Strengths And Limitations Of A Social Worker

The strengths perspective is an effective tool to empower clients and to heighten the strengths and capabilities of clients (DuBois, Miley, & O' Melia, 2013). Social workers utilize the strengths perspective to allow clients to identify their own personal strengths, motivational tool, promote social justice, and the overall well being of their client. Also, social workers should be aware of their own strength to promote social justice, effectively assist clients and advocate for their client’s needs (DuBois, Miley, & O' Melia, 2013).

This essay will be addressing the roles and responsibilities of a social worker. There will be investigations into the various different duties required to be performed by social workers. I will be looking into and evaluating the various roles and responsibilities required in the child social work sector.

The following is a critique and analysis of Mel Grey, PhD’s Back to Basics: A critique of the Strengths Perspective in Social Work which originally appeared in Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services Volume 92 (1), 5-11. The purpose of this analysis and critique is to demonstrate proficiency in understanding the strengths perspective while applying critical thinking to various theories in regard to the strengths perspective, including systems theory and the ecological perspective; which are presented by Dr. Grey in the aforementioned article, while focusing on the strengths perspective.

One of the most important attributes I have to helping others that I hold in the highest esteem is my ability to be an empathic listener. Being a social worker we all have to have the skill to listen and respond in the best way possible. I think what may set me apart from most of the social workers who do have this skill is that it has always been a part of my life and it is not going to stop the moment my work is done. I want to know how a person’s day is going and I want to know if something is wrong. I want to hear about someone’s day being made because they finally didn’t have to sit next to the smelly person on the bus who is there on a daily basis. I genuinely care about how others are feeling and I want people to know that they

Many do not take the time to sit and reflect on ourselves. However, understanding yourself and identifying personal strengths and weaknesses will help you to develop as a leader. Often times it is easier to point out other’s strengths than to point out your own. Chapter four of Exploring Leadership by Komives describes tools to discover your traits and how to use them. The most important points discussed was mindfulness, managing your nonstrengths, and values.

“As a process, empowerment actively engages people in decisions about their well being, potential life satisfaction, and the outcomes of realizing control over their lives to the extent possible” (Hepworth, Rooney, Rooney, & Strom-Gottfried, 2013, p.442). An empowerment framework examines the environmental circumstances that may be unjustly imposed on a client. The focus of this approach is to help individuals or groups of individuals regain a sense of control of their situation and make decisions on their own behalf. Social workers can assist clients in discovering their strengths and teaching the client that they do have the ability to make change. According to Dustin and Montgomery “Individuals should have a sense of control over their own lives (as cited in Ishizuka, & Husain, 2015, p. 971) and be able to exercise self determination and choice”.

I remember the first time that I visited concentration camps in Austria. I still remember the silence and the numbness as me and my classmates entered a gas chamber. It was this moment that I knew I wanted to be a social worker or a nurse. Being a Social Worker isn't easy. In fact, it is hard, but the rewards make it worthwhile and I'm proud to be a Social Worker. I'm proud to be part of a profession that is there to support people in need.

Another agency strength for me is actively participating. This is completely different than my first domain, but I always try to participate. In the rubric it says “Actively participates in the activity/discussion, team meeting, or independent time and has strategies for staying focused and resisting most distraction”. Whenever I am unfocused I make sure it is quiet and then I get focused. I always try to participate when I understand. Doing my part of the group work , I never have late work, and helping when needed. I want to use strengths to over power and make my weaknesses my

My academic and career goals would be attending the University of Louisville to become a Social Work major. I would like to become a successful Social Worker to be able to help out children and families in need. When I was younger, I had a couple of social workers in my life. One helped our family, and one didn't, but they both left a lasting impression on me. Social Work is something that I feel passionate about and becoming a great social worker is a big career goal of

Stacey greets the client in a polite and a professional tone. After full verification is complete, Stacey is sure to circle back to update the DOB on file.

When you hear these two words social worker, what do you think of? How do you define who a social worker is? I’m going to recap what I stated in the interviews I conducted with my interviewee. My interviewee works for Board of social Services. She is a social work that deals with claims/ fraud department. Individuals who work in Social Services has the opportunity, to apply their education and caring nature to improve the lives of others. I had to learn and grow as far as being an individual before I could even come close to helping others. What path led you to the profession? My path into social work came much later than most, as my time was occupied by life’s lessons (dealing with being, abuse, tough affairs, alcohol & drugs).

Have you ever wondered what it will feel like to bury a love one? Communicating with elderly family members and their love ones concerning final arrangements can be a stressful process. It is essential that we speak with our love ones concerning death arrangements. In an article from The Association of Social Workers, it states that communicating about death is a very difficult process and often leads to dreadfulness as well as regret. Today I will enlighten you and give you a clearer understanding of the necessity of communicating about death as well as final arrangements. In doing so I will explain the responsibility of a social worker, which often deals with families during the time of death. Things that will arise in why it is difficult to talk about death and finally vital topics that should be discussed.

The social worker is now focusing on Jacks Resources and Strengths: After analyzing Jack, the social worker realized that according to Jack, he loves to participate in reading and watching cartoons. These are his favorite hobbies to indulge in. According to Jack, his favorite cartoon to watch is “Dora, the explorer”. According to Jacks mom Joy, Jack is a very intelligent child, sometimes too smart for his own good. She replied after stating “I was in the hospital for trying to commit suicide, and Jack had his grandmother cut his hair, to send it to me so I would get better”. As the social worker observed Jack, it seemed as if Jack would show less enthusiasm when it came down to meeting new friends,

Overall, I really enjoyed this experience and felt like by the end of it I learned so much what it can be like not only being a social worker, but also being a client. At the start of this assignment I had a lot of different expectations. Initially I thought it was just going to go terribly wrong and that I would get everything wrong. Then I got even more nervous knowing that I should not be doing any type of preparing before the interview and instead just wing the whole interview. My expectations for during the session was that I would forget about everything I’ve learned in this class so far and just fail miserably. Before looking at the video after the session I thought I could have definitely done a better job and that it wasn’t good. Typically, I am not the type of person who likes to take pictures or videos of themselves, so I definitely felt weird and uncomfortable being videotaped and watching that video.

As a social worker, communication challenges can become apparent when working with clients who have an intellectual disability (ID). An ID is defined as, “A disability characterized by significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, which covers many everyday social and practical skills” (“Definition of Intellectual Disability,” 2013). Research has shown a positive correlation between impairments with social behaviours and functional level of an individual, the largest impairments are seen with people who have a severe ID (Smith & Matson, 2010, p. 1367). This correlation shows how working with an individual with an ID can be difficult, as their social behaviours may be impaired. “[A]pproximately 40-50% of people with intellectual disabilities experience some degree of difficulty with communication” (Sowney & Barr, 2006, p. 1680). This difficulty in communication with people who have ID needs to be addressed in order to foster a healthy relationship. With regard to having successful communication with ID individuals, certain considerations are important to keep in mind: respecting the individual’s self-determination, displaying empathy, and having a willingness to use alternative forms of communication.