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Importance of social work in society
Principles of social work in an interview
Importance of social work in society
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Interviews are used frequently in a variety of different professions. In order to gain information about clients and the problems they are dealing with, communication is necessary. In social work, interviews are a vital aspect to the planned change process. By sitting down and talking with clients, the social worker can learn key facts that otherwise wouldn’t be readily available in the client’s file. The purpose of interviews is to exchange information with the hopes of solving the client’s problem and promoting growth. Interviews also are useful in planning strategies or actions aimed at improving the quality of life for the client after their involvement with the social worker. So while there may be other ways for social workers to gather information, interviews are the easiest and most effective way to engage with their clients. Being able to self-reflect is a very crucial skill to have as a social worker. By being aware of one’s own thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and beliefs, the ability to help clients and empathize with them will increase. A process recording is one way for a social worker to be self-reflective. For me, it really helped me to watch and hear myself on video and pinpoint the places I need to improve on. By continuously self-reflecting, it will help me, as well as any social worker, advance my ability to work with clients. The interview process and self-reflection are two aspects of social work that are essential to the work they do. Alton is having problems with his landlord, Rena, and is afraid he is going to get evicted because of it. He came to the Community Mental Health Clinic because he wanted Rena to change her behavior and was interested in filing a human rights complaint against her. After the interv...
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...more relaxed around me. I was comfortable using clarification throughout the interview and it helped me better understand what Alton was saying. So I achieved my purpose in using it because it cleared up any confusion I had over some of Alton’s statements. When I was trying to figure out if Alton would be uncomfortable living outside of his neighborhood I asked, “So you would want to find an apartment in this neighborhood?” Providing information was a technique I could of done better with, especially in regards to providing Alton information about Kennebec Behavioral Health. So although I used this technique during my interview, I do not think I achieved my purpose in providing Alton with the information that he needed. A couple examples from the interview are, “I made a phone call since our last session,” and, “I do have resources and people to contact for housing.”
The Merode Altarpiece is a triptych painting that represents the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. This work displays the main characteristics of the Northern Late Gothic period. There is so much detail in this work of art. Campin utilizes many symbols in this altarpiec. The setting of the painting is in a Flemish middle class house. The Annunciation theme is being depicted in the central panel. A scene of Saint Joseph at work as a carpenter occupies the right-hand panel. The portraits of the donors are depicted in the left hand panel. Campin failed to understand the scientific perspective. To illustrate, there is no focal point in the painting and the table looks tilted. Campin used no aerial perspective. To illustrate, the background is still very crisp when seen from a distance. The most important aspect of the painting is the symbolism. For example, the lilies represent Mary's purity, the candle represents the Holy Spirit, even the mouse traps represent trapping evil. Campin also made use of bright, rich colors. In the central panel, the drapery of the figures are filled with colors of red and white. Campin has also made a good use of illusion of the space by making the town seem to be far away by distance by making them appear blurry. Furthermore, Campin has created figures that are not in proper proportion. To illustrate, the figure’s head is small and the bodies are big and it seems that if they get will hit their head if they get up. They look very unrealistic. Although they are not in proportion, the figures seem to have very sharp edges. The figures also look very stiff and rigid. In Merode Altarpiece, the light is arbitrary and the figures do not cast any...
myself more clearly, and allowed me to form my own opinions about the counseling experience.
This assignment will give a reflective account of two main communication skills that are important for relationship-based practice in social work. Relationship based practice is important in social work, this establishes a positive relationship with professionals and service users. In agreement of Carl Rogers (2012) and Threvithick (2012) it is vital to establish relationship based practice because it demonstrates social workers are trustworthy and dependable, this will enable the service users feel more confident to disclose information, be more open rather than distrustful and taking all the support in consideration rather than being wary. Relationship based practice supports unpretentious approach with service users and carries out progressive
It is very rare that a book can be so compelling that it changes the way you think. Daniel Kahneman achieved this in his groundbreaking book Thinking, Fast and Slow. In his work, Kahneman challenges common notions of human psychology by offering a unique perspective of why we make certain decisions. Based off his contributions throughout his career, Kahneman compiles his experimental findings on human behavior into a complete manual to the human mind. The book delves into human nature and cognition, how we process our decisions and in what frame of mind do we create our perception of the world. More specifically, Kahneman deals with the irrationality of the way we think that leads to biases, mental shortcuts and defense mechanisms. His findings not only acts as an informative self-help but questions the very nature of everyday life.
Social Security is a major social program that provides benefits to multiple groups of people within the United States. These benefits include payments for pensions, disability, and unemployment compensation just to name a few. The majority of social security beneficiaries are retired workers and the remaining are pension recipients, disabled workers, dependent spouses, and children of retired or deceased workers respectively (Hyman, 2011). Social Security is financed through a taxpayer payroll tax, in addition to an employer’s portion that is matched and paid directly to the government on a quarterly basis. The employer portion of Social Security is usually not transparent to employees, but is a requirement for companies by law. In addition, self-employed individuals are also required by law to pay their own portions of OASDI and Medicare. Overall, the eligibility requirements for Social Security benefits are based on paying a tax through a place of employment and can be collected once workers have reached their assigned retirement age or become disabled. The employee and employer contribution rate is 6.2% (7.65% include FICA), up to the maximum wage base of $113,700.
Interviewing and research skills are needed within the social work profession. Effective communication skills are one of the most crucial components of a social worker’s job. Every day, social workers must communicate with clients to gain information, convey critical information and make important decisions (Zeiger, 2017). This interview experience was an opportunity to explore the daily challenges and rewards of a licensed social worker. I was excited for the opportunity to interview a social worker in the gerontology sector as this is a specialty I am considering. This meeting allowed me to explore the educational steps of being a social worker, practices of the agency, the clients who are served, and the challenges the agency has.
This class, Social Work Theory & Practice was made to be able to introduce me to social work theories, ideas, and skills needed to work in the social work profession. This class main tool used was a book called A Brief Introduction of Social Work Theory by David Howe which discusses social work theories in a compressive and explainable way. This class is important to my higher learning because it break down the theories that I will need to use during my practice and a...
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
It enables client to clarify what has been documented by the social worker. I learnt that the use of words or expressions such as ‘that’s brilliant’ can be misinterpreted by some clients to mean that you agree with what they have done. I often use expressions like that in conversations. I am now aware that it can be misunderstood and would to guard against it. We watched a Youtube video, two social workers called out to a service user flat for an initial assessment. They were refused entry by friend because he had a bad experience with social workers in the past and his child taken away. In the end the social worker left and I thought, if I was in that hostile situation what would I have done? Like we were told at the start of the session, for social workers to develop interviewing skills they require constant practice and building up the skills and it come naturally eventually. This is similar to mastering the skills to drive a
Watson, D & West, J 2006, Social work process and practice: approaches, knowledge, and skills, Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York.
A model organism is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena. The observations are expected to provide insight into the workings of other organisms. When we study disease, development and genetics in biology, they need to be studied in vitro to see how these processes (i.e. pathways and signals) work. Studying these in humans could be considered unethical or unsafe, and very expensive. Model organisms provide insight that we can’t gain from lab equipment alone. What we learn in model organisms can be used to predict what would happen to other organisms. All organisms evolved from the same ancestors and pathways are the same across all different species. Model organisms are a small number of species that have been studied extensively. We extrapolate information from model organisms to understand developmental, biological and metabolic pathways conserved throughout evolution. A model organism is one that can be used to effectively conduct biological research. They are necessary so that researchers can conduct their experiments quickly and efficiently while producing accurate results. Model organisms tend to be simple, making it easier for researchers to change one element and analyze the effects of that change.
I used rephrasing as a part of understanding the reason for the client’s visit and repeated the information in a way that we both could understand. The client was able to respond through the questions that I asked her in regards to her situation. I want to get a clear understanding without leaving out valuable information. In the three sessions my intentions were to make sure that what she gave me over the phone matches what she says in the interview. I made sure that when my client was speaking, I took notes on the new information or the information that was not covered in any of the previous sessions. Each session was based upon reflection because I had to make sure progress was being made or not. When my client began to discuss things in a way in which I could not understand, I was able to interpret the information in a way that she and I both understood and agreed upon. The moment an initial contact was made, I started giving my client information on informed consent forms, who I was and the number of years of my social work profession, policies and
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.
A part of a social worker’s task is to enhance the life of an individual through advocacy, educating, and engagement. Positive influence is benefited through the engagement of the client such as building rapport with the individual. By doing this, the social worker develops trusting ground for the individual delivering the message. Engagement is reported to be an establishment of a professional relationship with a client (Langer & Lietz, 2014). If the process of engagement is not established through security of the client, then therapy cannot begin (Bowlby, 1988). This process is the first encounter you have with the social worker.
The counseling session began with the introductions where I introduced myself as the counselor and later introduced my client. This stage is important in any counseling session since it is the time of exploration and focusing according to Gerard Egan as quoted by Wright (1998) in his essay on couselling skills. It is in this session that I was able to establish rapport and trust with my client in order to come up with a working and fruitful relationship with him. During this stage I made use of skills like questioning, where I would pose a question directly to my client, sometimes I would choose to just listen to what the client wanted to speak out while in some instances I would be forced to paraphrase the question if I felt the client did not understand the question I had asked previously. There were also other times when I would reflect through silence. During such a period, I got time to study the client and the information he had given. This being a difficult area, since some clients may not be able to volunteer information to you as the counselor, I decided to assure the client of confidentiality of any information he was willing to share with me with a few exceptions which I also told him about. Being open to him about the only times the information may not be confidential was part of my building rapport and establishing trust with him. I therefore, decided to ask the client what information he wanted to share with me and lucky enough he was ready to speak to me about different issues that he was going through.