Social Work Practices And Critical Reflection

Social work practice is also known as a type of practice that is used to help and assist individuals that are struggling while under the condition of welfare and social issues. There are multiple social work practice fields and centers that many social workers can assist clients in, such as substance abuse centers, domestic violence centers, and child welfare centers. A resourceful tool that can be used for social workers to help understand and connect theories and social work concepts and tie them with social work practical tasks. This model is called a personal practice model. When assisting a client, regardless of what field the social worker is taking part in, it is important to know more about the client. They should be understood through different social and psychological theories, cultural competencies, and personal and professional values.

Before beginning the Master of Social Work program at Laurier I figured I had a strong understanding of what social work was. However, I quickly learned that I had only scratched the surface. I knew oppression existed, but I never understood the depth of it. I now know that I was afraid of it. It was easy for me to stay silent, because it was such a comfortable position to be in. Doing nothing meant I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. This was influenced by the privilege I had.

Offer a definition of abuse/types of abuse you feel Sally has experienced. What are the main likely impacts of abuse for Sally?

The class SW 6030 Human Development and the Social Environment has brought new insights and makes me see some topics in a different perspective. The critical reflection paper number one will integrate different concepts that I learned so far in this class.

According to Duffy (2016), there are two different types of social work practice when it comes to working alongside a disadvantaged population. The first kind, is used more often and is called conventional social work approach, which focuses its attention on undertaking assessment and ensuring that individuals are families are received the correct support through organised services and support. On the other hand, critical social work, the less utilized approach aims to challenge the inequalities and oppression in society, by targeting the societal structure via activism and research, in order to bring forth criticism and questions on discourses attached to particular marginalised groups. The author proposes that both social work practices are important, however, critical social work should be emphasized on more frequently, especially with groups such as the ageing population as it targets the stubborn discourses (Duffy, 2016). Mattsson broadens critical social work, by relating it to critical reflection. Critical theorists have proposed critical reflection as a method to understand how social work practices can uphold oppression due to seemingly everyday actions, words and attitudes. Therefore, this can have an implication on how social workers execute their practice, as ordinary and structural features of bureaucratic hierarchies may senselessly abide social workers to uphold and reproduce social oppression, even though they might be well-intentioned. Critical reflection

The time when I received constructive criticism would be when I started my first part time job. I work at a grocery store in my home, called Country Mart. When I first started, I was not as fast as the other cashiers when it came to checking the customers out. I was still learning how to work the register. I would also get caught in conversation with the customers causing the transaction to take more time. My manager, Garry Brown, noticed this and talked with me. He commended me on being extremely social and friendly, but wanted me to limit my social interactions with the customers. Mr. Brown did not want to keep customers waiting too long while at the check outs. Mr. Brown also asked I practice on becoming faster on register. After the talk

Setting a boundary is an important core value in the field of social work. According to the Social Work Code of Ethics, “social workers should provide and represent themselves as competent only within the boundaries of their education, training, license, certification, consultation received, supervised experience, or other relevant professional experience” (Code of Ethics of the NASW). Professional helpers are generally compassionate people, but they also need to recognize the value of setting limits. This was the case when I worked as an adjunct instructor, which included providing individual tutoring. Sara Towns (name changed), a student and distant cousin, evoked the possible clouding of boundaries. For new social workers, this kind of reflection may be helpful as they define their roles. Through a series of professional and personal experiences with Sara, I learned that boundaries must be maintained to foster a positive relationship and prevent potential conflicts.

Studying the profession social work students are required to focus on a general practice which is the foundation courses that will support the student with learning skills, knowledge and demonstrate they are able to show they can subscribe to social work values and demonstrate the basic understanding of 9 competencies. The 9 competencies that are important for a student to engage in are demonstrated ethical and professional behavior, engage diversity and difference in practice, advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice, engage in practice informed research, in policy practice, engage, assess intervene, with individuals, families, groups, organization, and communities, and evaluate practice.

There are a set of multiple skills that I believe an individual should strive to possess when pursing Social Work. An individual working in Human Services should have the desire to help, be self aware, objective and remain unbiased, genuine, empathetic, and patient. Apart of being self aware is acknowledging the values, attitudes, beliefs, emotions, and past experiences one has and how it can affect their thinking, behavior, and relationships. Being able to identify these behaviors and change them is crucial for Social workers to do in order to avoid any interference when working with clients. Its important for a Social worker to be objective and evoke no judgment when evaluating clients and their situations. By doing this Social workers are

Reflecting on what you have learned in Generalist Social Work Practice, what have you found to be your strengths?

Critical theories are useful to social work practice as they provide a theoretical basis for assessing a client within their environment by recognizing how social and political structures and processes can be oppressive or biased. The emphasis on ‘pursuit of freedom and empowerment of humanity, accompanied by a critique of dominant capitalistic structures and their impacts on social life’, symbolizes the central tenets of critical theory (Brookfield, 2005, p. 24). This suggests individuals do have ‘power and control over their lives in order to obtain and use the resources necessary for positive growth and development, which can be achieved through individual and collective strategies’ (Adams, 2008, pg. 110). In considering Frank’s case, he

I have almost 18 years of full time experience as a Youth Outreach Worker I and working with at-risk high impacted gang-intentional youth in proving intervention services starting in 1998 with the City of San Jose Mayor’s Intervention Project PRIDE Programs. I provided mobile street Outreach and provided citywide gang mediation and intervention services to all the City of San Jose schools and gang impacted neighborhoods citywide. My service target was at risk gang impacted /intentional youth to try to deter them from taking part in delinquent/gang behavior and lifestyles. I also facilitated gang awareness presentations to Community groups, parent groups and service provider programs. Attended school safety meetings and receive individual referrals from law enforcement, schools, and community-based organizations.

Throughout the semester, I learned valuable lessons and skills that would aid me in becoming a successful social worker. In addition, working on the public issue project provided me with the opportunity to put what I learned into action. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to put what I learned in the classroom to use while working in the community with a group of women, as a team, to accomplish a set goal. Over the last several years, through observation, I saw the homeless population grow in the downtown Atlanta area and sometimes wondered what I could do to help aid in their well-being, especially in the winter months when they were living on the streets with little clothing. I recognized the problem, assessed the issue and came up with a goal. The public issue project gave me the opportunity to not just think about helping the homeless stay warm., but to do something to contribute keeping them warm. I learned the importance of setting a plan, putting it into action to reach a goal. Therefore, I choose to do a coat and blanket drive, as my public issue project, for those living on the streets of Atlanta, Georgia during the winter months.

Being the social worker and listening to Rachelle story was a much better experience than my first one because I felt more confident in myself. I have a full understanding of the importance of listening and exploring the issue further. As the listener, I did not find myself getting distracted at all when Rachelle was telling her story because her story intrigues me. Her story intrigues me because I wanted to know more. I wanted to dig deeper into how her experiences help her cope with real life. I was fully present, sitting up straight, leading in, and making eye contact with her. I listened to all the pain, and confusion she endured as a child and even growing up into adulthood. Her story brought me sadness, but it also brought me joy because

In this reflection essay, I will demonstrate my learning experience in this counseling session. I will talk about my strength, weakness, verbal, nonverbal expression, including improvements needed to become more efficient in the social work profession. I will also speak about a learning tool called process recording in Social work profession. This process recording was done with the help, with my fantastic Daughter Kendra Shelton as the client and my incredible husband Michael McVay as Video Recorder /producer.