The Use of Large-Group Role-Play Techniques in Social Work Education - Literature review Example

Role Play Analysis and Reflection Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Role Play Analysis and Reflection Introduction Crisp & Beddoe (2014) noted that perhaps the most important aspect of social work is not the description and identification of the social problems, but the application of theories and principals of human behavior in the effort of improving the welfare of the society. In a supplementary argument, Nash, Munford & O'Donoghue (2005) observed that engagement, assessment, and intervention, summed up as the helping process, played the most important role in achieving positive results for a social worker. Notably, different pieces of literature have come to the agreement that the efforts of a social worker can go to waste if the wrong approach of the helping process gets utilized. The main challenge in the selection and implementation of the helping process by social workers was blamed to poor communication skills and poor social work values by Orme (2006). Under those considerations, there is a need for social workers to develop reliable communication and interpersonal skills that can help achieve positive results in their target social work cases. A good example to examine how the concepts of communication and interpersonal skills are indispensable elements is the assessment of a role play video found in the Flinders Library Online (FLO). The video entails a client who approaches a social worker for help in the scope being in a conflict in his relationship, and the social worker utilizes a person-centered therapy of role play. The social worker demonstrates and utilizes communication skills of reflecting and paraphrasing to engage and make an assessment of the client problems, without hurting the client’s feeling. To provide an intervention approach, the social worker utilizes work ethics skills through provoking the determination of the client to solve their problem. Role playing in social work practice helps the social worker to collect information while the client offloads their problems building a platform if the right mix of effective communication skills and adherence to social work values is applied. Role Play Video Analysis and Reflection to Class Readings The role play video utilizes a person centered therapy where the social worker does not encourage or guide the client on what to do but expects the clients to identify their mistakes and make a change. In the video, the social worker is handling a client who has had a case occurrence and perception of having hurt his wife which led to a standoff between the two. The social worker intervenes through the use of paraphrasing, silence and repetition communication styles to invoke the client’s thoughts about the conflict in the relationship. The social worker totally avoids encouraging the client on how they should have reacted or if how they reacted was either right or wrong. The case starts with the social worker politely introducing themselves and asking the client to make a brief preview of his problems. The client identifies that he has just retired and has had just seven weeks to fully spend with his wife. The client identifies that he was unable to create a smooth relationship with his wife during the seven weeks, which lead him to make a mistake which hurt his wife. The social worker asks George to explain if the problem they were experiencing was a reoccurring problem and how he planned to solve the problem. In addition, the social worker asks George to identify how he thought his wife would say if she was in the room, the steps he had taken to solve the issue and what he expected. George illustrated that he understood he had messed and was worried how long he would be punished, although he was willing to take the punishment. Under the above case summary, it is evident that the social worker was not determined to explain to George the source of the problem. In contrast, the social worker was determined to help George identify the problem, the reaction and the necessary steps to take to mend the relationship. To help George achieve the above, the social worker pushes George to identify how he feels and thinks how his wife thinks. In the above activity, the social worker role plays and pretends to be George, while George pretends to be Molly, his wife. Under the role play scheme, the social worker can transfer positive emotions of how his wife would react and helps him to stop being afraid of apologizing. With relationship to social work, after viewing the video, important questions emerge in the scope of the effectiveness and reliability of the social worker’s communication skills and the social work values utilized by the social worker (Nash, Munford & O'Donoghue, 2005). Additionally, it is important to investigate how the choice of communication skills and illustration of social work value impacted the client’s decision making. In the class readings, Crisp & Beddoe (2014) pointed out that when people make the decision to visit a social worker, back in their minds, they are already aware that something is not right. With the above information, the use of the Person Centered Therapy role play in the video can be justified, under the consideration that the George was already aware that something was not okay at his home. George also recognizes that he was the source of the problem, even before he sought the help of a social worker. In building the relationship, between the social worker and the client, through the helping process, Crisp & Beddoe (2014) identified that the choice of building the relationship is a determinant of the outcome of the engagement between the social worker and the individual. Healy & Link (2012) advised that social workers should adhere to the creation of a tentative engagement, which can only be achieved through a buildup of empathy, genuineness, through nonverbal and verbal communication skills. In the video, the social worker illustrated the above need to create a tentative engagement by being a good listener and use of minimal verbal and nonverbal communication. Failure to let the client illustrate their problems with minimal intervention or under much rebuke would have illustrated the social worker as breaking the AASW Code of Ethics 2010 in relationship to respecting a person's dignity (Healy & Link, 2012). Dunk-West & Verity (2014) argued that when social workers are trying to role play, there is need to utilize sociological imagination and compassion to explore and build the client’s life world. In the role play the social worker played a perfect role play by feeding on George’s feeling of being guilty. The social worker assumed and was able to play the guilty nature of George, by being resentful and in a position to forecast that George was expecting to be insulted and punished by his wife. Additionally, Moss (2000) advised that when role playing the social worker must promote the social work values such as respect for persons. For example, in the video, during the role play activity, despite understanding the nature of George, the social worker makes his assumption of George to be a positive person. The social worker, during the role play, avoids the incidence of provoking further conflict by promoting the personal wellbeing of George and the perception that things would turn to normal if he just apologized and acted positively. The above competency further helped to promote the social work value of promoting justice under the scope of acting to decrease barriers and to increase choice and potential for all persons in the scenario. For example, the social worker helps George to develop a platform that he would use to ask for forgiveness by indirectly hinting to George that a dinner would do or send his wife flowers. Communication And Interpersonal Skills Reflection After watching the video, I learned some assumptions that helped me to identify my communication and interpersonal skills. I identified that effective and reliable communication is indispensable in the practice of social work. The above reason is developed under the consideration that social workers would not be able to identify what others are feeling or thinking. Additionally, the effective communication skills help the social worker to provide reliable information to individuals, negotiate, mediate and arbitrate delicately without hurting the feeling of others. With that regard, I identified my communication skills to be in the scope of honesty, considerate and flexible. I believe that with my considerate communication skills I can be able to listen to the other parties and fit into their situation. As per Egan (1998), the above would play an important aspect in building my future career practices in the social work. The component of considerate and flexibility would allow me, as a social worker, to understand diversity and provide a relevant solution that prioritizes the client’s needs. When speaking or holding a conversation with the target individuals, I would consider being sympathetic and it gives the client an opportunity to offload his perceptions of the issues as I gather information. I believe gathering enough information is vital for social workers interested in changing the wellbeing of individual through making sound advice and interpretations using the lens of their preceding experience. After watching the video, I realized I have the interpersonal skills of effective speaking, body language, listening skills and conversational skills. Crisp & Beddoe (2014) noted that the above elements were important for a social worker in developing the capacity to handle diverse, impassive and high tempered clients. More so, the interpersonal skills help the social worker to meet some social work values by being able to diffuse conflict, judging clients or making unsuitable generalizations that could lead to a quarrel. Conclusion Effective communication skills and adherence to social work values play a vital role in dictating the social worker capability to output positive results to a social problem. The choice of engagement, assessment, and intervention are all dependent on the interpersonal skills of the social worker. Poor interpersonal skills can lead to neglect of the client's social justice and respect for person elements covered in the AASW Code of Ethics 2010. For a social worker to diffuse conflict and help the client to solve their social problem, role playing can aid in the client understanding the situation from another perspective and being led to multiple alternatives of solving their social problems. References Crisp, B. R., & Beddoe, L. (2014). Promoting health and well-being in social work education. Abingdon: Routledge. Dunk-West, P., & Verity, F. (2014). Sociological social work. Surrey: Ashgate. Egan, G. (1998). The skilled helper: A problem-management approach to helping. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Healy, L. M., & Link, R. J. (2012). Handbook of international social work: Human rights, development, and the global profession. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Moss, B. (2000). The use of large-group role-play techniques in social work education. Social Work Education, 19(5), 471-483. doi:10.1080/026154700435995 Nash, M., Munford, R., & O'Donoghue, K. (2005). Social work theories in action. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Orme, J. (2006). Book Review: Understanding Social Work: Preparing for Practice. Journal of Social Work, 6(2), 205-206. doi:10.1177/1468017306066384 Read More