Supervision in Social Work - Research Paper Example

Supervision in Social Work Grade (April 12, Supervision in Social Work Introduction Social work supervision refers to the interaction between the supervisor and the supervisee within a social work setting, such as in health or human services context. Social work supervision is not only a responsibility of the supervisor, but rather a structural collaboration between the supervisor and the supervisee, towards the achievement of the best client outcomes (Tsui, 2005). While the supervisor is responsible for developing competency in the supervisee, the supervisee is responsible for delivering quality services to the clients, through adhering to the highest standards of ethics and responsible practice (Reamer, 2003). Thus, this discussion seeks to evaluate the relevance of supervision in social work, with a view to underlining the different types of supervisions necessary for the accomplishment of effective social work services delivery. A brief literature review Supervision in social work has become an important aspect of determining the success of maintaining the best practices in both the health and human services professions. Successful client outcomes, is the major target of social work supervision (Noble & Irwin, 2009). Through good supervision, high levels of job satisfaction are achieved, while commitment to the organization and a high rate of social workers is realized. The first area through which social work employees are able to perceive the nature of support that they are offered by their organization is in supervision. This is because; social work consists of emotionally charged nature of tasks, which then requires that the social workers are granted sufficient support in order to be able to cope with the nature of their work. Thus, effective social work supervision has been identified as one of the ways of enhancing social workers retention within health and human services organizations (Reamer, 2003). The relevance of supervision in social work draws from the fact that the knowledge of social work has greatly increased, while the population served by the social workers has increasingly become complex. Equally relevant in the social work profession is the need to protect the clients from any form of harm that might arise out of unethical social practices that degrades the client’s dignity or breaches their confidentiality (Pack, 2009). In this respect, it is essential that all social workers are suitably equipped with the right skills and training to deliver social services effectively, while also ensuing that any form of assistance that the social workers might need to execute social work responsibilities effectively, is within reach. Therefore, social work supervision is integral part of the social services delivery in ensuring the protection of the client, supporting social work practitioners and ensuring quality services delivery by competent social workers (Kadushin & Harkness, 2002). Social work supervision has been defined as the relationship existing between the social work supervisors and the supervisees, in which the supervisors are responsible for developing accountability, competence and ethical practices in the supervisee (Davis, 2010). The central role of the supervisor is to provide direction to the supervisee, who in turn applies the standardized knowledge, competency and skills within a practicing setting, to deliver the desired outcomes (Itzhaky, 2000). Thus, as opposed to the superior-to-subordinate relationship that exists in other professional fields between the supervisor and the supervisee, the field of social work requires that both the supervisor and the supervisee takes responsibility in the delivery of the desired outcome through a collaborative process. In the process of supervision, the quality of the services delivered to the clients is evaluated and adjusted as may be necessary, for the sake of increasing the benefits of the clients (Shulman, 1993). While the supervisee bears the responsibility of delivering quality services to the client, it is the responsibility of a social work supervisor to ensure that appropriate, competent and ethical services have been delivered to the clients. The essential factors in the creation of an effective relationship between the supervisor and the supervisee in social work are support, trust and confidentiality (Christie, 2009). Therefore, while there are different methods that exist which the supervisor can apply in social work supervision, it is incumbent upon the individual supervisor to define the model that is most applicable in the setting and context of his/her practice. Social work supervision has been divided into three distinct categories. The first category is the administrative supervision, which is oriented towards helping the social workers realize the organizational policies and achieve public accountability. Thus, the responsibilities of the social work supervisor under administrative supervision is to translate the organizational policies, objectives and visions into tasks to be performed by the social workers (Morazes, et al., 2010). Here, the administrative supervisor bears the burden of ensuring that the work is done, and done in accordance with the policies of the organization. Educational supervision is the second category of social work supervision, which entails the development of a learning collaboration between the supervisor and the supervisee. Under the educational supervision, the social work supervisor develops specific work competence in the supervisee through teaching the supervisee the relevant work skills, while also fostering the sense of self-awareness of the responsibility of the supervisee to deliver the assigned work tasks competently (Itzhaky, 2000). Under educational supervision, the social work supervisor also teaches the supervisee the relevant knowledge, skill and attitudes that enhance a positive and productive interaction between the social worker and the clients. On the other hand, the third category of social work supervision; support supervision, deals with decreasing the job related stress that may interfere with the effective delivery of services by the social workers to the clients (Tsui, 2005). In this respect, the social work supervisor bears the responsibility of creating a favorable working environment for the social workers, while at the same time ensuring to enhance the social workers’ motivation. Case study: Harriet’s Worst Two Weeks Harriet is a volunteer social worker who has been posted in a women rescue center (WRC), which deals with rescuing women who have experienced severe domestic violence and abuses, and giving them an alternative shelter. Harriet just completed her degree in social work, and was seeking for an area where she could derive real social work experience at least for a year, before she joins employment. Thus, immediately after graduating, Harriet travelled to this women rescue center and asked to be enrolled as a volunteer worker. Despite the fact that the institution does not offer attachments or internships for students due to the sensitive nature of issues it handles, and the high level of confidentiality required to deal with the issues of the abused women, WRC agreed to recruit Harriet as a volunteer social worker, although under very strict codes of confidentiality. At first, Harriet was greatly elated by the opportunity, since she knew that she had got an opportunity where she could get a full year of real social work experience, after which she would seek for employment in this field. However, all this had to change in the second week of her working in WRC, after she got a real taste of the nature of tasks that she was required to undertake every day. Addressing the needs of abused women is not easy, especially when one has no real training in psychology or other related field of mental or emotional therapy. Further, WRC did not offer accommodation for the children of the women who had undergone abuse or severe domestic violence, which also increased the stress for the women who had left their children at home. The policy of WRC was to save the abused women from more harm, as they recovered and took the necessary legal action towards processing the divorces or addressing the custody of their children. Thus, Harriet had to deal with a variety of stress issues for the women, while at the same time helping them nurse their physical wounds. By the end of the second week, Harriet was also running into bouts of stress panics, whenever she would visualize her life with a man. In fact, after the first week of working in WRC, Harriet had already broken up with her boyfriend, because of the notion she had got from the women that no man is any good. Any time she tried to focus on the harm that the abused women had been caused by the men in their lives, she could not fathom ever living with a man. As if this stress was not already enough, the line manager in the rescue rooms that Harriet was serving did not welcome the presence of a volunteer outsider to the rescue center, arguing that Harriet was just an outsider who would eventually leave the rescue center and breach the confidentiality policy. Thus, Harriet had to deal with the problem of the stress that she was caused by the women she was attending, while at the same time handling the stress she was experiencing from her services being unappreciated by the line manager. When it became too much for Harriet, she met with a recently employed colleague, and discussed with her the nature of experiences she was going through while trying to serve in WRC. While they were discussing these issues over the lunch break, her line manager overhead them and reported Harriet to the management for breach of confidentiality policy of the WRC, since she was discussing issues of the abused women with another colleague. Thus, by evening, Harriet was already prepared to pack her items and head home without the chance of ever being able to complete her one year experience in social work that she really wanted to complete before heading for the employment world. The confidentiality policy of the WRC also prohibited an employee of the rescue center from discussion any matter related to the rescue center and its operations with any outsiders or insiders, unless with the line manager. This policy placed Harriet between a rock and a hard place, because she could not discuss any matter of her experiences openly and comfortably with her line manager, yet she was prohibited from doing the same with anyone else. Thus, by the close of the day on that fateful Thursday, Harriet was depressed than she had ever been in her life. Discussion of the case Key supervision issues represented in case The Key supervision issues represented in case include the issue of administrative supervision, organizational policy, education supervision, support supervision and social work competency. The issue of administrative supervision in the case demonstrates inadequacy, owing to the fact that Harriet’s line manager was the immediate supervisor of Harriet, who ought to have given her all the supported she needed towards acclimatizing to the new work environment. Through regular and structured interaction with supervisors, social work supervisees learn how to manage caseloads, perform key tasks as well as devise the right interventions for the client’s needs (Kadushin & Harkness, 2002). Thus, should there have been a structured interaction between the line manager and Harriet, it would have been easier for both of them to understand each other, and thus have the line manager support Harriet gain the right competence in addressing the abused women’s needs. Additionally, supervision is an opportunity for the supervisees to receive the right emotional support for undertaking what can be normally emotionally draining tasks (Morazes, et al., 2010). Further, supervision is also an opportunity that allows the supervisees to reflect on their professional development. Thus, the fact that Harriet had a line manager who had already worked in WRC for long and therefore understood the nature of work was an opportunity for her to get the right emotional support. This would have enabled her overcome the psychological and emotional stress she was undergoing related to the nature of work. In addition, the line manager would have also helped Harriet to develop the necessary skills and competencies, which would have enabled her to address the stresses facing the abused women, without being affected by their stress personally. Support supervision is yet another issue that has come out of this case, where the policies of the organization are prohibitive, as opposed to being facilitative of supervisory effectiveness. Supervision is the suitable alternative to the managerialist approach of running organizations, which requires strict adherence to rules and procedures of bureaucracy within an organization (Davis, 2010). Supervision is more oriented towards reflection and personal development, at the expense of the managerialist orientation of efficiency, accountability and work performance (Davis, 2010). Thus, supervision ought to have helped Harriet overcome both her personal and work-related challenges. The policy considerations in this case indicate a major weakness in the WRC reporting policies. The fact that the organizational policy limited the consultation of the employees to their line managers only is detrimental to the supervisory competency of the administrators. Education supervision and social work competency are is key elements of social work supervision that are lacking in this case. While it is apparent that Harriet was not competent in addressing the needs of the abused women without personalizing their issues, the line manager did not offer her adequate support training on how to address the issues. This caused Harriet to continue internalizing and personalizing the abused women’s issues, thus eventually becoming negatively affected. The leadership style at play in this case is the bureaucratic leadership style, which requires the subordinates to follow a strict line of authority that is rarely negotiable (Pack, 2009). Both the organizational policy and the leadership style of Harriet’s line manager are characteristically bureaucratic, requiring that employees follow a strict procedure of consultation. The ethical issue of the supervisor that is apparent in this case is the unethicalness of Harriet’s line manager in telling on Harriet to the WRC administration, without first being able to gather all the facts of why she was discussing confidential matters of the clients with her colleague. An ethical decision would have been for the line manager to first understand Harriet and her situation, before she could report her to the WRC administration, and cause her to lose the opportunity to gain the one-year experience in social work that she so coveted. The alternative supervisor response in this case should be for the line manager to get concerned with the issues of the employees, and assist them to deliver quality services to the clients. On the other hand, the alternative response for Harriet as a supervisee should be to approach the line manager for assistance with her issues, since that is what the organizational policy requires. The overall impact of the supervisor-to-supervisee relationship demonstrated in the case is to cause poor delivery of service to the clients. This is because, when the employees are not able to get adequate assistance from their supervisors, they cannot be able to deliver quality services to the clients (Kadushin & Harkness, 2002). Further, the poor supervisor-to-supervisee relationship demonstrated in the case affects the organizational work culture for WRC, through creating the bare-minimum culture of work, where the employees do the bare minimum in their duties, due to being demoralized. Thus, it is recommended that WRC adapts an open organizational policy. An open organizational policy is suitable for an organization that deals with social work tasks that are such emotionally draining. An open organizational policy will help the workers in such an emotionally overwhelming work environment to consult with anyone they might consider relevant. This will in turn help such affected employees to unburden their emotional and psychological burden associated with the nature of work more effectively. Conclusion Social work supervision is central to the effective delivery of quality services to the clients. Administrative supervision helps to define the tasks to be accomplished. On the other hand, educational supervision allows the employs to acquire the desired skills and competence, while support supervision helps the employees to unburden both emotional and psychological stress related to their nature of work. Thus, social work supervision is not only relevant in helping achieve quality service delivery to clients, but also an area of encouragement, validation and assistance, which helps in creating individual employee competence, responsibility and accountability in social services delivery. References Christie, A. (2009). Workplace abuse: Roles of the supervisor and the supervisee. Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 6(1). Retrieved from www.socialworker.com/jswve/content/view/114/67/ Davis, R. T. (2010). Constructing a profession of social work: The role of social work supervision. Social Work Review, 9(1). 20-30. Itzhaky, H. (2000). The Secret in Supervision: An Integral Part of thr Social Workers Professional Development. Families in society, 8(5), p.529-536. Kadushin, A. & Harkness, D. (2002). Supervision in Social Work. Chapter 8 (4th ed.). New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 329-388. Morazes, J.L. et al. (2010). 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