I believe the role of a Social Worker in the Legislative process is to seek change to Social Policies, to prevent and change social problems in vulnerable populations. Social workers also advocate change to improve current policies, rules, and budgets for those who are powerless and are not able to speak up for themselves. By doing this social workers will ensure that resources are equally distributed to communities that are most in need. I believe social workers have many professional roles…
the NASW Code of Ethics. Social workers goal is to help people who are in need by addressing their problems. Sometimes in order to address client’s problems in might require legal aspects. An example would be if a social worker had to testify for a case on clients that she used to have. It’s the social works duty to testify and do the right thing even if the social worker isn’t getting paid or testifying isn’t part of their job description. The National Association of Social Workers calls it a…
Educational Policy 2.1.7 states that social workers are able to “Apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment” (CSWE 2012, p. 6). Social workers understand and apply various concepts of human behavior and growth through assessment and practice models. There are many diverse populations and social workers must utilize multiple perspectives of family systems, rural and urban environments, community factors, and strategic planning to understand and evaluate the unique and…
interests, or representing others and supporting them to secure and exercise their own rights on an individual or collective basis”. Advocacy is about empowering individuals who feel powerless or vulnerable; therefore it is of paramount importance for social care workers to become more effective in representing the views of service users to reduce the risks and challenges involved with advocacy (Teasdale 1998). Advocacy can be traced back to Homo sapiens, where people lived in large groups and…
When social workers are confronted between choices of two equally unwelcome alternative conflicts involving a difficult moral decision, it is known as an ethical dilemma (Chenoweth & McAuliffe, 2015, p. 73). Ethical dilemmas arise when the principles of the Code of Ethics and the Code of Conduct’s guidelines and boundaries have been crossed, resulting in dual relationships (Reamer, 2003). But as will be discussed, social workers continue to face barriers that exist within the Human Service…
these clients and promoting understanding of mental disorder there must be advocacy. In social change “advocacy requires continuous awareness of both positive outcomes and unanticipated negative consequences of efforts to equalize power and promote justice” (Chao, 2015, P.203). In monitoring my own clients, I am able to understand how incorporating family changes mental disorders, but also promotes change in how others may see mental…
Crash Course on Allyship My life experiences have been critical to my unwavering commitment to “allyship”. Over the course of my social justice journey, I’ve learned that allyship is key to social justice and is an active way of life and a state of being. It is using bridge-building to ensure equality, inclusion and opportunity for everyone by evoking empathy and perspective to those around you to inspire a call of action. Recently, I attended the Women’s Convention hosted by the Women’s March…
Empowerment theory: Empowerment theory is a social process that assists individuals in gaining control and fostering power over their own lives and environment. This theory promotes self-efficacy, consciousness, personal responsibility, dual perspective, and a reduction in self-blame. (Langer & Lietz, 2015). Strengths in this theory include the consistency with social work values and ethics; it addresses oppression, discrimination and marginalization on a political and clinical scale, and is in…
The definition of value differs by circumstances, feelings, or experiences. Perhaps someone thinks that community is valuable, and perhaps another suggests that family is valuable because people’s preference can characterize in various ways. Although Malcolm Gladwell’s “Marita’s Bargain” depicts that Marita focuses on education rather than her life, “A Walk to the Jetty” by Jamaica Kincaid illustrates that Annie’s family and her own memories are essential to her. In spite of the differences,…
affiliated with social work offers an approach that is holistic and wide-ranging as it lends itself to complex problems of groups that are vulnerable (Raeymaeckers, 2016). This generalist approach is not new in nature to the profession as it historically founded with an emphasis on the person-in-the-environment and “intervention across systems” (Dakin, Quijano, Bishop, & Sheafor, 2015). Thus, in a variety of roles the broad knowledge and skills possessed by the generalist social worker is…