Base Of Social Work Essay, Research Paper

Knowledge Base of Social Work:

Practice methods that correspond to the levels of Practice are:

1. Micro level of practice- direct practice/service delivered directly to clients (face to face and minimal administrative work.

2. Mezzo level of practice- indirect practice involving administration/leadership roles enabling effective delivery of services.

? Policy formulation

? Program design

? Funding

? Management

? Supervision

? Organizational and Public Relations

? Community Education

? Monitoring for Improvement of Productivity

3. Macro level of practice- involves the processes of Social Planning and Community Organization

? Professional Change Agents who assist Comm. Action Systems composed of individuals, groups or Organizations deal with social problems

? Program planning and development, working with governmental agents and Comm.

? Implementation of Programs

4. Research- driving force behind rigorous advancement of knowledge

Philosophy of Direct Practice

1. People are capable of making their own change; they have free will

2. Assist people maximize their potential and independence

3. Change environmental influences that adversely impact clients

4. Increase understanding that behavior is purposive and goal directed and this is not readily discernible.

5. People are capable of learning new behaviors

6. Most difficulties can be resolved by focusing on present choices and mobilizing their strengths

7. Increasing people’s knowledge and learning new skills produces self growth in the process

8. Utilize strategies that motivate people to implement changes in various types of systems

9. Life’s crises represent opportunities for growth and mastery is a source of strain in life

10. People need self-affirmation and self-esteem. Many conflicts are indirect expression of feelings of low self-esteem.

11. Human growth occurs in the context of relationships with other people

12. We model for others open authentic relationship skills/behaviors

13. Increase responsiveness to the needs of others

14. Live in the reality of the present motivates people to exercise their potentialities more fully

15. Means of assisting clients should safeguard dignity, self-esteem, self-determination and confidentiality

16. Awareness of self is the first step to self-realization

17. People right to their own values and belief systems are inviolate. It is social work’s responsibilities to assist clients to face these aspects of those beliefs that cause dysfunction in their lives.

The Helping Process

Phase I:

1. Establishing rapport

2. Exploring client’s problems

3. Formulating multidimensional assessment of the problem, systems involved and resources available

4. Enhancing motivation of client

5. Mutually negotiating goals and formulating a contract

Phase II:

-The participants combine their efforts in working towards the goals, consisting of discrete actions or tasks that are integral units of the overall goal

-Practitioners has the responsibility of selecting and implementing interventions that will assist clients in accomplishing their goals and task.

-Interventions should directly relate to the problems and to the consequent goals that were negotiated and that were derived from accurate assessment.

-Monitor improvement on regular basis

-Use of self in process appropriately provides for clients a model of open an authentic relationship

Phase III:

1. Assess when individuals and group goals have been attained and plan termination accordingly

2. Effecting successful termination of the helping relationship

3. Planning for maintenance of change and continued growth following termination

4. Evaluating the results of the help in process

The Cardinal Values of Social Work

1. Developing and utilizing resources

2. Affirming the worth and dignity of clients

3. Affirming uniqueness and individuality

4. Affirming problem-solving capacities and self-determination

5. Safeguarding confidentiality

Assessing Group Process

1. A Systems Framework for Assessing Groups- groups are social systems and thus evolve implicit rules or norms that govern behavi9ors, shape patterns, and regulate internal operations.

? As leaders observe groups to discern patterned behaviors, they must concurrently attend to behavior manifested by individuals and by the group itself.

? A major roles of leaders in growth groups, is to aid members to become aware of their patterned behavioral responses, to determine the impact of these responses on themselves and others and to choose whether to change such responses.

? Understand Content (verbal statements) and Process (the behaviors displayed by members during the group)

? Identify roles of group members because they can affect the group’s capacity to respond to the individual needs of members and its ability to fulfill therapeutic objectives.

? Members tend to play-out in groups the same roles that they assume in other social contexts and need to understand the impact of dysfunctional roles on themselves and others.

? Identify the growth of individuals by keeping a record on each person to identify growth.

? Assessment must consider the cultural background of members

? Assess cognitive patterns of the group members

Stages of Group Development

1. Preaffiliation-Approach and Avoidance Behavior displayed as tentative involvement, vacillating willingness to assume responsibility, interact with others, and to support program activities and events.

2. Power and Control-A Time of Transition into intimate system of relationships; whereby the new situation becomes understandable and predictable. They struggle at this stage concerned with how they rank in relation to other members. Conflicts between opposing subgroups often occur in this stage.

3. Intimacy-Developing a Familial Frame of Reference for the group means they experience a we-ness and commitment to the group purpose. A group character will evolve with a style and a set of values.

4. Differentiation- Developing Group Identity and an Internal Frame of Reference for the group means they have achieved group-centered operations and individual and group needs evolve. Greater freedom of personal expression develops with feelings of genuine acceptance and value.

5. Separation- A Time of Breaking Away means for the group a time of loosening intense bonds and a search for new resources and ties to satisfy needs.

Patterned Group Behavior (positive behaviors manifested early on in groups)

? The group faces up to a problem and makes modification or adjustment

? The group responds positively the first time a member takes a risk

? Members of the group are invested and supportive toward other members

? The group moves in + direction without the leader’s guidance or intervention

? The group works harmoniously for a period of time

? Members effectively make a decision together

? Members adhere to a specific group goal/work to accomplish

? Members give + feedback or observe + ways the group has worked together

? The group responsibly confronts a member who is dominating interaction or interfering with the task

? Members pitch in to clean up after a group session

Social Conflict Approach with Clients Under Duress

-The challenge of the practitioner is to minimize or reduce the reactance by responding in ways that lessen the client’s perceived threat to freedom. Responding in unexpected ways that reduce threat. These unexpected ways of response convey the impression of desiring to be an ally rather than an adversary.

1. Emphasizes choices that are available

2. Contracts in ways aimed at restoring freedom

3. Fosters maintenance of some current behaviors to minimize clients’ fears of losses

4. Focuses on limited and specific changes rather than on global and sweeping changes that would be threatening and unacceptable.

5. Maximizes self-determination within parameters determined by the situation

Crisis Intervention

1. Is time limited

2. Focuses on problems of living rather than psychopathology

3. Oriented to the here and now

4. Involves a high level of activity by the practitioner

5. Employs tasks as a primary tactic of change efforts

6. An eclectic framework that can accommodate various practice theories and interventions

Initial Phase of CI

1. To relieve the client’s emotional distress

2. To complete an assessment

3. Plan the strategy of intervention

Empowering People with AIDS

*Patrick Haney left behind a legacy of guidelines for empowering people with AIDS.

1. Modify their mindset that they are not a victim, only people with AIDS. A perception of being a victim fosters passivity and a sense of helplessness.

2. Focus more on opportunities for making the most of a bad situation and less on the fatalistic aspects of the disease.

3. Assist them to find people who can provide them with support and they themselves must be caring and supportive.

Cognitive Restructuring (Cognitive Therapy)

? Most social and behavioral dysfunction results directly from misconceptions that people hold about themselves, other people, and various life situations.

? Cognitive restructuring is a systematic intervention that is particularly useful in assisting clients to gain awareness of dysfunctional and self-defeating thoughts and misconceptions that impair personal functioning and to replace them with beliefs and behaviors that are aligned with reality and lead to enhanced functioning.

? CT techniques are relevant for problems associated with low self-esteem, distorted perceptions in interpersonal relations, unrealistic expectations of self, others, and life in general, irrational fears, anxiety and depression, inadequate control of anger and other impulses, and lack of assertiveness.

? CT is often blended with other interventions (modeling, behavioral, relaxation, assertiveness, and drug therapy) because combination of theories is more effective than single interventions.

? Caution: Dysfunction may be caused by a variety of biophysical problems, including brain and neurological disorders, thyroid imbalance, blood sugar imbalance, ingestion of toxic substances, malnutrition and other forms of chemical imbalance of the body.

Steps in Cognitive Restructuring

1. Assist clients to accept that their self-statements, assumptions and beliefs largely mediate their emotional reactions to life’s events

2. Assist clients to identify dysfunctional beliefs and patterns of thoughts that underlie their problems

? Ask them how they reached certain conclusions

? Challenging them to present evidence supporting dysfunctional views or beliefs

? Challenging the logic of beliefs that magnify feared consequences of certain actions

-By gaining practice in identifying and assessing the validity of self-statements and beliefs, clients achieve readiness to engage in self-monitoring between sessions. Self-monitoring expands self-awareness and paves the way for later coping efforts.

3. Assist Clients to identify situations that engender dysfunctional cognitions.

4. Assist clients to substitute functional self-statements in place of self-defeating cognitions.

5. Assist clients to reward themselves for successful coping efforts.

-Limitations of CT: Often the clients lack social skills and require instruction and practice before they can effectively perform new behaviors. CT is often used in combination with practitioner modeling, behavioral rehearsal, and guided practice to assist clients to master essential skills needed.

Difficulties in Trusting and Transference

? Aloofness and suspicion are defensive patterns that protect clients from imagined hurts, exploitation, rejection, criticism, punishment, and control by others.

? Attempting to persuade clients of one’s intent is usually counterproductive, instead exercise patience and persistence.

? Attempt to reach clients who cancel or miss appointments by phone or home-call (letter is less effective). Recognize that their failure to keep appointments is more a pattern of avoidance than a lack of motivation.

? Transference Reaction: the client transfers to the practitioner wishes, fears, and other feelings that are rooted in the past experiences with others impeding the process.

? Transference Reactions involve over generalized and distorted perceptions that create difficulties in interpersonal relationships.

? Its also an opportunity for growth. The challenge is to assist such clients to recognize their distorted perceptions and to develop finer interpersonal perceptual discriminations so that they can differentiate and deal with others as unique individuals rather than overgeneralize projections of images, beliefs, or attitudes.

Managing Transference Reactions

-It is vital to shift focus to their here-and-now feelings.

1. Be open to the possibility that the client’s reaction is not unrealistic and by be produced by your behavior and respond authentically by owning responsibility for your behavior.

2. It is important to respond in different ways that the client’s anticipated response from their past interactions. This forces the client to differentiate the practitioner from past figures.

3. Assist the client to determine the immediate source of distorted perceptions when the feelings emerge. By exploring these feelings and not correcting them you assist the client to expand their awareness of their patterns of overgeneralizing.

4. After clients have discerned the unrealistic nature of their feelings and manifested awareness of the distortions share your actual feelings. This can reassure clients who have felt offended, hurt, resentful, rejected or the like.

5. After you have examined the problematic feelings, assist clients to determine whether they have experienced similar reactions in other relationships. To assist clients to discern patterns of distortions that creates difficulties in other relationships.

Countertransference Reactions

-It produces distorted perceptions, blind spots, wishes, and antitherapeutic emotional reactions and behavior. Such as:

? Diverting clients from expressing anger because therapist is uncomfortable

? Overidentifying with rebellious adolescents due to unresolved feelings towards authoritarian parents

-Becoming aware of unrealistic feelings toward a client or of reactions are signals that a practitioner should immediately take appropriate corrective measures. Otherwise the countertransference will limit the practitioner’s potential helpfulness or contribute to the client’s dysfunction.

-The first step in resolving countertransference is to engage in introspection (analytical dialogue with oneself aimed at discovery)

-The second step if 1st doesn’t work is to discuss it with a colleague or another professional for difference perspective.

-Not all negative feelings or reactions are due to countertransference. Look beyond the offensive qualities of certain clients and discover positive qualities.

Effectively Managing Sexual Attraction

? Take corrective measures such as introspection or consulting with another professional.

Managing Resistance

-Rule of thumb: If resistance isn’t strong enough to impede progress, its best ignored.

1. Bring it to discussion by focusing on the here-and-now feelings that underlie resistance.

? An authentic response that conveys the practitioner’s goodwill and concern also reaffirms the helpful intent and desire to work on difficulties.

? Initiate exploration of the source of resistance

? Accredit their strengths when they discuss the feelings, to obliterate the feared response and reinforce the client for disclosing risky feelings

2. Use Positive Connotations to help clients recognize the positive and negative sides of resistance.

? The goal is to minimize the client’s needs to defend themselves and to safeguard their already precarious self-esteem. It is important to help clients recognize that their untoward reactions derived from distorted perceptions and to encourage them to express their feelings directly in the future.

3. Redefine Problems as an opportunity for Growth

4. Confront patterns of resistance.

5. Use Therapeutic Binds-Confronting clients in a way that they either have to change or own responsibility for choosing to perpetuate their difficulties. Use to assist not act out frustration.