Social Work Interventions - Term Paper Example

 Social Work Interventions A complex and contested professional activity, which aims to cater social needs of people, can be understood as a social work. Professionals working as social workers have to accept and understand the set of core values and regulations along with the need for guidance regarding the purpose and perspective of social work. Fundamental core values are needed to carry out social work with efficiency, social justice, dignity, recognition of individuals’ values and relationships, integrity, and competence. For many centuries, one aspect of such social work has been concerned with providing care and shelter to children who live under challenging circumstances. Social workers dealing with cases of children and their parents require special knowledge, training, skills, and understanding of values in order to support sensitive needs of young individuals. Different intervention models and approaches are adopted by professionals to cater needs of children and their families in most suitable and effective manners. This paper aims to compare and contrast two specific approaches or models of intervention that influence the social work practice involving children and their families. For this paper, task-centred practice and model of respondent/classical conditioning have been selected. Learning can take place in various ways as individuals go through various experiences and relationships with both living and non-living elements in their surrounding environments that become sources of learning and development. This system or process of learning is called as classical or respondent conditioning. In this system, learning is often based upon the punishment that is resulted from individuals exhibiting or getting involved in certain types of behaviours (operant or instrumental conditioning). This system can also be supported by observational learning which is considered useful for achieving improvement in performances of children in different aspects of their childhood. Social workers, who deal with children and family cases, confront different challenges due to differences in behaviours and responses of individuals to a specific situation, condition or environment (Thompson 2000;Healy 2005). Children particularly have more sensitivity and tend to exhibit much simpler views and responses towards the environment and conditions built around them. Here, it can be noticed that for social workers it is highly important to prepare plans and adopt interventions with a proper knowledge of the influences and outcomes after implementations. Researchers have explored that since the beginning of the 21st century, social work education has undergone a revolutionary transformation to guarantee that social workers need to be educated enough to understand the importance and utilization of different models of interventions in order to cater people's need effectively and sufficiently. Children who undergo domestic disturbances or broken family relationship issues often suffer with psychological disorders like stress, anxiety, depression, and different types of phobias during their lives. In these circumstances, social workers handling cases of disturbed families and children should understand the fact that such disorders may have resulted from classical conditioning and these cases should be resolved through proper intervention model of classical / respondent conditioning (Healy 2005). In social work practices, classical conditioning appears as a procedure of identifying and then establishing factors of behaviour via stimuli to the external environment or particular response sequences. Classical conditioning approach helps social workers understand that people experience different behavioural changes or problems throughout their lifetimes due to the presence of certain conditions or factors. Like one can start over eating or substance abuse as a result of just mere boredom. Moreover, an adult family member particularly fathers often show symptoms of anxiety-related problems which affects spousal relationships as well as parental bond making them weak. In such cases, the classical conditioning model of social work can be implemented in a way that options like counselling can be adopted to help individuals to overcome their issues and problems (Stepney and Ford 2000). Based on the selected intervention model, counselling can be done after considerable inquisition and understanding of behaviours or responses given by subjects as a result of their frustration or anxiety disorders. Professionals applying this model of intervention are often involved in handling cases which involve a father or mother addicted to drugs and who mostly urge for them when they encounter boredom. Professionals can help such individuals by changing conditional pairing between drug and boredom with an alternative such as encouragement for exercise, walking in airy locations, or watching movie with family (Stepney and Ford 2000). Similarly, in case of children it can be noted that a series of stressful classroom presentations can result in generating fear of public speaking and they even start to fear speaking in front of their parents, friends, and other relatives. This phobia creates a negative impact on their personalities and weakens friendly bonds in their lives. In such classical condition, social work practices must make influence by acknowledging different types of phobia experienced by children. A deep understanding of the subject issue and approaches of identification are needed to plan necessary steps required to help such children. Moreover, such children can be given training or assistance for preparing messages that they may want to deliver to others (Trevithick 2000). Three, four or ten times practicing drills in isolation or in front of a mirror can help develop confidence in children and once they deliver speech or speak up in the public this exercise can help them overcome their fears. Appreciation of children for their achievements can further contribute to develop greater confidence during speeches or debates in the future. In a similar manner, fear of rank-ordered faced by working members of the family can also be handled in a way that the social worker helps working members by pair relaxation with exercises rather than stress. It is because such fears among mothers or fathers can result in the domestic disturbance due to their behaviour with their partners and children (Trevithick 2000). On the other hand, there is another intervention model used by social workers to address needs of children and their families, which is known as task-centred practice. This approach implies that an important focus should be made upon the client-defined problems and motives. With this intervention model, social workers tend to develop collaborative relationships and focus on problems to suggest long-term problem solving approaches (Parker & Bradley, 2010). As the name of intervention model clearly suggests that with task-centred approaches, social workers cater needs of children and families by identifying their particular problems that arise from unrealized desires. Practices of social work are carried out as structured contracts through which children problem and family goals are mutually agreed upon by both the social worker and victim of problem (Munro 2008). It is the most practical model of social work because it targets root of the problem to be addressed as it simply suggests advantageous and demanded changes that can be gained for children and their families by working in collaboration with a particular focus on the area of concern. It is a collaborative process which involves almost equal participation of both social worker and client because task-centred approaches may require referral, resource information or performing an advocacy task (Munro 2008). Here, a case study is considered and discussed of Mrs. Carter and her counsellor Mr. Rooney, a social worker, who helped her quit alcohol addiction and other unhealthy practices of her routine life. Mrs. Cater is forty years old African American widow woman, who had given birth to five children and recently, she had run away from the foster home. Mr. Rooney is a member of public child welfare agency assigned to the case of Mrs. Cater. Recently, Mrs. Cater was supposed to be hospitalized; however, she did not agree as she believed that she will undergo surgery in the hospital; in fact her admission was scheduled for assisting her with overcoming her alcohol addiction. It was also decided that during her stay at the hospital her children will be taken into temporary custody at the child welfare agency. As the time of hospitalization approached near, she changed her mind about hospitalization and placement of her children at the welfare agency. When police was informed about this situation, they visited her home and encountered a very resilient attitude by Mrs. Carter, who did not want to let go of her kids. But as the police examined conditions at her home it was clear that the family was facing poor hygiene conditions and they decided to forcefully take away children. Mrs. Carter's alcohol addiction affected her ability to look after home and her own children (Healy 2005). She was highly depressed with the fact that her all children are taken into the custody of social welfare agency and she has been separated from them. When Mr. Rooney learnt about this case, its background and circumstances of Mrs. Cater, he decided to meet her at her residence. He observed that her home smelt of urine; the floor was covered with piles of clothes, and waste wrappers all over. Doors were broken, furniture was covered with dust and the entire living condition was presenting a picture of overwhelming poverty. During the meeting, Mr. Rooney tried to convince her emotionally to clean home with a focus on the fact that cleanliness of home will be considered as a positive step of her by the court and this can help her regain custody of her children (Stepney and Ford 2000). Mr. Rooney intentionally arranged the next meeting in her home again and observed considerable difference in the cleanliness of her home. For Mr. Rooney the next task was to help her quit drinking habit. For achieving this goal, initially he researched healthy ways that can help a forty-year-old woman to do so in shortest time possible. He tried to convince her emotionally again by making her realize the fact that if she does not quit her drinking habit then her children will never return home again. He suggested her some healthy exercises and alternatives like light non-alcoholic beers and then after few days replacing them with diet soda. Her case study shows that Mr. Rooney planned long-term and slow but effective approaches for her that helped her regain custody of her own children after two months (Healy 2005). Classical / respondent conditioning and task-centred approaches are totally different from each other. It is because the classical conditioning model is based on the instant response of the person towards a particular condition. However, the task-centred approach is goal oriented in sense that for using this intervention model the social worker has a defined objective to work with. Out of these two intervention models, task-centred practices can be preferably recommended because it focuses on problems and emotions, not on behavioural emotions generated due to environmental conditions. Also, it should be noted that with the classical / respondent approach the social worker only emphasizes on altering responses or setting of the environment to resist unhealthy responses of children and families; whereas, task-centred practices are aimed at solving problems permanently through a long-term effective strategy (Healy 2005). Another major reason for preferring the task-centred approach over respondent or classical conditioning model is the possibility of achieving better results particularly in dealing with cases of children and families as this approach recognized that every individual has different set of values and perceptions, so individuals’ responses can also vary in different or similar conditions. Thus, no practitioner can implement programs or plans based on the reaction of one or two children experimented in a specific condition (Walsh 2008). However, task-centred approaches are adopted and practiced in collaboration with the client and especially, while handling children such approaches can be effective. It is also because in the classical conditioning the goal can be unidentified or misunderstood as the decision is made on the basis of one time response. While, for the task-centred approach the entire background including mental or physical mental history of the subject individual is studied to understand the case properly and only then strategies are made and implemented (Healy 2005). Additionally, it is noteworthy that with the classical / respondent model influences of approaches can also vary from a person to person and outcomes are mostly unpredictable because responses and cognitive changes regarding responses can never be accurately predicted. However, with the task-centred approach is unlike any other learning theory and clients are convinced or mentally prepared for desired or planned reaction within limited time period. Likewise, it has been noticed in the case of Mrs. Carter, who was initially aware of benefits she could gain with little changes in habits and priorities, but required convincing and conviction provided by her counsellor. In the classical conditioning, outcomes are always risky due to differences in reaction depending upon moods; whereas, the task-centred approaches guarantee positive results in terms of behavioural changes (Healy 2005). From the above comparative analysis, it can be noted that classical conditioning and task-centred practices, both are important models of interventions for social workers. Both approaches can work effectively in different scenarios, but influences of task-centered practices can be considered suitable in various situations resulting in greater efficiency as compared to the respondent conditioning. It is mainly because of the unpredictability of outcomes in case of classical / respondent conditioning that always put efforts of a social worker at the risk of failure. In contrast, the task-centred approach is more reliable and effective in terms of positive influences that are set out initially and implementation of focused strategies to successfully attain beneficial outcomes for children and families. List of References Healy, K., 2005. Social Work Theories in Context Creating Frameworks for Practice. Paris: lavoisier. Munro, E., 2008. Effective Child Protection. London: SAGE. Parker, J. & Bradley, G., 2010. Social Work Practice: Assessment, Planning, Intervention and Review. Glasgow: SAGE. Stepney, P. & Ford, D., 2000. Social Work Models,Methods and Theories: A Framework for Practice. London: Russell House Publishing Ltd.. Thompson, N., 2000. Theory and Practice in Human Service. Buckingham: Open Press University. Trevithick, P., 2000. Social Work Skills A Handbook. Philadelphia: Open University Press. Read More