Uncertainties In Social Work

Social workers react to reports and take those in danger of neglect to a safer environment. “Being a social worker isn’t the easiest job to do, to succeed you have to be mentally strong and actually look forward to going to work” (Martinez). As a social worker you view the world differently from the cases you handle in an everyday bases

Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the point where people interact with their environment. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work’. Social work origins arise from the effects of a change to an industrial sociality and increasing impact and focus upon poverty. However it is argued that current social work practice, as illustrated by the broad definition of social work by the IFSW, finds itself expected to address wider social issues such as racism, sexism, and discrimination relating to physical or mental ability. Furthermore social work itself has changed from its origins of a charity style response to social problems of poverty. Banks (1995, p1) argues that the changes to social work have introduced different roles for different purposes of ’redistribution of resources to those in need... social control and rehabilitation of the deviant’ Banks further argues that as social work changes, the emphasis is less upon a helping relationship and more on the distribution of resources and on social control.

This essay will focus on how contemporary social workers work to balance the competing demand of care and control. It will start by outlining the nature of the contemporary social work and what it is like and how it works within society. The discussion will then move on to look at and discuss the key professional values of social work practitioners and analyse its relationship to their own personal values, this will also bring into account how these values and views influenced the relationship a social worker can have with both service users and other agencies. Lastly it will explore the range of challenges and dilemmas that are faced by social work practitioners in everyday practice when it comes to trying to balance the demand of care and control and how they work to overcome these problems in order to ensure an effective and fair service to all who avail of it.

A social worker is obligated to report suspected abuse or neglect of a vulnerable adult as under section 42 of Care Act 2014 safeguarding regulations this is a reasonable cause for a Local Authority to conduct an enquiry (Care Act, 2014c.23:P1:s42). Hence, even when working with family carers, social workers remain vigilant as according to Age UK (2016) 50 vulnerable people per hour are abused or neglected within their own home by people known to them. Accountability could explain social workers’ preference to undertake the assessments of both carer and who they care for at the same time as discrepancies, like those which may cause alarm, can be clarified easier by working simultaneously with the carer and ‘patient’ (Knapp and Hewison, 1999). Likewise, Campbell Reay and Browne (2001) state that in-depth knowledge of the carers’

Although sometimes information isn’t always shared properly in 2000 Victoria Climbie unfortunately died as a result of lack of communication between social workers, the police and hospitals. ‘Many professionals involved with the case admitted they were overwhelmed by their work loads, downtrodden by low pay and

The social work profession’s Standards of Practice outlines the boundaries in the relationship between social workers and their clients and sets a mandate of their responsibilities as a social worker (Alberta College of Social Workers, 2013, p. 30). In the Code of Ethics, boundaries are also set at a high standard as we must draw metaphysical lines between personal roles or interests and professional (Canadian Association of Social Workers, 2005, p. 7) to prevent forming a dual relationship with clients. Another boundary is to halt the possibility of the social worker from using the time they have to help themselves rather than helping their clients (CASW, 2005, p. 6). In addition to these boundaries, it is crucial for social workers to not share too much of their personal life with clients by placing mental boundaries of how much they feel they can share of their personal life with their clients.

Social work is a professional and academic discipline that works to improve the quality of life and enhance the wellbeing of individuals, families, couples, groups, and communities. Heather Holland is a Social Worker at Uniontown Hospital who has over 12 years’ experience in the field. She explains that a typical day on the job is far from easy. “Days in this career are crazy, busy, and mostly, undetermined” Holland explains of her days on the job. Social work is a very important job. Social workers work with clients who are vulnerable and in need of serious help. It is so extremely important that social workers are properly trained and are always giving their best in their work because client’s lives often depend on it. Social workers are

The article immediately starts out with a gruesome horror story that no child should have to endure. Then talks about the history of the cycle we have fallen into. “child protective services has been driven by horror stories that have become a meta-narrative: social workers screw up by missing the telltale signs of abuse, kids get hurt, laws are reformed, and thus more at-risk children are taken out of their homes and given to loving adoptive families.” then goes to say that they do not live happily ever after. That only 20% of kid come out of the system well-adjusted. The article talks about how the media is quick to job on Social Service for being the cause of childrens ' deaths and that is why the system takes kids. The media expects you to remove kids at the warning signs, but not too early because you will be portrayed as a monster if you violate parents right. Warning signs do not predict the future, just because a police officer interviews a man who is black and poor, and has committed a crime before and they think he will commit a crime again, they can not arrest them. The police officer who had an interview with the man is not going to get blamed for not taking the man off the streets if that man leaves the interview and commits a crime. So why would a social worker get the blame?

Social workers should be aware of potential or existing conflicts of interest, should not engage in dual relationships with clients or former clients, nor take advantage of professional relationships for personal gains. Under no circumstances should a social worker engage in sexual relations or physical contact with clients or client’s relatives even if it is consensual. Services should not be provided to an individual who has had previous sexual relations with the professionals. Social workers should not make “sexual

Ethical issues in general, regardless of the profession or field one is in are inevitable. Social workers understand the value base of the profession and its value base of the profession and its ethical standards, as well as relevant laws and regulations that may impact practice at the micro and macro level (Segal, 2016). Although social workers are trained and understand ethical standards does not prevent them to one-day face ethical issues. According to (Reamer, 2014) we have embarked on a new period, one which few of us, he suspected, could have anticipated. Today’s social workers can provide services online or via video counseling or text messages to clients they never meet in person. They may receive Facebook friend request from clients or former clients that lead to boundary challenges. These boundary challenges as Reamer categorizes them are part of what he calls the Digital period. “Issues steadily arise even among segments of the population that one would expect to

The essay refelcts upon trust as being a stong factor of social work being a respected and effective profession. I would argue that before any social work could be conducted as a social worker, if the streotypes surrounding social workers where not in a postive light a bia was would be created before the work could begin.In the same other profession require trust I belive it is more evident when dealing with vunverbale people.The paper appears to be arguing that trust is a moral obligation this could infer that people in particular situation would act against what is correct for the sake of themselves or the insistuion they work for. I belive Healey argument may have limitations as all jobs not matter the transperency can create a culture of

Managing boundaries is a reality all human service professionals will have to face as they move through their career. Helpers who work in rural communities may have greater challenges in dealing with multiple relationships than those who work in urban areas. Throughout this paper three different scenarios will be discussed along with a focus on how to handle social media with the clients we might be serving.

Social Work is a discipline that can be a very rewarding experience for both the worker and the client. The practice involves working with individuals, families, or groups who are struggling to cope with life`s challenges. The social worker must combine his or her personal qualities, creative abilities, and social concerns with the professional knowledge in order to help client’s social functioning or prevent social problems from developing (Bradford W. Sheafor, 2008, p. 34). Social work practice seeks to promote human well-being, while addressing the processes by which individuals and groups are marginalized or diminished in their capacity to participate as citizens (Ian O'Connor, 2006, p. 1).

This essay will explore what it means to be a professional social worker and what the term ‘social work’ entails in contemporary England. Then, it will briefly focus on the history of social work regulation as well as exploring how ‘personal values’ and ‘professional values’ impact on social work practice and also explain how professional standards, codes, values and ethics are relevant to social work practice and their relevance to service users and carers.

According to Our Lady of the Lake University (2016); though a major portion of a Social Worker’s day-to-day performance of his/her job is spent interacting with clients, they have a heavy reliance on technology to help them be successful. To this end, the use of technology has become inter-woven into their professional lives. Though technology offers some advantages like project management, enhanced record keeping efficiency, inter-office and inter-agency collaboration through information sharing; it also presents some challenges. Challenges include: information security, reliability of the technology being used and its level of user-friendliness. These concerns resulted in the Association of