Within the past week, I was able to meet a patient that had been through a very difficult life. He was admitted into the hospital almost one month ago because he had a stroke. He was a carnival worker and was only planning to be in Lexington for a temporary amount of time until the carnival left. When he was admitted into Saint Joseph Hospital, there were no indications that he had family and/or friends that should be contacted. At first, he was unable to talk, and his mobility was extremely limited.
Last week, I was shadowing a social worker that had been asked to help fill out an application for this patient to qualify for Social Security because he now had a disability and would be unable to work. This patient didn’t have insurance, and we were determined to help him in any way possible. We went into his room to ask him very simple questions that were on the application, and he was helpful about remembering his past work history over the past 15 years. Unfortunately, he did not have a bank account, had no assets, and had been working as either a company driver and carn...
I first became interested in social work when I took a human rights course as a part of my political science major requirements. Throughout the course, I was fascinated and disturbed by the historic oppression of many large groups in society, and I realized my interests lie outside of the political arena; thus, I double-majored in social policy & practice because of my desire to learn more about how to enhance human well-being, fight social injustice, and pursue social change. I soon realized I wanted to pursue graduate social work education in order to gain a more holistic understanding of social problems and human ailments and, in turn, better understand the best ways to fix them. My background in political science and social policy gives me a unique perspective on the field of social work, as I have gained immense knowledge on social issues, the law, and public policy that will be useful in my graduate school and professional endeavors to fight for social
The profession of Social Work or any other Psychological based profession is very difficult and very drowning emotionally, physically, and even spiritually. Being able to not put your own personal emotions or opinions your cases or towards your clients. In this case, you have a professional worker who is also a friend and mother. Though a loyal friend has to put everything personally and focus on her client who happens to be her son’s friend as well. Psychology Today claimed in 2002, that the biggest problem with today 's young males is that they often have mild to moderate alexithymia—they are unable to identify their own (and others ') feelings and thus unable to communicate about them. They never learned how from absent or
Throughout my life, I have found myself always striving to help others. This has been bestowed upon me since I was a young child. My brother, Justin was born with health problems. He had to be fed through his stomach from birth to he was five years of age. Because of Justin’s health conditions he was a lot smaller than kids his age. He was held back in school for a year and he was still eight inches shorter than the other kids in his class. With all of his ailments and his stature I felt that it was up to me, his big brother, to be there for him and defend him from anyone picking or ridiculing him. I later helped my mother teach second grade kids in Sunday school. This opened my eyes to a lot of learning diversities
Choosing a career is a very important aspect to people’s lives. One goes to college, usually around the age of eighteen, and by the time they leave they are expected to have decided on the career that they will have for the rest of their lives. Being a psychology and interpersonal communication major, I have always had an interest on relationships between individuals given certain stimuli presented to them. I want to have the ability to touch people’s lives by helping them understand themselves and why they behave the way in which they behave. Relationships are such an important aspect to the process of human growth, and they impact each and every one of us. Due to this assessment of myself, I have decided to go to college to pursue my goals of being a clinical social worker.
Growing up in a society where there are so many opportunities, I had no problem figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. I have always enjoyed helping others in any way that I was able too. From babysitting, raking leaves, serving as a volunteer for a number of organizations, no matter how big or small the need, I have always found it gratifying to help others. I ultimately recognized that I had to pursue a career in something that would allow me to help others, while positively giving back to the community. The heavy influence of wanting to help others comes from my very own personal life experiences, which have greatly impacted my career choices. These experiences include being an adopted child, volunteering within my community, serving as a resident assistant and
This client is an African American female, 90, diagnosed with cancer; the doctors have not found a point of origin for her type of cancer but have referred her to hospice services. This client has been on services since the end of August and has been through many changes; she left her home and has been placed in a facility for safety precautions and has had difficulties with the nursing staff since her arrival. Although, the student social worker visits weekly with this client she always seems to complain when asked about the events of her day.
My learning from this week reading, class discussions, and lecture was informed that AOP is not a resolution to the injustice that continue to perpetuate in our community. However, Sakamot asked a remarkable question whether AOP can be anti-oppressive. This question is challenging and alarming because my impression is that social workers should practice using AOP theory. In addition, while reflecting on that question, the conclusion was drawn to determine the possibility that AOP is not anti-oppressive due to social workers enormous power over their client/service users, in such a way that it can be disempowering, leading to an oppressive act/action whereas they become withdrawn from the social worker who is supposed to provide services to
1. What relationships and/or experiences influenced your decision to enter the field of Social Work? A personal experience that influenced my decision to enter the field of social work is when I joined the military after high school. While serving, I was able to assist the Director of the Combined Federal Campaign. This is a major campaign that is sponsored by the military and United Way, and it is geared towards raising money for nonprofit agencies. I enjoyed visiting various agencies, organizing events, as well as educating people about the available resources within their communities. This was definitely a season of growth; furthermore, after careful research I discovered the field of social work was the best profession for me. This was
During my observership, my clinic intern mentor was Shiyama Hassan. Overall it was an enjoyable, less stressful academic experience.I got a chance to take patient histories, examination and patient’s vital sign monitoring and charting. I didn’t feel much difference in observing my mentor taking the history and when I was taking the history, it could be related to my past experience. However, every time I was curious to know what is happening with the patients and what caused him to seek naturopathic medical advice. During this clinic shadowing, I saw genuine interest of my mentor and supervisor to help patients concerns, unlike to allopathic model of prescribing medication. It helped me to improve my interviewing skills to look root cause for
I have chosen social work as a profession because of my passion to help others. I want to make a difference in someone’s life and help them through the problems they are having. Whether the client needs counseling, guidance, or advocacy I want to be the person to help them. My drive for helping others and motivation to change social policies for the better is why I have chosen social work as my future profession.
Clinical social workers in the community strive to enhance and maintain psychosocial functioning of individuals, families, and small groups. They also focus on prevention of psychosocial dysfunction or impairment, including emotional and mental disorders. The perspective of person-in-situation (psychosocial context) is fundamental to clinical social work practice (Austin, Barr, & Coombs, 2006).
Lautrette, A., Darmon, M., Megarbane, B., Joly, L. M., Chevret, S., Adrie, C., et al. (2007). A Communication Strategy and Brochure for Relatives of Patients Dying in the ICU. The New England Journal of Medicine, 356(5), 469-478.
Social workers are described as “helpers,” because they help others resolve problems, obtain resources, provide support during crises, and facilitate social responses to needs. In my opinion, to be a social worker, you need to have a passion for helping others. Having personal experiences in the field of social work you want to work in is also good to have.
I chose to go into social work because the profession is not only my dream career, but my passion as well. The ability to call myself a social worker is not just my job title, but part of my identity. I have always wanted to make an impact on our world and be a leader in my generation, and social work is where my personal skill set and strengths will be best put to use. As the last 4 years in my undergraduate studies have rolled along, I have developed my unique, personal traits alongside brilliant minds belonging to the future social workers of America. Many of which plan on going right out into the field and using their degrees to make an immediate impact in their local communities. For me, I would love the opportunity to further hone my
I obtained my Masters in Social Work (MSW) degree from India in the year 2006. As with most countries around the world, the emergence of social work in India was from charity aiming to eliminate poverty. Gradually it shifted from philanthropy to rights based approach and then to organized social work. Community organization surfaced as the most central method of social work practice along with practice of casework. Although social work is much more structured in nature now, it still operates along the conventional perspective of social work. Social work is not even recognized as a profession in India. An indicator of an occupation being publicly recognized as a profession is exhibited by