One of the best ways to arriving at rational answers to the key questions (What do I want out of life? What kind of person am I? What kind of person do I want to be?) is to work on arriving at answers to the fol-lowing questions:
1. What is satisfying/meaningful/enjoyable to me?
(Only after you know this will you be able to con-sciously seek activities that make your life fulfilling and avoid those activities that are meaningless or stifling.)
2. What is my moral code? (One possible code is to seek to fulfill your needs and to do what you find enjoyable, doing so in a way that does not deprive others of the ability to fulfill their needs.) 3. What are my religious beliefs?
4. What kind of career do I want? (Ideally, you should choose work that you find stimulating and satisfy-ing, that you are skilled at, and that earns you enough money to support the lifestyle you want.) 5. What are my sexual mores? (Find a code that you
are comfortable with and that helps you meet your needs without exploiting others. There is no one right code. What works for one may not work for another because of differences in life-styles, life goals, and personal values.)
6. Do I want to marry? (If yes, to what type of per-son and when? How consistent are your answers here with your other life goals?)
7. Do I want to have children? (If yes, how many, when, and how consistent are your answers here with your other life goals?)
8. What area of the country/world do I want to live in? (Consider climate, geography, type of dwell-ing, rural or urban settdwell-ing, closeness to relatives or friends, and characteristics of the neighborhood.) 9. What do I enjoy doing with my leisure time?
10. What kind of image do I want to project to others?
(Your image will be composed of your dressing style and grooming habits, your emotions, person-ality, degree of assertiveness, capacity to commu-nicate, material possessions, moral code, physical features, and voice patterns. You need to assess your strengths and shortcomings honestly in this area and seek to make improvements.)
11. What type of people do I enjoy being with and why?
12. Do I desire to improve the quality of my life and that of others? (If yes, in what ways, and how do you hope to achieve these goals?)
13. What types of relationships do I want to have with relatives, friends, neighbors, and people I meet for the first time?
14. What are my thoughts about death and dying?
15. What do I hope to be doing 5 years from now?
10 years? 20 years?
16. How can 1 achieve the goals that I identified here?
To have a well-developed sense of identity, you will at some time need answers to most, but not all, of those questions. Very few of us arrive at rational, consistent answers to all the questions. But having at least contemplated them will provide a reference for you as you embark on life after college.
Note that the questions are simple to state, but arriving at answers is a complicated, ongoing process.
In addition, expect some changes in your life goals as time goes on. Your circumstances will change in unexpected ways. Activities and friends you enjoy in the future may not be what you enjoy now. Be flexible as life throws you curves. Rigid adherence to a certain path is a sure prescription for failure.
S U M M A R Y
The following summarizes this chapter’s content as it relates to the learning objectives presented at the beginning of the chapter. Chapter content will help prepare students to:
1.
Understand a brief history of social work.Social work as a profession is of relatively recent ori-gin. Individuals were first hired as social workers around 1900, and formalized training in social work was first offered at universities in the early 1900s.
2.
Define the profession of social work.Social work is the professional activity of helping indi-viduals, groups, families, organizations, and commu-nities to enhance or restore their capacity for social functioning and to create societal conditions favor-able to their goals. A social worker is a multiskilled professional. The social worker needs training and expertise in a wide range of areas to be able to deal
effectively with problems faced by individuals, groups, families, organizations, and the larger community.
Like the general practitioner in medicine, a social worker should acquire a wide range of skills and intervention techniques. Social work is distinct from other careers in that it is the profession that has the responsibility and mandate to provide social services.
The ability to counsel clients effectively is per-haps the most basic skill a social worker needs. Sec-ond in importance is probably the ability to interact effectively with other groups and professionals in the community.
3.
Describe the following social work activities:casework, case management, group work, group therapy, family therapy, and community
organization.
Social workers work with individuals, groups, families, organizations, and communities. The social worker
helps people increase their capacities for problem solv-ing and copsolv-ing, helps them obtain needed resources, facilitates interactions between individuals and between people and their environments, helps make organizations responsible to people, and influences social policies. There are several types of professional social work activities: casework, case management, group work, group therapy, family therapy, community organization, administration, research, consulting, planning, supervision, and teaching.
4.
Describe the person-in-environment concep-tualization for social work practice.This perspective views the client as part of an envi-ronmental system. This perspective encompasses the reciprocal relationships and other influences between an individual, the relevant other or others, and the physical and social environment.
5.
Specify the goals of social work practice.The five goals of social work practice are to (a) enhance the problem-solving, coping, and develop-mental capacities of people; (b) link people with sys-tems that provide them with resources, services, and opportunities; (c) promote the effectiveness and humane operation of systems that provide people with resources and services; (d) develop and improve social policy; and (e) promote human and community well-being.
6.
Describe the strengths perspective.Social work emphasizes empowerment and a strengths perspective (rather than a focus on pathol-ogy) in working with individuals, groups, families, organizations, and communities. It is now imperative that social workers have an international perspective, as we live in a global community.
It is essential that social workers include clients’ strengths in the assessment process. In working with clients, social workers focus on the strengths and resources of clients to help them resolve their difficul-ties. To utilize clients’ strengths effectively, social workers must first identify those strengths.
There is a danger that a primary focus on weak-nesses will impair a worker’s capacity to identify a client’s growth potential. Social workers strongly believe that clients have the right (and should be encouraged) to develop their potentialities fully.
Focusing on pathology often undermines this value commitment.
7.
Summarize societal stereotypes of social workers.Sixty-five years ago, the stereotype of a social worker was that of a moralistic upper-middle-class older woman carrying a basket of food and having little understanding of the people she tried to help. With the rapid development of social work as a profession, there are now many stereotypes (generally more posi-tive) of what a social worker is.
8.
Summarize employment settings and career opportunities in social work.Currently there are more employment opportunities available in social work than in many other fields.
Widely varying employment settings are available for social workers. Most people employed as social work-ers do not have a graduate degree. As in most fields, however, individuals with a master’s degree in social work generally have higher status and greater promo-tion opportunities.
It is crucial for social workers to have a high level of self-awareness and a sense of who they are and what they want out of life. Arriving at a sense of iden-tity is one of the most important and difficult quests in life—for everyone. With a sense of identity, you will be able to direct your life toward the goals you select and find personally meaningful.
9.
Describe international social work.Social work is now a global profession. It is a recog-nized profession in Great Britain, Canada, the United States, India, and numerous other countries. There is a growing recognition that people in all nations are interdependent. In many ways, the world has become a “global village.” The crises and problems experi-enced by one country often affect other countries.
Competency Notes
EP 6a Apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment, person-in-environment, and other multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks to engage with clients and constituencies (all of this chapter).This chapter describes social work as a pro-fession and a career. It provides a history of social work, and also summarizes the following: micro-, mezzo-, and macropractice; an ecological model of human behavior; the goals of social work; practice;
the strengths perspective; a medical versus a systems model of human behavior; stereotypes of social
workers; private practice of social work; and interna-tional social work.
Media Resources
Additional resources for this chapter, including a chapter quiz, can be found on the Social Work CourseMate. Go to CengageBrain.com.
Notes
1. Robert M. Bremner,“The Rediscovery of Pauperism,” in Current Issues in Social Work Seen in Historical Perspec-tive (New York: Council on Social Work Education, 1962), p. 13.
2. Nathan E. Cohen, Social Work in the American Tradi-tion (Hinsdale, IL: Dryden Press, 1958), p. 66.
3. Dorothy G. Becker,“Social Welfare Leaders as Spokes-men for the Poor,” Social Casework, 49, no. 2 (Feb.
1968), p. 85.
4. Ralph Dolgoff and Donald Feldstein, Understanding Social Welfare (New York: Harper & Row, 1980), pp. 233–234.
5. Ibid., p. 235.
6. Mary E. Richmond, Social Diagnosis (New York: Free Press, 1965).
7. H. J. Eysenck,“The Effects of Psychotherapy,” in Hand-book of Abnormal Psychology, H. J. Eysenck, ed. (New York: Basic Books, 1961), pp. 697–725.
8. Robert L. Barker, The Social Work Dictionary, 5th ed.
(Washington, DC: NASW, 2003), p. 408.
9. Dean H. Hepworth, Ronald H. Rooney, and Jo Ann Lar-sen, Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skills, 5th ed. (Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole, 1997), pp. 27–28.
10. Frank Riessman,“The ‘Helper Therapy’ Principle,” Jour-nal of Social Work, 10, no. 2 (April 1965), pp. 27–34.
11. Richard Stuart, Trick or Treatment: How and When Psy-chotherapy Fails (Champaign, IL: Research Press, 1970).
12. William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, Human Sexual Inadequacy (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970).
13. D. D. Jackson, “The Study of the Family,” Family Pro-cess, 4 (1965), pp. 1–20.
14. National Association of Social Workers, Standards for the Classification of Social Work Practice (Washington, DC: NASW, 1982), p. 17.
15. Council on Social Work Education, Final Draft of the 2015 Educational Policy (EP) (Alexandria, VA: Council on Social Work Education, 2015).
16. “Hunger and Poverty Facts,” www.bread.org/hunger/
us/facts.html.
17. Council on Social Work Education, Final Draft of the 2015 Educational Policy (EP).
18. William Glasser, The Identity Society (New York: Harper
& Row, 1972).
19. A. Weick, C. Rapp, W. P. Sullivan, and W. Kisthardt,“A Strengths Perspective for Social Work Practice,” Social Work, 34 (1989), pp. 350–354.
20. Dennis Saleebey, The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice, 2nd ed. (New York: Longman, 1997), pp. 12–15.
21. Ibid., p. 12.
22. Ralph Dolgoff, Donald Feldstein, and Louise Skolnik, Understanding Social Welfare, 4th ed. (New York: Long-man, 1997), p. 295.
23. Craig W. LeCroy and Erika L. Stinson, “The Public’s Perception of Social Work: Is It What We Think It Is?” Social Work, 49, no. 2 (April 2004), pp. 164–174.
24. Ibid, p. 174.
25. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Social Workers,”
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. See William Kornblum and Joseph Julian, Social Pro-blems, 7th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), p. 468.
29. Lynne M. Healy, International Social Work (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 261.
30. Council on Social Work Education, Final Draft of the 2015 Educational Policy (EP).
31. Lynne M. Healy, International Social Work, 2nd ed.
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
32. See Idit Weiss, John Gal, and John Dixon, eds., Profes-sional Ideologies and Preferences in Social Work: A Global Study (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2003).
33. Lynne M. Healy,“International Social Welfare: Organi-zations and Activities,” Encyclopedia of Social Work, 19th ed. (Washington, DC: NASW, 1995), p. 1505.
34. Ibid.
35. Glasser, The Identity Society.
Generalist Social Work Practice
CHAPTER OUTLINE
■ Generalist Social Work Practice Defined
■ A Variety of Roles
■ Social Work with Individuals
■ Social Work with Families
■ Social Work with Groups
■ Social Work with Organizations
■ Social Work with the Community
■ Knowledge, Skills, and Values for Social Work Practice
■ Social Work Values
■ Social Work Education
The focus of this chapter will be on generalist social work practice.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
This chapter will help prepare students to:
LO1 Define generalist social work practice.
LO2 Specify roles assumed by social workers in social work practice.
LO3 Describe social work practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and the community.
LO4 Summarize the knowledge, skills, and values needed for social work practice.
LO5 Understand educational training for social work practice.
3
EP 6a