8 Flashcards
Common roles of social work
Broker
Case manager
Advocate
Educator
Counselor
Risk assessor
Mediator
Researcher
Group leader
A social worker acting as a broker assists and links people with services or resources. In this role
social workers assess the needs of the individual while also taking into account the client’s overall
capacity and motivation to use available resources.
Broker
A social worker acting as a case manager identifies the needs as well as the barriers of
their clients.
Case maanger
seeks to protect client’s rights and ensure access and
utilization of services they are entitled to receive.
Advocate
an integral and
fundamental role in the social work profession as it is necessary to promote overall wellbeing.
Advocacy
often help in times of crisis for many clients. In
this role social workers help clients develop insight into their behaviors through providing education aimed
at helping clients learn skills to handle difficult situations and identify alternative life choices.
Educator
helps clients express their needs, clarify their problems,
explore resolution strategies, and applies intervention strategies to develop and expand the capacities of
clients to deal with their problems more effectively. A key function of this role is to empower people by
affirming their personal strengths and their capacities to deal with their problems more effectively
Counselor
is a primary role for social workers and
often times is what dictates the services and resources identified as needs for clients. Often time’s social
workers acting in this role find themselves in precarious situations as the relationship between the client
and social worker may be conflicting, especially when working in the mental health field.
Risk assessor
Social workers acting in these roles are required to take a neutral stance in order to
find compromises between divided parties.
Mediator
uses their practice experience
to inform future research. The social worker is aware of current research and able to integrate their
knowledge with the current research.
Researcher
can do so with groups of
people gathering for purposes including; task groups, psychoeducational groups, counseling groups, and
psychotherapy groups. Task groups are like the name infers task oriented and social workers facilitate
that process by understanding group dynamics.
Group leader
are led by social workers who
focus on developing members’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills in an area group member are
deficient through integrating and providing factual information to participants.
Psychoeducational groups
The cornerstones of social work
Empathy, Flexibility, persistence, respect for different circumstances
Characteristics and skills of effective social workers
Self-awareness
Competence
Empathy
Critical thinking
Communication skills
One of the most important skills necessary for becoming a competent and effective
social worker. starts with getting to know yourself and requires
clarifying one’s own values and assumptions.
Self-awareness
