The Empowerment Approach to Social Work Practice - Assignment Example

Social work is among the oldest professions in the world. Social work is focused on identifying and solving problems that affect human societies. Social work has evolved as society evolved over the years. Changes in society have led to changes in the behaviors and ways of thinking of people. Individuals and societies are caught in a situation where the changing and intense relationships between people and society seek to influence each other.

Social work is situated in the middle of society and the individual, where it functions as a potent tool for negotiations and conflict resolutions. One of the most influential strategic approaches that have been used in social work to identify and address problems in society is the holistic approach in social work. The components of holistic approaches are important to the successful outcome of collaborative work between workers and clients.  Holistic approaches are based on the idea that processes or systems and their properties should work as wholes, rather than collections of their parts.

This means that the functioning of a system cannot be understood in terms of its component parts. It is vital to view social work as a whole rather than as a fraction of processes or systems. The components of holistic approaches value the skills, capacity, potentials, and connections in communities and individuals. They focus on the strengths of these entities. Social workers that use holistic approaches through collaboration aid people do things individually and collectively. This way, people become co-producers of support rather than consumers of support.

Evidence on the application of holistic components in solving social problems is difficult to synthesize because different people have different problems. Personal contexts of social work affect the practices of social workers. It is vital to note that social workers are employees and professionals. They are also community members and citizens in a local and global context. Working in a social environment using holistic approaches has its own background, beliefs, values, education, and interests.