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Essay about the history of social work
Essay about the history of social work
Essay about the history of social work
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Social Work Essay
Introduction
Social work has existed in many different variations since the beginning of society. Initially, in the preindustrial society, minus a few exceptions, those who couldn’t cope on their own were the sole responsibility of family members. Upon the development of the industrial revolution in the Nineteenth Century, formal social work services emerged to enable society to cope with the major changes in the social system, due to modernity, urbanization, and industrialization. These services grew significantly and were reformed repeatedly throughout the rest of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries until the United Kingdom became a Welfare State, in which the state took on the responsibility to “protect the health and well-being of its citizens” (Oxford Dictionary, n.d.). Moreover, social work exists to serve the vulnerable people in the community including, the elderly, the youth, the mentally ill, the homeless, and the poor, along with many others. Although all vulnerable peoples are of equal importance in social works
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Primarily, the plan focuses on a significant increase in the NHS funds that will be dedicated to mental health treatments. This monetary upsurge will subsidize many improvements enabling the mentally ill to utilize the twenty-four-hour mental health liaison team (NHS, 2017). Additionally, two-hundred-thousand more people will receive therapy from the fifteen-hundred new primary therapists, and nine-thousand more new mothers and mothers-to-be will be helped by the twenty additional “specialist mental health teams” by 2018/19 (NHS, 2017). While there are many specific developments to made, the NHS’s overall goal is to “drive towards an equal response to mental and physical health” (NHS,
Popple, P. R, & L. Leighninger. (2011). Social Work, Social Welfare, and American Society. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Mr. James has arrived for his assessment at the Gadsden County Human Services office. His demeanor is somewhat different from the last meeting. He is more reserved today and seems to be open to effective communication. The case manager, Tameka Footman enters the room and greets Mr. James. Mrs. Footman asks Mr. James, how he’s feeling about the session today. Mr. James responds and says that he’s feeling good about it. Mrs. Footman reviews the events that took place last session and asked if there were any questions from the previous meeting. Mr. James says that he doesn’t have any questions are is eager to get started.
Thompson, N (2005) Understanding Social Work: Preparing for Practice, Palgrave, MacMillan (Second Edition) Hampshire (Supplementary Course Reader)
The discipline of social work, although had been around for a sometime, was still emerging its professionalism. Social workers, as friendly visitors within the scientific charity organizations, had no professional boundaries as they investigated why clients’ were poor or needed aid. On the other hand, indiscriminative relief through the Salvation Army displaced no ethics, principle or process as to when or how to support and aid were to be distributed. The practice of social work was demonstrated through altruistic volunteers with common passions and their activeness in communities, yet they lacked adequate competence through relevant, efficient and effective training for workers and coherent purpose for organizations. Through class literature, we learned how the social work purpose was fostered by conflicting social welfare perspectives in previous centuries.
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
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).
As a social worker, I have been able to use my skills I have learned in the field and my college education. I have values, beliefs, and ethics that I have used to center my social work career around. I also acknowledge as a social worker, I cannot push my values, beliefs, and ethics onto others. Every person does not share the same values, beliefs and ethics.
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...
"The primary mission of the social work profession is 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. A historic and defining feature of social work is the profession's focus on individual well-being in a social context and the well-being of society. Fundamental to social work is attention to the environmental forces that create, contribute to, and address problems in living" (NASW code of ethics).
Bell and Bain Ltd, Glasgow.. Tompson, N., 2009. Understanding Social Work - a new approach. 3rd ed. of the year. London: Palgrave Macmillan, c. 1895.
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
Coulshed, V and Orme, J. (2006). Social work practice. (4rd ed). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Social work is a profession which promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and enhance well-being. It is important to acknowledge the history of social work and the purpose of social work and why it exists. Social work is a questioned theory with different perspectives on what it is and how it should be practised. Social work helps people to deal with personal and social problems so that people can overcome or adjust to any personal difficulties. Social work is a combination of social stability and social change. Social stability promotes individual and social welfare and social change seek to change negative aspects of society. Values are implicit within the law and policy and these tend to reflect the values within society. Personal values can influence the way social workers interpret and implement their profession.
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