Social Work Essays (Examples)

Social Work Framework
A framework to social work practice is based on a set of beliefs and assumptions about how, when, and under what conditions people and systems change and what a social worker can do to facilitate desired and needed change, such as speaking out and raising awareness of child abuse, how to report it, and how to get help. There are always underlying issues to human suffering, such as abuse, neglect, addictions, poverty and inequality between social classes, inadequate social policy, health, and unresolved family and cultural conflict. Inequality in resources and diversification also plays a part in discrimination between races, gender, ethnicity, age, and abled/or disabled.

Social work is designed to bring value to a client's life in the respect of teaching how to identify the causes of the problems and address solutions to those problems to enable the client to live a more fulfilled life style. Part of…

Social Justice
Social Work Value/Social Justice- For centuries, philosophers have puzzled the human condition. Since humans have lived together there have been queries about how and why humans acts the way they do, not just individually, but how they form partnerships, groups and are able to cooperate enough for survival and the future possibilities for society. In particular. As technology continues to increase, so do the complexities of societal integration, and even more questions about the nature of humanity. Together, all these models form a generalization about what it means to be human and how that humanity faces challenges within the more negative aspects of human behavior. This is exemplified, for instance, in the works of the everend Martin Luther King, Jr., who noted: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one…

Social Work Field
Perception of Social Work

Social work is a challenging profession that also helps one make a difference in the lives of others (CUW 2011). It aims at improving the overall functioning and well-being of people served. A social worker must have a genuine and special concern for the poor, marginalized, and the vulnerable. Social work is an art and a science at the same time. It fits service to the needs of the person or persons served. Social workers practice their profession almost everywhere. They are found in hospitals, schools, churches, courts, community agencies, child and family service centers, mental health centers and other settings. They function as school social workers, mental health counselors, community planners, administrators, child protective service workers and advocates of various causes (CUW).

Social work is a unique profession, which possesses unique features (CUW 2011). It is founded on liberal arts. It builds on its own…

The creation of timely and well-designed outputs leads to further information recording, correcting and completing previous recordings. This builds into a "virtuous circle (Gatehouse et al.)."
Social workers rendering children's services should analyze their own work, compare it with others and contribute their data for evaluation (Gatehouse et al., 2004). They need output tools in order to do this. The critical outputs for improving child protection services are, in most cases, the outputs required from day-to-day operations, administration and management at the case, team and service levels. These outputs include built-in System alerts, notifications and exception reports. System alerts provide advanced warnings of required actions and service delivery mistakes or failures. Notifications are made to improvement communication between teams, departments and agencies. And exception reports identify, note or follow up cases of individual children whose needs have not been met. Findings of this study suggest that electronic information systems, such…

After all, television attracts people to watch it and perhaps this could provide an interface to get the client and the social caseworker to interact more effectively with each other.
Many caseworkers perceive that the new information technology compromises their ability to offer services at all or in the quality of the services because it has greatly increased their caseloads, therefore making it impossible to deliver the services they previously could on a client by client basis. As stated above, the ability to perceive that younger clients may be getting more services may not occur to case workers over 35 and would probably to those who are under that age. This is especially the case when the it system goes down and then they can not deliver services via paper or have to reschedule a visit. This just further clogs the caseworker's overworked schedule. Additionally, there would be a question…

Social work acquires its name by virtue of its responsibilities. The profession is entrusted by society to look at how individuals are affected by their environment, how they interact and are affected by their community, and at how individuals are influenced by social institutions. These are important responsibilities and it is important that the profession keep its eye on its responsibilities (Howe, 1994).
Too often the profession's clients are victims of an imperfect social system. Such victims are disadvantaged, disenfranchised, and forgotten. Their resources both financially and personally are limited. The duty of the social work profession is stand firmly on the side of such victims and to ensure that they are, at a minimum, provided with some measure of social justice (Lundy, 2011).

It is the pursuit for social justice that distinguishes social work from other professions. Social workers are dedicated to making a difference and making sure that society is…

Social work played a role in these processes in different ways, based on the existing perception about women and femininity. The profession itself has a range of ideological origins. Some people suggest that it is a continuance of the benevolent and charitable traditions linked to the functions of various Churches; others search for its roots in social movements, especially in the labor agencies and the women's movement. Various welfare regimes link social work with social and cultural environments. From the start, many of its activities relate with services targeted at women, treating them within the context of the prevailing femininity ideologies. Modern research indicates that the role of women in establishing social work was greater than was believed in the past, when only provider and user roles were attributable to them. The account of social work is of rising interest to researchers in social work. This illustrates social change at…

Social Work Theories
Human behavior is very difficult to predict on a consistent basis. The amount of stimuli that the human mind intakes causes an infinite amount of possibilities that the person can choose from. Luckily for professional social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists conducting many experiments have developed certain theories that can explain human behavior. These models are tools that healers and doctors can use to help identify and eventually treat problems that are occurring in society today causing chaos and dysfunction.

The purpose of this essay is to examine two separate theories on human behavior and discuss them in terms of their application to at risk or oppressed populations, which includes nearly every segment of society. This essay will first examine self-determination theory (SDT) as a useful means of explaining human behavior and relate the ideas contained in this theory to the professional practice of social work. The second theory this…

Social Work
Summary Assessment of My Motivation, eadiness, and Suitability for the Profession of Social Work

Social work is a profession that denotes incredible responsibility to individuals, community, and colleagues. As a personal passion, social work is a calling. Yet it takes more than interest in helping others to establish a professional foundation based on respect and hard work. My overall readiness for being a professional social worker depends on factors like adequate training in primary areas of specialization, awareness of target populations or populations of interest, understanding of sociological theories and forces, and knowledge of multiple modalities and interventions. When I ask myself whether I am suitable for the profession, I first look at my underlying beliefs, motivations, attributes, and characteristics. I need to be honest when addressing potential biases, such as those imparted by race, religion, social class, gender, and upbringing. Likewise, I need to ask myself how willing I…

Social Work
Exercise

The imaginary recording helped me to examine the language that I use commonly, and listen for embedded biases. I noticed that I assumed that the client could hear me and see me, rather than acknowledge the fact that the client could be deaf or visually impaired. It might be helpful to establish immediately whether the client requires assistive technologies when understanding the types of services we provide. I also noticed that I did not readily acknowledge the possibility that the client might not identify with gender binaries. In the future, I could ask a more open-ended question such as, "How do you perceive gender, and how central is gender to your personal identity?" I did not mention religion, but it might be helpful to know if the client values religion and incorporate our stance on religion from the onset of therapy. One of the most glaring mistakes that I…

Social Work
Comparing micro macro approaches

Social Work from Different Perspectives

In this paper, we will assess the roles and duties which a social worker can provide from an individual and through a community basis to any other individual or community. We will also examine the advantages and disadvantages in both of the work types and then prefer our chosen methodology supported by valid reasoning. Finally, we will list our current capabilities to carry out a community/administrative practice approach.

Individual/Micro basis

On an individual basis, social work can be performed by any person having a specific set of means needed to help any other person who is in need of any sort of aid. The means with which any person can rely on to help others can vary such as through financial assistance, skills, technical expertise and so on. There are many different fields which allow its practitioners to help others through social work; one…

Social Work With Individuals
Describe the preliminary phase of the counseling work and the beginning (or contracting) phase.

As Shulman demonstrates, each phase of the work of counseling requires its own specific skills and techniques, and all phases have their own importance and necessity within the counseling process as a whole. Each phase has a skill set and knowledge base required by the counselor for the success of the work of counseling. The very first phase is the preliminary phase. This phase is one which the counselor completes alone, when the counselor attempts to make himself or herself aware of the phases which might emerge during the counseling session (Shulman, 2008). During this stage, the counselor should also draft strategies for responding to the cues, both direct and indirect, made by the client. The counselor needs to brush up on all possible ways of putting the client's feelings into words.

On the other…

Social Work: Working With Substance Abuse Issues
Social Work

Individuals in the clinical population of interest

Substance abuse includes use of drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and opioids, and other substances such as alcohol, amphetamines, benzodiazepines, and barbiturates. Often use of these substances leads to criminal ramifications since they are outlawed in many states alongside possible social, physical, and psychological consequences from their use. They also lead to antisocial behaviors and may lead to dependency on the drug by the user.

It is estimated that substance abuse is common in 120 million persons using hard drugs and other substances. The age of these users ranges from the early age of 14 onwards with reports suggesting that close to half of students in the 12th grade have used illegal drugs at some point in their lives. Common drugs among these young users are alcohol and cigarettes of tobacco.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there…

The ultimate aim is then to cultivate skills that he can use on his own to help him maintain a constructive life and relationships.
What is interesting is that, although we are completely different in terms of culture, values and background, my client and I both have the same basic expectations and needs in terms of the social work relationship. We both need the professional to understand us on the basis of our own values rather than those of the professional working with us. We both need to cultivate skills that will ultimately help us work autonomously on the problems we face.

The only difference is, potentially, the degree and nature of the problems we face, as well as the time it would probably take us to cultivate the skills needed to help us face our problems independently. These differences will occur on a case by case basis, but the important…

Social ork Theory: Australia
An Assessment of an Application of estern Social ork Theory the Indigenous People of Australia

Today, there is a considerable debate in the Asia-Pacific region concerning the importance of indigenous models of social work. This debate focuses on whether social work needs to discover a unique model for every context which is significantly different from other contexts; for example, socialist instead of capitalist, predominantly rural instead of urban, poorly developed as against medium or well developed, and Buddhist as opposed to Muslim or Christian? In the alternative, does social work actually possess a universal core of theory, values, skills, and intervention methods that can be adapted to, or otherwise modified within, each particular national or local context? (Midgley 1981). To this end, this paper examines the viability of applying estern social work theory to the indigenous people of Australia, followed by a summary of the research in the…

There are many people who have no health insurance, and no resources to get the services they need. We have seen an increase in the incidences of violence in our lives, coming close to home in our schools and even our churches. I hope to gain the tools and guidance in conducting interesting and useful research that will lead to progress in making more funding and services available to people.

The internship and research I will do during my graduate studies will give me the experience I need to work independently as a social worker or to work with any number of different types of organizations. It will be the reality that is needed to polish my ideas and goals. It will afford me the opportunity to work with some of the best people in the field, and to benefit from their guidance and training.

Of course the academic training of a…

" (Neville & Henrickson, 2005)
Additionally stated by Neville and Henrickson (2005) is the fact that: "Despite an apparent acceptance of LG people in recent times, there is a continuing and underlying stigma associated with living a non-heterosexual lifestyle (Dean et al. 2000). Consequently, a pervasive and often covert level of homophobia, heterosexism and violence continues to be promulgated which directly affects the health and well-being of these diverse communities." (2005)

III. SOCIAL WORKERS SUPPORT LS ISSUES in LEGISLATION

The American Civil Liberties Union in the work entitled: "Social Workers Come Out in Support of Marriage for Same-Sex Couples" states in a Press Release of August 2004 that the NASW in a 'friend of the court brief' in support of the ACLU's lawsuit in support of allowing marriages between same-sex couples in New York supports this initiative stating: "Lesbian and gay people are capable of being perfectly fine parents, and their families need…

Social work is a broad field that encompasses a wide range of practices and areas of specialization. Regardless of the diversity within the profession, social workers help place individual and community-level issues within a greater context. Therefore, social workers may become politicians, consultants, or researchers. The majority of social work takes place under the rubric of healthcare or social service organizations.
Professional social workers may be involved in any number of public or private organizations. Social work is dedicated to creating changes that improve the lives of residents. Issues like truancy, drug use, domestic violence, crime, and poverty all fall under the rubric of social work concerns. Some of these issues can be addressed by working one on one with clients such as in a team with psychologists and doctors. At other times, the social worker may be called upon to examine the overarching sociological forces that cause psychological problems and…

ocial Work
Identify observable characteristics of a life transition in the life of young people leaving care? ignificant influencing factors determining the process and. their implication for social work practice?

Characteristics of a life transition observable in young people leaving care vary from person to person, and must be understood within a cultural context. The parameters of what constitutes a normative life transition are flexible. The timing of life transitions in young people leaving care depends on individual, family, and community characteristics including external factors such as availability of jobs, educational opportunities, and housing options (Ravanera, Rajulton & Burch 2002). Legal constraints might also impact the characteristics of the life transition. For example, until an individual is eighteen years of age, he or she does not yet enjoy the full rights and responsibilities of clients who are of adult age.

Leaving home, graduating school, forming intimate relationships that may or may not involve…

Social Work
Intentions of Social Work

Social work in health care began in late nineteenth ad early twentieth century in the United States. The first social work classes were offered in the summer of 1898 at Columbia University (Social Work History, 2011). These classes were designed to facilitate the development of private and charitable organizations to serve people in need. Changes in demographics, attitudes about how the sick should be treated, and the role of social and psychological factors facilitated the emergence of this field of work.

The mass migrations, chiefly from Europe, in the 19th century landed many immigrants in New York and other eastern cities. This influx of people lead to mass crowding, increased social problems and ill health. In 1905 the Massachusetts General Hospital hired the first professional social worker. Dr. Richard Clarke Cabot believed there to be a connection between tuberculosis and social conditions. Cabot, in charge of the…

Social ork - Literature Review
A great deal of information and misinformation is available to adolescents today about sexual issues. The media, peers, parents, and schools are some of the places teenagers will obtain information about sex, however teenagers may be unable to sort out fact from fiction when dealing with sexual education. Providing a reliable and accurate source of information to adolescents is vital to ensuring their healthy sexual development into adulthood. Current educational trends are lacking a comprehensive pedagogy for the complete sexual education of adolescents, and some of the most important topics are overlooked completely. In the development of a program to supplement or replace current sexual education providers in the community, many factors have to taken into consideration, including what information is being provided by the other sources, the accuracy of the available information, what information is most important to the target age groups, and what will…

Social Work Values and Ethics
Description

In preparation for this reflection I read, "Social Work with People with Learning Difficulties" (Williams, 2009), "Social Work Values and Ethics," (eamer, 2013), "Issues in Human ights Protection of Intellectually Disabled Persons," (Dimopoulos, 2010), "Values and Ethics in Social Work" (Beckett & Maynard, 2012), and "The Dynamics of Social Welfare Policy" (Blau, 2007). I also referred to class discussions and my experience as social worker.

As a mull over the recent class lectures and readings about social work with individuals with learning difficulties and social work values and ethics, I wonder why the contemporary world sideline people with learning disabilities. This is because scores of social workers find working with individuals with learning intricacies extremely rewarding and interesting. According to Williams (2009), this field has experienced dramatic developments over the past years. The success of social work with individuals with learning difficulties links to virtual closure of…

Social Work
Evaluation of an Early Interview

The interview conducted was with a colleague of mine who I met in school a little while back. She comes from a Persian family, as her parents immigrated to the United States from Iran in the late 1970s. Watching her parents start from scratch in a whole new country was always very inspiring to her. Although she was born in the United States, her extended family, including aunts, uncles, and grandparents had all been born in Iran. Theirs is a tight knight family group, one which is very different from the culture I was raised in. She came to the career choice of social work because of her desire to really immerse herself into American society and give back to the society that had embraced her parents and other family members. The desire to strengthen the community that strengthened her family was one of the…

Social Work
Safety in Social Work Practice

Social work: Ethics and risks

isks to confidentiality: Online counseling

Although confidentiality issues can arise in any therapeutic context, in the relatively impersonal format of online counseling, the risks can be more daunting. First of all, there is the risk of the client's email or computer being hacked. Even the client may be relatively careless and not take safeguarding his or her email and password as seriously as he or she would in a real life counseling setting. Before exchanging intimate material with the client the counselor should review privacy expectations and good Internet 'hygiene.'

Online counseling also carries the risk that it might not be taken as seriously by the client in terms of the honesty and commitment demanded of the client. It is presented in a format that mimics that of casual interactions online, such as Facebook or a message board, even though its intentions are…

I told her that there had been three caseworkers since I had been in foster care this time, but none of them had ever gone to visit my mom. She had been alone in all of this. It wasn't fair for her.

The third caseworker visited my mom and saw how hard she was trying. I was able to go home overnight and then, finally, we were all back together again after two years of being apart. I'll never forget how my being bad affected my family. It makes me mad, and mad at myself, but my counselor has helped me to understand what has happened and I can deal with it"

Calvin's mother is a more patient and understanding mother now and is currently a parent advocate for the ACS (Timmons, p. 1).

This story is a good story, compared to the story that a young girl named Peggy, who is still…

The social worker indentifies and encourages these strengths. In essence, the Strength's Perspective "…builds on the idea that client groups are untapped resources of energy and momentum in their own lives" (The Strengths Perspective). This is an important alternative to the older pathological view of the client.
Conclusion

In conclusion, as the above discussion shows, answering the question what is social work involves a wide and interrelated range of issues, problems and theoretical methods and perspectives. Social work is essentially about upliftment, protection and care, but it also includes a variety of social issues and situations that impact the lives of the individual in society. These can include social issues such as race and gender prejudice as well as inbuilt biases and prejudices within the society. The social worker also has to take cognisance of a variety of theoretical sources and perspectives in order to deal with these issues and situations.

eferences

CASW…

Vision Social workers contribute to a just society by being compassionate and caring individuals that provide the kind of support and assistance that people need in times of need. They work with children, families, and adults to get them help in terms of food, shelter, get them into training programs, and even refer them to services to help with employment (Coady & Lehmann, 2016). They are the first lines of assistance when people are coming out of some emergency or tragedy. I myself, am most interested in becoming a Child, Family and School Social Worker. I feel like I would be able to help children and families deal with their hardships and be able to enable a positive growth in them. I feel I will be able to assist in the various problems and situations that can arise in life.
Being from the Karen ethnic group and my family dealing with the…

1. What is the general job description for professional social worker, whether protective or one who has another job description? What are the minimum qualifications for this job? The role of a professional social worker is comprehensive and diverse. A general job description would include elements like willingness to transport clients to and from services, helping clients to access the resources available to them, and actively communicating with clients on a daily basis. Whether in child protective services or not, a professional social worker interacts and teams with other related professionals including psychologists. In the case study detailing a day in the life of a child protection services worker, the social worker teams with teachers as well as therapists. As the case study also shows, social workers will sometimes need to fill out forms to facilitate the legal processing of clients, helping clients navigate the tricky and complicated bureaucratic organizations and…

Maurice Williams is the former director of Treatment Foster Care. He points out “hundreds of problems that need to be solved” each and every day (“Structural Framework: Authority and Supervision,” 2013, p. 1). However, Maurice indicates that his very first concern when he shows up for work is whether there were any disruptions overnight that need to be dealt with immediately. In other words, a director of human services needs to address crises calmly, efficiently, and carefully. As the director of the human services program—in this case foster care—Maurice shows how a leader’s role is to anticipate and identify problems as they arise, as well as delegating responsibility. Maurice notes, “it is my responsibility to get with the clinical director, to get with case carrying social worker to figure out what actually is the problem,” (“Structural Framework: Authority and Supervision,” 2013, p. 1). This requires following policy and procedure, involving…

Sociology: Social Work with IndividualsPart 1One of the barriers to change is burnout that is an obstacle concerning my field experience. Since social workers offer practical and emotional support to their clients, they suffer from compassion fatigue that hinders their achievements (Hussein, 2018). I managed this barrier by engaging in relaxing activities such as listening to music whenever I was free, taking a nap, and writing my experiences in the fieldwork.Managing this barrier was not possible alone; my supervisors and high-level staff provided huge support since they knew that social workers were already giving their best services and should be cared for. They gave me rest time when I felt exhausted as they understood well the importance of social worker health and the clients health they are serving. Also, support was provided by my colleagues in the form of taking over my place when I was off to rest or…

The connection between combat experience and mental health has been extensively researched, and the literature is clear and consistent: veterans are a critically underserved population. A 2014 Rand study revealed a “woeful lack of understanding mental health providers have about military members, veterans and families they treat,” (Eckhart, n.d., p. 1). The results of the Rand study may come as no surprise to military families and ex-combatants, but social workers and psychologists do remain critically untrained in the issues specific to American veterans. For this and other reasons such as stigma related to seeking mental health services, veterans continue to be the most vulnerable to mental health issues. When their mental health issues like PTSD, which alone accounts for a full half of all clinical diagnoses (Savitsky, Illingworth & DuLaney, 2009), remain unidentified or untreated, the results can be disastrous. Almost 150,000 American veterans each year experience homelessness each year…

SOCIOLOGY Sociology: Social Work Field ClassPart 1Three Things I Learned From the PodcastThe first thing I learned from the podcast is that having strong communication skills for negotiation is important. Companies these days are looking for strong communicators, be it any field or even social work. Businesses are highly dependent on such good facilitators. Great communication skills are evident from the negotiation skills of a prospective employee who knows his worth and can talk about money, which is a difficult subject. There is another aspect related to communication taking place in negotiation. People who are good at it can tackle difficult topics intelligently and have a problem-solving capability reflected in their negotiation. This would be considered a passing feature for an interview where the employer might be subtly judging this characteristic. Taking initiate and delivering messages with creative answers is a plus point for any new hire.The second thing that…

Professional Social Worker: Ethical DilemmaCase ContextOne difficult situation arises when dealing with a situation which challenges the social workers belief in elevating each and every single client to her fullest potential. In one particular instance, a woman from a very conservative Muslim family who had emigrated to the United States when she was a teenager approached the social worker for assistance with her fifteen-year-old daughter. Her daughter was no longer covering her hair, had gone to Planned Parenthood to obtain birth control to have sex with her boyfriend, and was also cutting school occasionally and not doing her homework at home (although the daughter did manage to complete it at school, most days). On one hand, the social worker must take into consideration that the girl is a minor and may be putting herself at risk in the above-cited scenario. On the other hand, the girl is also engaging in…

Goal Setting and Intervention PlanningAccording to Hepworth (2017), goals are a strategy for the realization of outcomes that are essential for systematic process-oriented approaches when working with a client in social work practice. In addition to developing goals and creating a contract, working with individual clients also involves planning intervention strategies to help achieve the desired outcomes. Goal setting and intervention planning are important elements in working with individual clients in my social work field site. The field site recognizes the significance of establishing goals and engaging in intervention planning as a crucial factor in enhancing the effectiveness of social work practice and professionals. To this extent, goal setting is used as a process of specifying what is to be achieved. All social workers in my field site are required to establish goals when working with clients. These goals are established based on the specific issues facing the client and…

Role theory and social role theory are flexible sociological frameworks that can be used to better understand clients. When applied to young clients like Joe Henry from the film Joe the King, role theory helps social workers and counselors understand the systemic and contextual variables impacting Joe’s identity development, and behavior. Incorporating role theory into social work when counseling clients like Joe will help guide the processes of assessment, intervention, and evaluation.
Although not an exclusive, comprehensive, or self-contained theory, role theory nevertheless shows how a person cannot be understood in isolation of cultural, family, and normative variables. Gender, race, class, family background, values, belief systems, and worldviews all impact Joe’s identity development and behavioral outcomes. Without taking into account the importance of social roles in personal and social identity construction, social workers might not be able to overcome their own biases when working with clients like Joe. Similarly, social roles…

Social Work with IndividualsPart 1: Skill Development Exercises in AssessmentQuestion 1a) Appearance: With regard to posture, the client appears fidgety, and adopts a slumped position. When it comes to attire, the patient appears decent and dressed appropriately for the occasion. In as far as psychomotor functioning is concerned, the patient displays some signs of retardation with regard to slowed and uncoordinated movements. She is also hesitant in her attempts to address the various queries floated to her.b) Cognitive functioning: The clients memory could be described as short-term; concentration as poor; judgment as poor and unperceptive; reality testing as distorted and having poor orientation to place; coherence as largely coherent; cognitive flexibility in terms of inability to perceive multiple things or ideas simultaneously; misconceptions in terms of impaired mental processes; and sensory perception in terms of absence of depersonalization, illusions, and hallucinations.c) Affective Functioning: The clients mood could be described as…

The ecological perspective encourages social workers to view clients in terms of their relationships with their environments, including factors like family systems, culture, institutions, and hierarchies. As part of the psychosocial orientation, the ecological approach generally considers three different levels of individual experience: the macro, the mezzo, and the micro. The macro level includes broader societal factors including those related to public policy but also to culture, norms, worldview, and value systems. Mezzo structures include intermediate social institutions such as schools or neighborhood level organizations. The micro level issues are those most immediate to the client’s life including relationships with kin and psychological issues. The ecological model provides a balanced view of the client because it takes into account the interplay between micro, mezzo, and macro levels rather than limiting the focus on just one problem. Similarly, a generalist approach to social work can interface with the ecological model. The…

Social Work in Family assessmentThe main scope of the family assessment and engagement in a social work scenario is to yield information required to respond to the individual needs of every family member in strict accordance with the urgency plans. The social workers or the welfare professionals effectively partner and collaborate with the family network to acquire the viable information needed about the family. The concerns raised are usually addressed following the family tree, including the paternal and maternal relatives. This article seeks to provide the family assessment depicted from August Wilsons Fences.EngagementThe fictional family in August Wilsons Fences is a complex type of family. Wilsons attention focuses on Troy, a 53-year-old African-American of racial origin; he works in the sanitation department collecting the garbage in trucks. The family is situated in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Due to his athletic abilities, the protagonist is a former excellent Negro baseball player; he continues…

Mary Terrell was an African American woman who was deprived of her rights and privileges in the late 1800s. Despite all the inadequacies of the American culture, Mart Terrell rose above all of them and became the first African- American woman to attain a bachelor’s degree. She became a member of the NAACP and aided in the formation of the NAACW. As a reward to her efforts, she was made the first president of NAACW. Mary Terrell continuously fought for the rights of all human beings and hence to the introduction of desegregation of the public places. Social work is considered one of the most ancient form of service provision since it involves going out to the people and offering different services. Different cultures always present different challenges for the social worker. A social worker always believes in the client’s self-determination in that they can make their own decisions. In the…

Social Work IssuesPart 1: Social Work Issue (News Topic)As society has become increasingly polarized ideologically, between mask wearers and non-mask wearers, between red and blue, between liberal and conservative, social workers and social work have been drawn into this polarized debate. Social work has always been politicized, to some degree, given that social workers often deal with marginalized populations and members of historically discriminated-against minority groups. One such population is that of the LGBT+ community. Now, according to a Newsweek article, Texas Social Workers Can Refuse LGBT and Disabled Clients Under New Rule (Slisco, 2020). As the title suggests, social workers in Texas can effectively and legally refuse services to clients based solely on the clients sexual orientation or disability status, on the basis of the social workers conscience, conviction, or judgement.The idea of being able to refuse services based on conscience has been debated before within many of the…

Social Workers Interview: Interviewing a Child Protection InvestigatorThe five questions to ask the child protection investigator during the interview are listed in Appendix 1.I had an interview with Ms. Z, a Child Protection Investigator based in New York. The interview took place in her office on February 8, 2022, at 10 am. I had met Ms. Z before in court as she was handling a case of interest to me. Scheduling the interview was not difficult as I approached her and inquired if I could interview her regarding her professional experiences representing children and families in court. She was receptive and agreed to the interview, though our initial timetable had to be changed twice due to disruption on her court schedule. I appreciated that she kept me informed on the disruptions, and she was genuinely disappointed with the cancelations. I looked forward to the interview since it would offer insights…

Q1. What does diversity mean to you? After watching the videos and reading the article, has your definition changed. In what ways?Before watching the videos and reading the articles, I would have thought of diversity primarily in terms of inclusion, or including individuals regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or disability status. My definition would reflect that of Boccagni (2015) and his discussion of the most common definition of diversity, namely that it reflects heterogeneity. However, as noted in Wheeler (2015), unconscious inclusion does not address the issue of unconscious bias. Just because someone is not actively prejudiced against members of other groups does not mean they are truly fostering a diverse, inclusive environment within the workplace and society as a whole.Assuming that a man has more leadership skills because he is tall, the ethnicity of a womans name impacts her confidence, or the fact someone is in a wheelchair…

Social workers often have commitments to specific policies, laws, or funding of programs that are vital to the population they serve or an issue that they strongly support. Such commitments often lead social workers to become involved in political issues and the campaigns of specific candidates. Being a social worker, such campaign experiences, the outcomes of your efforts, and how effective you felt you were may affect your view of the political process and the likelihood of becoming involved in similar campaigns in the future. Social workers' involvement in political advocacy is usually influenced by the impact of politics on social work practice. Through advocacy and lobbying in the political arena, social workers seek to promote changes in legislation and policy to enhance social conditions and promote social justice towards meeting basic human needs. In essence, social workers' participation in political advocacy is geared towards protecting individuals' rights and enhancing…

Annotated Bibliography

Gayle, V., Berridge, D., & Davies, R. 2002. Young people's entry into higher education: Quantifying influential factors. Oxford Review of Education, 28(1), 5-20.

his article addresses the factors that are most prevalent when young individuals move into higher education. Among these factors are social status, economic issues, marital status, and gender issues. For this study, the researchers examined many different individuals at a higher education institution and determined their demographic characteristics. hey then gave weight to these characteristics and, through a scientific and statistical analysis, determined to what degree each one of these demographics affected the individual and whether they were involved with higher education. he results of the study indicated that a marriage age of 19 had a significant effect on whether someone would be attending an institution of higher education in the future, with those that married early attending higher education institutions at lower rates.

Goldstein, J.R. & Kenney,…

Social Work Informatics in Child Protection
Social Work esearch

The research design for this study utilizes mixed methods in order to identify variables that function as benefits and inhibitors of the use of technology by child protection case workers. Surveys that are a hybrid of quantitative (correlational survey techniques) and qualitative approaches will be conducted with case workers (Creswell, 2009). Survey questions that will permit inclusion of qualitative data in this study are considered to be essential by this author as they yield data that provides depth and detail from which to create understanding of the phenomena under study and the lived experiences of the survey respondents, which in this instance are case workers who provide child protection services (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Accordingly, the survey will contain both close-ended and open-ended items, such that quantitative data is available for analysis of correlations and qualitative data is available for grounded theory analysis…

social workers find themselves in the position of being primary care coordinators. This is especially true in situations like the Parker family's, in which there are multiple interrelated issues affecting the family and those issues require input from a wide variety of diverse healthcare workers. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) stresses the importance of developing and maintaining cross-disciplinary partnerships and partnerships across different organizations that can "enhance access to and continuity of care for social work clientele," (p. 33). Therefore, the most important thing to address whether in public policy or administrative procedure is to have protocols and standards in place for coordinating care across various disciplines and agencies.
The Parker family is dealing with several interrelated issues that include mental health issues but also gerontological ones. More effective coordination of care would help increase and improve access to mental health services for Stephanie while also addressing Sara's unmet…

Addams included a large amount of environmental reforms in her program for Hull House. One of the most prominent incorporated her labors to address the unhealthful heaps of garbage in immigrant areas because of a lack of public interest. The mayor of Chicago ultimately appointed Addams garbage inspector for her region a job that she took very seriously. Addams managed garbage collectors and took violators of garbage policies to court. Even though Addams and her associates frequently started reforms, the immigrants had a dynamic role as well, helping in knowledge gathering and its communication to their neighbors (Settlement House Movement, 2011).

ichmond's devotion and professionalism, along with her scientific charity has been documented and developed over the years. Her casework practice, managerial talents, research, and stress on social work education fashioned a professional environment in what was beforehand thought to be just charity work. This professionalized social work permitted philanthropic associations…

Social Work
Critical thinking, a higher order of thinking about and dealing with issues, is quite relevant in many contemporary disciplines, particularly social work. It is a way of looking at information, of processing that information in an analytical manner, and having the ability to bring both life experience and other information to bear on the regular processes of one's discipline. Certainly, it can be used as an approach to daily lie, reading, public speaking, even watching movies or attending a concert. Within the social work discipline, it is a way to take a careful appraisal of beliefs and actions and then arrive at well-reasoned and thoughtful interventions that increase the likelihood of helping clients and avoiding harm -- reasonable and reflecting attitudes that help decide what to do and when (Papell and Skolnik, 1992).

Social work, and other medical and sociological and medical disciplines often turn toward theory as an outgrowth…

Social Work Research -- Annotated Bibliography
Annotated Bibliography

Bowie, S.L., & Hancock, H. (2000, Fall) African-Americans and graduate social work education: a study of career choice influences and strategies to reverse enrollment decline. Journal of Social Work Education, 36(3), 429.

hese experienced researchers have reported on the influences of black MSW graduate careers. Demographics were taken into consideration in relation to social work program enrollment influences. Black MSW graduates were found to be most influenced by advancing their careers, acquiring new skills, and maintaining a professional status. he author further suggests recruitment strategies for attracting black students to graduate social work programs. he overall motivation for the minority MSW student is important when considering the affect of receiving public assistance on the desire to work with the poor and homeless.

Cozzarelli, C., & agler, M.J., & Wilkinson, A.V. (2001). Attitudes toward the poor and attributions for poverty. Journal of Social Issues, 57(2), 207.

he authors…

Social ork History
Like America, Canadian social work has always been about helping the poor and distressed citizens of the nation. The ideas from England had migrated to America and Canada. Both countries are based on migrants from other countries. There were many movements that developed and promoted social work and the ways that social work was implemented. The industrial revolution had left many unemployed without proper job training for the new work. Migrants were migrating from country to country and from rural areas to the cities causing cities to be overcrowded with unemployment, low wages, and homelessness.

One area that differed from American social work and Canadian social work was the way the poor and disadvantaged were viewed and the systematic investigation approach in Canada. The poor were viewed negatively by other citizens. It was felt the problems the poor had were a result of a weakness of character. (Drover) The…

This in turn generates a kind of societal morality. As a consequence, social order becomes an incorporated trait of everyday life. According to the theory, what people see as standards are indirect behavioral rules. Infringements of the standard lead to diverse amounts of punishment depending on how common the standard may be. Chastisements can come in the shape of being disqualified from one's social group, critical looks, or imprisonment in the case of harsh infringements like killing or assault (Jeanty, 2010).
As sociologists and historians examine social work, they often see a profession the spirit of which is social control. For them the language of therapy, assisting, or even empowerment masquerades a coercive center. Various recent literature of the vocation, conversely, has confronted the attitude of those researchers who depend on case reports as proof of what social workers in fact do in the field has highlighted empowerment in the…

Therefore, today's society in the United States is diverse, which is something a social worker needs to understand and know how to deal with each diverse group. Furthermore, through research, it has been discovered most ethnic groups that live in the United States consist of young people, which means by staying in this country, they grow accustom to their surroundings. Once they have grown accustom to living here, they feel like this is their home to start a life with their own families. This continues the growing number of ethnic groups in this country.
Due to the educational accommodations that schools and college campuses make for students that have ethnic backgrounds, there is not enough prejudice of one group to let a Holocaust to occur in the United Stated. Furthermore, this country believes in freedom of speech to allow one ethnic to be isolated from the rest and condone any…

In the case of disclosure to harm oneself or others, the social worker has an ethical responsibility to refer the individual for further evaluation and possible commitment to a psychiatric facility equipped to aid the individual and potentially avert any future harm. The social worker must then use his or her professional judgment to determine if such goals or proposed actions pose a serious and imminent threat to self or others. The NASW code identifies this need to disclose as the social worker's ethical responsibility to larger society. (National Association of Social Workers, 2008)
Additionally, as part of the NASW Code the social worker is ethically bound to aide in the individual's self-determination and to help them give voice to and even codify their goals. (National Association of Social Workers, 2008) Ultimately, it is the primary goal of the social worker to help clients identify potential problems in social functioning.…

Social Work
Under the California Child Abuse and Neglect eporting Law, counselors, teachers, and other professionals are legally obliged to report suspected abuse or neglect. The legal obligation to report instances of child abuse or neglect to a local, state or federal social services agency is generally a good idea because it ensures reporting by teachers, counselors, and others who are in contact with the child. It is assumed that mandatory reporting means immediate and beneficial intervention. The reality is more complicated than this. Alerting child protective services can have unwanted detrimental effects on the child. As Lough (n.d.) points out, "nagging doubts about how the person suspected of abusing a child will react, what the outcome will be, and whether or not the report will put the child at greater risk" are what make the mandatory reporting laws controversial.

Theoretically, with a legal obligation, the individual is more motivated to report.…

Social Work
oger Plachy's 1986 book When I Lead, Why Don't They Follow? distinguishes the difference between a manager and a leader. The book also offers specific tools and techniques to improve effectiveness at being both a manager and a leader. A core tenet of When I Lead, Why Don't They Follow is that leadership entails the expression of values. Leaders inspire because they mirror the values held by their followers. Plachy suggests that when followers subsequently empower leaders to advocate on their behalf, the leader becomes a "leader-manager." Similarly, when a person in a designated managerial role begins to express the values held by subordinates or colleagues, that person becomes a leader-manager. The hybrid leader-manager role is one that characterizes the social work profession.

Social workers straddle the line between leadership and management because of their role as guides, helpers, and advocates. These multiple roles make some social workers naturally prone…

Cradock's 2004 study of a correlation between population categories and child abuse lead to the development of an assessment tool that allowed social workers to determine when children were at risk for child abuse and when to intervene and what actions would be seen as an over-intervention. By using this assessment, social workers will not only know how to identify the serious danger of child abuse and what children are at-risk for being abused, but also the assessment makes it possible for social workers to determine when intervening in the situation may be dangerous or unnecessary for the children involved. Of similar importance are the tools developed to assess and evaluate those convicted of both child physical and sexual abuse. In Milner and Murphy's 1995 study, the methods of assessment and evaluation are discussed and critiqued. These methods, including interview, observation, personality tests, and offender-specific assessments, are all studied…

While he supported me in my endeavors, he raised many questions, >Why do you want to enter social work? How do you think you are going to provide for your family and the lifestyle you are accustomed to?" Deferring to socialization pressures that still impel them to fulfill the "breadwinner" role and avoid feminine characteristics, they may segregate themselves from women in the profession, selecting specialties or positions that society deems as more appropriate for men (Williams, 1995). They too may emphasize the masculine aspects of their jobs to "reduce the dissonance between their professional and gender identities" and to justify their career choices (Christie, 1998, p. 506). Thereby, male social workers adhere more closely to the social definition of masculinity" (ritton, J. & Stoller M., 1998).
The young people who are trying to enter into a social work profession "hope to advance research and social work services for men…

Grohol J. (2005). Attachment heory. Psych Central. Retrieved October 7, 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/Attachment_theory

Psych Central is a web site which provides free mental health, support and psychology information and resources online since 1992. he site is clustered with numerous links to psychological issues and people related to this field. his article has been written by Dr. John Grohol who is a renowned psychologist and owner of this web portal. he article focuses on the theory of attachment explaining various behavioral patterns observed in the canvas of this theory.

Holmes, J. (1993). John Bowlby and Attachment heory. New York: Routledge.

Jeremy Holmes is a Consultant Psychiatrist/Psychotherapist in North Devon

District Hospital, Barn Staple, United Kingdom. He is also a visiting professor at Psychoanalysis Unit University College London. In this book, Jeremy Holmes provides a focused and coherent account of Bowlby's life and work, based on interviews with members of his family…

The GEMS effort was to create a social environment that encouraged healthy eating and exercise, and expanded health literacy in a fun manner, and was accessible to young girls.
It is easier to change health-related behaviors in the young, and the program tried to address the unique and often more acute problem of obesity in African-American young girls. The entire community and family units were incorporated into the program effort. Positive aspects of the African-American community, such as strong social support, were used by the study designers, also in line with social cognition theory. Existing support structures and social learning were combined: for example, the families in question were often not educated in how to properly read food labels, but once they were, the desire to help their daughters become healthier would hopefully reinforce the need to engage in proactive steps to improve dietary health. During Family Nights, families of…

(Huff, Social ork, 2000, Chapter 1, p.3)
Private efforts were not enough to treat the ills caused by the unchecked capitalism of the Gilded Age, however, an age that brought tremendous wealth to some Americans and tremendous poverty to others. During the first depression occasioned by this split between the haves and the have-nots in 1890, private relief organizations could not cope. "In Mulberry Bend, the heart of the Italian district, one-third of all babies born in 1888 died before their first birthdays. Traditional agencies such as the Children's Aid Society and the Salvation Army were overwhelmed, incapable of meeting the demands placed on their services." (Huff, Social ork, 2000, Chapter 1, p.4) "The old shibboleths commonly accepted as the major causes of poverty, low character, indolence, and intemperance, were replaced with more systemic theories," that sought economic and social causes as the cure, rather than moral reform. (Huff, Social…