Persuasive Essay On Social Work Education

Second Start Alternative High School is an educational setting for teens who struggle with the structure of a traditional high school. Many of the students struggle with emotional and behavioral disabilities that can hinder academic success. Additionally, many of the students are affected by outside factors that are beyond their control such as familial stressors. Second Start’s goal is to provide students with a safe place to get their needs met while also delivering them with an education. The social work courses that I have taken prior to my placement have provided me with the knowledge and skills to be successful with the students at Second Start. Certain theories, concepts, and values I have learned throughout my social work education have been specifically helpful in working with this population. Theory and Practice of Social Work Intervention I focused on micro level social work, which is social work with individuals. Various theories involving working with

A person’s systems are constantly interacting with each other with trying to achieve and maintain homeostasis (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013). A person receives energy from systems which is called “input” and sends energy out to systems; this is called the “output” (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013). Systems theory seeks to look beyond a specific “problem behavior” in an attempt to determine the root cause of that behavior. The client is viewed as their entire system in order to determine the cause (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013). Through reflection, I have realized that I am using System Theory every day when interacting with students as well as when discussing particular cases with my supervisor. Systems Theory helps social workers determine who the target system is when working with a client. Often times, the target system is not the client. At my current placement, we are working with a student who is a perfect example of