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Role of social worker
Challenges in the social work field
Specific roles of a social worker
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Recommended: Role of social worker
Social Workers help individuals, families, groups and communities to advance their wellbeing. I am interested in becoming a social worker in a Forensic or Corrections setting as I feel I will be able to connect with people in need of help because of my empathy and experience with youth who were in trouble with the law. Social Workers in the corrections environment help individuals who clash with the law and are convicted with a crime. They can also help the offenders’ family, which I find very important as the family would be strongly affected by the offenders’ actions. Social Workers have many different roles that are very interesting to me including assessing new arrivals, planning support for the offender, write progress reports, release …show more content…
One challenge I feel I will encounter is substance-abuse by my clients, which I feel I will be able to handle to some extent, as it really is the clients’ choice to recover. Drug and alcohol abuse is a common cause of crime. According to corrections.govt.nz, around two-thirds of New Zealand criminals have substance-abuse addictions and more than 50% of crime is committed by people under the influence of substances. I believe that is an extremely high number, which needs to drop down drastically in order to actually make a difference in communities. As my role as a Social Worker I will be trained to help offenders with their addictions by getting them medical attention, and provide support to the offenders’ family as drug addicts often hurt their family. As stress is a big factor for people to turn to drugs, it would be beneficial if I help the offender lower their anxiety and stress levels so they don’t depend on illegal …show more content…
Social workers earn $42K- $66K per year (source: Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers) which I feel is great, as I would choose to work in this role voluntarily. To become a Social Worker, you will need an approved qualification by the Social Workers Registration board. These can be a Bachelor of Social Work, Bachelor of Applied Social Service or Masters in Applied Social Work. These qualifications can be received in universities all over New Zealand. If the idea of big classes and long lectures doesn’t appeal to you, but you still want to gain a qualification, you can choose to study at a Polytechnic Institute such as Whitireia or Wintec where you will be in a small class but still have the same curriculum as a
As I read the article on social worker for victim services I thought of how amazing of an individual you would have to be to do this type of work. To work with victims of a crime whether it is domestic violence, rape or murder, these people depend on you. This career to me seemed like it could go in two different directions. Going the way of the criminal system, helping in court for the victims or going more the way of the victim services, helping the victim through the hospital visit and decision making process at that time. With the ability to do internships while still working on your degree this gives you the opportunity to intern in both fields and see which one would fit your specific interests.
I come to Fordham University with expectations of completing my Masters of Art degree in Social Service. As a single parent, I have faced many challenges raising my special needs child. My innovation to help disadvantaged children with social and emotional problems encompassed me to continue to pursue a career in the Social Service Profession. This will increase my chances of being a successful Child Therapist. I am aware, prepared and committed to devoting my time towards my studies at Fordham University as well as taking advantage of all the necessary resources that Fordham University has to offer. My personal, academic and profession experience has given me the opportunity
Social work as a profession strives to help the welfare of those within the community whether its persons or families through advocacy. Often times clients are those who may be vulnerable and disadvantaged. Social workers aim to help people fulfill basic needs in their everyday lives and assist them by providing beneficial resources and intervention counseling. They do more than just help them in their current situation, it’s about helping them to survive and set attainable goals to live a fuller and better life for themselves, and most time for their families.
These individuals often do not have a support system, social workers can serve as supporter to get the kind of treatment that these individuals need. To compensate for the lack of time put into these issues social workers can link people into other organizations that can give the time that they need to help with their issues. Furthermore, with issues such as transportation mentioned in the Trajectories of Health and Behavioral Health Services Use among Community Corrections–Involved Rural Adults article, social workers can provide transportation or services that give transportation to these clients. As well as providing connective services, social workers can serve as a moral check by being a probation officer. This role gives social workers the ability to make sure clients are on the right track behaviorally.
Perhaps the most famous social worker from the United States, Jane Addams once said,” This guy is a bastard. He took advantage of my daughter.” Social work allows you to experience many different sides of life; it gives you the opportunity to embrace life to the fullest, and the chance to influence people’s lives for the better. Becoming a Social worker will allow me to get involved with the community and to make a difference. It will shape you into a person that can do anything, and will make a permanent mark on your heart because of the experiences and people you come into contact with. I have faced many challenges throughout my life, but have always been able to manage somehow and rise above them, on the basis of strength and has made me a stronger person. The importance is that I feel I have become self-insured, and can be an asset to the social work profession. As a social worker I will be able to help make other lives better by relating to some of their personal situations, helping kids cope with physical and mental abuse, by providing child protection services.
The social statuses individuals play every day are complex, and may sometimes be at odds with each other. This was quite apparent when I sat down to interview my friend John. At first glance, most would see John as a typical aging hipster, which is partly correct. However, at forty-five years of age, the complexities of the social roles played by John are immense to say the least.
For the 9 years that I have worked as a mental health support worker I have come across cases involving drug addiction and mental health. My passion to work with and help those in need of services grew over the years as I came to realize that with the right services and support, one can eventually become clean of drugs and reintegrate into society and live a normal life. I have been privileged to work with genuinely enthusiastic and caring colleagues who have enhanced my professional identity which makes me so proud to be part of a wider health care industry. I’m fortunate to have tremendous amount of sincere affection for service users and staff and this had made me resilient in adversity, and have a passion to want to do the right
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 interest in social work stems from a love of volunteering that I possessed ever since I was a young child expressing great enthusiasm for church and school service events. As I grew older, I began volunteering for many other community events, such as serving over 200 hours at a local hospital, helping with free cancer screenings, and fitting children with free bike helmets. I even created my own donation drive for a local women’s and children’s shelter. I feel the best when I am striving to create positive changes in my community and for struggling, marginalized individuals. Social services have been a part of my life for a very long time, and I want it to continue to be on a professional level.
The National Association of social workers (2008) defines the unifying primary mission or purpose of social work as “enhancing human well-being and helping 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.” (Dubois & Miley, 2014).
Social workers can promote empowerment by ensuring that people with problematic drug use have access to well-delivered therapy such as Cognitive Behavioural therapy to address negative self-image, ensure full participation in formulating care plans, develop peer support worker roles, increase the role and visibility of recovery champions and help develop user-led and user-run services. It is essential that social workers transmit optimism as hope is key to the process of recovery; that they work to develop a sense of agency in people, and seek to promote meaningful activities in the lives of people with problematic drug use. Social workers can promote the foundations of recovery in individuals by focussing upon strengths and possibilities, building respectful relationships, holding a belief and understanding of recovery, providing care and support as directed by the individual with problematic drug use, encouraging participation in recovery by significant others, enabling community involvement, providing holistic services and supports, and working to challenge stigma and discrimination (Shinkel and Dorrer
My understanding about the social work profession is one that works with a diverse group of people to better their well-being in all aspects. Social workers requires: responsibility, passion, and knowledge. The social worker has to understand their own personal cultural values, beliefs, and appreciate the multicultural identities of different people. The profession of social worker requires a lot of skills because they have different tasks and responsibilities. They are aware of social policies and programs for the diverse clients advocating.
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
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