Importance of Social Methods, Models and Theories - Research Proposal Example

Introduction We human beings do always hope for peaceful lives, the lives free from miseries, violence, injustice and fears of unpredictable situations. Despite this fact, in our societies, we have been undergoing endless unpleasant events thorough our lives. Prompted with noble thoughts some of us move forward to extend our care and support to the needy members of the society who become the victims of unpleasant situations. This is the underlying philosophy of social work. As found in Wikipedia, Social Work is a professional and academic discipline committed to the pursuit of social welfare, social change and social justice. The field works towards research and practice to improve the quality of life and to the development of the potential of each individual, group and community of a society. Social workers perform interventions through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice and teaching. The Social Work Processes In this given case study, the past life events of the couple, Dorothy and George eventually push them to such a helplessness. The humiliating response of racial unfairness from the close environment, loss and grief of loved daughter, ending hope of having another child, the failure to meet real challenges of life because of the couple ignorance and weaknesses, the tension of financial limitation and another sudden loss of their strength,Sadie; things become difficult and danger stands active – the couple are not able to cope with the things. The condition of the couple demands care and support from other member of the society, a social service intervention through social work activities is in need indeed. Considering the couple’s overall condition, in order to extend a standard and an organised response to the couple, the following process (Social Work, UNESCO) is to apply Assessment: Establishing what are the problems or issues (with the service user and others); Assessment involves assembling full and accurate information about a service user’s circumstances and how these came about. Essential to assessment is participation by the service user and others involved (e.g. family), and continuous consultation with colleagues and workers in other agencies and services when appropriate.The information collected must be accurately recorded in a systematic way to give a clear understanding of needs and a possible plan of action. Deciding on outcomes:Working out with the service user and others what can be achieved within a given time-span; Social work is a goal-directed activity and what matters to service users is a satisfactory outcome. Evidence-based practice draws on research findings, practice wisdom and past experience to identify what works in a given situation. Service user and worker join together to share their experience and expertise and decide what needs to be changed and what are the priorities within a given time scale. Planning: Deciding with the service user and others what needs to be done, in what order, by whom, by when and how; Planning involves reaching a decision on the course of action which seems most likely to achieve the agreed outcomes. The plan should be recorded, specifying the approaches to social work to be used, the persons responsible for carrying out the work and the anticipated time scale. Note that a plan may involve a decision to do nothing. Intervention: Putting agreed plans into action; Carrying out what has been formulated in the planning process and agreed with the service user and other key people involved, using specific approaches to social work. Intervention usually involves some minor changes to plans as the situation continues to change and additional Information becomes available. Evaluation: Estimating with the service user and others how far and how well outcomes have been achieved; The process is carried out continuously as the action unfolds and in retrospect after it has been completed. It needs to look at outcomes for a range of people involved, which will differ. Outcomes could be examined in terms of the quality of life of individuals and in terms of the outcomes for different systems (e.g. use of resources). Importance of Methods, Models and Theories Social work addresses the barriers, inequities and injustices that exist in society. It responds to crises and emergencies as well as to everyday personal and social problems. Social work utilises a variety of skills, techniques, and activities consistent with its holistic focus on persons and their environments. Social work interventions range from primarily person-focused psychosocial processes to involvement in social policy, planning and development. These include counselling, clinical social work, group work, social pedagogical work, and family treatment and therapy as well as efforts to help people obtain services and resources. Interventions also include agency administration, community organisation and engaging in social and political action to impact social policy and economic development. The holistic focus of social work is universal, but the priorities of social work practice will vary from country to country and from time to time depending on cultural, historical, and socio-economic conditions. Social work practice models are set guiding concepts and principles of intervention activities. They are like recipes, they are step by step by guidelines for client sessions, for assessments plans of action for intervention for accomplishing task and evaluation plans. They are theoretical framework for analyzing and solving perceived problems - representation how things work. Most often the models are developed out of the experience and experimentation rather than theory of human behavior. A model is not tied to a particular explanation of behavior whereas a theory does. For example crisis intervention is viewed as practice model rather than practice theory because it does not rest on one single explanation of crisis situation. The term model is also used when referring to a conceptual framework that is borrowed from one field applied in another field. For example medical model (study, diagnose and treat) and legal model (an approach to social action and client advocacy involving competition and conflict among adversaries). The Theories help explain why the problem is occurring and where the most efficient intervention should place, theirs focus on clients and helping activities. They explain human behavior, the social environment, how change. Theories attempts to explain situations and social relationships in terms of describe – what is happening explain – why is it happening predict – what is likely to happen Some major theories used in social work practice system theory psychodynamic theory social learning theory conflict theory Why need theories in SW practice social worker feel more safe and competent in their practice, reduces feeling of helplessness and fear of unknown teaches social worker how to perceive people through their resources, not to clarify them according to their problems the more social worker use theories, less they use intuition, and it makes social work practice more professional theories help social worker to make sense of a situation. using theory the worker can generate ideas about what is going on, why things are as they are etc. for example information collected in assessment may look like jumble, applying theory can help “make sense” of the information help to justify actions and explain practice to service users and society in general, with the aim towards more widely accountable and so more respected in work with individuals, making use of theories which may relate to their specific situations will give worker more direction in social worker work with service users help explanation, why an action resulted in particular consequences. this help to review and possibly change our practice in an attempt to make the consequences more effective The following are some principal tools use in social work practice; 1. Case Work Approach Case work is when we are involved individually with a client who has a problem. It involves interaction between us and our client or a family unit. Case work incorporates the following methods: a) Problem-Solving. The emphasis is on releasing the client’s fears and anxieties, and motivating him to deal with his problems. b) Functional Casework. This puts emphasis on giving and receiving help. It is built on the basis that human beings use human relationships, including the relationship with us, to find and strengthen their own purpose, and move towards its realization. c) Crisis-Oriented Short-Term Casework. This realizes the vulnerability of individuals in dealing with personal crisis. Its primary value lies in helping the client deal with his/her emotional upset. In this case, the brevity of the social worker’s service, and evidence of its effectiveness, are important. d) Task-Centred Casework. This method incorporates crisis intervention, problem solving, and functional approaches. It involves identifying the problem, sharing the task of problem-solving with our client, and setting a deadline for achieving our goals. Elements for Successful Outcomes in Case Work 1. Identifying the specific aims and goals to be achieved, usually short-term definite goals. 2. Clarifying what the worker and agency have to offer. 3. Structuring the role and what is expected of the client. 4. Specifying the tasks which need to be accomplished in order to reach the goals. 5. Using time, usually a short specified period. Major Emphasis in Case Work There are certain problem areas in social casework. You need to focus on those areas to guide you in determining from what social problem your client is suffering. You will have to isolate these factors in a problem situation, and determine how best to work with the client to achieve an equilibrium effectively. The following are the areas we need to focus on: a) Individualization This aspect of casework recognizes the client as the focus of attention. It maximizes the client’s participation in finding a solution to his own problems, without running the danger of showing disinterest, and lack of concern, on our part. b) Communication This aspect recognizes a person’s difficulty in asking for help, and we should try to create a climate which is not threatening, and which helps the client discuss his/her problem. c) Information This aspect recognizes the fact that most clients do not know what alternatives are open to them, and how they can avail themselves of these alternatives, let alone how to make informed choices once they are known. We need to provide the client with information which is helpful. 2. Institutionalization In some cases, a handicap, illness, or problem, may be so intense that the client needs to be referred to an institution. The institution should be able to deal with the problem and should provide assistance. There may be a number of people affected by the same illness, which will make it easier to obtain treatment. It is important for all counsellors and social workers to obtain a list of names of institutions that deal with certain problems. This should help us refer our clients to these institutions if a problem is beyond our control. Many countries are now moving away from the idea of institutionalization in favour of community-based outreach programmes. There is the belief that family support and a familiar environment may bring about faster recovery, because even family members receive help and support from the social worker. 3. Group Work Approach The group work approach refers to a technique where we deal with groups of people either in centres or institutions, as opposed to individual persons or individual families. The group work approach, therefore, involves interaction between a client and a group of people with the same needs. Examples of social services using a group work approach are the institutions for the elderly, programmes for single parents, correctional centres, street gang work, residential or day camping, alcohol abuse support groups, and AIDS support groups. Crisis Dorothy is encountering a time of difficulty and danger. She is not able to cope with things. She is in crisis. We have a strength to work out as the case provide information almost in details about the Dorothy and George, unfair wave of racial disparity in the early part of couple’s lives that stimulates psychological and physical disturbances and disadvantage (limited family support), loss and grief at the time of their daughter demise, limited financial challenge, George’s mental illness of dementia complicated with incontinent, Dorothy is in a serious crisis as her husband in deteriorating condition and sudden loss of her sister who has been a strength to her. On the other hand Dorothy has not talked about the challenges, unaware of the residential care, so not initiated request to the social service groups, there is a lack of strength. Dorothy’s niece, Jane has a relationship with Dorothy even it is not close one, Jane be engaged with the planning of the assessment also for the coincidental loss of her mother. Racial elements in the community environment and other far away family relatives of Dorothy is yet be addressed an attempt to include in the process is desirable. The Crisis intervention comes in the line of social work processes. It is based on ego psychology, which derives from Freud and those who built on his work. It developed around the observations of Caplan (1965) and others of how people coped with a crisis in their lives, particularly one which involved a mental health problem or bereavement. They observed that people dealt better with a crisis if they had successfully dealt with a previous crisis. Their work developed into an approach designed to prevent mental health problems by intervening in a timely way, and by helping people to build supportive social networks. The connection with the ego is the belief that we strive to deal with threats to our ego, and when in crisis we are highly motivated and more likely to accept help or try new strategies to avoid disintegration. Crisis intervention is based around stages (relieving immediate problems, making connections with past events and helping to build supportive networks). The emphasis is on building on the person’s resources while at the same time providing enough support to help them get through the initial trauma. The following model incorporates steps from a seven-stage model for crisis intervention. This nine-stage model is slightly more comprehensive (Crisis Intervention U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration). Step 1: Rapidly Establish a Constructive Relationship In the first step, the emphasis is on crisis worker sincerity, respect, and sensitivity to clients’ feelings and circumstances. Crisis we must listen and observe for long periods of time. Active listening gives clients a chance to develop their own strengths. By assuming that clients are motivated, they are supported in thinking through their solutions, which enhances their self-respect. Must assure that the client feels that something useful has been accomplished in the first session and that there is promise of something useful being accomplished in the next. Rapport is enhanced by showing respect and unconditional positive regard for clients. Crisis workers need to start with the assumption that people are basically good. Step 2: Elicit and Encourage Expression of Painful Feelings and Emotions Anger, frustration, and feelings related to the current crisis are the focus of intervention rather than issues in the past. Linkages to past crises and repetitive, ineffective responses to problems can be explored at a later time. Step 3: Discuss the Precipitating Event After rapport is established, the focus turns to the family perceptions of the situation, the chain of events leading up to the crisis, and the problem that set off the chain of events. Discussions examine when and how the crisis occurred, the contributing circumstances, and how the family attempted to deal with it. Step 4: Assess Strengths and Needs Family assessment of strengths and needs begins immediately and continues throughout crisis intervention. The crisis worker draws conclusions regarding the family’s strengths and needs related to the current crisis and, with the family, evaluates the potential for recovery. Client strengths are tapped to improve self-esteem, while also providing energy and skills for problem-solving. Step 5: Formulate a Dynamic Explanation This step looks for an explanation not of what happened, but why it happened. This is the core of the crisis problem. The meaning of the crisis and its antecedents as seen by the clients are explored. Why do they ascribe that meaning or perceive it as they do? Step 6: Restore Cognitive Functioning In this step, the crisis worker helps the family identify alternatives for resolving the crisis (i.e., reasonable solutions toward which the family is motivated to work). Step 7: Plan and Implement Treatment The crisis worker assists the family in the formulation of short- and long-term goals, objectives, and action steps based on what the family chooses as priorities. With a concrete plan of action, the family feels less helpless, more in control, allowing members to focus on action steps. Objectives and action steps need to be simple and easy at first, assuring client success. The family members are responsible for action steps or homework, but the crisis worker continues to counsel them, seeks to help find appropriate resources in the community, and becomes the family’s advocate. Step 8: Terminate Termination occurs when the family achieves its pre-crisis level of stability. Crisis workers review with the family the precipitating event(s) and response(s) and the newly learned coping skills that can be applied in the future. The crisis worker assures that the family is scheduled for meetings with, and committed to, any necessary, ongoing community services. Step 9: Follow-up Crisis workers arrange for continuing contacts with families and referral sources on predetermined dates or by saying “I’ll be contacting you soon to see how you are doing.” This puts appropriate pressure on families to continue to work on issues in a positive way. Psychological First Aid Psychological first aid, or helping to reduce anxiety by listening and reassuring the family, is critical to the establishment of rapport. This requires hours of listening on the part of crisis workers. Psychological first aid may also be a one-time intervention offered by neighbors, relatives, churches, or helping agencies that provide money, food, housing, or transportation. Although this support system is extremely important in the overall crisis response, it does not teach clients to problem-solve and, in fact, may leave the clients to struggle with repetitive crises. If possible, crisis workers need to persuade community support systems to stay involved with the family after the initial crisis period, going well beyond the psychological first aid stage. Establishment of consistent friendships and other community supports can help avert future crises. Rehabilitative Crisis Intervention As Slaikeu states in Crisis Intervention: A Handbook for Practice and Research, rehabilitative crisis intervention aims to help “the client deal with the impact of the crisis event in all areas of the client’s life.” Through resolution of one crisis, the client can gain skills for facing and solving future problems, rather than developing a repetitive cycle of being “rescued” from similar crises. This does not mean that the primary focus is on all areas of the client’s life. Instead, by staying focused and being successful in problem-solving, clients learn skills that are transferable to all areas of their lives and can be used to resolve future crises. Even though the focus is on current problems, many clients come to understand how past, unresolved trauma contributed to maladaptive attempts to solve the present crisis. Theories of Loss and Grief The theories of loss and grief help us to enhance our sensitivity to what happens when we work with the bereaved. The theories suggest that the bereaved need to engage with their loss and work through it, so that life can be reordered and meaningful again. It helps us to recognise that grief reactions can have physical, emotional, cognitive, behavioural, sexual and spiritual components, varying in length and disruptiveness. Through this experience, adequate and appropriate support may alleviate the probability of future ill-health and complications. Worden’s tasks of bereavement give a framework to guide the bereaved in their grief work, while the dual process model demonstrates the need to deal with secondary stresses as well as the primary loss, with time away from both. It is also important to recognise that the bereaved do not need to forget and leave the deceased behind, but can integrate them into their future lives by means of a continuing bond positively. The theory indicate that the understanding the family dynamic is often of great importance for counsellors in identifying possible tensions between members and assessing how members may influence or be influenced by others, as well as understanding what the death means to each member. Each bereaved person is unique and will deal with a significant death in their own way; therefore there is no one right or wrong way to grieve. The challenge that faces practitioners each time we meet a bereaved person is to find what helps them best. Supporting a bereaved person lies in ‘being with’ them, listening intently to their story, acknowledging their feelings and guiding them to work towards a new, different and meaningful life. Systems Theory A general systems perspective examines the way components of a system interact with one another to form a whole. Rather than just focusing on each of the separate parts, a systems perspective focuses on the connectedness and the interrelation and interdependence of all the parts. A systems perspective permits one to see how a change in one component of the system affects the other components of the system, which in turns affects the initial component. The application of the systems perspective has particular relevance to the study of the family as families are comprised of individual members who share a history, have some degree of emotional bonding, and develop strategies for meeting the needs of individual members and the family as a group (Anderson and Sabatelli 1999). Family systems theory allows one to understand the organizational complexity of families, as well as the interactive patterns that guide family interaction. The systems theory, in working with communities on issues involving social change, a theoretical framework can make a difference in perceiving, analysing, and acting in what is often a complex situation. The ideas and concepts of the theory can be valuable as ways to understand and conceptualize human beings, communication, their communities and their environment. They are concerned with bettering the conditions of the individuals who make up such systems. Make understand how hierarchies and parental responsibility in family structures work, and determine when those hierarchies or responsibilities are not functioning properly, as well as when physical intervention may be necessary to protect members of the family. Conclusion This academic write up provides me an exercise opportunity to comprehend the methods, models and theories in social work practice. In attempt to accomplish this assignment I have gone through various resource materials which in return enlighten my understanding horizontally and vertically. Here I am able to assimilate that social work in its various forms addresses the multiple, complex transactions between people and their environments. Its mission is to enable all people to develop their full potential, enrich their lives, and prevent dysfunction. Professional social work within the acceptable principles, ethics and standard is focused on problem solving and change. As such, social workers are change agents in society and in the lives of the individuals, families and communities they serve. Social work is an interrelated system of values, theory and practice. References 1. Social Work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_work. 2. Introduction to the social work practice. http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?. 3. UNESCO, ED. 99/WS/12Copyright, Feb., 2000, Printed. 4. Definition of social work. http://www.ifsw.org/f38000138.html. 5. Lee, Flamand, General Systems Theory. www.ehow.com. 6. Caplan, G. (1965) Principles of Preventive Psychiatry, London,Tavistock. 7. H. J. Parad and L. G. Parad, eds., Crisis Intervention Book 2: The Practitioner’s Sourcebook for Brief Therapy (Milwaukee: Family Service America, 1990), 3? 4. 8. Borgman, Edmunds, and MacDicken, Crisis Intervention, 10? 12. 9. Department of Health (2002) The Single Assessment Process: Guidance for Local Implementation, London, The Stationery Office Egan, G. (1986) The Skilled Helper, London, Brookes Cole. 10. Thompson, N. (2002) ‘Social work with adults’ in Adams, R., Dominelli, L. and Payne,M. (2002) SocialWork:Themes Issues and Critical Debates, Basingstoke, Palgrave. 11. Social Work Essays. http://www.ukessays.com/custom-essays/custom-social-work essays.php. 12. A. Slaikeu, Crisis Intervention: A Handbook for Practice and Research (Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon,1990). 13. The New Social Worker. Fall 2010Vol. 17, Number 4 http://www.socialworker.com. 14. Worden JW. Grief counselling and grief therapy, 1sted. London: Tavistock; 1983. 15. (Anderson and Sabatelli 1999). http://family.jrank.org/pages/599/Family-Systems-Theory.html#ixzz1Ikzltcul. 16. Social Work Practice (2008). Tata Institute of Social Sciences. 17. Thoery of Social Work Practice. http://www.wepapers.com/Papers/Theories_of_Social_Work-ppt. 18. Human Rights and Social Work (1994), UN Publications. New York, Geneva. Read More