Student’s Name: Lecture’s Name: Course: Date: As a clinical social worker, how can you distinguish the professional relationship with clients from the personal relationship? It is possible to distinguish the professional relationship with clients from the personal relationship. Even though there are various challenges, one can put up measures with the aim of ensuring that the difference is very clear. In most cases, social workers are always able to separate their professional work from personal lives since they do not socialize or become friends with the clients. The first challenge in relationship is always building of friendship. The moment the social worker becomes friends with the client, there is high chances that the relationship will …show more content…
Clients have their reservations when it comes to culture. Latinos, Caucasians, Hispanic and blacks have their own cultures. In addition there are certain personal cultural background that should always be observed in a relationship. It is always imperative for the clinical social worker to be aware of his own cultural experiences, attitudes, values background and biases that have the capability of influencing his ability to help clients from diverse cultural populations. It is vital that one should correct any prejudices that one may have regarding different cultural groups. Without the appropriate knowledge of the client’s background, the professional social worker can hurt feelings or create an initial impression to the client. Issues such as racism and discrimination have dominated the media and the public gallery. Most clients are always very sensitive of such issues and hence may feel offended if the professional social worker uses certain language. A client from a different background (black) may feel very offended if the clinical social worker uses certain language that sounds to abuse or degrade the black people. For instance, the black may feel offended if referred to as an African. It is always very imperative for the clinical worker to study and comprehend social, cultural economic differences of the client before involving in the counselling
Ms. Apple is a 45 year old African American woman who has been a widow for about 4 years. Ms. Apple has three children, whose ages range from 5-12 years old. Ms. Apple has been struggling to keep her family afloat since the death of her husband. Ms. Apple convinced herself that she would not require the extra assistance. However, she realized in attempting to provide alone has not only become very strenuous, but also quite costly. Expenses have become overwhelming for Ms. Apple to maintain, since her husband took care of the finances and was the breadwinner for the family. Ms. Apple has minimal education as she is able to read and write at grade school level. Ms. Apple also has never been employed as she was a home maker. At this point, Ms. Apple is in need of financial assistance to provide for her family. In this paper, I will address how the following concepts would handle the need of Ms. Apple, according to the Elizabethan poor laws of 1601, the Charity Organization,, societies, and the position of an Institutional and Residual Worker.
There is a pressing need for a high level of worker/client boundary identification when working within a client population, however realizing a conflict of interest scenario is vitally important when facing a dual relationship with a client. There are so many issues that are faced by a human service professional, explaining all of them may be difficult. In this field there are issues such as burnout, secondary trauma, compassion satisfaction, dual relationships, and boundary issues. (Reamer, F. (2012). As human services professional or social workers there is a code of ethics. In statement 6 of the code of ethics, it states human services experts must be mindful that in their associations with customers/clients power and status are unequal. Accordingly they distinguish that double or various relationships might build the danger of damage to, or abuse of, customers, and may debilitate their expert judgment. In any case, in a few neighborhoods and circumstances it may not be achievable to escape social or other nonprofessional contact with customers. Human service professional experts...
The social workers in both videos gathered information regarding each of the client’s issues. Another common denominator in both videos is that both of the social workers repeated what the client had said in their own words to allow the client to feel heard and understood. In the first video, social worker Karen asked direct questions relating to Mike’s alcohol addiction while also addressing how the addiction impacts his relationships including his marriage. Karen also addressed inconsistencies with the client doing so appropriately and quickly. It appears that in the first video, Karen focuses on the reality of the issue at hand to assist the client with establishing and accepting
To conclusion this, ethical issues rising in social work have regularly received substantial attention but responses to them have habitually been premised on the conviction that professional boundaries are clear for all to see and are professionally determined on the basis of separation and passivity as opposed to connection and dynamism. Working together with the client in the setting of professional boundaries is most likely to have a optimistic impact on the quality of the relationships we have with clients itself a vital factor in successful outcomes.
In today’s society were an abundance of resources exist, social workers are often the entry point for people to access services. Therefore, it is imperative for social work professionals to have a clear understanding of themselves in relation to the client from a cultural perspective. While the social work profession has always focused on social justice and oppression it wasn’t until the civil rights movement that there was a conscious shift in the social work pedagogy to focus the social service practice on race, racism, and training the workforce in cultural competences. Later in the mid 1980’s, the tone of cultural competence would shift from race and racism to a more inclusive language, which includes a more robust list of all types of
Perhaps the most dangerous thing a therapist can do with their client is to establish some sort of dual relationship. Essentially, a dual relationship is born through multiple roles between that of a client and a therapist (Zur 2014). These various roles can be seen through the lens of business, sexual connection, friendship, communal and even on an online setting. While not all dual relationships are necessarily bad, the clear majority can crush the trust or will to change that the client has. Dual relationships can demolish years of work that both the client and psychotherapist have worked so hard to obtain.
In Managing Social Service Staff for Excellence, Nancy Summers (2010) provides a list of “The Differences between a Professional Relationship and a Friendship” (p. 192). The very first item on the list states that a professional relationship puts the client first; whereas in a friendship, “each friend gives the support to the other” (p. 192). Hepworth, et al. (2013) also supports this by stating that professional boundaries intend to make “the client’s interest the primary focus” (p. 71). From my perspective, this is the main difference between a professional and personal relationship. As my field instructor has pointed out, in a professional relationship, it’s about the client’s needs. As social workers, we should not try to get anything
1. Understanding of problems and concerns relative to social work: Describe your understanding of the social work profession and the problems social workers address by using one example to discuss a particular social problem and how a social worker could intervene.
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.
Handon, R. M. (2014, December). Client Relationships and Ethical Boundaries for Social Workers in Child Welfare. The New Social Worker, (winter), 1-6.
This assignment will give a reflective account of two main communication skills that are important for relationship-based practice in social work. Relationship based practice is important in social work, this establishes a positive relationship with professionals and service users. In agreement of Carl Rogers (2012) and Threvithick (2012) it is vital to establish relationship based practice because it demonstrates social workers are trustworthy and dependable, this will enable the service users feel more confident to disclose information, be more open rather than distrustful and taking all the support in consideration rather than being wary. Relationship based practice supports unpretentious approach with service users and carries out progressive
Professional boundaries in social work and other helping professions are limits in therapeutic relationships, but boundaries are also important in other kinds of relationships. Depending on one’s upbringing and past experience, setting boundaries in relationships may be easier for some people to set than others. All healthy relationships have boundaries, which are the line where one person ends and someone else begins. Boundaries in relationships can be likened to boundaries around states. One feature of a healthy sense of self or identity is the way people understand and work with boundaries. Personal boundaries are the limits set in relationships that allow people to protect themselves. Good boundaries protect
Social Workers shall develop an understanding of their own personal and cultural values and beliefs as a first step in appreciating the importance of multicultural identities in the lives of people…Cultural competence includes knowing and acknowledging how fears, ignorance, and the “isms” (racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, heterosexism, ageism, classism) have influenced their attitudes, beliefs, and feelings. (citation)
A social worker must present themselves as a learner and understand clients from all experts of their own experiences. To show your respect to the clients as a social worker you must be able to show that you understand complexity of cultural identity. Cultural competence targets social workers knowledge of development, focusing on culturally specific demographics, characteristics, values, and intravenous technique. When dealing with cultural sensitivity a worker’s genuine appreciation of the client’s uniqueness and universalistic respect for the client’s humanness is needed. To have success in multicultural practice, cultural responsiveness come in to play, which means to be culturally responsive, social workers use dialogue skills that place the client’s construction of reality at the center of the
Professionalism is a crucial part of social work, considering the demanding advancements in the needs of social welfare in today’s society. A professional, to me, is defined as a person exemplifying a practiced behavior that is considered to be, polite, skillful and knowledgeable in either a personal or professional setting. These practiced behaviors of professionalism should be without discrediting or disfavoring oneself, instead the practiced behaviors should show an elevated level of developed competence in a particular area or circumstance. Developing and maintaining these competencies as a social worker establishes him or her as a professional.