Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Social work personal values
Social work personal values
Social work personal values
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Social work personal values
Social Workers live by 6 core values: service, social justice, dignity & worth of person, integrity, competence, and importance of human relationships. We live day after day helping clients depending on where we specialize, and I specialize as a school Social Worker in Dinuba Elementary School. In my 10 years as a social worker here, I have learned that there are 3 common problems that students face at school, or at home with their families. One of the 3 is an economic decline: People who once had good jobs are now struggling to sustain themselves and their family financially, leading to poverty. This situation usually leads kids to getting bullied, or the child themselves becoming the bully to cover up what they’re going through at home. …show more content…
little Joey is an 8-year-old child who is going through hardships at home. These hardships are a perfect example of the three problems I identified earlier. With little Joey as my client, I need to gain information from his friends, family, neighbors, and school teacher. I also need to understand his culture and see if the economy is negatively impacting the family financially. Here I would apply one of the 6 core values or social work---importance of human relationships: empathy, without it no family would allow a stranger to walk into their home and talk about their situation. Empathy, per Dictionary.com is “…experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another” (dictionary.com, …show more content…
The reason that I have come to that decision is because each one of the family members deserve respect. One of the 6 Social Work values is Dignity & Worth of a person, meaning that client the client deserves respect, and be treated as you would want to be treated. Each one of my client’s family members are going through their own struggle. At the end of the day they come home wanting to be accepted by their family members, needing love and compassion from each other. The father with poor health doesn’t bring home as much money as he used to. This causes the wife and him to argue over money, and even more now that their 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. Little Joey hears all this, and in turn, he displays his home problems at school through bullying
I was previously at a large high school working with a nonprofit and this year I am working in an elementary school with that school’s social worker. Last year, especially, I was exposed to a diverse group of students and staff, which provided me with many opportunities to interact with people from varying backgrounds, cultures, socioeconomic statuses, beliefs, etc. This year, although I am only a week in to practicum, my first impression is that the students are largely of a similar socioeconomic station and are less diverse. The staff is predominantly female and white. While I have not experienced much difficulty in either a traditional or radical social worker role thus far, I expect that eventually all roles within social work experience some pushback. From a radical social work perspective, I expect that there will be times when administrators, faculty, members of a board of education, parents, and/or staff in a school setting will be adverse or hesitant to speak out or advocate for students and families on a more macro level. With all of the politics inherent in public education, it may be difficult to advocate for changes on a larger scale. Depending on ages and abilities of students, it may be difficult for a social worker to instill a sense of empowerment within them. It may also be risky to encourage students to organize and advocate for
Social work is rarely working with one individual, as stated in O’Loughlin and O’Loughlin (2008); it will involve working with the whole family which is constantly changing making it complex and diverse. It may consist of parents or carers who share the same race, class, culture, or sexuality, but alternatively it may not. Members within the family help to determine our behaviour, roles, rules and stereotyping. To add to this, people are constantly entering and leaving the family system either by marriage, divorce or death. These complexities are shown in ecomaps or genograms. It is important to understand that the child’s welfare is paramount, but in order to achieve positive outcomes for the child, effective work will need to be done within the family. Relationships within a family are known as a system with the family being viewed as a whole, rather than as many individuals. Within family relationships, everyone seeks to uphold the equilibrium so if one member seeks to change, the others seek to resist. However, difficulties include maintaining good relationships and knowing boundaries between professional and personal...
The first theory applicable to Maci Jones’ situation is the systems theory. As described by Michael Rothery (2008) systems theory is the concept that social workers use to understand the various structures molding the client into his or her current situation. Since family units have a systemic nature it is essential to assess the client’s environment because it determines their well being (Rothery, 2008). Even further, Rothery (2008) states that people are thoroughly dependent upon their social and physical world and therefore each system is sustaining and shaping one another. Systems can be comprised of anything influencing and shaping the client at the micro, mezzo, and macro level. Therefore, when
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
In the National Association for Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics, there are many standards a social worker should uphold in order to promote a healthy and helpful relationship with the client. One such aptitude is Cultural Competence and Social Diversity, which is in section 1.05 of the NASW code of ethics (National Association of Social Workers, 2008). There are three sections associated with this competency “Social workers should understand culture and its function in human behavior and society, recognizing the strengths in all cultures”. It is assumed that “social workers should have a knowledge base of their clients’ cultures and be able to demonstrate competence in the provision of services that are sensitive to clients”. As a final point “Social workers should obtain education” in order to understand cultural diversity and oppression in people (NASW, 2008, p. 9).
As a social worker I respect the decisions of the Sanchez family, after all they have the right to make their own choices when it comes to services. As suggested by Deci and Ryan (2012), all humans have a desire to be competent and have a sense of control over their situation. In this family, Mr. Sanchez is making most of the decisions and as a social worker it is important that I accept this because he knows what is best for his family. The members of the Sanchez family have goals they would like to achieve and as a social worker it is my job to guide them in achieving their goals while allowing them to be in total control of their
As a social work professional, you must take into account your own personal values before you can be an effective worker in this field. Social workers sometimes need to put their own values aside when working with clients who don’t share their same ideals. Clients are diverse and are not going to always have the same values that the worker has. Social workers need to be professional and adhere to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) guidelines when working with any client.
The following paper aims to discuss and analyze the way in which my personal values intersect with the values I hold as most important within the profession of social work. It would stand to reason that these values would stand on common ground; however, there are places where my personal and professional values diverge. These conflicts may prove to be problematic within my chosen career unless I find a way to prioritize my values, or find ways for them to work harmoniously with each other.
“In this essay, we have been asked to critically assess the professional values in the ‘British Association of Social Work’ (BASW). With this the concepts of ethics and how this operates in social work practice and analyse the general role in governing and representatives bodies in social work practice”.
I chose two standards from the National Association of Social Worker’s Code of Ethics (2007) that would be most beneficial to uphold while providing services to this family, self-determination and conflicts of interest. The value of self-determination (1.02) explains that the social worker must assist the client in identifying and clarifying their own goals. The Doe family took the first step in reaching out for assistance because they are aware that they have problems that need to be addressed. And most likely, if supported properly, they have an idea of where they would like to end up. As a social worker, I cannot expect to step into a family situation and be the expert of their current issues. I should, however, have the knowledge and expertise to properly support and empower them towards positive change. The value of conflicts of interest (1.06) states that when providing services to two or more people who share a relationship with each other, the social worker must identify which of the individuals are the clients. Once identified, the social worker must explain this to all of the parties and include information on the specific professional obligations that will be maintained with each of the parties. As the social worker, I would identify and work with Jane as the client...
Among an array of Values from The Code of Ethics (TCE) of social work Value 1 dictates that as social workers we must respect the dignity of our clients and refrain from passing judgement onto them (Canadian Association of Social Work, 2005, pg.7). As a social worker, it is important to follow this value as it prevents the distancing of the client from the worker as the client will have a better chance of opening up to someone who does not instantly tell them what to do or reprimand them for their actions or non-action in their lives. Oppression relates to the TCE in that it says the social work profession’s main purpose is to raise their clients who are vulnerable, oppressed and/or living in poverty (CASW, 2005, pg.7). Taking this into account
The six core values of social work should guide and impact how social workers act and treat their clients. A social worker must show anyone who they come in contact with that they are valued by serving, standing up against injustices, letting them know they have inherent worth, teaching them the importance of healthy human relationships, having integrity, and being competent. These values are necessary to apply not only to the professional areas but in our daily
Social workers challenge social injustice. Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. The meaning of this value is to ensure that individuals going into the social work profession pursue change, most importantly with, on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals, and with groups of people. Additionally, this social work value forces social workers to constantly affect social change primarily focused upon issues of poverty, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice by creating activities that seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic
Social Workers also approach the clients to not only resolve personal conflicts but to allow the client to function best within their environments. Social Work distinguishing characteristics include the emphasis on the person-in-environment model as well as its emphasis on social justice. Compared to other similar professions, Social Work has differing professional values and ethics that include appreciation to human diversity, understanding of social welfare policy and services, emphasis on both social and economic justice, as well as a strong foundation in education. The importance of Social Work includes numerous of explanations. Social Workers help countless of people navigate through major life challenges or setbacks to find hope as well as options to achieve greater things. Not only do Social Workers help individuals overcome problems but they also stand up for human rights and social justice to assist
families, and communities to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social workers are change agents and because of that, they aim to help people develop their skills and abilities to use resources provided to them to strengthen and improve their lives and communities to resolve problems. One of the main goal of social workers is to improve the well-being and lives of the most vulnerable populations, fight against poverty, unemployment, domestic violence and the underserviced population by emphasizing on the person-in-environment and social justice model. The social work profession, considerers the individuals’ internal and external struggles, while working with the individuals to examine their relationships, family, work environment, community, and other things that might impact them and identify ways to help address problems and challenges.