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Challenges in the social work field
Reflection on social work observation
Importance of observation for social work practice
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Field education is an essential to my social work education. It will help me to gain a better understanding of social work and the general outline of day-to-day work that social workers engage in. Even though there might only be a lot of observing it is still seeing first-hand what social workers do. It is helpful to finally see everything that I have been learning actually happening in real life. For example, I have already run into a situation similar to having sex with a client, except it was a professor and student. In this particular situation the professor impregnated the student, which led to Lutheran Family Services stepping in and placing their child for adoption at age 2.5. Engaging in field education verifies that the content discussed in class happens in the real world. The role that I expect field to play in my social work education is simply to provide me with a better understanding of the social work profession in everyday life.
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Something that I will need from the agency and the university is simply supporting me throughout this process.
If I am doing something wrong, I want to be informed of this so that I will be the best social worker that I can possibly be in the long run. Having trust in me to complete tasks is also important to me. I will not be able to do everything in my placement, such as home studies, because I am lacking specific training, however, I still want to be trusted as though I could complete that specific task if I were to have had that training. In addition to this, I need to place trust in myself and believe that I can accomplish the tasks that are set before me. I need to take care of myself so that I am able to have a good experience in field and learn everything that I
can. From field, I am hoping to generally gain a positive experience and a better understanding of adoption. Specifically, I am hoping to gain the self-confidence that I need in order to be an effective social worker. Looking into my practicum, I am excited to go through the process with a prospective adoptive family and learning how the acceptance of becoming adoptive parents happens. I am also excited to have the opportunity to witness a finalization in placing a child with a loving family. Something that has some concern for me is not being able to actually work with clients. I have already been able to do a lot of shadowing, but due to the lack of some training, I am not sure how much I will be able to actually work with clients. 1.4 To me, being a professional is being competent and understanding what I do and why I do it. A professional holds more meaning than an employee. This is not to undermine the term employee, but professional just has a special tie with it. For example, I am a Fareway employee, but I am by no means a Fareway professional. When I hear the term professional, I automatically think of a highly skilled individual in a specific field of work. Thinking of myself as a professional social worker does create some anxiety for me. It is hard for me to imagine myself as a professional, knowing that people are going to have difficult stories, and there might be situations in which life or death is lying in my hands. However, it excites me knowing that there will be people who are going to come to me, or unwillingly come to me, in a time of need, and I will be there to support them through difficult times.
I knew I loved to help others but it was not until I was an emerging adult that I knew what my calling was. My devotion to improve the quality of life for those who are disadvantaged is one of the reasons I have chosen to pursue a Master’s in Social Work. After obtaining my masters, I plan on diversifying my masters by getting licensed and becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I would like to study social work because I feel it will lead me directly to one of the most emotionally fulfilling careers available, as well as giving me the chance to combine helping people 's mental well being with their physical
To be an ethical social worker you have to make sure you follow all ethics and are consistent. Walter explained that there are four qualities to him that makes someone an effective social worker. First he explained that it is important to have integrity. Integrity is important because you have to have morals and are honest with yourself. That to me is very important when being an effective and ethical social worker because it makes all the sense, it’s a perfect quality to have for life in general. Second, is honesty… that falls through with integrity also. Honesty is important because you have to be true to yourself and the people that are around
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.
As a professional one must practice personal reflection and self-correction to assure continual professional development. As the social worker, I would identify my areas of strength as well as areas where improvement is needed, seek and act on corrective feedback from my supervisor or mentors, establish effective working relationships with clients and peers, and seek to resolve identified problems with performance of professional responsibilities. I would also make sure I practice within my area of competence by developing and enhancing my professional
The field placement experience at Silver Saddle group home allowed me the opportunity to put into practice what I have learned while in the Social Work program her at Northern Arizona University. Throughout field placement I have had the opportunity to practice on a micro, mezzo, and macro level and strengthen my professional social work skill while maintaining a ethical standpoint. Field has also allowed me hands on experience to advocate for clients, insure social justice, provide services, and build strong relationships with clients and the community.
...rces. In order to properly help people, social workers must follow the change process: “ First, engage clients in an appropriate working relationship; Second, Identify issues, problems, needs, resources, and assets; Third, collect and assess the data; Fourth, plan for delivery of services; Fifth, use your communication skills, and consult with your supervisor; Sixth, identify, analyze and implement your interventions to reach the clients goals; Seventh, apply empirical knowledge and technological advances; and finally, evaluate your outcomes and the practice effectiveness” (Zastrow, 2010). That and treating your clients with the respect and dignity they deserve are some of the fundamental skills of being in the social work field.
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.
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
As the police adapt to the social climate, teachers try new learning methods and those in the medical profession use new medicines, social workers must too adapt and develop with the times. Everything was once an experiment, and there cannot be progression if Social Workers are not prepared to alter their mind-sets and practice according to new evidence and research. Being research minded, and able to question yourself and the things you are taught is integral to being a good social worker, and one who will be able to enable and protect the service users they work for through an ever changing, developing society.
Social workers must have a certain level of integrity in their field of practice. This characteristic is important because it helps a person be true to their own beliefs and allows them to set their own boundaries. Integrity can show a social worker what types of clients they are comfortable working with and what types of professions they should not be in. Social workers who have integrity are able to put their energy into cases that they are capable of handling and will have less opportunities of harming the client in any way. When a person is able to show integrity, they stay true in what they believe in and work
Social work practice requires many skills, which need much practice themselves. This needs social work students to be open to trying within safe environments and scenario’s for mistake, such as with their peers and with emotional safe scenarios such as stress at University. This begins with a requirement to do 5 minutes of interviewing with a peer which includes many social work skills such as active listening, encouraging, paraphrasing, being/creating a welcoming and safe environment and other such basic and beginning skills.
It is important because it gives social workers and the agency an opportunity to provide their clients with the necessary services. Lastly, it is important for legal purposes in cases where a subpoena is given to a social worker if they are being sued by their client. A specific topic discussed in chapter 3 that the social work student believes to be important when going into ones field internship is confidentiality. Confidentiality is important because one must understand completely what the guidelines are for confidentiality and the exceptions, including what is appropriate to disclose and what is not appropriate to disclose. With not understanding confidentiality while doing the field internship, the social work student can be sued or even fired for disclosing confidential information. One must also know how to secure documents and keep them away from individuals that are not documented to see them; this too can cause a
Working with others and improving own learning and performance are highly essential skills in social work. In this essay I will reflect on how well I have developed these two skills and what I need to do to improve them.
However, there is still a great amount of competence to grasp. Dimitrijoska and Vladimir (2016) state that “[t]he social worker is responsible for his/her professional development and must continually work on gaining new knowledge and learning new methodologies (p. 55). Moreover, as I move forward in social work courses, I will need to take a few actions to ultimately become successful. I will need to do more research, whether it be scholarly articles or assigned texts. I would like to engage in my community by volunteering at more agencies, and making connections with the organizations and learning from social workers. The last step I would like to take is from this point forward, I would like to engage in mindfulness practices. This step in particular is for me to be able to have a healthy relationship with myself, so I am able to continue working for clients in the future, and be able to act as an effective
Most of my fear and hesitation comes from the reactions I get from my family about the profession and their interpretation of what a Social Worker is and does. I know that the tasks that lies ahead of me is many and honestly at times I feel a bit overwhelmed. What helped me to manage this is the realization that although social work is a broad field there is specializations within it and my only obligation is to master my own branch and not the entire field. I am now aware that I need to work on expressing my emotions, maybe through therapy or peers supervisions since I tend to internalize my emotions. I