The Generalist Social Work and Social Justice - Essay Example

The generalist social worker is able to conceptual and pursue intervention on behalf of the client by working in several roles that include advocate, case manager, mediator, broker and educator among others. The generalist social work pursues social justice that empowers individuals, families, and communities while committed to ethical practice and upholding the integrity of social work as a profession. The generalist social worker assists people to move out of poverty. 2. BSW practitioner, according to the Council on Social Work Education educational policy, must be able to pursue the core professional values of the social worker while obtaining core competencies under the social work curriculum. This entails applying social work ethical principles, applying critical thinking, accepting diversity and difference, advancing human rights and social and economic justice, and engaging in practice that is research-informed among other things. 3. The primary functions of the National Association of social Works include, advancing sound social policies, maintaining professional standards of practice and providing services that protect the members and their status as professional social workers. 4. Clinical social works have master's or doctorate degrees in social work with an emphasis on mental health services and clinical experiences. 5. The history of social work is intimately tied in with helping poor people. It is possible to say it some its formal origins as urban missions came together to help people during the early years of the Industrial Revolution and mass migration during the 19th century. Eventually professionals came together in New York City and in 1889 with Jane Addams and the Hull House in Chicago. Adams also created the settlement house movement that involved providing assistance to the poor. Ida M. Cannon developed and head a multi-disciplinary social work department at a Boston hospital that become influential. In 1918 the American Association of Hospital Social workers was created as the first professional organization. 6. The end of World War I led to many nurses participating in psychiatric social work. 7. Systems are semi-organized or organized groups of interacting and interdependent people or parts that reflect dynamic interchange in which individuals must fit. Social workers help individuals resolve misfits in the various systems. 8. An ecosystem reflects an environment in which plants, animals, including humans, and microorganisms function and work together as a unit. 9. An ecosystem perspective is based on functioning in an operative balance in the environment of humans, plants, animals and microorganisms that make up a ecosystem. It entails developing and pursuing a proper fit of the client in the ecosystem environment. 10. The generalist approach attempts to understand multiple systems theory in order to creatively map a functional system of individuals, families, or communities upon it. 11. The strengths perspective engages an individuals strength and helps it to solve interpersonal and environmental problems in a way of empowering an individual to make change in their lives. 12. The conservative perspective is reflected by the Republican party and seeks to limit the role of the state or government in directly helping people by standing on the belief that the individual is powerful enough to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. The liberal perspective is reflected in general by the Democratic party and believes that collective action can positively help individuals. 13. By using an ecological framework, the generalist social worker helps people determine the best fit they have in an environment. The social worker helps the individual assess the situation and to develop an appropriate intervention to enable the achievement of goals. Tasks are developed and assigned. The social worker helps the individual to empower themselves, stand on their own, and complete the tasks with good feedback that can also enable the social worker in other interventions. 14. The 1996 Welfare Reform Act replaced to Aid to Dependent Children Act with the Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) and required individuals to work in order to get temporary relief while placing a limit of five years of cumulative assistance. Childcare money was provided and states were given power to shape their own requirements. 15. The Elizabeth Poor Law of 1601 codified the responsibility of English society to the poor by establishing a system in which people in a parish were taxed to provide funds for a poor rate that would help serve relief of the poor by creating almshouses and workhouses for them, and orphanages. 16. The residual system of welfare developed from the English Poor Laws and draws out welfare as a safety net for those who are unable to support themselves. 17. Later editions of the Elizabeth Poor Law required parishes to keep records of the poor. From these records evolved a system of social work record keeping. In the late 19th century and early 20 century the Charity Organization Societies that started in Germany and spread to the United States were engaged with keeping clear records of who were the deserving poor and who were not. This effort also helped involving record-keeping in social work. 18. Settlement houses were places that were private supported where the well off would live in a poor community to pursue social change and help for the poor. They started in England during the 1880s progressive era and then later move to the United States in New York City and notably with Jane Addams and the Hull-House in Chicago in 1889. 19. The Charity Organization Societies that started in Germany and spread to the United States during the late 19th century and early 20 century tried to encourage self help among the poor by coordinating charity activities to the poor who were deserving. 20. Social Justice means providing rights and recognition to groups who have been shut out of society due to race, sex, gender or other unjustified reason. 21. The Food Stamp Program today is known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. People in poverty or with no income receive debit-cards that enable them to buy food. The latest rules for specific qualification come from the Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act of 1996. 22. The Family Support Act under Reagan required teen mothers to remain and high school and to live with parents in some cases. It also set the stage for requiring welfare recipients to work in order to receive welfare. 23. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. 24. Privatization of government services seeks to transfer the financial burden of government services to private businesses. It is a Republican policy. 25. There has always been a wage disparity between men and women. It stemmed from the now old belief that women should stay at home and nurture children into growth. Now with women seeking full-time jobs outside of home into various professions, they also seek similar pay to men. 26. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child sought to recognize and protect the minimum rights of children world wide. It has been ratified by all countries except Somalia, a failed state, and the United States, because of conservative politicians. Read More