Social Work

Social Work

            The present world is full of injustices and lack of respect for humanity. The need for people whose only aim in life is to impact the lives of others necessitates the role of social work. Social workers aim to make a difference in the lives of individuals in their communities. The motivation of social workers is based on the commitment to do well and bring positive change in the lives of their targets. The target groups for social workers include people whose voice is ignored in society. The work of a social worker is to relieve people in the community from suffering and making their lives better without the goal of getting paid for the work done from the target groups. Social workers often involve their clients in their work to give them the skills and knowledge required to navigate through the challenges of life. People who always have the desire to help others may become social workers by taking the necessary courses to know the right practices to undertake while helping people. The case of Doreen is a complex one because her family is not traceable. Social work in Doreen’s case can come in to provide a feeling of belonging for Doreen. Intervention is required to help Doreen in coping with her inability to engage in the normal activities of society.

The social worker’s first step before any intervention should be to engage the target and know their position on being helped out. Data should be collected concerning the particular challenge affecting the victim so that assessment can be done and the proper intervention strategy be followed. The primary aim of every social worker is always to change the life of an individual without changing their environment (Corley and Kim, 2016, p. 56). A social worker will, therefore, aim at helping the client in overcoming the challenges that could be hindering them from participating in the normal society’s activities. Doreen’s case requires special attention since her family has abandoned her. The social worker should be willing to help Doreen to cope with her challenges if no medical assistance can be obtained. Engaging Doreen has the capability of changing her attitude towards life as well as improving her confidence in dealing with the problems facing her.

The process of changing the life of a client could require that a social worker shifts roles as a guardian, enabler, broker, or even as an educator of their client. In most cases, social workers take part in acting as a bridge between their clients and the medical team. Doreen, for example, could need medical attention that she could have lacked due to her current situation. The role of social workers in Doreen’s case could be to provide the necessary medical information required for dealing with Doreen’s case. Also, some services to people living with specific disabilities are only accessible upon referral by a social worker. Doreen could, therefore, be in a position to benefit with such services as free medical care, or even counseling services.

The work of social workers is governed by several theories that explain the extent to which social workers go in helping individuals. The theories behind the operation of social workers are supported with scientific evidence to make them reliable. Practice models based on social work theories give the social workers a blueprint of the expectations on them when dealing with their clients. The theories developed for social work depend on the practice models to be effected to help individuals in need. Some theories that are applied in the social work context include the Psychodynamic theory, the social learning theory, and the conflict theory. The application of the various theories depends entirely on the practical approaches that involve seeking to identify appropriate ways of applying for social work and changing lives.  The practical perspective of the social work theories gives the social worker the responsibility to understand the immediate environment of their clients as well as the reasons as to why their clients have difficulties adapting to their environment. For example, Doreen is an aged lady who should have experience with what should be expected of her, but she does not have help to offer to herself. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the social worker willing to take responsibility for taking care of Doreen to dig into her past and know the reasons why Doreen is in her current situation, and whether Doreen can be helped out. The social worker is also responsible for giving Doreen a positive perception of life and that she should get treatment if possible. The social worker will have difficulties addressing Doreen’s problem without proper experience towards handling people with similar conditions. Social work theories can help in becoming conversant with the various problems facing people and the right procedures to follow in trying to help people faced with specific problems.

The psychodynamic theory is associated with the ego and the emotional situation of social work clients. The clients receiving attention from a social worker could have undergone through trauma in the past and having problems recovering from such events. The social worker in charge of helping individuals with emotional and mental disorders need to understand the emotional reactions of the particular individuals and should ensure that they get conversant with the procedures associated with the condition at hand. The case of Doreen, for example, could imply that she might have some emotional problems due to the unavailability of a family to take care of her. The superego component of Doreen’s case can be represented by her struggle to live according to society’s expectations despite her disabled condition. The social worker in charge of helping Doreen should make sure that Doreen accepts her situation and stops straining to meet the society’s expectations. Self-acceptance could be a significant step in leading Doreen to recovery. The psychodynamic theory comes in to require the social worker in charge of a particular client to employ ego defense mechanisms to avoid the client’s reaction to impulse and stress due to the challenges that life has made them face. The application of the theory is based on the assumption that the behavior of an individual is affected by both conscious and unconscious mental activities. The theory also gives the assumption that internalized experiences help to shape the personality and improve individual development.  The basic idea of the psychodynamic theory is that behind every human behavior is a reason. The successful identification of the reason behind a particular behavior is the first breakthrough by a social worker towards successful delivery of help to a deserving client.

Social learning theory is built on the impact of environment and reinforcements on behavioral changes. Individuals can copy behavioral traits from other people living around them. The case of Doreen, for example, could have been influenced by the people she interacted with before being identified to have the disability. Behavior copied from other people could be hard for an individual to deal with since the strategies of dealing with the behavior are not copied together with the copied behavior. Also, the environment around an individual act to impact the behavior changes of an individual. In the events where an individual has no option to take rather than staying in a given environment, the immediate response is that the individual devises ways of surviving throughout the time of stay in the environment (Raheb et al. 2016, p. 309). The adaptation process towards a given environment is significant in the behavior patterns of individuals since individuals will choose the simple ways of adaptation and these could be harmful ways. In the case of Doreen, the most straightforward choice to make is to stop training in reading and writing. However, such a choice does not offer any promise of making the life of Doreen better that it is already. The social worker in charge should ensure that Doreen does not give up in trying recovering her reading and writing skills. Social learning theory is based on the assumption that individuals are capable of picking behaviors from their environments, and especially from people similar to them when they see the behaviors being reinforced on other people. If the behaviors observed are rewarded in one way or the other, individuals are highly motivated to choose such behaviors. The pattern of choosing behaviors from the environment is the same even for questionable behaviors. The social worker is therefore supposed to identify the source of certain behavior and whether an individual requires medical attention, or counseling can work well to restore their valuable behaviors.

Another social work theory is the systems theory that is concerned with the way a system of factors acts to impact the behavior of an individual. The factors that work together in changing the behavior of an individual include friends, family, school, and religious gatherings. The victim of the behavior change due to a system of factors is always at a severe need of a social work intervention since the behavior becomes firm with time. The attempt to change the system of factors that could adversely affect individuals’ behaviors could give positive results if well done. However, reluctance in terms of addressing the factors leading to behavior change could lead to unfavorable outcomes (Simpson, 2016, p. 214). For example, a daughter who has gone for over five years without seeing her father, with the only memory remaining being her father’s drunkenness and the fight between her parents, could easily indulge herself into drugs to avoid facing the truth soberly. The practical perspective of a social worker is to assess all the factors involved in the behavior change and the extent to which the behavior of the individual has been affected. The assessment might include becoming a role model for the client to follow, help in seeking the best therapy, as well as creating a more supportive and serene environment for recovery.

The intervention process is always a collaborative exercise between the social worker and the client. The social worker is not obliged by anyone to give help to people. However, most social workers are good-hearted and help people who have been neglected by the community. In the collaboration bit, the social worker involves the client in the planning of the transformation exercise. Intervention does not discriminate clients based on the challenges faced. In the relationships and intimacy field, social work comes in when the situation is at a straining level and tries to help the two parties in setting records straight to avoid the death of relationships. Also, social workers have the responsibility of ensuring that people in a relationship get to have a better engagement by the social workers to solve their problems wisely. Also, social work does not end at the point of recovery by a client. A client who has undergone a transformation program by a social worker needs to be directed on the best way to view life after recovery. Although the recovery period is used by the clients to rejoice, some feelings of physical hurt, or stress about the future could still be present. The social worker will still be there to help the clients to navigate effectively across the transition period.

In sum, the need for people whose only aim in life is to impact the lives of others necessitates the role of social work. Social workers aim to make a difference in the lives of individuals in their communities. The case of Doreen is a typical instance that requires the intervention of social workers to save Doreen from the challenges facing her. Several theories explain the working of social workers and their applicability depends on the existence of practical models. The practical models help in applying theories such as the psychodynamic theory, social learning theory, and even the systems theory. Generally, social work intervention is a collaborative system where the social worker and the client are expected to cooperate for a successful procedure.

References

Corley, N.A. and Kim, I., 2016. An assessment of intervention fidelity in published social work   intervention research studies. Research on Social Work Practice, 26(1), pp.53-60.

Glendinning, C., 2015. A single door: social work with the families of disabled children.     Routledge.

Raheb, G., Khaleghi, E., Moghanibashi-Mansourieh, A., Farhoudian, A. and Teymouri, R., 2016.             Effectiveness of social work intervention with a systematic approach to improve general   health in opioid addicts in addiction treatment centers. Psychology research and behavior   management, 9, p.309.

Simpson, G., Pfeiffer, D., Keogh, S. and Lane, B., 2016. Describing an early social work intervention program for families after severe traumatic brain injury. Journal of social            work in disability & rehabilitation, 15(3-4), pp.213-233.