Interviewing Skills
Today’s session on interviewing skills covers foundation skills such as questioning, paraphrasing, probing deeper, the use of self-disclosure and closing the interview. Interviewing plays a very important role within social work because social workers spend more time carrying out interviews. One area that was covered extensively was the use of self-disclosure. The use of self-disclosure can help the interviewer to feel more empathic and in tune with the interviewee. However, this should be a skill that should not be used often as over-sharing can be negative. A member of the group gave an example of how a colleague had disclosed to a service user with schizophrenia that he had the similar illness. The service user viewed
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Communication involves not only talking but also observation. An issue that was discussed extensively in today’s session is the importance of acknowledging our ignorance of other people when we engage in communication with them. We are prejudged and the moment we meet other people, we start to apply our preconceived thoughts to them. But social workers are to listen to people they work with in order to understand them better. Social workers must be careful not to draw a conclusion about people as they could be wrong. There is a huge amount of contact in social work is with other professionals and other people who play important roles in the lives of service users. Therefore, communication skills are very important. It enables social workers to learn to understand the meaning of the message being transferred and to decode and relate back what is …show more content…
It covered various ways in which social workers are accountable in practice situation. Social workers are accountable to many groups; the government, society, employers, colleagues, service users, etc. Accountability is very complex area and we spent some time trying to unpack the complexities. A question was posed; “who are social workers accountable to from the list above? Are they accountable to service users the most than others on the list? We were asked to answer the question by using our case study from the formative essay. In a conflict situation as seen in the case study, social workers have to revert back to the professional or organisational codes of ethics or policies. That way they would have been seen to have applied equity in terms of carrying out their professional duty. Building a friendship with service user does not mean social workers should negate their duty. I learnt that the skill of separating professional relationship and friendship is important in social work
Urdang’s article is well written and highly informative. It maintains the reader’s interest and provides applicable information to social workers. After reading the article, I will continue to focus on myself, who I am, and what I know is right. This well help me to become more self-aware and avoid burnout, inappropriate relationships and emotional distress. It can be assumed that most people after reading this article felt the same way. This article contributes to social work students by pointing out big issues in the field of social work and then offers methods and solutions to avoid these
This class, Social Work Theory & Practice was made to be able to introduce me to social work theories, ideas, and skills needed to work in the social work profession. This class main tool used was a book called A Brief Introduction of Social Work Theory by David Howe which discusses social work theories in a compressive and explainable way. This class is important to my higher learning because it break down the theories that I will need to use during my practice and a...
The Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Code of Ethics (2010) proposes three core values of Social Work, respect for persons, social justice and professional integrity (pp.12). These core values establish “ethical responsibilities” for the social worker (AASW, 2010, pp.12), specifically, the value of respect for persons, which sustains the intrinsic worth of all human beings as well as the right to wellbeing and self determination consistent with others in society (AASW, 2010,p.12). This Code of Ethics stipulates the duty of care a social worker must provide, a...
Interviewing and research skills are needed within the social work profession. Effective communication skills are one of the most crucial components of a social worker’s job. Every day, social workers must communicate with clients to gain information, convey critical information and make important decisions (Zeiger, 2017). This interview experience was an opportunity to explore the daily challenges and rewards of a licensed social worker. I was excited for the opportunity to interview a social worker in the gerontology sector as this is a specialty I am considering. This meeting allowed me to explore the educational steps of being a social worker, practices of the agency, the clients who are served, and the challenges the agency has.
The Open University (2010) K101 An Introduction to Health and Social Care, Unit 8, ‘Developing Skills in Communication’, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
I decided to interview my older brother’s friend, Cory Ringlein. I have known him most of my life and he has suffered from lymphedema as long as I have known him, this is important because his mom was a social worker before she stopped working to focus on Cory’s illness. I know this was pretty influential on Cory; he watched his mom work as a social worker and helped him make the decision to be a social worker.
Captain Rob Geis agreed to be interviewed and share his experiences with the next generation of Social Workers. Native to Ohio, he graduated High School in 1979, he continued his education at Ohio State University from 1982-1986, completing his Masters in Social Work. For the past 24 years, he has served as a Social Worker in the United States Army. In his current position he is responsible for the Department of Social Work Services. Previous positions have included: two assignments as a Division Social Worker, Medical Inpatient Social Worker, Chief of Social Work, Division Chief of Mental Health, Clinical Director of Army Substance Abuse Program, Combat Operation Stress Control Commander, and General Staff Officer (Geis, 2012). Academic positions have included both, the Army Long Term Health Education and Training (LTHET) as well as the Command and General Staff College.
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.
I used rephrasing as a part of understanding the reason for the client’s visit and repeated the information in a way that we both could understand. The client was able to respond through the questions that I asked her in regards to her situation. I want to get a clear understanding without leaving out valuable information. In the three sessions my intentions were to make sure that what she gave me over the phone matches what she says in the interview. I made sure that when my client was speaking, I took notes on the new information or the information that was not covered in any of the previous sessions. Each session was based upon reflection because I had to make sure progress was being made or not. When my client began to discuss things in a way in which I could not understand, I was able to interpret the information in a way that she and I both understood and agreed upon. The moment an initial contact was made, I started giving my client information on informed consent forms, who I was and the number of years of my social work profession, policies and
Social work practice is a profession where it works alongside the ‘code of ethics’, these consist of formal statements which represent values of the professional community. The national associations such as Britain state the core values within this field are human dignity and worth, social justice, service to humanity (human rights), integrity and competence. The professional field is regulated by the ‘British Association of Social Work’ (BASW). The core values within social work are huma...
Today’s skills session on social work interviewing skills covered the uniqueness of social work interviewing in comparison to interviews conducted in professions such as the police, doctors, employers, etc. It covered also different types of questioning and how to paraphrase. Another area covered was, what to avoid when interviewing a service user and the use of silence. I leant that interview skills are fundamental in social work and social work interviewing is unique. Social workers empathize with clients because of their knowledge of the client group and the need of help to alleviate their problems. Empathy however does not equate accepting that the client is right in what they have done or that the social worker is condoning their actions. Empathy relates to the issue of ‘trusting’ and ‘believing’ the client. In as much as a social worker should seek to establish trust in the relationship, this does not necessarily mean they should believe
“Social workers behave in a trustworthy manner. Social workers are to be aware of this profession missions, values ethical principal and ethical standards and practice in a manner consistent with them”. (NASW, 2008, p.6). Social workers are to be sure their practice is embedded in the NASW Code of Ethics.
Healthcare professionals require effective communication skills in order to communicate with the varied range of patients they deal with in health and social care settings. ‘Effective communication skills are key in health and social care because they help you to establish and develop relationships with colleagues, management and families. Communication is the simplest way to really get a sense of how a person is coping and what steps you need to take to improve their health and wellbeing’ (Stonebridge College 2016).
The social work profession is defined as “a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people (ISFW, ‘Global Definition of Social Work’, 2016).” The definition may be true about the profession but it is more in depth than just that. To me, the profession’s primary focus is to help others through life as much as we can while letting them make their own choices and guiding them. In society, social workers are utilized in many different nonprofit and government roles. They serve the community in many different ways from monitoring parent visits to helping people through mental illnesses. Human beings are so complex and things that happen
The work of a social worker is complex and all encompassing. Social workers work in many capacities seeking justice, liberation, and equality. There work is global, as they work to put policies in place to govern practices. To keep up with societal shifts and generational changes there learning is continuous. As new questions rise so does the need for the continuation of research, not only to answer these questions but to implement into