Social Work and Human Services - Essay Example

 Introduction A critical reflection of the social work and human services will entail examination of the whole picture that the social workers face from their roles and services they offer, their values and guiding ethical codes to their decision making framework and good practice that enables them handle the complexities and challenges that may arise in the course of their work. All this and others will be discussed in detail below. Critical and reflective practice Reflection is a mental process that is applied in ideas that are relatively complex and complicated in a bid to understand them and apply knowledge acquired previously to it including even application of emotions. I have learnt that reflection can be used as a way to correct any misconceptions, distorted beliefs or even the assumptions previously formed that lack verification of knowledge (Mendes, 2003). It is the interpretations made by the reader during the reflection process that leads to transformations. I learnt that reflection is different from critical reflection not so much in intensity but in magnitude. Critical reflection does the exact things reflection does but instead of focusing on only one area, it spreads to cover the whole self. It therefore covers the beliefs, the feelings, the thoughts and even the action. Critical reflection looks at the whole picture when it comes to analysing anything that is complex and is therefore preferred in cases where the social worker wants to change the practice or the human services that have been previously used (Lyons, 2001). Ethics and ethical practice Ethics are meant to establish good or bad. What I had not learnt but did so in this course is about the existence of ethical challenges which affect the social worker while carrying out their duties of social relationship and social functioning. These ethical challenges affect the relationships, the boundaries that need to be established when carrying out the practice, the confidentiality and privacy of some issues about the clients as well as truthfulness. When the social workers are carrying out their work, they need to ensure that they apply the code of ethics of privacy, integrity, accuracy and not doing any harm to the clients as explained by (Garton, 1994). Learning about the codes and applying them protects the social workers from malpractice suits, being termed as incompetent by the clients, protecting their professionalism and professional identity as well as ensuring that they have self-regulating measures when working. The Australian code of ethics further insists on avoidance of conflict of interest and ensuring social justice and enforcement of human rights (Jamrozik, 2001). Values I have learnt that not only are values inherent beliefs unique to people and their culture, but they are subjective as well. Upholding an individual’s values when it comes to the workplace is important as it is a way to facilitate ethicality in the practice is maintained. Upholding values I have learnt means that the individual has to value humanity, their differences and diversity, value the choices of people and the positive changes taking place around them, value the privacy of the clients and the quality of services provided and above all value the environment and its surroundings. All this as indicated by McMahon, (2002) are meant to protect the integrity of the individual’s profession, maintain social justices as well as respect the person. Critical reflection on the values is necessary in the career of a social worker as it will enable them be fair in their practices, maintain morality at all costs and share these values across the others in their profession as well. Roles and levels of intervention I knew that social workers performed a lot of roles but I never realized the magnitude of their roles to the community. I have therefore learnt that they are very important members of the society as they perform the roles of a clinician, an educator, an administrator, a staff developer, a counsellor and an advocate at the same time depending on the clients they are handling at the moment (Goodin, et al, 1999). All this is in addition to them being activists of the minorities and managing their different cases. They carry out all these roles in through three different interventions the first being at the micro level when they handle only an individual client. When they are handling a family or a group of clients, the will be intervening at the mezzo level. The highest level of intervention is the macro level where thy have to perform their roles to an institution or organization with many people getting involved (Netting, Kettner & McMurty, 1993). It is their advocacy and ability to negotiate and mediate that enables them be successful as social change agents. Practice frameworks I have learnt that while making decisions, many people fail to apply critical reflection that is looking at the whole picture but rather focus on only a few aspects. Employing a guide to decision making in the form of a framework is necessary in order to avoid making mistakes and misleading clients or violating their ethics in the process. A practice framework requires an examination of the personal beliefs, values and even principles, an examination of the cultural beliefs and knowledge of the client, application of the professional skills and knowledge learnt, carrying out research to gather different perspectives and then an organization of all these to make the best decision (Dalton, et al,1996). When the practice framework is applied, it will be easier for the social worker to meet the beliefs and explanations of the community, come up with a social policy as well as be able to handle the organization structures and processes much more effectively and objectively than was the case in the past before employment of a guide (Latham, 2001). Good practice and complexity Human service organizations are often faced with complexities in their endeavour to succeed. These complexities occur because of the agendas that are competing to be dealt with first based on importance, difficulties communicating and especially because it deals with people of diverse cultures. There are also complexities from the clients, from the systems and organizations as well as from the workers. All these complexities can be handled or even avoided by the employment of good practice (Bernstein, 1999). Good practice therefore I have learnt that it is all about application of the practice standards put in place by different organizations. An example of such standards include application of professionalism, being culturally responsive and inclusive, establishing an ethical practice, maintaining confidentiality at all times as well as giving their clients their rights through acknowledging of their diversity (Scheafor & Horejsi, 2003). These will ensure that values are maintained and good decisions are taken to tackle the complexities mentioned above much more effectively and swiftly for that matter. All that is needed is consistency and ability to communicate. Is social work social control? Social work is all about promotion of social integration, reduction of poverty, enforcing social equality and autonomy as well as maintaining social stability and economic efficiency. All these cannot be carried out without using power, control and intense interaction with the people who are prospective clients. The social control is however applied in a positive manner to foster a relationship with the social worker as this is the only way they can assess the problems and try to handle them or fins the human services that can handle them properly. When trying to assist people, the social worker had to consider a few things about the people like whether they are from an individualist or a collectivist culture as they should be handled differently (Watson, 1988). The other is what welfare they may be requiring from occupational welfare, to corporate welfare or simply just any welfare as long as it assists them from their current state. The assumption about control is only a mask of the help that the people receive. The human services and its workforce I have learnt of social work and its importance but did not realize that social workers alone cannot be able to handle all the social problems taking place in society and that there needs an umbrella of industries and organizations providing human services to handle the rest of the social cases (Shaver, 2002). Human services which will be discussed below are therefore much larger than social work and it handles a multitude of practices as it comprises of different professions, industries and organizations. These practices include child protection and welfare, disaster recovery, disability services, migrants and refugees, community development, education and counselling, aged care, alternative care, physical and mental health, insecurity and housing as well as alcohol and drug abuse among many others (Taphouse, 2001). The services to be provided are determined by the level of intervention, level of prevention, desired outcomes, nature of the social issues that need to be addressed, nature of the service users as well as the roles and functions of the human services prevising these service. Conclusion When it comes to social services and human services, the social workers perform a lot of work. Their work however in order to be successful and not lead to legal issues need to be recognize the cultural and other diversity people have, consider the code of ethics and application of values. They also need to establish a good practice framework that will enable them to make decisions. References Bernstein, G. (1999). That must be so rewarding: a practical guide for professional development. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. Dalton, T. et al, (1996). Making social policy in Australia. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. Garton, S. (1994). 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