Important elements of a social work service to a diverse community - Essay Example

Exploring Social Care in Theory and Practice Introduction           This paper has the primary objective to trace the important elements of a Social work service to a diverse community. This analysis is supplemented by research evidence and literature review pertaining to identification of such elements. Finally the paper explains the service requirement which a typical service user would expect from a social work agency Important elements of a Social work What comprises social work has become a debatable issue globally.The extent of raging controversy can be stated below: "Social work, particularly in the UK,  has lost its way. In particular, we have become concerned that social work both in the way we think about it, and practice it, has become very defensive, overly proceduralised and narrowly concerned with assessing managing, insuring against risk...(this has become even more intense since the during the 1990s when we saw the introduction of sophisticated attempts to make social workers accountable for and subject their practice to ever more detailed reviews, inspections, audits and managerial oversight and prescription).” (Parton and O’Byrne, 2000). Defining the concept of social work is not easy. A definition of social work runs given by The International Federation of Social Workers’ draft working definition is as follows: “The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilizing theories of human behavior and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.” (www.ifsw.org) The essential elements of social work can be broadly understood in following statements: (a)Social work takes place in human society, (b)Social work is a professional intervention in human environment, (c) Intervention seeks to address an issue of conflict/deficiency/deviance which has been observed encourse human interaction with environment and which has reduced human beings' welfare- a make up role for social work organization, (d) It is recognized that human welfare can be increased by conflict/deficiency/deviance removal. The increased human welfare may be euphemistically called "empowerment"," social justice" or "protection of human rights" etc. (e)In order to take up these interventions skilled and trained manpower is utilized which has the capability not only to recognize "the make up role or social need"(role clarity) but also to organize and run a system so that identified benefits reach the target audience. Harrison says “It appears that workers need to be fairly clear about what is expected of them in fulfilling their role in order for them to carry out their work. When ambiguous messages about the job well done are sent or received, little in the way of …satisfaction and competence is to be expected”(Harrison, 1980). (f) Managerial inputs are essential to run a social work organization like in any other organization; however the two functions of actual social work intervention and its management must be distinct and separate-for instance funding of such organizations and subsequent budgeting, allocation etc.can be strictly a management function. Harlow argues that the development of scientific rational managerialism has been in the ascendancy over social work's traditional concern with the depth and complexity of human emotion, along with the diminution of social work core values. The new managerialism, she argues, decries the old style of social work management that emphasized worker's emotions and informal work relationships and instead ‘emphasizes rationality as the means of most efficiently and effectively achieving the task’ (Harlow, 2000).Managerial supervision must develop a special empathy to social workers taking into account the stresses such workers are exposed to in social work. Gibbs says that, " Supervision now tends not be used for examining and untangling the complex difficulties workers face that are inherent in such work, nor from the stresses which arise from them "(Gibbs, 2001). (g) In order to assess the effectiveness of social work a wider set of theories and applications must be developed then available today so that professional vetting (auditing) of such interventions can be done without stifling such efforts. In order to do this social work has been drawing from other subject streams and it should draw more and more to establish a sound theoretical base to substantiate its practice. Social work, as an applied social science discipline, has depended on received ideas, usually drawn from critical social science and social movements (Rojek et al., 1988). However as Weick and Saleeby have argued," the early moral and social orientations of the profession run deep in memory but they have become part of an increasingly silent language as the weight of scientific world view suppressed these appreciations".(Weick, Saleeby, 1998)Thus weight of scientific theory should not stifle social work itself. (h)Social worker should free himself/herself from rules regulations and focus on social intervention and social theory on hand. Attempts of management function to make social work more objective though rules and procedures must be reduced to minimum. Howe states, the ‘welter' of procedures and guidelines’ has led the social workers into the role of ‘investigator, reporter and “gatherer” of evidence. The analysis of information is no longer left to the discretion of the practitioner’ (Howe, 1992). User requirements from a social work intervention Groups seeking to provide legal help to less affluent and lower strata of societies are ideal examples to study what a target user may expect of the social intervention. The target beneficiary group has an apparent deficiency that it cannot buy effective legal help to resolve its legal conflicts. As a result the legal rights of such target are getting jeopardized. To begin with a user would expect an immediate point of contact of such intervention that is logistically reachable. Secondly he would expect that the process of identification as beneficiary is objective and swift enough to provide timely relief. Thirdly the legal help that is being dispensed must be real help than just a nominal effort. That is irrespective of the fact that he is being subsidized in part or full the beneficiary should get the legal service as would effectively resolve his legal issue, its intrinsic merit notwithstanding. Since beneficiary may have additional handicaps like lack of education etc he might expect social work inputs too under intervention empathy. Lastly user is not looking for tenuous (now on and now off) relationship as far as his felt need is concerned. He intends its resolution. Therefore social worker must indicate the limits and boundaries of such association at the start of transaction. This is reflected in the following comments from a young mother who had been in state care from a young age: If you've got no family and workers say they're there for you, you [the worker] got to make it clear how much and however it's going to be. It's like family. You got to make it clear the limits and the boundaries, otherwise they're [the service user] going to resent you for giving false hope. (Healy and Young Mothers for Young Women, 1996). References Parton, N.  and O'Byrne P.2000, Constructive Social Work: Towards a New Practice, Macmillan Press Ltd, Basingstoke. Definition of Social Work Retrieved March 16, 2006 http:// www.ifsw.org Harrison W. D. 1980, 'Role Strain and Burnout in Child Protection Service Workers', Social Services Review, 54,pp 31-44. Harlow, E. 2000,' Introduction: Postmodernism and Change in Social Work and Social Welfare.'  In Management, Social Work and Change(Harlow, E.  and Lawler, L. eds.)   Ashgate, Aldershot. Gibbs, J. A. 2001,' Maintaining front-line workers in child protection: A case for refocusing supervision.' Child Abuse Review, pp.323-335. Rojek, C., Peacock, C. & Collins, S. 1988. Social Work and Received Ideas. London: Routledge.  Weick, A.and Saleeby, D.1998,'Postmodern perspectives for social work'.Social Thought 18(3).pp 21-40 Howe, D. 1992 ,‘Child Abuse and the bureaucratization of social work’, The Sociological Review, 40 (3) ,pp. 491-508. Healy, K. & Young Mothers for Young Women 1996, ' Valuing young families: Child protection and family support strategies for young mothers.' Children Australia, 21(2), pp 23-30. Read More