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Roles of a social worker
Social work as a future career
Roles of a social worker
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Part I:
I am currently working at the as a social worker assistant. Prior to working at the nursing home I was employed at a restaurant as a general manager. I have found that my current job to be very rewarding. The reason I am majoring in social work is because I have a strong desire to help people, make things better, and make a difference in people’s lives. My goal is to become a licensed social worker and work in the gerontology field.
The communication skills I currently use in the field of social work are as follows:
1. Listening skills, such as listening to the client and understanding client needs and wants more carefully and responsively. Acknowledging the feelings they are expressing. Compassionately allowing them to express their feelings. Listening and reflecting back on what I hear allows me to identify client’s thoughts. Listening in the field of social work is crucial in understanding client’s situation. Listening responsibly lets the client know you care about them.
2. Explaining conversational intent and invite client consent. In order to help client cooperate and reduce any misunderstandings, invite client to join in the kind of conversation you want to have. Whether it may be long, complex, or short, explain intention and invite the consent o the client. This step has encouraged me to expand possible conversations and practice in a variety of conversations. It also allows client to trust and understand where conversation is heading.
3. Interviewing skills, which are used daily in the field of social work. Questioning clients is a very important part in assessing the client. Learning how to use open-ended as well as close-ended questions at the appropriate times is crucial when assessing the client. Asking questions is a powerful tool in focusing conversational attention and guiding interaction with others. There are many creative possibilities in using interviewing skills.
4. Expressing appreciation is important in building relationships with the people around me in the nursing home as well as the social work field. Expressing delight, affirmation, encouragement, and gratitude is an important part in appreciation technique. The nursing home continually requires social workers to attend to problems and it gets very easy to see what may need to be fixed. By giving appreciation makes the relationship with the client strong and easier to when working with client problems or disagreements. It also gives the client a sense of self- worth and a higher self-esteem.
Based on the competency clusters that were discussed by Kouzes, Posner, and Biech I am on my way of becoming a master coach in the following areas communication skills, interpersonal proficiency, and building relationships (2010). An example of my master of communication skills is that of listening. The art of listening involves active listening which focuses on what the client is saying as well as listening for things that are not being said for example talking more about the positives than the...
A depiction of implementing both skills were displayed in the role playing video. “Engagement is concerned with establishing a relationship between the social worker and client, the value of which is critical to the rest of the planned change process. Steps in the engagement process include greeting the client, demonstrating effective attending skills, discussing agency services and client expectations, deciding if the agency and worker can help, offering appropriate services, and orienting the client to the helping process (Kirst-Ashman & Hull,
Interviewing and research skills are needed within the social work profession. Effective communication skills are one of the most crucial components of a social worker’s job. Every day, social workers must communicate with clients to gain information, convey critical information and make important decisions (Zeiger, 2017). This interview experience was an opportunity to explore the daily challenges and rewards of a licensed social worker. I was excited for the opportunity to interview a social worker in the gerontology sector as this is a specialty I am considering. This meeting allowed me to explore the educational steps of being a social worker, practices of the agency, the clients who are served, and the challenges the agency has.
I sat in my child development class in a “brick and mortar” classroom setting. What was I doing there? I was extremely interested in what the professor was speaking on and what was being discussed. However, I was beginning to doubt whether I wanted to continue in my current field of study, Speech/Language Pathology. I no longer felt I was being fulfilled. There was something lacking. I talked to a few of my friends who mentioned how much money I would make as a Speech/Language Pathologist. I heard what they were saying, but somehow it just did not matter. I had to find the missing link…….
Trevithick, P (2005). Social Work Skills a practice handout. (2nd ed). Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Being able to empathize with clients to understand and identify with their experiences, even if they do not describe their thoughts or feelings explicitly to you. A good social worker can empathize with a wide variety of people, understanding their choices and feelings even if, as a social worker you do not agree with them. I need to be emotionally attuned to individuals ' needs, and will also have to be able to help them identify and articulate their feelings. An angry person, for example, might be struggling with feelings of inadequacy that fuel anger. I consider myself to be a highly empathetic person, therefore, I will be better equipped to detect
A straightforward, transparent profession holds no fulfilling qualities for me. A gratifying career is only earned through many days of full dedication, perseverance and hard work. Providing an important service back to the surrounding community is not only a righteous cause, but a career I want to devote myself to. Social work presents the opportunity to make this difference in the most intimate format, face-to-face. Originally, I dreamed of pursuing a career involving wildlife much like my father, however after attending a career day function in sixth grade I knew I wanted to pursue the profession of social work. Seeing that deep of a passion in someone in their field of work was both astounding and breathtaking. The presenter that day glowed with such eagerness to share the love of her job that she had with us. It motivated me to look into social work as a serious option for my future. With vigorous research and finally job shadowing I knew this was the career I truly desired. Furthermore, social work has aided me in countless occasions such as my struggles regarding pursuing education as a female.
Interviewing skills are vital to be an effective case management worker. There are many benefits that come with possessing strong interviewing skills, for instance, knowing what questions to ask and when to ask the questions. More importantly strong interviewing skills can help you to get the client to open up and elaborate on their responses. However, you are also able to differentiate between the approach you take when conducting an interview with a kid as a oppose to an adult. Interviewing skills probably are one of the most important skills you can posse as a social worker, because you need information in order to help your client, therefore, the better you are at it the easier your task will be. Another area I need to challenge myself in is being a knowledgeable advocator. Part of being an advocator is being well informed of the services that agencies offer, so that I could be a more effective case manager. It consists of doing research and visiting different agencies to have an idea of the services offered within the community you are working in. Finally as an advocator you are part in a position in which you strive to hopefully bring positive change for your client. In addition, as a advocator you also have to be aware of the policies that are effecting the client in a negative way, so that you can take the initiative to create change for
These skills included having the ability to communicate well with their clients. Active listening is another skill that is very important. Social workers need to have ability to understand people’s reactions, and service orientation. Critical thinking, complex problem solving, judgement and decision making and monitoring are amongst those essentials skills that all social workers should have ( carreeronestop.org nd ). Another important quality that is specifically important for child, family,and school social workers is the ability to feel empathy for their clients, interpersonal skills, and being patience (U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics
For a SOWK238 assignment, I conducted a social work interview on May 24, 2018. According to Ray (2018), in order to create a safe environment for the client, it is vital for the social worker to establish a client-based relationship with them (Ray 2018). To establish this relationship, I utilised skills such as establishing confidentiality, genuine tone and volume of voice, building rapport, goal setting, undertaking an assessment, as well as verbal communication to express empathy.
As a social worker it is important to have basic communication skills in order to connect with clients. There are six basic and four advanced skills that are used in direct practice to make communication more effective. The basic skills include reflection of feelings, paraphrasing, open ended questions, closed ended questions, clarification and attending behaviors. Advanced skills consist of summarization, information giving, interpretation and confrontation. Not only is it important to know what these skills are, it is also important to know what the appropriate and inappropriate uses are. It is also important to self-reflect on your use of these skills, and whether it is a strength or something to continue to work to improve on.
To begin, more than 600,000 citizens who are located in the United States have social worker degrees. Everyone of those social workers understand how crucial the skills that are learned are to helping your clients achieve solutions to their problems. One of those skills are to effectively initiate stage 1 with your client which is to have him/her tell their story. It is essential to know the complete story of your client before any progress can be made such as setting goals or finding solutions to their problems. You need to know every issue, problem or concern your client could be having. Also, to know what are any unused opportunities they might have. By knowing all these details you will be able to fully understand your client and to have
Growing up, I have always known that I want to make a positive difference in peoples lives. After going through several experiences as a child, it became clear to me that I should go into the field of social work. Social workers create positive change in the wellness of individuals in various ways and as a social worker, my goals will be to influence a positive social change. There are many ways that I can attain this goal, whether it be personally in my social work practice, or within the community of social workers that I will work amongst. Some of the ways that I can do this is by promoting healthy and active living, offering programs, supports and services targeted towards older adults and by having age friendly environments readily available to members of the community.
Social work practice entails the professional application of social work values, principles, and techniques. I learned several skills for my field practice in my micro class. One thing I learned is to have a client scale the problem. I learned this during the solutions-focused assessment questions lesson. I learned to ask the client what the problem would look like if it were resolved and how the problem would look if it were a ten and then if it were a one. I also learned to tell them to focus on what they want instead of what they do not want.
One of the main aspects in communicating is listening. An effective listener is one who, not only comprehends how the speaker feels but, also understands what they are stating. Building a strong connection between the speaker and the listener is one of the first steps to become a good listener. By building this connection speakers should first be in an environment with open minded listeners, it makes them feel more comfortable to state their opinions, feelings and ideas. Listeners should avoid being judgmental. The individual does not have to agree with the ideas, values or opinions of the speaker; however, to fully understand them, one must put aside their criticism. Speakers will believe that they can trust the listeners with their information when they know that they will not be judged. Miscommunication happens frequently, listene...