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Importance of culture on social work practice
Importance of culture on social work practice
Essay on cultural differences in social work
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The name of the agency that I am currently interring with is Family and Children’s agency in Norwalk, CT. The mission statement of the agency is to collaborate with individuals, families, organizations, and communities to help them realize life’s possibilities. The agency has more than 70 years of experience in the field of social work and human services. They offer programs to individuals thorough out the life cycle, including children, families, youth, adults and seniors. Their programs include intensive in-home child & adolescent psychiatric services, family support and prevention services, support for first time parents, permanency placement services program, Korean adoption, community connections, after school programs, specialized in …show more content…
Although, the information related to the protective and risk factors were assessed important information was missing. The assessment did not have information about the clients family system. Important information such as structure, the role that client plays in the family, and family history are not addressed. Information about ethnicity and race are not addressed in the assessment. According to Lawrence (pg 130) This information is important because a lack of understanding of cultural differences can created barriers between the social worker and the client, particularly during the beginning phase of practice. Social Workers can run the risk of misinterpreting client behaviors, values, and attitudes if they do not understand the culture of their clients. The assessment neglects to include clients personal attributers and characteristics which can be important when looking at the clients strengths and protective factors. Although the assessment included a stressor/concern section there was little information given by the clien. The assessment states, “when asked what causes her stress, client reported that some of her ‘pet peeves’ (ex: chewing with mouth open) annoy her and make her angry. Family Agency worker clarified between stress and anger, client could name nothing that it is stressful.” Not knowing the clients stressors or concerns prevents home visitor from considering additional risk factors in the clients
The data provides culturally competent guidelines for social workers. The social worker must understand and appreciate diversity among and within cultures. They should be aware of the history, culture, and contemporary realities. They also must have good skills in patience, listening, and tolerance of silence. A social worker needs to be aware of their own biases and need for wellness and display humility and a willingness to learn. They need to be respectful, nonjudgemental, and openminded. However, researchers must find a way to measure cultural competence with studies that examine beliefs and evaluate actions of social workers. It should include several cultural groups.This will be highly important in building a knowledge base. Doing these studies there can be a better plan to include cultural competence and serve clients from different backgrounds a lot better.
Cultural Competence Understanding culture is an important aspect of being a social worker; this does not mean learning common cultural traits is of great significance to the social work profession. “Consider the second-generation Japanese-American social worker whose practice consists of Mexican-American and African-American families. Memorizing national traits or cultural rituals would be interesting and informative, but ultimately these would be an inaccurate basis on which to “know” these particular families” (Dorfman, 1996, p. 33). When understanding cultural competence, it is important to learn from the client about their culture in order to serve them in the most helpful and efficient way possible. There is a major drawback to memorizing information, and that is, this information will not give you a real understanding of who your client is and what life experiences they have personally faced.
The first framework that would be beneficial when working with this population is the Dual Perspective Framework. The Dual Perspective Framework is a model that charges the social worker with assessing and understanding the client’s world. While doing so, one must take into account the client’s relationship to not only their immediate family and community, but also to the larger societal system while considering and comparing values, attitudes, and behaviors (Prigoff, 2003, p. 80). Another way to explain the Dual Perspective was presented by Dr. Nimmagadda as part of the diversity section of this course (2015). The contrasting views are also known as the “Nurturing Environment” versus the “Sustaining Environment.” The “Nurturing Environment” can be identified as the individual’s family or immediate extended family, while the “Sustaining Environment” can be identified as how an individual feels other’s view them in the social environment (Nimmagadda, 2015). An individual can evolve and change according to their experiences and interactions in both environments.
Before reading the chapter written by Allan Barksy, I had a different understanding of my values. Entering into the social work profession is providing a different outlook and definition regarding values. In the social work profession values are not only personal, they must also include my client’s values. For example, I will be working at Child Net during my field internship. Child Net is a facility for children that are abused, neglected, molested, and other situations that I will be exposed too. These families may have values similar to mine, but their values may be viewed differently. Emotional security was one of my highly desirable values for Table 1.1. After giving this some thought regarding the situations I will be working with, emotional security will be hard to maintain working at Child Net. I say this because my
I think we need to start with discussing what social work is and where it started. Social work, social problems, and the organizations that were developed is an attempt to cope with problems have had almost a parallel history. There are many people who have helped develop more progressive attitudes and programs toward the poor, the mentally ill, the unemployed, and children at risk. Many of the social welfare policies and programs we take for granted occurred quite recently in our history. Social work is an exciting career area that is highly related to psychology. Many individuals earn an undergraduate degree in social work and then go on to their masters. You can do so much with a social work degree. Social worker has a broad range
We know where we have been, where we are now and where we need to go - but how do we get there? A map. Theory is a map. It notes any number of known landmarks (previously achieved or applied solutions) and obstacles (issues or problems) and gives us direction so that we are able to navigate intelligently and arrive safely (minimal discomfort to all) at our destination (desired outcome/s).
Working as a social worker although challenging, is a rewarding career. Social workers assist people and families to cope with problems they are facing in their lives. To understand more about social workers, I caught up with Margaret Jones, who is on a charitable mission in the country. Margaret, as she prefers to be called, was born in Haiti but after the devastating earthquake, which saw her lose four close relatives, decided to relocate to the United Kingdom where she got her current job.
Social workers play a very important role in many situations. Most people can only help an individual up until a certain point then they have no clue what to do to help the individual. A social worker comes up with a plan to help an individual that cannot help themselves. Without social workers many individuals will not know how to manage certain situations. They will come up with an idea that they believe is suitable and move on without thinking about it. Social work has come a long way from when it first began. Comparing then and now, social work is much better and very well organized. The people that are in need whether they are mentally ill or someone that cannot support themselves, are being taken care of properly. It is known that years
A social worker must present themselves as a learner and understand clients from all experts of their own experiences. To show your respect to the clients as a social worker you must be able to show that you understand complexity of cultural identity. Cultural competence targets social workers knowledge of development, focusing on culturally specific demographics, characteristics, values, and intravenous technique. When dealing with cultural sensitivity a worker’s genuine appreciation of the client’s uniqueness and universalistic respect for the client’s humanness is needed. To have success in multicultural practice, cultural responsiveness come in to play, which means to be culturally responsive, social workers use dialogue skills that place the client’s construction of reality at the center of the
In order to formulate a thorough assessment or intervention a social worker must first evaluate all the contributing factors that influence a client’s life. Problems faced by clients are rarely a result of a single factor or influence. Many individual, interpersonal and environmental factors must be evaluated to fully understand the cause of problems. Multidimensional assessments must be used to determine biological, psychological and environmental issues that contribute to problematic outcomes (Hepworth, Rooney, R., Rooney, G., & Strom-Gottfried, 2013.). Along with conducting multidimensional assessments, social workers must also evaluate stages of development, and assess how age can influence behaviors (2013). All contributing factors must
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.
Jansson defines social policies as “collective strategies to prevent and address social problems.” They are “collective” because they are binding on those populations, communities, companies, and jurisdictions to which they apply (Jansson, 2016, p. 22). For example, the United States government have created policies to address the needs of a variety of social issues such as food and nutrition, assistance for needy families, housing assistance, health, unemployment benefits, equal opportunity, anti-discrimination laws, child welfare, and mental illness (Marx, n.d.). These social policies help promote the disadvantage, advance social change, ensure social protection from discrimination, and improve well-being of vulnerable individuals, families and children. Jansson (2016) noted “the policies are vertically distributed at the federal, state, and local government; community; and agency or organizational levels” (Jansson, 2016, p. 24).
Over the course of the semester, I have learned a variety of many things regarding social work. These things vary from learning how to help oneself to understanding how to help others. Not only were the textbooks very useful, but also the materials that furthered this textbook learning. The in class presentation, activities, and guest speakers gave us insight and a different perspective on the material we were learning. I feel like this course has given me a good foundation and prepared me as a future social worker (1).
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.
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