SOCIAL WORK AS A PROFESSION

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1.1 SOCIAL WORK AS A PROFESSION

Social Workers support individuals, groups, or communities to enhance or improve their capacity for social functioning and create favorable societal conditions for them. For this, social workers require the knowledge of human behavior and development, and interaction process among/between social, economic and cultural institutions. Social Work is a helping profession which helps individual/group/community through the six instrumentalities used by social workers to help the clients. Those are:

1.      Social Case work: According to Sanford “Social case work is a method employed by social workers to help individuals find a solution to problems of social adjustment which they are not able to handle in a satisfactory way by their own effort.” (cited from Social Work an integrated approach Bhattacharya, 2012)

2.      Social Group work: According to Trecker “Social group work is a method through which individuals in groups in social agency settings are helped by worker who guides their interaction in program activities so that they may relate themselves to others and experience growth opportunities in accordance with their needs and capacities.” (cited from Social Work an integrated approach Bhattacharya, 2012)

3.      Community organization: According to Murray G. Ross “Community organization is a process by which community identifies its needs or objectives, orders (or ranks) these needs or objectives, develop the confidence and the will to work at those needs or objectives, finds the resources (internal and external) to deal with these needs/objectives or takes action in respect to them and, in so doing, extend and develop cooperatives and collaborative attitudes and practices in the community.”

4.      Social Welfare Administration: Administration is the process of transforming community resources into a program of community service, in accordance with goals, policies and standards which have been agreed by those involved in enterprise. It is creative in that it structures roles and relationships in such a way as to alter and enhance the total product. It involves the problem-solving process of study, diagnosis and treatment solutions or action and evaluation of results.” - American Council of Social work Education (cited from Social Work an integrated approach Bhattacharya, 2012,)

5.      Social work research: According to G.W. Cater, “Social work research is the systematic, critical investigation of questions in the social welfare field with the purpose of yielding answers to problems of social work and of extending and generalizing social work knowledge and concepts. (cited from Social Work an integrated approach Bhattacharya, 2012)

6.      Social action: According to Sanford Solender, “Social Action in the field of social work is a process of individuals, groups or entire group endeavor, within the context of social work philosophy, knowledge and skills. Its objective is to enhance the welfare of society through modifying social policy and functioning of structure, working to obtain new progress and services. (cited from Social Work an integrated approach Bhattacharya, 2012)

These are the methods used by the social worker to enhance the clients’ capacity to work with problems, discover solution and enhance social adjustment. The main goal of social work is individuals’ happiness. The Concept of social work started in the form of charity and now it is grown and internationally recognized as a profession. Even in Nepal, the kings and elite groups served food, clothes, shelter for the travelers and needy.

Social work is a Profession which helps people to overcome some of life’s most difficult challenges such as poverty, discrimination, abuse, addiction, physical illness, divorce, loss, unemployment, educational problems, disability and mental illness. They help to prevent crises and counsel individuals, families, groups and communities to cope more effectively with the stresses and the problems of everyday life.

Social work not only focuses on theory, but it also gives importance to Practical aspects and life skills development. It not only gives the ideas to solve other’s problems but also one’s own problems. Social Work enables the trainee social worker to understand self, to develop capacity and use of self while dealing with clients.



Recording in Social work

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