Respecting the Uniqueness of the Individual: Social Work Practice within a Reflective Model

Social Work ◽  
1991 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
The Individual

scholarly journals Empowerment i velfærdsarbejde fordrer professionel læring

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Maja Lundemark Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Relational Work ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
The Individual

ResuméDet sociale og pædagogiske velfærdsarbejde i Danmark har udviklet sig, så der kan iagttages to modsatrettede tendenser, hvor den ene handler om mere kontrol og sanktioner i velfærdsarbejdet, og den anden handler om at øge borgernes deltagelse og ejerskab i egen sag. Denne artikel diskuterer om – og hvordan – det er muligt at øge borgernes deltagelse og ejerskab i egen sag gennem en kommunikativ kompetenceudvikling hos de professionelle. Artiklens fokus er en undersøgelse af, hvordan et praksisforskningsprojekt kan bidrage til refleksion og læring i den professionelle praksis, som kan medvirke til et øget samarbejde mellem borger og professionel. Observationer og direkte supervision af praksis kan danne en frugtbar akse, hvor organisation, profession og forskning spiller sammen i en kritisk konstruktiv optik, der kan omsættes i læring og konkrete produktive forandringer i mødet mellem system og borger. AbstractEmpowerment within modern welfare requires professional skills. Power and power relations are dominant concepts in any form of social and relational work in modern welfare. In order to create an empowering partnership between service users and social workers it is necessary to research the production of power and to make power relations visible and negotiable. Service users’ perspectives and democratic principles could strengthen empowerment processes and develop social work practice. This article discusses how practice research as a process of collaboration is able to inform professional competence building and reflection to further cooperation between the professionals and the service users. Paying attention to details and micro processes in the individual meetings between service user and professional makes it obvious to understand how professionals can learn to communicate and work with empowerment in cooperation with the service users. On this basis the article concludes that it is possible for practice research – based on a close collaboration between research, social work and user perspectives – to inform new learning processes among professionals, and this in turn can contribute to a more empowering perspective in the collaboration between professionals and service users.

Pacific Island Elderly: A Model for Bridging Generations and Systems

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Halaevalu F. Ofahengaue Vakalahi ◽  
Keaohi'ilani Heffernan ◽  
Rachel Niu Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Pacific Islander ◽  
Kinship Care ◽  
Intergenerational Relationships ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Traditional Practice ◽  
Family Culture ◽  
Visual Depiction ◽  
The Individual

This article describes a model called Ho'okele that portrays the important role of the Pacific Islander elderly in bridging generations and systems through examining the traditional practice of intergenerational kinship care and multiple systemic living. Thus, the Ho'okele model, meaning “to navigate” in the Hawaiian language, focuses on two clusters of concepts: 1) intergenerational relationships, connections, and kinship care among Pacific Islander children, parents, grandparents, and ancestors; and 2) multiple systemic living involving the individual, family, culture, community, heaven, earth, and other systems. The model can be used as a visual depiction of an individual's place in the family and community. The article proposes the integration of this model into social work education curriculum and its use in informing culturally relevant social work practice, policy, and research.

scholarly journals Person Centered and Trauma Informed Approach in Social Work Practice and Ways to Ensure Diversity in both Approaches

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 21-24
Author(s):  
Niket Paudel
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Carl Rogers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Person Centered Approach

Person-Centered approach is an adapted work of Carl Rogers, where the focus was mainly on psychotherapy and counselling. Rogers believed, the basic nature of an individual is constructive and trustworthy – given that the individual is freely functioning. Person-Centered approach is the backbone of social work practice alongside trauma-informed approach. Any emotionally and physically daunting events that affects the response of an individual is trauma. Trauma damages the freely functioning state of an individual – emotionally, socially and behaviorally. By introducing an approach that is trauma-informed will help social worker to not only understand the emotions of the individual while working with them but also guide the social work practice in better understanding while working with the individuals.

scholarly journals Social Work Luminaries: Luminaries contributing to the founding of social work practice, policy, and research in the United States

Social Work ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine M. Gutiérrez ◽  
Larry E. Davis ◽  
Charles D. Garvin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Social Work Theory ◽  
Select Group ◽  
The Individual

Oxford Bibliographies in Social Work includes three articles describing the scholarly writings of a select group of deceased social workers who have been especially prominent and influential in the profession within the United States. The authors refer to these individuals as social work luminaries. These three articles can be used to identify the publications of prominent individuals who have been most influential in the development of social work. We identified these individuals by first reviewing the biographies of significant social workers from the Encyclopedia of Social Work, edited by Cynthia Franklin (Washington, DC: National Association of Social Workers Press, 2014), and obituaries collected by the Council on Social Work Education since the publication of the Encyclopedia of Social Work. From this list, the authors reviewed the biographical material and publications, selecting the most-prominent luminaries for each of the three articles. For each luminary, a brief biographical overview and one to five annotated citations of their most important publications are provided. Respectively, the three articles describe the publications of luminaries (1) who were involved in the founding and creation of the social work profession in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, (2) who subsequently contributed to the clarification and elaboration of social work practice and theory, and (3) who contributed to social work theory and scholarship in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. This article focuses on luminaries who contributed to the founding of the profession. They came to their work from different backgrounds and began the process of creating the field’s theoretical, ethical, and historical foundations. The earliest luminaries in this list contributed to the foundations of social work, with the later luminaries working on defining the field, its scope and functions, and its role in larger health and human services systems. These luminaries include those who established some of the first schools of social work in the nation. These bibliographies are ordered in chronological order on the basis of when the individual made his or her most substantial contributions to social work. These individuals and their work must be seen in the context of the eras in which they worked. The language they sometimes used could be viewed by some in the 2020s as archaic, patronizing, sexist, racist, or offensive. Some of their work may express views, such as eugenic policies, that are antithetical to the profession in the early 21st century. The authors think it imperative that those in the field recognize these historical trends and views in order to see how our field has evolved and also how it has always reflected the context and values in which it exists.

scholarly journals Failing to fail students in the caring professions

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-54
Author(s):  
Mike Shapton
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Field Education ◽  
Personal View ◽  
Practice Teaching ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Practice Assessment ◽  
Practice Teacher

This article represents a personal view of the phenomenon of professionals ‘failing to fail’ students of questionable competence. It is mainly drawn from the author’s experience first as a practice teacher, then as a lecturer and manager of a social work qualifying programme and recently as tutor of a programme preparing social workers and others to become practice teachers and assessors. The article first examines aspects of the process of practice assessment and then argues that the turnover amongst those given this responsibility means that the expertise appropriate to undertaking such a complex task is difficult to accumulate. It then offers some remedies that focus more on organisational responses than simply on the individual professionals who take on this essential responsibility.Much of the recent concern about social work practice teaching and assessing has focussed on the question of quantity. Getting enough practice learning opportunities is a perennial problem in itself- but this article addresses an issue of quality, namely ensuring that both pass and fail decisions are made with confidence.As the author’s background is social work in England, the article will use social work terminology and refer to social work and other documents from the English context, but he hopes that readers from other professions and countries will find the debate useful.This article is developed from a talk given by the author at the fifth International Conference on Practice Teaching and Field Education in Health and Social Work, York, 10-12 July 2006.

Dialectics in social work

2000 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nai Ming Tsang
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Client Relationships ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Divide

Dialectics deals with opposites and contradictions. Social work literature seldom talks about opposites and contradictions. This article attempts to discuss the relevance and usefulness of dialectics in social work practice, focusing on three areas: the individual/social divide, contradictions in worker-client relationships and social work as a profession.

scholarly journals Emotional well-being and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: Guidelines for social work practice

2021 ◽  
pp. 002087282097062
Author(s):  
Ana Dorado Barbé ◽  
Jesús M Pérez Viejo ◽  
María del Mar Rodríguez-Brioso ◽  
Lorena P Gallardo-Peralta
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Linear Regression ◽  
Quantitative Study ◽  
Linear Regression Model ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Individual Family ◽  
The Individual

The global COVID-19 pandemic situation has shown the vulnerability of the population. Spain has been one of the most affected countries, given the health, social and economic repercussions. Being resilient and having the ability to adapt allows one to positively face the pandemic. In this essay, a quantitative study was conducted using a social media survey. In total, 3342 respondents participated in this survey. A number of resilience-related variables are analysed using a linear regression model. Furthermore, the potential inclusion of resilience as a transversal skill that can be used at the individual, family and community levels is also discussed.

scholarly journals Enabling others in social work: reflexivity and the theory of social domains

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stan Houston
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
Unique Experience ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

This article sets out a framework to structure reflexivity in social work practice. It comprises five domains that impact on the individual and social life, namely (a) psychobiography – referring to a person's unique experience throughout the lifecourse; (b) situated activity – highlighting the impact of everyday social interaction; (c) social settings – addressing the role of organisations in social life; (d) culture – covering the influence of attitudes, beliefs, tastes and ideas on symbolic meaning; and (e) politico-economy – alluding to the ramifications of political and economic forces on people's lives. It is contended that power circulates throughout each domain as an enabling and constraining force. The article then outlines a process for using the reflexive framework in 'enabling' activities such as practice learning, supervision, mentoring and coaching. By applying the framework in these contexts, it is argued that social workers can reflect critically on their role and develop emancipatory forms of practice.

Equality and fairness: Linking social justice and social work practice

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Work Practitioners ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Work Education

• Summary: Social justice lies at the heart of social work practice and is used by practitioners to describe their practice. That practice is primarily described at the individual level. • Findings: Equality and fairness are core aspects of social justice and are drawn on extensively by social work practitioners in this research project to define social justice and are reflected in their practice. The two terms are, however, given a range of diverse meanings by practitioners. Those meanings are translated into and reflected in their practice. • Application: There are important implications for social work education, the social work profession and social work practice in the diverse ways in which the terms are understood and used.

Cultural Institutions and the Arts

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine Gutiérrez ◽  
Mark Creekmore
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Social Settlements ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The New Deal

The arts and cultural institutions can be powerful resources for promoting the development of individuals and communities. Social work agencies and cultural institutions share similar goals at the individual and community levels, such as personal improvement, the creation of social bonds, expression of communal meaning, and economic growth. Studies on the use of arts in social work practice suggest that they can be powerful tools for intervention. These collaborations were essential to practice in the social settlements and in economic policies of the New Deal. Social work practice into the future can build upon this historical engagement.

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