The embedded negative aspects of social work (SW) history adds a confounding layer to a practitioner’s ability to affect a working relationship with clients. This is multiplied when considering international social work (ISW), as historically it has been practiced through the ‘power over’ model afforded by a colonialist perspective. It is important to underscore the foundational aspects of social work (SW) in order to understand its impact when applied to an international practice. The embedded sense of superiority carried by westernized social workers that viewed their work through a charitable lens, has arguably created more stigmatization of the served population than long-term positive change. This is not to berate the historically naïve efforts of ISWer’s positive impact, rather a critique of the motivations, and long term results of their practice impact. By examining the historical and present application of global SW interventions, this paper will endeavor to show how national and international social work, when juxtaposed, reveal an analogous nature. The methodology used will With it, a recognition that ISW practice when framed through an anti-oppressive practice (AOP) perspective can be problematic. For instance, it could be asserted that working with an Aboriginal service user is an ISW practice because of the client’s delineation from the dominant hegemonic discourse. She or he would be speaking from a significantly different cultural context (way of knowing) and therefore be interpreted as having a foreign mind-set to the white, westernized concept of Canada’s norms. This logic can also be applied to all non-whites and whites from nations that significantly diverge from colonialist discourses. Through the previous conversation about SW history, we can see how this is so. In fact, when viewed through an AOP lens it becomes evident that all social work is
York’s School of Social Work believes “through research, curriculum and critical pedagogy the school will develop a critical appreciation of the social construction of reality” (York University, 2016, p. 1). Reality is constructed through subjective experiences of individuals and objective experiences of society. The treatment of Indigenous people in Canada was an act of social injustice. From society’s perspective, the ‘specialized’ treatment helped to ease their transition in assimilating into the Canadian culture. Through the Indian Act, it was and still is today, social legislation that regulates the lives of Indigenous peoples, including government’s guardianship over Indian lands, and controlling the process of enfranchisement (Hicks and Stokes, 2016, p. 27.6) The government was not critically conscious, in which they lacked knowledge of the various forms of systems such as race and gender. (Sibblis, 2016) Furthermore, during the 60’s Scoop, children were kidnapped from their homes and placed in the foster care system. These children were placed into white homes in which it caused many to develop a lack sense of self (Hayden, 2016). In Thomas King’s lecture, he describes a hierarchy, that is made up of a series of traits in both the Native and Christian culture, keeping in mind, these are the two societies in which Canada is founded upon. These include cooperation,
The LPN-Team Lead contacted the social worker about Dr. Sundaram’s patient. The patient is a single, Caucasian grandmother and mother of two; she is alert and orientated to person, place and time. The patient reports that she lives with her 16 year old daughter and 3 month old granddaughter. The patient states that she works two jobs, one full-time and one part-time job and she assist with the care of her new granddaughter while her daughter is a work. The patient report that she is feeling (angry) and hurt because her boyfriend of 11 years cheated on her when she was in the hospital and left her a month ago; this and the loss of her child last year at 6 months gestation in addition to her CHF, COPD and influenza appears to have left the patient feeling of depression and hopelessness. The social worker noted that the patient scored a 19 on her PHQ-9, although she denies thoughts of suicide at this time. The patient states that she suffers from insomnia and gets approximately 2-3 hours of non-continuous sleep a night.
The social workers in both videos gathered information regarding each of the client’s issues. Another common denominator in both videos is that both of the social workers repeated what the client had said in their own words to allow the client to feel heard and understood. In the first video, social worker Karen asked direct questions relating to Mike’s alcohol addiction while also addressing how the addiction impacts his relationships including his marriage. Karen also addressed inconsistencies with the client doing so appropriately and quickly. It appears that in the first video, Karen focuses on the reality of the issue at hand to assist the client with establishing and accepting
Kathy Scott is a hospice social worker with Hospice of Springville. She is a thirty-three year old Caucasian woman from a middle-class family. Kathy has a master’s degree in both theology and social work. Kathy Scott is an experienced social worker with eight years of hospice work and two years of pediatric team. Kathy is a respected colleague that is thoughtful and reflective.
Social care and healthcare are both included in the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill. In England, there are two bodies that handle matters relating to social welfare. The National Care Standards is tasked with registering bodies that provide social care. The performance and progress of the organizations are monitored by the Social Services Inspectorate. The analysis of the social aspects of care involves collecting data that is analyzed so as to identify the differences that cause variation in the health of different people. The data collected may not be simple to understand. As a result, it requires a deeper analysis so as to establish the social factors affecting health (Larkin, 2011).
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 of 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, the ability to merge cultural competencies with social work methods and theories allows intervention to be customized to meet their client’s need-based which vary upon culture. Since there are a massive amount of different cultures with different traditions, values, and beliefs the social worker needs to obtain the fundamentals of the culture in order to assess and advocate for the ethnic group effectively. The NASW of Ethics clearly values the competence and the Ethical Principle of Social workers practice within the areas of competence and enhances their professional expertise. In addition, “ Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system or agency or among professionals and enable the system, agency, or professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations” (NASW, 2000b, p. 61). Cultural competency ensures that our primary mission of the social work profession to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty.
Social workers are increasingly recognized as an inevitable part of interdisciplinary teams in addressing the needs of clients who seek for legal remedies and services. The relationship between social work and law has been developing since 1917, when Mary Richmond, an architect of modern social work, acknowledged the role of legal authorities while developing her conceptual model for casework (Forgelson, 1970). Later, Mary Richmond drafted an early social work code of ethics in the early 1920s (Reamer, 1987). However, from the development perspective, all 50 states in the US have passed statutes requiring professionals from certain disciplines, including social work and law, to report any abuse or crime happened in the past or is going to happen in the nearest future if there are good reasons to believe that is true. Dubose and Morris (2005) stated that very few states passed similar mandatory reporting statutes for attorneys. It is not surprising that only a few states accepted these statutes because of the presence of the attorney-client privilege statute, which is true for all states. Due to differences in the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and NASW Code of Ethics, professionals from the respective disciplines may have conflicts while both provide social and legal support to the same client from a domestic violence organization. There are two main reasons that allow the tension to happen, social workers are mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect but lawyers, on the contrary, have an ethical responsibility to maintain client confidentiality (Taylor, 2006).
Identify and explain the three major sources of conflict and misinterpretations in social work practice: culture-bound values, class bound values, and language variables.
Ethics consists of factors such as culture, religion, and these continuously affect a person’s beliefs and ethics. As individuals continue to develop and adapt to different values and ethics. This is through past experiences and the expectations as our life pattern changes. Core values in social work practice are the code of ethics, informing our understanding of the difference and diversity. The social work profession is evaluated by a whole set of guidelines, measures put in place by regulatory bodies, allowing the movement to put in place new governmental laws and guides within this field.
The National Association of Social Workers’ (NASW) (2015) code of ethics gives recommendations to social workers on cultural competence. Firstly, they must appreciate the culture and its influence on an individual and society. Secondly, given that all cultures have particular strengths, social workers must recognize and maximize on these strengths. For instance, African-American cultures have strong kinship bonds (Hawkins, 2015). Therefore, issues like child care are communal
I would to begin this paper with an authentic definition of the Social Work field. Social work practices involves facilitating change—in other words, working with others, not doing something to them or for them(Dubois). Most people and social workers would always use the world ‘help’ in some way or form when defining social workers. Which is true but the confusion come in when asked where they work, who they assist and how they differ from other helping professions. Social workers can be sustain abuse therapists, child welfare specialists, and school social workers. We are not limited to just the department of social services. They can work in nursing homes, hospitals, and even in legislation.
Social workers play a major role in their day to day functions as the work that they do impacts the lives of many individuals. If they weren’t to take their jobs seriously then it would be very detrimental to the health of the many people that they counsel. It is up to them to work with other people to aid them with any type of concern that they may have. Of course, there will always be some sort of work related issue that could occur and according to Zastrow, there are 3 major problems that can be involved in a work setting.
The work of a social worker is complex and all encompassing. Social workers work in many capacities seeking justice, liberation, and equality. There work is global, as they work to put policies in place to govern practices. To keep up with societal shifts and generational changes there learning is continuous. As new questions rise so does the need for the continuation of research, not only to answer these questions but to implement into
The social work profession is defined as “a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people (ISFW, ‘Global Definition of Social Work’, 2016).” The definition may be true about the profession but it is more in depth than just that. To me, the profession’s primary focus is to help others through life as much as we can while letting them make their own choices and guiding them. In society, social workers are utilized in many different nonprofit and government roles. They serve the community in many different ways from monitoring parent visits to helping people through mental illnesses. Human beings are so complex and things that happen