Childrens School Holiday Program with Refugee - Case Study Example

Introduction There is a general argument that the duties of a social worker are difficult to handle and require a lot of efforts and dedication. While part of these arguments is true, others are not. Personally, I believe that it is a passion driven experience that requires self-determination and self-dedication. Not everybody has the desire to work and help other people, while others feel that working with other people is their most loved hobby. People who love helping others make good community workers. In handling tasks, every social worker’s expectation is to successfully complete the task. However, this is not the case as reflected by the case of a social worker who took a group of students from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan on a holiday program. While the first week the program reached an impasse due to clash of interests among the students, the second week ended successfully. It is a general expectation that whenever social workers undertake any duties, they should bind themselves in these standards of work and ethics of conduct. Experts and researchers have cited a number of reasons explaining the outcomes of various events handled by a social worker. In analysing the two case studies, the various contributing factors for the success of second trip will be analysed. The use of reflective work and systems theory, attachment theory, anti-oppressive theory, strengths theory as well as the culture aspect of people living in a community will be addressed. Moreover, the various theories and ethical codes offering guidelines to social workers in the handling of their duties will illustratively indicate their contributions to the success of a social worker’s duties. Possible change interventions in relation to the theories will also be discussed. Case Study Organization: Mercy Family Services Activity: Children’s school holiday program with refugee/migrant children from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan children A social worker on placement at Mercy family services took two different groups of children on holiday program. The students were refugees/ immigrants from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. The two activities took place in different weeks. While in week one the activities reached an impasse, the second week was successful. The social worker on placement realized that the students could not agree together on a number of issues. The children were not only not playing together, but also wanted to take part in different activities. After failure to agree, the program was called off. However, learning from the experiences of the previous week, the social worker took the Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan immigrant/refugee children on a holiday program. With the application of lessons learnt from the previous week, the social worker was able to carry out the program successfully. With the use of reflective work and systems theory, attachment theory, anti-oppressive theory, strengths theory as well as the culture aspect to plan activities that the children would enjoy, the second program ran smoothly and accomplished its strategy. This was as a result of her ability to influence change among the children she had taken for the program. Analysis Two similar programs handled by a social worker on placement organized for Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan children yielded different results. The children from Mercy Family Services-Multi cultural program were taken on a holiday program on two different accounts. While one of the programs successfully proceeded to the end and achieved the intended strategies, the other met impasse. Various factors can be attributed to these varying results. The worker revisited the program that had reached an impasse and learnt the contributing factors to its failure. These were applied on the second program which came to a successful end. The manner in which the worker differently handled these children exhibited her ability to ensure coercion between the two groups. Communication is an important aspect in social work. Not only does it enhance understanding among clients, it also ensures that there is proper understanding between the clients and the workers (“Australian Association of Social Workers” 2012, p. 4). Codes of ethics and standards of work have been set up by the Association of Australian Social Workers, offering guidelines on how social workers ought to handle their clients (“Australian Association of Social Workers” 2013, p. 3). It is requirement of social workers to observe and follow these in disseminating their duties to their clients. Working as either a guide to the client, legal advocate or critical friend, a social worker should maintain professional relationships with their clients (“Australian Association of Social Workers” 2003, p. 3). Within a framework of well laid down procedures and clear legislations, social workers discharge their duties that are aimed at offering support to either individuals in a society, families or community groups. How well these procedures are followed by the worker determines their level of success. If a case follows the set guidelines, the likelihood of its reaching a successful completion stage is high, unlike one that the worker fails to do so. This explains the different results from the two cases experienced by the social worker. McCormack (2008, p. 400) observes that services of social workers have increasingly been required in the recent past. As a result, various researches have been conducted on the field of social work. Different scholars have thus come up with new theories and perspectives that are of help to the social workers while disseminating their duties to their clients. Theories help social workers accomplish their role and purpose in the society, guide them on how to undertake their duties and understanding the world of their clients so that they can effectively discharge their duties (Midgley & Conley 2010, p. 8). The application of the various theories was focused on impacting some form of change to the children. Her efforts in changing the behaviour of the children and their perception about the programs were exhibited by her ability to influence them in the second program. The strengths perspective focuses on the strengths of an individual, family members or relatives, building on them for the purpose of helping a particular person. For quick recovery of an individual, majoring on the personal strength of the client accelerates the recovery process of the client. This perspective helps the worker to remain positive even when things seem to go wrong. “Australian Association of Social Workers” (2013, p. 8) advises that the nature of the underlying problem facing the client determines the manner in which the problem can successfully be handled. Therefore, very serious problems are addressed using the strength perspective. One of the major duties of a social worker is to organize and manage support packages which enable their clients to lead the fullest possible lives regardless of their condition or situation (Gray 2011, p. 3). The social worker, by the use of strengths perspective to analyse the issues that contributed to the failure of the first program successfully carried out the second program. The lack of coercion among the children due to their different interests in a great way contributed to the impasse of the program. Socially secluded people are likely to behave in a different way in unique situations. As a result, the intended assistance has the potential of failure if a social worker fails to use strengths perspective in dealing with her client (“Australian Association of Social Workers” 2012, p. 15). In reference to the two case studies, the first reached an impasse as a result of the weaknesses of the children. They could not agree on a particular activity that they were supposed to undertake. Therefore, as a social worker I would use the strengths of these children and the kind of activities they were supposed to handle to successfully complete the second program. Through support, I would change their perception about themselves, impacting more confidence in handling activities they previously felt would have been difficult to handle. Greene (1991, p. 28) points out that positivists theorists have proposed developmental theory which offers the worker with a means of understanding the behaviour of the client in broader contexts of both lifespan and bio psychological events. This theory aims at accounting for both the stability and the change of human behaviour throughout the life cycle of the client. This theory falls within the scope of the construct of the person faced with the situation and thus offering useful information to the social worker on how to comfortably and effectively discharge her duties. The theory provides broad, yet wide parameters that enable a social worker to understand the growth, development and behavioural changes from conception to death of a person. The social worker, with the application of the theory in the second program was able to carry out the program to success. Moreover, the differences in the behaviour of the children could be explained with the help of the developmental theory. Mercy Family Services draw its membership form a diverse cultural background (“Mercy Family Services” 2013, n.p.). Most of the children do not share any cultural practices, while their linguistics is quite different. Having been drawn from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, the children in a unique way exhibited differences in their cultural practices. This explains why some of the children preferred crafting to other activities set in the program. The application of the developmental theory helped the worker successfully carry out the second program with the children. Systems theory as Gray (2002 p. 2) points out is concerned with the human behaviour, and takes into account the state and condition faced by a person, how the individual operates and functions as she continuously interact with the environment and the inherent changes and conflicts that are expected. It is worth noting that every member of a group is a part of the whole system of the group (“Australian Association of Social Workers” 2000, p. 19). With this understanding, the social worker was able to ensure group coercion among the different children. By making it clear to them that they are a group and citing that working together to ensure that the program was successful would benefit them all would make the program successful. Attachment theory helps the worker to understand personality development and behaviour of people who are in close relationships. Subsequently, the worker can give an account of the differences in the emotions of people and their style of relationships. Factors that are likely to contribute to eventualities among groups of children include physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Such a child needs to be attached to the social worker which makes them feel they are not neglected (Openshaw 2008, p. 14). Finding the differences in emotions of the children helped worker to succeed in the second program. She got emotionally closer to them, offering them emotional support, which gave them more confidence, and eventually received little resistance in her second program. Anti-oppressive theory helps the social workers to acknowledge of the existence of oppressive practices in the society, economies of different countries, groups and cultural organizations. It helps in removing the influential factors that cause oppression. Every social worker needs to understand that different services work for different clients. Therefore, understanding power imbalance between clients and themselves is important in eliminating any form of imbalance while offering their services to the clients to (Greene 1991, p. 62). The imbalance between the children could have been a causal factor for the failure of the first program. Most of them must have been depressed as a result of their refugee status. However, the manner in which I would handle these differences, capitalizing on their needs would successfully accomplish the program as the children would change their perception on each other. Conclusion Although all social workers have to be trained, training itself is not adequate in ensuring that they carry out their duties effectively. The ability of the worker to influence change interventions in relation to the various theories made it possible for the second program to run to success. Values and codes of ethics have been put into place to ensure that workers perform their duties with increased care. However, mistakes are likely to arise in the course of handling their clients, and therefore lead to the failure of their programs. The manner in which these problems are solved determines the level of success of any social work program. Cultural differences and language barriers should be handled in a special way to ensure that there is cohesion between the clients and the workers. Additionally, respecting the code of ethics regardless of the professional standards and ranking level should be adhered to by ball workers. Lastly, proper understanding of the theories in social work gives workers more knowledge of the different issues that are pertinent in their work. Works Cited “Australian Association of Social Workers” 2000, Practice Standards for Social Workers: Supervision, retrieved 28 May 2013 http://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/18 “Australian Association of Social Workers” 2003, Practice Standards for Social Worker; Achieving Outcomes, retrieved 28 May 2013 http://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/100 “Australian Association of Social Workers” 2012, Australian Social Work education And Accreditation Standards, retrieved 28 May 2013 http://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/100 “Australian Association of Social Workers” 2013, Ethics Consultation and Resources, retrieved 28 May 2013 http://www.aasw.asn.au/whatwedo/ethics-consultation-resources Gray, M 2002, Developmental Social Work: A Strength’s Praxis for Social Development, Academia. 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