SOCIAL WORK

Social Work and Safe Practice

Social Work Practice

Introduction to Social Work Practice

Social work can cover a wide range of issues from the homeless, pregnant teenagers, the elderly and the mentally and physically disabled. The aim of this paper is to review and understand the main function of social work. Brueggemann (2002) questions if people are generally healthy, but they live in an unhealthy society, or people generally unhealthy to live in a healthy society. This question was answered Saul Alinsky in 1950. Alinksy felt that poverty, discrimination, economic insecurity and unemployment, disease, and impotence have been an unhealthy society. Therefore, it was not people, but society itself.

The social work profession addresses various issues of child abuse, homelessness, teen pregnancy, poverty, and the elderly, as well as mental and physical disabilities. The main purpose of the social sphere according to Anne Minahan (ND), is (1) help develop a new system resource to meet human needs, (2) set the initial bond between people and resources of the systems themselves, to make them accessible to each other, (3 ) to facilitate and improve interaction between people within the available resources to ensure effective and humane operation of these systems and make them responsive to the needs of people (4) to facilitate ongoing interaction between the system resources so that they can work together effectively, and (5) to help people to develop and effectively use its own internal problems and overcoming the resource (Minahan, NDP 3).

Social Work Issues under Consideration

According to Brueggemann (2002) were a lot of assumptions made in the modern society of people from whom they are basically unable to solve their own problems and need help. Brueggemann questions, if people are generally healthy, but they live in an unhealthy society, or people generally unhealthy to a healthy society (Brueggemann, 2002, p. 48). In further evaluation of this question, I would say yes and no. Yes, in the sense that genetically someone can inherit traits that might make them more likely to be unhealthy, but not for society to be healthy, because human development is a balance of environment and inheritance. Thus the nature vs. nurture is an equal influence of society on human behaviour. We must look to understand the complex relationships, interactions, and environmental factors that affect humans. The client must first be considered through four levels of human interaction: (1) Microsystems (2) mesosystem, (3) exosystem, and (4) macrosystem. Sometimes, according to Ashman and Zastrow (2004), these levels can be understood as individuals and their families, school and work, local and state governments, national governments and cultures. Social work, then it's a profession where all components adhere to the same process. It is important that social workers develop skills based on client needs in the application of each level within the system to achieve a full understanding of customer problems. Thus, social work should focus on the strengths of the client, not the problem. Providing customers an opportunity to solve their own problems and collaborate with clients and with the ...