-macro approach. In this approach, looking at the individual as the micro level, the family as the mezzo level, and society or the community the individual lives in as the macro level. Many times, change at one level leads to change in another. I continue to focus on the individual and the environment, but I look at strength such as the comprehensive approach to problems, useful assessment of client problems, dynamic interactions between person and environment, and obvious causes of problems at the individual and environmental levels that are more evident when using this holistic approach. Unfortunately, when there are strengths they are also limitations like, the approach may be too broad to predict behavior, difficult to define and test constructs empirically, the absence of a consistent set of concepts that can be applied to client situations. As Rogers stated, both development and environment are always changing. People are born with both negative and positive tendencies, and they are

State the significance to social work practice and social policy: Food insecurity and malnutrition is an endless pressing issue on the macro level of social work across the nation. This is a significance part of a social workers job is to address these issues on a larger scale. Social workers incorporate multisector strategies to address this issue through different agencies hoping to develop evaluations that would produce results of the need base for nutritional and food security programs, which leads to funding for these programs as well. The social polices of this includes providing food pantries, food banks, healthier options in school systems, and nutritional programs that helps reduce hunger and to address the poor heath concerns associated

Throughout the Social Work course, I have learned information about what a social work does and the careers out there that are possible to do with a social work degree. There is approximately about 101 careers in social work according to Dr. Jessica A. Ritter and Ms. Mary Kiernan-Stern; authors of the book: “101 Careers in Social Work”. I’ve always loved to help others in their time of need specially children who in this case are the ones who can’t defend themselves and mostly don’t have a voice to speak up out in the world. My main focus is mainly to work with young ones who are in need of service from a social worker such as: children, juniors and so on. Some of the areas that I plan to work on are in school social work, child

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) is a national association of educational programs and individuals that confirms and improves the quality of social work education to become a professional job. CSWE puts in a countless amount of effort to strive for this mission by setting up a bachelor's and master’s degree programs in social work. On the other hand, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world, with approximately 132,000 members. To be more specific, NASW has a determination to intensify the maturity and developmental process of its members. The main goal is to retain professional standards and to create fair social policies. NASW progresses

My field placement experience has permitted me to develop and evolve as a professional social worker. This was a time that I implemented my social work practice theories with the client system from a micro, mezzo and macro environment. This knowledge enables me to understand how changes in one individual influences changes in the family and community environments. As a social worker, I was able to combine the ecological and social systems theory, focusing on the individual and his or her environment. I was likewise able to explore the interactions between the individual and his micro, mezzo, and macro systems as well as concentrating on the goodness of fit between the person and the environment. Each of these theories created a framework for which I could utilize in the intervention process.

During the semester we have touched upon three important theories relating to social work and the social environment. Eriksonian theory, role theory and family systems theory have crucial aspects in understanding a person’s development. Eriksonian theory brings a positive outlook about people’s ability to change, the belief that clients have a sense of good judgment to do well and succeed. Erikson believed that if children had a healthier ego, the more driven they are to move on to the next sage of development and to new opportunities. According to this theory, every person is required to pass through a series of eight interrelated stages throughout their life span. He also says how personality continues to develop throughout life. Each individual is impacted in a different way than someone else by his or her environment. Role theory helps to explain behavior based off of social interactions. It’s the way of a person acts by being personally defined by a parent, teacher, friend, stranger, etc. Depending on how a person’s behavior is taken by an on looker, they can either be accepted by society or rejected by perceiving themselves as a negative trait. Family systems theory is the view of a family dynamic and how the core group undergoes evolvement in structure and function. Systems help to understand the relationship between different complex variables. Those complex variables include daily challenges and various tasks in life. The theory states that to understand a family,