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Strengths and weaknesses for social workers
Using the social worker strengths perspective
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As a social worker, you have to possess certain strengths in order to become a successful social workers. My strengths are helpful, non-judgmental, active listener, and compassion. The strengths are very important in the social work profession. Being non-judgmental, you must possess understanding even when a client is rude. I have work at the Department of Social Services in New York. There were people that came in from every walk of life. My supervisor explain to me that as much what media say about people on welfare or your initial thought about people on welfare. People that are seeking assistance do not want to be there. This is their last resort. I am not saying there are people that abuse system. However, people are there to receive
Utilizing strengths based perspective with clients enables social workers to focus on the client and family strengths and abilities instead of focusing on the client and family’s problems, bad behaviors and pathologies. The strengths based perspective applies six principles that guide the social worker professional in assisting client’s with the strengths based model; we all have areas of strength, but sometimes it takes an unbiased third party to notice and help others clearly see what they are capable of achieving, even in the midst of their crisis.
Strengths and Limitations of Social Work Practice in Colombia: A View from Canadian Social Work
Social justice is a core value in the social work field. We define social justice as, “all citizens would possess equal fundamental rights, protection, opportunities, obligations and social benefits (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2015, p. 29). Unfortunately, we understand there are many members in today’s society that are not receiving social justice. Some may not want help and believe that s/he is able to do it on their own and then there are the individuals that we may not know about that could really use our help. Our jobs as social workers is to help those who need help no matter if they are rich, poor, disabled, white, Hispanic, it does not matter because everyone should be treated equally. As NASW states, “The original mission of social work had much to do with championing the rights of society’s most vulnerable members, from children to homeless people to the physically disabled” (NASW: National Association of Social Workers, 2015, para. 1).
Many people don’t know that social workers deal with more mental health than any psychologist, psychiatrist and psychiatric nurses combined. Interesting right? I would definitely have thought otherwise. Social work is a very unique field that is overlooked and should have quite a bit more appreciation than it does. Making it in the real world is tough but thanks to social work peoples civil rights are protected, people with mental illnesses are now able to afford humane treatment and society is more in tune with preventing child abuse and neglect. To be successful in the field of social work you have to care about what you are doing, have ethics, and have empathy… social work is not all about the money.
I decided to interview my older brother’s friend, Cory Ringlein. I have known him most of my life and he has suffered from lymphedema as long as I have known him, this is important because his mom was a social worker before she stopped working to focus on Cory’s illness. I know this was pretty influential on Cory; he watched his mom work as a social worker and helped him make the decision to be a social worker.
According to the National Association of Social Work (NASW), Social work is defined as, “The professional activity of helping individuals, groups, or communities enhance or restore their capacity for social functioning and creating societal conditions favorable to this goal.” As such to pursue a career as a Social worker one must contain some key values. Such values include: one must be able to provide help, resources, and benefits to people so that they can achieve their maximum potential in life, they must also uphold that all citizens should be treated equally despite their socioeconomic background. In addition, they have to be willing to maintain trustworthiness and sound adherence to moral ideals, value the dynamic reciprocal interactions
My strengths definitely stem from my passion about helping others and social work. Becoming a mother and overcoming tough challenges is also a strength of mines. That experience made me stronger and shaped who I am today. I definitely intend to encourage my clients that anything is possible and you can do anything that you set your mind to do. Being around my family and the obstacles that we have overcome has definitely gave me a broader perspective of life and the situations that current that can impacts us in many ways. As a social worker it is important to listen, communicate, build rapport with boundaries with our clients in order to be an effective social worker. Being a social worker requires certain core skills. Many of these I learn during my education and internships, others I have learned from different areas of my life. You are required to orient yourself to the ethical codes for social work in order to provide top-notch services to the people you treat in therapy. You may also find it helpful to understand common elements of good therapy. Certainly there are many different skills and traits that you help you succeed as a social worker. Some of the main skills that will help you in the counseling profession include,
Core competency one consists of identifying with the social work profession. This core competency relates to the time in my internship. The following paragraphs will connect the practice behaviors associated with the core competency to the artifacts that I have chosen where I demonstrated the mastery of each practice behavior. The first practice behavior is continually employ and model conscious use of self, self-reflection, self-monitoring, and self-correction in practice situations, which was demonstrated through my receiving feedback journal. The second artifact is a narrative on my first learning contract from my intern supervision, which will highlight my ability to adhere and model professional roles and boundaries. The last practice
Social work can be very rewarding in a number of ways, but challenges do exist before the reward. One challenge I may encounter if I was to become a social worker is becoming attached to the victim. I think I would feel emotionally connected and want to save them. Before taking the class, I had the mentality that it would be easy to help people and guide them to a better life, but this class has made me realize that it is not always that easy. When speaking to victims, I could see myself feeling sorry for them and wanted to give them everything to make themselves feel better. I feel like I would allow my personal life to interfere with my work life, where I would constantly be thinking about the clients and their health instead of focusing
I have always made this my number one priority. From the time I had my first child, I believed children do not ask to come into this world and it is the parent’s responsibility to take care of them to the best of their ability. In the field of social work we will be faced with many situations and some, I am sure, will cause great anguish. For example, in the news media within this past week social workers have been put on the spot for children being murdered by their parents. One of the parents was a father that had custody of his children with a good job and a good provider. This parent killed all of his children. Did the social worker look at the father and assumed based on his/her values that the children were in safe hands because he had a job and provided for the children? Would the social worker have felt differently about the situation if the parent was living in poverty? It is important not to let my values or personal thoughts get in the way of similar situations and to be alert or a sense of
“As Psalm 82:3 commands nd Galatians 6:10 states, we as a church feel it si our responsibility to show a Christian response to poverty. We therefore commit to long-term assistance for the poor and needy amongst us. We strive to help them achieve economic self-sufficiency while focusing on the family’s spiritual, physical and emotional growth, as well as their positive interaction with society” (Church Model, 1995). In the year 1995, Professor Cynthia Sutter-Tkel and her students, created an outline for the church of how to serve their society. Its set up as though the church is conneced to a Social Worker or one in office. In my opinion, however, we don’t need to be a Social Worker to serve the community with the Social Work values. One pastor
I have experienced firsthand the weight that the program puts on its workers and how it affects the delivery of services for the clients receiving aid. From the paperwork, to the constant miscommunication about the services, my clients had a difficult time staying afloat while in the program. The idea behind welfare reform is to assist clients with receiving new skills and employment to help provide stability for their family. This idea is great and could be beneficial for clients, but there are many barriers that the government fails to consider when implementing the policy. The aid is helpful, but it is not impactful enough to help families rise above poverty. Abramovitz (2005) describes how welfare reform has had an adverse effect on the quality of life on the low-income communities. Studies found that women could not make ends meet on aid, and due to the demand of the program, workers had reduced time available to address the needs of their clients. There is a constant lack of support in the welfare system; the workers and the clients have trouble meeting the demands of the program. It is a vicious cycle of miscommunication where workers cannot keep up with their clients, and the clients are not listened to, understood, or supported. When I would help my clients renew their aid, the office was always packed with people, had very
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.
As an upcoming social worker I understand there are certain traits I portray that are strengths in the social work field. I also understand that were there are strengths, there are weaknesses. I did not realize what my strengths and weaknesses were until I began to practice in the field. Some strengths I have found in myself are good listening skills, ability to handle stressful situations, and time management skills. Along with those strengths I have found my weaknesses are speaking what I believe about a situation, procrastination, and taking on too much responsibility.
When they are in need we must do everything in our power to make a change. Sometimes this involve advocating for them to see a change in social problems. The definition of a social worker states that they are trained person that carries out work with the aim of alleviating conditions of those in need (12). This often calls the need for social justice. After learning about social workers throughout history, I realize there’s multiple ways to help those in need (11). They’ve been able to implement social welfare for the public.