Exam 1 Flashcards
person and environment dual focus
Dual focus on people and their social environment
Intersection between private troubles and public issues
Question: What do you think about this connection between the person and their environment?
How does this fit with your views?
Example/s of how people are shaped by environment (and shape environment)?
What is social work
A practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes:
Social change and development
Social cohesion
The empowerment and liberation of people.
Central principles include: social justice, human rights, collective responsibility, respect for diversity
Underpinned by theories of social work, social sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledge,
Social Work engages people and structures to address life challenges and enhance wellbeing
Strength/needs approach
2) Strengths and needs
Strengths based approach
Strengths = source for solutions
Universal Basic Needs of human beings:
Physical
Intellectual
Emotional
social and spiritual growth
(assumptions: each person is uniquely capable of growth in each area, given security and interaction with others).
Interaction of Strengths and Needs:
To the extent that the demands and resources match our needs, there is ‘goodness of fit and sense of competence.’ If not, we have problems.
Focus on client strengths: believing in human potential is central to empowerment
QUESTIONS:
Example of “issue” or “problem”: how find strengths?
Which strengths and needs (p. 8-12) do you hope to address?
Social work entails
Enhance people’s capacity to resolve problems, cope and function effectively
Link clients to needed resources (work on both client and system ends)
Improve social service delivery networks: ensure that system that delivers services is humane and adequate
Promote social justice through the development of social policy
fields of social work practice
Family services
Child protection services
Health care
Occupational social work
Gerontological social work
School social work
Criminal justice
Information and referral
Community organizing
Mental health
Social Work an Empowering profession
Becoming empowered = individuals, families, and communities develop capabilities to access personal, interpersonal, and sociopolitical power. Perception & resources:
State of mind = feeling worthy and competent, perceiving power and control
Reallocation of power from modifying social structures
Empowerment social work entails:
Focusing on strengths
affirming diversity and difference
working collaboratively
critically reflecting on structural arrangements
adopting a human rights perspective
Linking personal and political power
taking action
Question: example of a time when you were empowered? How/ what helped?
How does social work differ from psychology, PSYCHIATRY, sociology, and mft?
The ecosystem’s model (generalist social work)
Special mission is to assist those who are vulnerable, oppressed and living in poverty. Some other words used are ‘marginalized’ and ‘disadvantaged’
SW is an applied science. MSW is the ‘terminal’ degree for practice.
Educational/licensure levels
Why do some people get a Ph.D.?
Professional challenges in SW
Personal limitations
Awareness, Training, accountability
Organizational limits
Supervision, oversight, liability
Policy limits
Reform, collaboration, creativity
Charity organization Societies
COS), set up to direct & administer scattered and disorganized social service work.
First in 1877 in Buffalo, N.Y. patterned after the London model, By 1892, there were 92 COS in the U.S.
Register and investigate the poor, eradicate pauperism. “Scientific charity”
“Friendly visitors” investigated, helped to find resources within the family, then financial assistance as last resort.
In the beginning focused only on whites (African Americans formed their own later).
Later COS got involved in some community organizing, and some field research. NY COS set up the first school of social work: currently the Columbia U. School of SW.
Settlement House Movement
First one began in New York—Toynbee Hall. Univ. students lived at center and worked with the neighborhood
Most famous: Hull House in Chicago (1889), by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Addams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.
Services included citizenship training, adult education, counseling, recreation, intercultural exchanges and day care.
Advocacy efforts included legislative reforms in child welfare, tenement housing, labor laws, public health and sanitation.
First black settlement house established by Sarah Fernandis after her MSW from NYU.
Casework
investigating and assisting in the person’s interaction with society. Mary Richmond (COS person) wrote “Social Diagnosis” and “What is Social Casework?”
Richmond: “The good social worker doesn’t go on mechanically helping people out of a ditch. Pretty soon, she begins to find out what ought to be done to get rid of the ditch.”
psychoanalytic movement
birth of psychiatric social work: shifted social work’s focus from environmental concerns to internal, personal distress.
public welfare movement
political and economic dimensions of social work. Harry Hopkins (former settlement house worker) helped to develop the Social Security Act of 1935. Francis Perkins was the first woman to be a member of a u.s. president’s cabinet (Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration): influence on social security policy.
social reform
Increasing professionalism
Context of political change, War on poverty
Whitney young: return to roots, maintain attention on social reform
ecosystems approach
reciprocal nature of person and environmental variables
National Association of Social Workers
NASW (1955)—Code of Ethics, national activism, https://www.socialworkers.org/
Council on Social Work Education
CSWE (1952)—accreditations, competencies
Social Work Competencies
Professional values—about people, society and professional behavior
Knowledge—understanding human behavior and the social environment; liberal arts & a professional foundation
Skills– p. 55-57 Most important are relationship skills and communication skills.
Tenets of Social Work Profession
Tenets of the social work profession–guide practitioners in carrying out the purpose of sw. (p. 57-59)
6 core social work values
Service
Socialjustice
Dignity and worth of the individual
Importance and centrality of human relationships
Integrity
Competence
How would you illustrate/portray these values?
choose one… & share
values vs ethics
Values are implicit and explicit ideas about what we cherish as ideal or preferable
Our values shape our beliefs, emotions, and attitudes.
In turn, our our beliefs, emotions, and attitudes shape our values.
Values define norms or guidelines for behavior.
What we view as good
Ethics relate to what people consider to be correct or right
Ethics generate standards that direct one’s conduct
Professional ethics, represent ‘values in action’
Social work ethics represent behavioral expectations or preferences that that are associated with social work practice.
What we view as right
Purposes of the sw code of ethics
identifies core values on which social work’s mission is based.
summarizes broad ethical principles that reflect the profession’s core values and establishes a set of specific ethical standards that should be used to guide social work practice.
designed to help social workers identify relevant considerations when professional obligations conflict or ethical uncertainties arise.
provides ethical standards to which the general public can hold the social work profession accountable.
socializes practitioners new to the field to social work’s mission, values, ethical principles, and ethical standards.
articulates standards that the social work profession itself can use to assess whether social workers have engaged in unethical conduct. NASW has formal procedures to adjudicate ethics complaints filed against its members.* In subscribing to thisCode,social workers are required to cooperate in its implementation, participate in NASW adjudication proceedings, and abide by any NASW disciplinary rulings or sanctions based on it.
sw code of ethics
The primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty.
Personal values of sw
what things influence our values and biases?
Intersections between your values & SOC W profession
Questions? Concerns?
People who may be challenging to work with
How identify?
How manage?
Questions?
