The Aim of Social Work

A social worker needs to have a variety of knowledge and understanding of theories when working with individuals. I will start the essay by looking at what theory is and the nature of the relationship between theory and practice. I will discuss two specific theories, namely Cognitive behavioural therapist (CBT) and Person centred approach. While explaining the theories I will identify their underlying values and explain how they might support or even conflict with social work values. C. Becket DATE explains how Social work practice is extremely diverse in many ways. There are a number of service user groups which social workers work with. Some of these include, children and families, young offenders, older people and adults and children with mental health problems. Some social workers may dedicate themselves to a certain area however they will need to have a systematic understanding of theories in order to work efficiently with all service user groups. I will discuss how the theories will be applied to older people.
The aim of social work is to improve the conditions of the society. It can be very challenging however frameworks are acquired in order to be able to provide solutions (Greene 2008). Theories give objectives to support social workers to help people improve their social circumstances. There are a variety of theories that explains human behaviour and factors which influence them (Howe 2009). Theories such as psychodynamic theory sees human behaviour as experiences from childhood however, behavioural theory sees it as actions that brought positive behaviour.

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was the inspirational founder of the theory, person centred care. Hall and Scragg (2012) argue from a person centred approa...

... middle of paper ...

...ate services for older people and have to carefully consider the planning to meet the needs for them. It is important that the needs for older people are met and that the focus is on them throughout the intervention. It is important to fully inform them. The national standards framework for older people sets standards to ensure that services should respond effectively to individuals needs in social work practice. This is done through appropriate planning, assessment, intervention, monitoring and review. Historically, the process off assessment has not really been clear in social work, this can cause lack of precision. Therefore social work concentrates more on explaining methods of intervention instead of model of assessments. Sinclair et al (1995) explained that assessment was usually when a problem is identified, the purpose of which a solution is found.