Strength-Based Approach To Social Work

3. As a social worker, working with Andrew would be incredibly difficult, as rectifying all the harm that was done by the child welfare system would require intense interventions in order to restore Andrew’s emotional wellbeing. Andrew has lived in 19 residences throughout his 17 years, and it has been proven that frequently moving children around, is detrimental to their emotional wellbeing, and destroys a growing adolescent’s sense of stability. A lack of stability is evident within Andrew’s story, as moving frequently became a norm for him in his personal life, and behaviour issues and struggles in school were rampant throughout his life. Therefore, in restoring Andrew’s sense of stability, I would employ a strengths based approach to social work intervention. …show more content…
A strength that I would identify with Andrew is his resiliency throughout his experience in the child welfare system, the system has been proven to be overpopulated and short of emotional and material resources. However, Andrew stayed strong, and even stayed resilient when he was placed in a homeless shelter by his social worker. If Andrew defines himself by his resilience and strength, as opposed to his limitations, it will lead to empowerment and personal growth. As this approach will give Andrew a sense of self-determination and autonomy within his life, which is something that has been taken away from him throughout his time in the Children’s Aid
Society. This approach is intrinsically linked with a structural social work perspective. As the main goal of structural social work is to empower and advocate for clients, which is the primary goal of a strengths based approach (Mbakogu, 2016, 14). Therefore, a structural social work perspective and a strengths based approach, both aim to give a voice to the voiceless, in this case giving Andrew the right to