Prior to taking this class, I have had little knowledge about Social Work in the context of mental health. Nathan Mraz was kind enough to let me know about his general experience in the field at Frontier Behavioral Health in Spokane. Frontier Behavioral Health is a Trauma-Informed Care organization that works to provide Psychiatric and psychological services to anyone in need. The services are available to all ages whether the patient is a child, an adult or among the elderly. Many of these services include the Families and Schools Succeeding Together program and the Wraparound with Intensive Services to assist children suffering from mental illness and their families (FBH, 2014). These help to provide short term or long term services such …show more content…
Mraz I do believe I have a much clearer picture about a social worker’s role in the field of mental health. The roles Mraz described often made it sound like he had to work a dozen different jobs at once. He described a lot of work using a strengths perspective when dealing with clients. He would work on “Developing and implementing treatment plans and discharge plans that adhere with client self-determination” (Mraz, 2016). By using this method of empowering the client with a strengths perspective, treatment was made easier since the client would gain the confidence and drive to get well and cooperate with treatment options. At the same time working with a team of people was another important aspect of the job. Social workers are often “Managing, training and supervising staff; and functioning as part of a multidisciplinary treatment team” (Mraz, 2016). By working with a diverse team on many different issues a proper systems approach is a necessity. A social worker needs to take every factor into account; The people they are working with, their strengths and specialties, what the clients or agency require of them, which team member will be right for what task, and how to keep everything running smooth in an environment that shift at any moment due to the slightest change. In fact monitoring the environment one’s team is working in also requires a good ecological perspective on top of the normal systems perspective. The ecological perspective is crucial for …show more content…
Something real and attainable. Not some throwaway class or silly high school sport or surface level volunteer program. Everything I’ve been learning in the class has been pushing me this way, I couldn’t tell why until I talked with Mr. Mraz. Then everything clicked. I see why all these systems and strategies matter and how they directly affect clients. Every entry in the code of ethics and competencies lines up with my personal values of treating people with respect, advocating for the oppressed and being competent in my attempts to volunteer and help different populations. I really feel like Mr. Mraz’s words and experience breathes new life into what I’ve been learning in class. He was able to provide new context for multi-level system perspectives by showing examples of the ecological, strengths, and systems models. Before in class I was honestly just writing these things down and not thinking too critically about them. But, now that I’ve seen them applied in area I feel more invested in I see what how they enable a social worker to better help clients and the agencies they serve. Seeking the betterment of clients and enabling them to help themselves is i think one of the greatest things about Social Work. I was ecstatic when Mr. Mraz mentioned that type of therapy as
Weick (1992) states “every person has an inherent power that may be characterized as life force, transformational capacity, life energy, spirituality, regenerative potential, and healing power, which is a potent form of knowledge that can guide personal and social transformation” (p. 24). No matter the crisis or oppression, it needs to be brought to client’s realization that they are strong, resilient and can overcome. They may not be aware of this inner power due to the constant stress and overwhelming sense of impending doom in their lives, but with the help of the strengths perspective, we can assist clients in realizing that they have strengths as well as weaknesses. Clients want to know that they can rely on social workers to provide adequate resources and respect their current situation, no matter how difficult it may be. Clients want to know that we can empathize with their situation and provide support, care and concern for the issues they are going through; they need to know that we will help them achieve their goals and not give up on them as many may have before in their lives. Saleeby (2013) states “your cli...
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.
NASMHPD. (2014, Accessed April 27). Retrieved from NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM DIRECTORS: http://www.nasmhpd.org/About/AOMultiStateDisaster.aspx
States obtain many services that fall under mental health care, and that treat the mentally ill population. These range from acute and long-term hospital treatment, to supportive housing. Other effective services utilized include crisis intervention teams, case management, Assertive Community Treatment programs, clinic services, and access to psychiatric medications (Honberg at al. 6). These services support the growing population of people living in the...
Wilson, K. Ruch, G. Lymbery, M. & Cooper, A (2008) Social Work an Introduction to Contemporary Practice; Essex: Pearson.
When I initially worked in the DES group home, I experienced disconnect as I did not have experience with the institution of poverty and the complexities of trauma on youth. The experienced staff at the group home were able to aide me in my development of compassion and empathy for the clients which allowed me to be “positive and respect who they [residents] were” (LeCroy, pg. 60). Routine, Expectations along with compassion and empathy were the foundations of creating a safe and stable environment for the residents as they slept through the night. I assisted with getting youth ready for school and learned what it took to keep a group home
Zastrow, C. (2010). Introduction to social work and social welfare: Empowering people (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
...l accountability than other professionals, and especially true because they always come in to people’s lives at a time of crisis. Some people have a lifelong association with Social Workers, and there is not always a cure at the end of it. (Trinder, 2000)
I grew up in a household that fluctuated between middle and lower class, thanks to job cuts and health problems. Since my parents are not advantaged enough economically to help me pay for college, I have relied on scholarships, grants, and loans to help pay for my education on my own. Since my main area of interest is in mental health, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln does not offer a social work degree, I decided to major in psychology. Psychology will help me with the mental aspects of a social work education, but neglects to teach me about disadvantaged individuals, social work ethics, and interactions in the field of social work, to name a few. My lack of experience in social work settings is another limitation. I have done a lot of volunteer work with animals, and some with mental health awareness, but none of it has been categorized as social work volunteerism. My plans for overcoming the financial barrier are to receive grants, stipends, and loans. I cannot afford to pay out of pocket, and until I establish myself in the career field, I will need to work hard and prove I deserve granted or loaned funds. My plans for overcoming the barriers of my psychological education and lack of social work setting experience are to immerse myself into social work from the very beginning of my MSW program. I thrive on learning, so I will add social work education on top of my psychology foundation without causing conflict. I will also perform my best and enhance my education through field work, which I am excited to
My first obstacle in becoming the social worker I envision is myself. As a Southern woman, I was taught to pray, have good manners, to cook, not to display behaviors in public unbecoming of a lady, to honor my word, and that it was my duty to help those in need. These principles speak to the social work values of service by helping others, integrity in being honest and ethical in the things I say, and dignity and worth of a person, by treating others in a respectful manner.
Learning Experience Completing this writing course helped me grow phenomenally as a beginning social worker. This is that it gave me the opportunity to develop strong professional writing habits that will be significant when advocating for clients through grant proposals, assessments, and/or literature reviews etc. As a student enrolled in this course, I learned that social workers should write professionally, regardless of specialization, because it often reflects how a social worker advocates for their clients. According to Folk and Ross (2001) “Social workers who can write a well-constructed report, a clear description of a client, or a persuasive memorandum or letter, are more effective in serving the interests of their client systems”
As a young girl in West Africa, Liberia, seeing oppression and living through poverty developed my love for interventions and social services. My years of acclimating to American culture have enabled me to engage in my education and earn responsible positions such as a resident assistant (RA), and president of the University of Pittsburgh at Titusville’s Black Student Union organization. To effectively sustain my positions, I became accustom to wearing many hats on any given day and setting boundaries. These skills have helped me to prepare myself as a future social worker by allowing me to aide people outside the traditional consulting and medical settings while accepting the limits of what can be accomplished during a specified period
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).
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
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.