Social Work Reflection

For Mrs. Hewes the Introduction to Social Work class we were asked to interview a licensed Social Worker and write an experience paper about the interview. Finding a social worker to interview wasn’t very hard for me because many of my mother’s friends got their masters in social work, but not many of them actually got their license except for one of them. The licensed social worker that I interviewed goes by the name of Tanya Hill. Tanya got her Masters of Social Work at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida in 2000, as well as her license and she now resides in Panama City, Florida. Tanya is someone that I have known since I was a little girl and someone that I definitely aspire to be like once I graduate. My interview with Tanya was over the phone since I did not have time to drive back to Florida to do a face to face one, but while we were on the phone every answer she gave me to the questions I asked were quite interesting.

The social worker in this story had many different responsibilities and roles while working in the ER at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. His responsibilities include having to put the puzzle pieces together of who the victim is as they are being treated. This is often a taunting task because the staff is in a rush. The Social worker has to find clues like driver listens or anything else that will allow them to better understand who they are working with. Her responsibilities don't stop there. He was also responsible for working with the victims family to ensure that they were informed and comfortable.

For this assignment, I decided to interview my aunt because she has been a social worker for about thirty years, and has a lot of experience. She attended Dominican college in Orangeburg, New York where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She then went to graduate school at Montclair State in New Jersey where she received her master’s in psychology. After this, she decided to go back to school for her MSW, which she received from SUNY Albany. Since she graduated, the only profession she has worked in is social work, and she is now a licensed clinical social worker. She loves what she does and is glad that she made the decision to become a social worker.

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.

Social work practice works with many people in different situations, needing concise help from professionals. This assistance includes a range of skills such as; identifying the problem or problems, apply and use evidence based practice and theories and critical reflection. All these skills are integral parts of best practice in social work, and are needed by all service users.

This was a very eye opening class for me. Coming from a mental health counselling background I have to admit it is a major difference in how social workers operate versus therapist. In this essay I will reflected on how this social work class has genuinely affected me, my strengths and weaknesses, and what I have taken away from this class. I always gain a great deal of satisfaction from helping others. I remember from middle school on through adulthood I was the go to person. If a person had an issue or needed to talk. I was the voice of reasoning. I was the one able to grab hold of certain resources if someone was in need

Throughout the class, many aspects of the curriculum were seen as useful in future social work practice. Before this course, in other course work, treatment planning and goal setting was often something that was reviewed briefly, yet within the coursework of the capstone seminar this matter had been gone over in more detail. Within this course, it was possible to gain more insight into a more balanced way of setting treatment goals that included conversations with the client concerning what they desired out of treatment in addition to what was needed. This aspect of the course was particularly useful when it came to working towards the development of the treatment plan with the client who was presented during the case presentation, Sarah.

On many levels, I secretly desire to be this professional social worker that has experienced many different realms of social work practice. As I maneuver through my first couple days of field, many questions run through my mind as to what’s to be expected of a master’s level social work. Although, I’ve only had the pleasure of working children and families as a social worker; it has broaden my desire to want to know more.

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

Today’s session was conducted by second year placement social work students and service users. The issue they covered was about the relevance of working in partnership within the social care profession.

In the field of social work, and professions alike, the necessity of continuous self-examination consists of a focused study shooting toward obtaining comprehensive and nuanced cosideration of the phenomena present in one’s occupation. Being a chameleon in any given landscape within the profession encourages openness to the complexity of clients’ realities, for how can one assist others in an examination of the internal structures of mind and welfare without synchronously examining oneself? (Chang, 2018). Self-understanding goes beyond clinical, it’s the “person in environment” model that dictates that one is made up of more than our brain chemistry and structure, but of our environment and circumstance that mold our personalities and our reactions toward it. Virtually every aspect and identity has their hands on the wheel that steers one’s attitudes about and/or behaviors towards society and self. Top players that influence how I project myself and my performance, for instance, are the actions I take to adhering to the tenets of my religion, dealing with demands that come with choices, and, my current life stage. Allowing a reflection of person is self-serving, not in the inflated sense of being ego-centric, but having an accurate judgment of oneself for the sake of self-improvement and molding from it better relations with others.

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.

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.

For this reflective journal, I have decided to draw parallels between approaches to social work that I have learned in my placement, and what I have learned during my academic career at Carleton University. Placement thus far, has been an eye-opening and rich experience, which has taught me about the profession that I aspire to be a part of. I am a third year student, and much of my time spent at Carleton, has been studying theories, and becoming exposed to different schools of thought. Theories are incredibly beneficial, to teach and inform the practice of the next generation of social workers. However, placement has provided me with the opportunity to apply theoretical ideals, to real life social work practice.