Social Work Experience Paper

For almost two month, I have been interning at Golden Castle Adult Day Health Center (ADHC) as social worker for a diverse population of elderly adults all around the Santa Clara and Alameda, San Mateo County. During this time, I have gain knowledge in different community resources available to the elderly population. I have also learned to use different communication skills to best meet our participants needs. Have been exposed to a different working environment and have had the opportunity of working with the elderly population.

This field placement has been an eye opening experience for me because I was never aware of the high need for social workers in this population. Or of the high dependency many of the elderly have on the social workers at the agency. My initial thoughts at Golden Castle ADHC were full of mix feelings, but the strongest feeling I had was a fear of failing. I was afraid of not being able to offer and deliver the appropriate services to the participants at the agency.

This fear I was experiences was related to having no experiences working with elderly population. I …show more content…
I am learning to be more open minded as well as not make assumptions based on fear or having no experiences regarding a certain population or culture. Even though the client’s and I might come from the same culture, we may practice things differently and I must respect this. This internship, has helped me increase my own self-awareness regarding my own bias, culture beliefs and I learned to that despite having the same cultural background one can practice things differently. As stated above I believe that cultural competence is an ongoing endeavor and no one will be fully culturally competent, but we can adjust ourselves and approach individuals with an open heart and mind without making assumptions out of fear or lack of exposure to a population or environment we have never worked