Describe your ideas about the social work profession. Social work is a profession that helps individuals and communities function better in society.Is a unique profession due to its focus on both the person and the environment.The main purpose of being a social worker is to facilitate social change for oppressed individuals and groups. A social worker’s responsibility is to promote, restore, and maintain the wellbeing of individuals. Individuals come from different paths of life and experience such hardships as poor health, poverty, and lack of education. Despite these difficulties, social workers still need to inspire and motivate people by creating strategies to help them be successful. Social workers focus on providing needed help and resources, …show more content…
As a receptionist, I was able to provide services and resources to help students address barriers that prevent them from attending and completing school. There were services such as health insurances SNAP, food Stamp, legal services and financial counseling. I observed students from 17 to 35 years of age were seeking public assistance help in order to help their families and keep them on track with college. I remember an occasion when a homeless student was seeking food stamps, because her mom was unable to work due to a physical disability. After the screening, the student qualified for food stamp, so he was able to help himself and his mom. It was an unforgettable experience to see individuals around my age, that were smiling after getting help that was needed and it was going to help them pursue a college career. This experience marked me to work in the social work field, and thanks to this journey of interacting with students, I was able to get more engaged in the social work profession. These events led me to decide to become a social …show more content…
One of my responsibilities was to be a friendly visitor at the senior’s retirement home. I was able to apply my human service skills with clients in several ways. I was able to be an active listener at every session I had with them. The ability to listen carefully helped me to comprehend deeper issues and to come up with better solutions. My listening skills established a strong bond of trust between me and the client. It permitted me to reflect back on what clients say and stay engaged in every conversation. This provided me with the skill of active listening. I was able to demonstrate empathy. One of the seniors at RAIN Inc. named Gloria Vital impacted me, by demonstrating trust for being able to share personal, issues that she was facing. This experience taught me personal relationships matter. The difficult journey she faced a couple of years ago will empower her and make her stronger. She had a surgery on her face which left her with a low-esteem toward her appearance. I remember this being a constant topic among our conversation. This trauma prevented her to live a normal life. She refused to visit the hair salon, go to the park or talk with other seniors. She confessed feeling judged by others. Gloria stills worries of her appearance today. Despite her feelings, I tried to empower her and
Social workers level the playing field for individuals and families that have experienced hardships, terminal illnesses, mental health disorders and other adverse environmental situations that inhibit their ability to thrive within society. Social workers accomplish this by providing individuals and families the resources necessary to ensure that their needs are being met. Social workers serve an essential role to the functioning of our society, as they are committed and dedicated to increasing the quality of life for underprivileged community members. I fully intend on actively contributing to this endeavor, as I believe social workers have the responsibility to ensure that all community members have their needs met and the opportunity to
To provide effective social services, a social work graduate must possess a multitude of knowledge, skills and abilities. This will be a reflective paper on everything that I know for sure as a student of social work who is about to go into the world of work.
As my role of becoming a justice based social worker and being exposed to new knowledge about oppression and privilege, I want to focus on the topic of race and White privilege to strengthen my knowledge and the knowledge of others on multidimensional levels. There are a few reasons why I have chosen an action plan focused on race and White privilege. I believe it to be a longstanding issue in our society, it is rarely discussed because of the uncomfortable territory that comes along with it, and more importantly, I would like to expand my awareness of how race affects individuals on different systemic levels and my awareness of my privileges can affect my role as a social worker. “Teaching about White privilege is fundamental to understanding
This includes helping those who are in need as well as to fulfill roles in society. The social work paradigm includes values such as service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationship, integrity and competence (NASW, 2008). The main mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and to help everyone to meet their needs by using all of the social work values. The central attention to social work is the environmental forces that create, contribute to, and address problems in living. Therefore, as social workers we must help our clients overcome environmental forces by providing them with the resources that this country has to offer. Social workers have a duty to strive to end discrimination and other forms of injustices through “direct practice, community organizing, supervision, consultation administration, advocacy, social and political action, policy development and implementation, education, and research and evaluation” (NASW,
Social work as a profession strives to help the welfare of those within the community whether its persons or families through advocacy. Often times clients are those who may be vulnerable and disadvantaged. Social workers aim to help people fulfill basic needs in their everyday lives and assist them by providing beneficial resources and intervention counseling. They do more than just help them in their current situation, it’s about helping them to survive and set attainable goals to live a fuller and better life for themselves, and most time for their families.
"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. A historic and defining feature of social work is the profession's focus on individual well-being in a social context and the well-being of society. Fundamental to social work is attention to the environmental forces that create, contribute to, and address problems in living" (NASW code of ethics).
Social Workers make a meaningful contribution to the improvement of its community and enhancing the lifetimes of the individuals within that community that could impact individuals in other neighboring communities. Social Workers strive to attain necessary education to identify the nature of communal diversity and oppression with respect, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender, martial rank, political belief and mental or physical disability. As a communal operative, an individual could begin work on a macro scale, then progress into working for an association that helps underdeveloped states, or opt to work on a micro level, such as in a confidential exercise bestowing individual counseling. The duty of Social Work Professional is implanted
Social work practice has become a vital part of our society. They are found in almost every aspect of our community as well as our schools. Social workers are problem solvers that help people deal with daily issues that may become problems that affect them. As our society becomes more challenging, social workers help bridge the gaps for people who face extraordinary challenges in their lives. The social worker’s scope of practice may contain helping at risk or overwhelmed individuals find resources, develop new coping strategies, resolve problems and conflicts, and secure opportunities to improve their quality of life. (Flynn, 2013) Although the scope of practice is basically the same, there are various types of social workers with various levels of education. It doesn’t matter if you are a medical, clinical, school, military, psychiatric or community social worker, the goal is
When they are in need we must do everything in our power to make a change. Sometimes this involve advocating for them to see a change in social problems. The definition of a social worker states that they are trained person that carries out work with the aim of alleviating conditions of those in need (12). This often calls the need for social justice. After learning about social workers throughout history, I realize there’s multiple ways to help those in need (11). They’ve been able to implement social welfare for the public.
According to the NASW Code of Ethics (2008), the primary goal of social work 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” (NASW, 2008). Historically, the profession
Social workers challenge social injustice. Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. The meaning of this value is to ensure that individuals going into the social work profession pursue change, most importantly with, on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals, and with groups of people. Additionally, this social work value forces social workers to constantly affect social change primarily focused upon issues of poverty, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice by creating activities that seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic
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
families, and communities to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social workers are change agents and because of that, they aim to help people develop their skills and abilities to use resources provided to them to strengthen and improve their lives and communities to resolve problems. One of the main goal of social workers is to improve the well-being and lives of the most vulnerable populations, fight against poverty, unemployment, domestic violence and the underserviced population by emphasizing on the person-in-environment and social justice model. The social work profession, considerers the individuals’ internal and external struggles, while working with the individuals to examine their relationships, family, work environment, community, and other things that might impact them and identify ways to help address problems and challenges.
Social work is a profession which promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and enhance well-being. It is important to acknowledge the history of social work and the purpose of social work and why it exists. Social work is a questioned theory with different perspectives on what it is and how it should be practised. Social work helps people to deal with personal and social problems so that people can overcome or adjust to any personal difficulties. Social work is a combination of social stability and social change. Social stability promotes individual and social welfare and social change seek to change negative aspects of society. Values are implicit within the law and policy and these tend to reflect the values within society. Personal values can influence the way social workers interpret and implement their profession.