Social Work Experience Analysis

With a partner : Try this exercise with a friend , taking turns as leader and follower .

As I prepare for the second year of the master’s program, there are three interviews that I must attend to get into my second year placement. Interviews itself can be challenging because they tend to be unpredictable and nerve-racking. The interview can take place with one interviewer or a panel of interviews. To better prepare for this challenge Professor Sears provided the class with a handout of questions to prepare for the placement interview. The three questions I am struggling with are the following:

Outstanding post! I am in full agreement with you! I found your interpretation of all three evaluations to be enlightening and well defined. Moreover, you have offered clear evidence of fully grasping the three types evaluations presented by Grinnell, Gabor, and Unrau (2016). Thank you for sharing your insightfulness! Calvin

During the mock social work interview process I have discovered a lot of interesting facts about the process, myself, and the differences between how the interviewer and the interviewee experience the interview. The opportunity was unexpectedly very informative and has shown me how I want to grow as an interviewer for my clients as well as myself.

I arrived in the office twenty minutes early and I took a sit in the waiting room. The client welcomed the IS and me, acting surprised that I came. His reaction shows how little trust clients sometimes have in interpreters. After having introduced myself to the IS, we all moved to a conference room to start the meeting.

▪ Self-anchored rating scales- Are tools that can developed and used for observation to assist members with tracking problematic behaviors and symptoms.

Social workers should always evaluate their work, as this helps them to assess the areas that are working in their practice and what areas could be improved upon. Social workers can evaluate their own practice, the efficacy of a program, or how their agency is doing. However, there are a multitude of different ways that social works can evaluate their practice and work. During my internship at Wright County Health and Human Services, I chose to evaluate the children’s mental health outreach program.

JJ is a 3-year-old Caucasian male that is currently being observed in a daycare setting located at the Erie Community college in WNY. This observational study is to see what characteristic can help us understand how the developmental process is with JJ, and what part has more emphasis on social factors that is contributing to his cognitive development. JJ is in the Erie Community College daycare, while his mother or father is attending their college classes around 10:00 a.m. JJ is wearing a blue sweatshirt and a pair of jeans with sneakers. While observing him for the first five minutes, he was not engaging in the activities, while not really expressing any emotions towards the peers, teachers, and his environment.

Social workers should have an understanding of how to conduct an assessment using fundamental interventions and strategies specific to children and adolescents. As a social worker you should be familiarized with risk and protective factors that contribute to specific life problems experienced in childhood. Therefore, one must be able to conduct a psychosocial evaluation that includes youth behaviors and environmental influences.

This week (3/28) I shadowed a Social Worker (Ms. Lloyd) and we went to a nursing home. She is an Option Counselor for the agency. An Option Counselor is a person that is called once someone is transitioning from the nursing home and they are asking for more information on their options for housing and services outside of the nursing home. I also went to a Senior Delta Luncheon (3/29) with Ms. Averret (supervisor).At the luncheon Ms. Averret spoke to the seniors about the services that the agency offers and also gave out flyers to upcoming events. I was there to pass out brochures about the agency. I am still working on my training to help with counseling seniors about Medicare and data entry (3/30-3/31).

My preferred values as in social work professional is integrity. When talking about integrity, one is talking about honesty, probity, moral rectitude, honour etc. These would be my best policy as a social worker. Integrity is essential when dealing with people as it would inspire positive relationship between me, clients and community partners. Gaining trust through my activities with the people I am dealing with as a professional is essentially important when dealing with people from the fringe of the society. Having someone like me would inspire hope and bring comfort to their hurting souls or troubled life. I would be consolation personified to them. As a man of integrity, I would ensure that I am good at what I do- at my job. That way

I am already assuming the role of a professional social worker, however I have not received my certification yet. Currently, I hold the position of Attendant Referral Program Specialist at IndependenceFirst in Milwaukee, WI. This program is funded by the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County and serves individuals with disabilities. My responsibilities include; screening and interviewing Personal Care Attendants (PCA), conducting assessments of the personal care needs of individuals with disabilities in their homes, documentation of all professional encounters with PCAs and consumers (individuals with disabilities), and maintaining the data collection of all required United Way information.

I would (personally) say that social work differs from helping professions such as nursing and psychology in that while nurses and psychologists, counsellors, and nurses do obviously have a huge hands-on role in both physical and mental healing processes, social workers are a bit more specialised and almost more helpful because social workers physically go into the environment of their clients, they are more hands on than other professions, and they have a deeper connection with their clients because of that than nurses and psychologists. Not to say those professions are impersonal but social workers are much more involved in the every day lives of their clients whereas a nurse or psychologist see a certain amount of people every day

I met with Decora and Paul on Friday, March 4, 2015 from 7pm to 8:30pm. We discussed our experiences with our internships. We reviewed what we like, and challenges we have faced. Decora discussed a case that she is struggling with. She reported that the client is in a domestic violence situation. The client is being abused, and she is also the abuser. Decora reported that the client’s boyfriend is abusing the client’s children, and her children were recently taken away from her. Decora stated that she is frustrated because the client was recently with the abusive boyfriend again, and she feels that this will be a repeat cycle. Decora also reported that the client was recently arrested for stabbing her boyfriend. We discussed

-How feasible are the recommended solutions to address the major challenges social workers face when working with immigrant clients? (Jones)