3. Social work with individuals and families

Author(s):  
Sally Holland ◽  
Jonathan Scourfield

Much professional social work practice is carried out with individuals and their families. Social workers aim to attend to the person’s social context rather than only the specific problem being presented, and they work in a manner that is relationship-based. It is also generally accepted that using a strengths-based model approach produces a more productive working relationship. ‘Social work with individuals and families’ considers the origins of social work; the different ways of directly providing practical help or therapeutic intervention to individuals and families; how the social worker as case manager will be responsible for overall planning, co-ordination, and reviewing service provision; and how social work has become more client-centred and citizen-directed.

1976 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Snyder

The description of the P. family — their anxieties, hardships and frustrations will be a familiar story to social workers working with non-English speaking migrant clients, regardless of whether the social worker is employed by ethnic or sectarian agencies or the wider general agencies such as government departments, municipal councils or independent organizations. This attempts to investigate some of the ways in which social workers can attempt to help and support the migrant client from a different ethnic group in his struggle to create a new life in Australia. The P. family's story will be used to illustrate some of the major areas of difficulty faced by a migrant family and a number of social work roles and strategies are suggested which might be employed in seeking to bring about social change. The implications of ethnicity for social work practice in a multi-cultural society form a central focus of concern. Finally, general comments and suggestions will be made about the role and responsibilities of the social worker in the multi-cultural society.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Monteiro

In social work practice, keeping records of encounters with clients is a routinized practice for documenting cases. This paper focuses on the specific task of obtaining the prospective clients’ correct address for filling in a standardized personal report form. My analysis focuses in the way both the client(s) and the social worker cooperatively orient to the practice of writing addresses, showing how this apparently simple task is multimodally implemented within interaction, and how it can generate some complications and expansions. A special focus will be devoted to difficulties encountered by clients to give their address in an adequate way, as well as to the transformation of this activity from an individual to a collective task.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Hillock

Using an anti-oppressive practice (AOP) theoretical framework and an exploratory qualitative research design, featuring semi-structured interviews and written assignments, a group of ten social workers were asked to describe their understandings of the concept of oppression. The study found that, in the case of these particular social workers, they used metaphor as a key conceptualization process to more vividly describe and understand the concept of oppression within their social work practice. This article analyzes eight categories of metaphor themes the participants used to explain their understanding of oppression: (a) pressure; (b) earth; (c) quest; (d) nature of society;  (e) seeing; (f) building; (g) dancing; and (h) water. The research findings are intended to open up dialogue and thinking about the concept of oppression, increase our knowledge base and understandings of oppression within social work practice, and assist the social work profession to build a stronger conceptual framework for understanding and naming oppression with the end goal of assisting social workers to better respond to and resist systems of domination.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shabnam Ahmed

      Through this practice note, I share some of my reflections and learning of becoming a practice educator.  The experience has enhanced my skills as a social worker and team manager and now as a social work doctoral student.  Based on my observations of supervision as a practice assessor and my experience of having many different managers throughout my career, I have noticed when social workers move into management without a practice educator qualification, the supervisory relationship experience is a different one than that of a practice educator – turned manager.  I question why this is.  Is reflective supervision only reserved for students? I am suggesting that it should not be.  Each supervisor should be supported and enabled to connect with their Art, as supervision is a form of Art.   


2021 ◽  
pp. 104973152110494
Author(s):  
Eugene Tartakovsky

Purpose This study tests a new bicultural model of social work with ethnic minority clients. We examined how often social workers applied professional interventions rooted in the minority and majority cultures and how the choice of interventions affected the social workers' burnout. Methods: The study was conducted in Israel, and the research samples included Arab ( n = 300) and Jewish ( n = 210) social workers. Results: We found that Arab and Jewish social workers more often used interventions rooted in the minority than in the majority culture. More frequent application of both types of interventions was associated with a higher level of personal accomplishment in both groups of social workers. However, the connection between interventions rooted in the majority culture and burnout was positive among Jewish and negative among Arab social workers. Discussion: The implementation of the obtained results in social work practice with ethnic minorities is discussed.


Author(s):  
Joseph Walsh

The broad nature of the social work profession offers opportunities for practitioners to work with diverse clients. While committed to the welfare of all clients, social workers tend to be drawn to some clients more than others, due in part to their abilities to connect with them. A social worker’s positive feelings about his or her clients is a good thing, but it is possible that at times he or she will experience a special fondness or attraction for a client that can create biases that get in the way of a constructive working relationship. The purposes of this chapter are to explore the circumstances in which positive feelings about clients develop and to suggest ways for social workers to manage those feelings in a way that keeps their focus on the client’s welfare.


2020 ◽  
pp. 16-36
Author(s):  
Shahul Hameed ◽  
Anthony Raman

The Social workers need to call on a broad range of sources of bodies of knowledge and respond to the complexity and its chaotic nature of situations arising in social work profession. There appears to be dire need to consider the use of (a) the theoretical knowledge into practice by being more caring and supportive with the aim of (b) disentangling the various elements of a complex system and enhancing the resilience both of the people involved and the social and organizational systems that they are inter-twined with people lives. The current acknowledgement of the bi-cultural framework by the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) is no doubt a positive move towards infusing indigenous practice frame work into dealing with the chaotic nature and complexity of the social work profession in New Zealand but still remains to be seen in actual social work practice .The purpose of this chapter is to attempt to explore the potential of infusing Indigenous bodies of knowledge into practice against the background of the complexity nature of the social work profession in a developed world like New Zealand.


Author(s):  
Beatrice N. Saunders

Harriett M. Bartlett (1897–1987) was a social worker and theoretician who served as president of the American Association of Medical Social Workers from 1942 to 1944. She highlighted social functioning as a central focus of social work practice.


Author(s):  
Monica Nandan ◽  
Gokul Mandayam

Social workers possess several skills, values, and perspectives that enable them to practice as social innovators, intrapreneurs, and entrepreneurs. Given the complex, dynamic, and challenging contexts for social work practice, these strategies become essential for social workers to continue creating social value and good. The article defines these strategies, describes the rationale for social workers to practice in a socially innovative, intrapreneurial, or entrepreneurial fashion, draws parallels between these strategies and social work practice, and builds a case for the social work curriculum to include contents related to these strategies to assist graduates in creating and sustaining change.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Varathagowry Vasudevan ◽  
Osamu Kobayashi ◽  
Kazue Kanno

School social workers adopt ecological perspectives to facilitate children with social needs. The purpose of this study is to explore school social work practice in Sri Lanka to cater the children with social needs. A semi structured interviews was conducted with selected five school social workers. The interview questions were about their practices as a school social worker, daily activities especially effective support activity for students with social needs, student’s school life and their home, especially difficulties for supporting their families. Findings reveal that School Children with social needs around social problems, social relationship problems, structural and systemic problems such as child poverty, mother labour migration, lack of housing, lack of love and affections, lack of acceptance, love and kindness, belongingness, lack or inadequate security for the children. These social needs related lack of emotional and social developmental needs lead to impact on children’s educational performance. School social workers are very proactive in applying social work generic skills in school context in Sri Lanka. This study provides evidences for professionalizing the social work profession and enhances school system to provide guidance and consultation to school administrators, policy makers and practitioners focusing the significance of fulfilling the social needs of children during each stages of life via school social work programmes.


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