Sowindv Famlys- CH. I - Lecture notes one PDF

Preview

Summary

first chapter notes...

Description

● SOW INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES -- FIRST CHAPTER

● Generalist Social Work Practice ○ Ask “what’s working well for you” ○ Not ‘what’s wrong with u’ ○ Focus on what families can still do something about, what they have control over ○ Genersalist SOW’s set the stage for empowerment of families by honing in what their strengths are [STRENGTH BASED PERSPECTIVE] ○ Added strength emphasis coupled with their competence ○ Many families difficulty arise from non-controllable factors -- lack of or scarce resources ○ Ask : what can we do to build your strengths ■ Families are capable of making change ■ Prompt families to collaborate with SOW as partners in change process ○ Common for families to benefit from connections to the support of interpersonal relationships ○ Family Preservation Worker ■ Work w/ families to manage network of social services ■ Duties performed include, but not limited to; ● House assistance ● Job training ● Crisis childcare ● Child abuse prevention ○ Broadens focus and look beyond needs of individual families ○ Families often seek professional voice to speak for them at government level, policy, and resource allocation

○ SOW challenged w/ enabling to have access to their own unique strengths ○ Generalist SOW’s also empower families to use their personal strengths to their advantage/their unique characteristics ○ Needs of families and children should be convergent → benefits to children will lead to family cohesiveness ○ Remember that family reunification can still be difficult despite positive outcomes ○ Economic considerations are major force motivating development of policies that favor family preservation ● USE SIMPLE QUESTIONS THAT FAMILIES CAN UNDERSTAND ○ Sets tone and bond between the clients and the SOW ○ Better tone increases rapport and leads to successful solutions ● Social Work Values and Principles ○ Social Work field include [but not limited to]: ■ Family services ■ School SOW ■ Mental health ■ Community/Organization planning ■ Medical/Clinical SOW ■ Probation ■ Child Welfare ■ House/urban development ● NASW Code of Ethics ○ Common professional Identity ○ Enhance human well-being ○ Help meet basic needs ○ Empower the oppressed/vulnerable

○ ^these are basic SOW Preamble ● SOW goals ○ Strengthen human functioning and promote the effectiveness of societal structures ○ Focus on P-I-E [person in the environment] ● PIE DEFINED ○ Person in environment ○ Facilitate adaptive functioning of families and protect their unity ○ Create resource-rich environment , as well as responsive that contributes to overall stability ● SOW Shaping ○ SOW attitudes shaped by human dignity and worth/social justice ○ Purpose shapes SOW actions ● Human DIgnity and Worth ○ Non-discriminatory views of humankind ○ Treat clients with individualization/diversity ○ Promote self-determination ○ Strengthen clients capacities/opportunities for social change ○ IFSW/ASSW affirm that human rights follow from respect for inherent dignity and worth of all people ○ SOW are expected to defend/uphold the physical,, psychological, emotional, and spiritual integrity /well-being of all persons by:DUTIES ■ Respect right to self-determination ■ Promote right to participation ■ Treating each persona as a whole ■ identify /develop strengths ● Social Justice ○ All members of a society have equal access to societal resources,

opportunities, political influence, and benefits ○ Social Justice works when: ■ ALL members benefit from the resources that a society offers ■ ALL members have opportunities to contribute to that societies pool of resources ● Political Realities and Ethical Dilemmas ○ Reisch notes a paradox of defining justice principles based on a sociopolitical-economic system that serves INJUSTICE ○ Tension exists between asserting individual rights and advancing the common food in allocating societal resources ● Fabric of social justice [IESWASS] ○ Challenging negative discrimination ○ Recognizing Diversity ○ Distributing resources equitably ○ Challenging unjust policies ○ Working in solidarity ● Social Injustice ○ Encroachments on human/civil rights, deny equal access to opportunities/resources, which limits full participation in society ● SOW VALUES contd. ○ Service ○ Social justice ○ Dignity and worth of the person ○ Importance of human relationships ○ Integrity ○ Competence ● SOW purpose ○ Focus on releasing human power in individuals to reach their potential

and contribute to the collective good of society ○ Trademark → simultaneous focus on persons and their impinging social and physical environments ● SOW RESEARCH ○ Research contributes to SOW theory and evaluates practice methods ○ When resources don’t exist, practitioners generate new opportunities/programs ● NASW charges practitioners to work toward a humane and adequate social service delivery system ● SOW participate in policy development ● effective/ethical SOW depends on practitioner using research based theory and methods as well as contributing to knowledge base thru research ● Generalist SOW ○ integrated/multilevel approach meeting SOW purposes ○ Acknowledge interplay of personal and collective issues ○ Create changes that maximize human system functioning ○ Intervene with organizations to enhance the responsiveness of resource systems ○ Major premises ■ Human behavior is inextricably connected to the social/physical environment ■ Enhance the functioning of any human system ■ Work with any level of a human system - from individual to society; uses similar social work processes ● Levels of Intervention in Generalist SOW ○ Intervention at multiple system levels ■ Wide angle lens ■ Takes in whole, even when looking at individual parts

■ Visualize potential clients and agents for change on a continuum ranging from micro to mezzo ● Micro level systems Interventions ○ Focuses on work with people individually, in families, or in small groups to foster changes within personal functioning, in social relationships and in the ways people interact with social/institutional resources ● Clinical Practice Knowledge/skills ○ Crisis intervention ○ Family Therapy ○ Linkage ○ Referral ○ Use of group resources ● Mezzo level SYstem Intervention ○ Creates change in task groups, teams, organization and network of service delivery ○ Ex: families embarrassed by lunch subsidies bc schools have separate lines → SOW would work directly with school policy ● Macro level Intervention ○ Addresses social problems in community, institutions, and societal systems ○ Change methods ■ Neighborhood organizing ■ Community planning ■ Locality development ■ Public education ■ Policy development

■ Social action ○ A workers testimony at legislative hearing reflects a macro level strategy to support a comprehensive national family welfare policy ● Professional level Intervention ○ Addressing issues within social work profession ○ Project professional identity, define professional relationships with social work ○ Reorient priorities within social work profession ● Reorganize system service delivery ● policy/generalist practice ○ Social policy → determines how a society distributes its resources among members to promote well-being ● Value based policies, implicitly guide how we orient SOW’s to the profession ● Policy shapes bureaucracy and structure of agency practice - a culture that ultimately defines who gets services and what services they got ● Policy adjustments made by constantly changing social realities...