Having a clear comprehension of your personal values, biases, and beliefs before interacting with clients is essential for social workers, particularly newly practicing ones. Social workers may not even be aware of what they are bringing into the interaction. Unfortunately, this can end up being damaging to the client-worker relationship. A poor relationship can stem from offending the client, or by pushing your personal beliefs on them. Therefore, self-reflection is crucial for social workers and must be used consistently throughout their career to be an effective professional. Each professional social worker generally has their own beliefs on what health and mental health means to them, can vary widely across a spectrum, but I believe these …show more content…
It can be frustrating for everyone involved when the client reaches a setback and must return to a few steps back in their progress. It is crucial to have a strong support system, although it can be difficult for the worker and support system to be supportive, without enabling the client to continue using the substance if the client perceives they can continue their substance abuse. Past experiences can influence the situation, as well as the entire change process. If the client perceives the worker is resembling an authority figure of their past and is transferring those emotions onto the worker, it can be challenging for the change to happen. Transference and countertransference should be acknowledged in the worker-client interactions and needs to be worked through for the client to obtain their optimal change …show more content…
For example, at the intrapersonal level the individual may want to change their behavior(s) in a way they perceive as being healthier or better for their overall health and mental health. This can be the result of personal experiences or personal goals they have set for themselves. At the interpersonal level, influences from friends, coworkers, and other support system members can help the individual work towards obtaining these personal goals. The familial level, in my personal observations, has had the second greatest impact after the intrapersonal level, as it can be extremely motivating for the client to change if they have become isolated or removed from the family due to their unwillingness to change their health behaviors. At the social level, the stigma and discrimination of substance abuse can have a significant impact. Examples include losing a job due to their use and can sometimes be enough to motivate the client to change their health behaviors. At the environmental level, an unwillingness to change can also lead to homelessness and being forced to stay in undesirable conditions that no longer fulfill their basic needs. Each of these levels provides unique obstacles to the individual experiencing substance
Changing Substance Use: What We Know And What We Need To Know." Annals Of Behavioral Medicine 37.2 (2009): 117-125. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.
Social workers have many tools at their hand to enabling personal values to remain in check. The general practitioners communication with supervisors and collages can provide guidance on this issue. They can attend professional workshops pertaining to subjects such as ethics, and maintaining professional relationships. Social workers can continually evaluate their own values and beliefs and seek professional help such as therapy when
Professionalism in the social work field goes beyond licensure and expertise (Cournoyer, 2014). According to Cournoyer (2014), social work professionalism encompasses the concepts of integrity, self-efficacy and knowledge, self-understanding and self-control, and social support (Cournoyer, 2014). Embedded in social work professionalism is the person-environment perspective, which posits that our personal attributes, interactions and relationships with others, and environment influence a social worker’s practice. Cournoyer stresses that it is a social worker’s responsibility to acknowledge and regulate his or her personal biases, ideologies, and beliefs when working with clients in order to prevent them from negatively impacting the therapeutic
I am passionate about social work, motivated, adaptable to new environments final year, postgraduate, social work student. I am committed to social work values and I am confident that I share Hackney Children and Young People’s Services values and core principles. I share a vision for the local area described by the Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS). I share the Council’s vision of a community based on fair and equal treatment for all and respect for the dignity and value of each person is summed up in its Equality and Diversity Statement. I am committed to promoting and to protect equality of opportunity for all groups of staff and service users and to challenge discrimination, racism, sexism and other forms of unjust behaviour. I am also committed to other Council’s core values of public service, quality, and empowerment. I am committed to the seven Principles of Public Life which are as follows: Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty, Leadership
This paper is about a reflection on a class interview for a senior social worker. The teacher gave every student ten minutes for this interview. The students did not have an idea of what their situation was about until couple minutes before the interview. This paper will focus on the limits of confidentiality for the client, potential assessment for the client, engagement with the client, and evaluation of the social worker.
Despite how hard one works to overcome a substance addiction or those who have even mastered their sobriety; a negative stigma generally haunts them throughout their life. For individuals coping with addiction and the day to day difficulties, which addiction presents, they often feel many negative sentiments from society. Together with the task of managing their symptoms, low self esteem, a fear of relapse, depression and the negative stigma from the general public can only be seen as a bleak road to recovery.
This experience helped me to recognize the internal struggle that a substance abuser faces on a continuous basis. In addition, I know that an individual can have a difficult time changing their behavior even when they have a strong desire to change; the smallest thing can cause a person to relapse.
As a social work professional, you must take into account your own personal values before you can be an effective worker in this field. Social workers sometimes need to put their own values aside when working with clients who don’t share their same ideals. Clients are diverse and are not going to always have the same values that the worker has. Social workers need to be professional and adhere to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) guidelines when working with any client.
Working with others and improving own learning and performance are highly essential skills in social work. In this essay I will reflect on how well I have developed these two skills and what I need to do to improve them.
When I took the self-assessment test I got one personality type as my highest of all six personality types . The personality type that I scored the highest was social, and it matches perfect with the kind of work I envision doing it in my future. I was not surprised when I got the highest in social because I think this is how friends and loved one’s see myself when I am around them. For instance, they describe as me as a person who value helping others even if I have to go out my way to provide others with what they need. Friends, and close ones always says that I am a caring person who listen and take people’s problems very seriously. Something else that they about myself is that I am good at giving people advice or direct them to the right path. Moreover, my coworkers and friends always referred to me as a someone who is always willing to take new challenges and that I am good at sense when something's not right for them. All of these traits that people say I have are similar to the qualities and skills that social workers in general need in order for them
Over the course of the semester, I have learned a variety of many things regarding social work. These things vary from learning how to help oneself to understanding how to help others. Not only were the textbooks very useful, but also the materials that furthered this textbook learning. The in class presentation, activities, and guest speakers gave us insight and a different perspective on the material we were learning. I feel like this course has given me a good foundation and prepared me as a future social worker (1).
Social Work is a profession that prides itself on the ability to cultivate positive relationships with people who may be very different from us. There may be differences in age, race, personality, gender, socioeconomic status, health, sexual orientation, rank, power, and privilege, as well as beliefs regarding religion and politics. The experience of these differences can cause a Social Worker to feel emotionally and cognitively disturbed. The ability to become aware of and consciously attend to these internal disturbances can positively affect the quality of relationship we are able to
Perhaps most substance abuse starts in the teen years when young people are susceptible to pressure from their peers. One of the main concerns when dealing with substance abuse is the long term problems with substance such as addiction, dependency and tolerance. The physical state of an individual, who is addicted to a substance, will deteriorate over a long period of time. This is due to the chemicals that are being put into an individual body. One of the most important aspects of the effect of substance abuse on society includes ill health, disease, sickness, and in many cases death. The impact of substance abuse not only affects individuals who abuse substances but it affects our economy. Our government resources are negatively impacted by individual who abuse substances. According to (Lagliaro 2004) the implication of drug users extend far beyond the user, often damaging their relationships with their family, community, and health workers, volunteer and wider
The field of social work is one that requires much self-reflection on the part of the worker. In doing so, it helps the worker better understand his or her own emotions and the thought processes that these emotions come from. The goal of this paper is to provide my own self-reflection, relating it to my own emotional intelligence in the domains of relationships, tolerance, flexibility, self-management, and emotional awareness, and my future plans and goals in Widener University’s MSW program.
There are certain ethics that social workers must follow and is a guidance for professional standard of work. However sometimes people are not aware of their own values, though the more fully conscious someone is about their values, the more people are able to ensure that their actions are consistent with the values. As a social worker it is vital to know the dangers of not taking account of values and the ethical dimension of practice. A social worker should see their client for who they are and not just another object that is unclear by their own emotions hence why self-awareness is a key to