1 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng UNIT WHAT IS SOCIAL WORK? A new international definition of social work was adopted at the General Meeting of the International Federation of Social Workers’ (IFSW) in Montreal in July 2000 (available on-line at http://www.ifsw.org): The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being Utilizing theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work The definition emphasizes four concepts: social change, problem solving, person-in-theenvironment and empowerment To begin to understand this complex work it is necessary to explore these four key concepts  Social Change Mandate A social change mandate means working in solidarity with those who are disadvantaged or excluded from society so as to eliminate the barriers, inequities and injustices that exist in society Social workers should be at the forefront of promoting policy and legislation that redistributes wealth in favour of those who are less well-off- that is, promoting equal opportunity for women, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender persons, people with disabilities, Aboriginal peoples and racial and other minorities, and defending past gains made in these areas  Problem Solving Social workers respond to crises and emergencies as well as everyday personal and social problems Within this process, social workers use problem-solving techniques to identify the problem and formulate possible plans of action A problem is not usually clearly defined when someone comes to a social service agency It is therefore crucial for the social worker to explore the person’s concerns, to identify the need(s) involved, to identify barriers to meeting need(s) and to carefully determine the goals and possible plans of action A key characteristic of the problemsolving process is the inclusion of the client at each stage The process should also teach clients problem-solving skills so that they can better deal with future problems on their own  Person-in-the-Environment A key aspect of effective social work practice is to go beyond the “internal” (psychological) factors and examine the relationship between individuals and their environments This person-inthe-environment approach is partly what distinguishes social work practice from other helping professions These “environments” extend beyond the immediate family and include interactions with friends, neighbourhoods, schools, religious groups, laws and legislation, other agencies or organizations, places of employment and the economic system Based on this understanding, Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng intervention may focus on the individual, interactions between people and any given system or structure, or on the system or structure itself  “Empowerment” and Social Work In order for the interventions of social workers to be successful, the clients must believe that the efforts of the social worker will make a difference This leads to the important concept of empowerment Being empowered means feeling that you have power and control over the course of your life Empowerment is the process of increasing personal, interpersonal or political power so that one can improve one’s particular situation Power can be a personal state of mind, in the sense that one feels that one can make a difference and have control and influence over one’s own life It can also be empowerment within an organization in the sense that one has tangible influence and legal rights Empowerment, then, involves both a personal perception of being in control and tangible elements of power within the various social structures of society Social workers seek to empower their clients as a way of helping them to focus on, among other things, access to resources and the structures of power “Empowerment-based social work,” therefore, has three aspects:  making power explicit in the client-worker relationship (in order thereby to help equalize the relationship between the client and the worker);  giving clients experiences in which they themselves are in control (to allow them to see the potential for controlling their lives); and  always supporting the client’s own efforts to gain greater control over their lives as a way of promoting change Putting an empowerment perspective into practice can involve techniques that make power relations between the workers and their clients explicit, thereby equalizing the client-worker relationship Additionally, it may entail giving clients powerful experiences or experiences that put them in a position to exercise power Offering voluntary work experiences that allow clients to use their skills to help others can often be an empowering experience Another approach may be to support clients’ efforts to change policies or practices that impinge on their lives and the lives of others Such experiences can help people see the potential for power in their lives In other instances, an empowering perspective may involve simply focusing on the strengths of the person, rather than on the “pathology” or what is wrong with the person In all relationships, it is generally acknowledged that constructive feedback and positive reinforcement is conducive to helping people make positive changes in their lives It is often more helpful for social workers to guide their client’s focus towards the success they have achieved in the past rather than dwelling on how they have been unsuccessful and dysfunctional An empowerment perspective is the key to good social work practice And like other aspects of good practice, it involves not a specific set of skills, but a general orientation on the part of the worker This orientation is based on helping clients identify their own needs and then helping them to deal with the exigencies of their own particular situation Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng UNIT INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL WORK SOCIAL WORK AS A PROFESSION Social work is similar to helping professions (such as nursing, policing, and psychology) in that (1) it possesses a code of ethics; (2) it has the means to regulate and enforce set standards of behaviour among its members; and (3) it has developed a theoretical body of knowledge that guides practice (Cross, 1985) Like other professions, social work also requires its members to reach a certain level of educational preparedness – in terms of knowledge, competencies, and ethics – in order to practice One of the characteristics that distinguishes social work from other helping professions is its longstanding association with the social welfare system, which has guided the development and delivery of many of its programs This association dates back to the late 19th century, when many religion-based charitable organizations were replaced by government-sponsored social agencies, which in turn hired social workers to perform a variety of tasks Another distinguishing feature of social work is its multilevel approach to practice At the micro level, social workers aim to help individuals, families, and small groups improve their problems-solving skills At the mezzo level, social workers seek to improve conditions in and among social welfare organizations, while at the macro level they address broader issues such as social problems Exhibit 7.1 outlines some distinctions been social work and two other helping professions SOCIAL WORK VALUES AND ETHICS Social work practice is based on a philosophy of humanitarian and egalitarian ideals that shape social work goals and interventions Underlying this philosophy is a set of values or beliefs about how the world should be, rather than how the world really is Important social work values include acceptance of and respect for others and the right to self-determination Social work values reflect the diverse and often opposing beliefs of a pluralistic society and are strongly influenced by culture, relationships, personal experience, individual perceptions, and other factors (Johnson, 1998; Compton and Galaway, 1994) The extent to which social work values are adhered to in practice is limited For example, it is important that social workers keep client information confidential This is because without the assurance that personal information will be kept private, clients will be reluctant to disclose much information about themselves to a worker Circumstances nevertheless arise that warrant a social worker’s disclosure of client information without client authorization For instance, social workers can breach confidentiality to prevent a crime; to prevent clients from doing harm to themselves or to others; when ordered by a court of law; when child abuse or neglect is suspected; or when supervisors, support staff, agency volunteers, or others have an identified “need to know” (CASW, 1994b) It is not always easy for social workers to know when to adhere to and when to deviate from established social work values In 1938 the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW) Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng developed a social work code of ethics to help social workers make this kind of decision The primary purpose of a code of ethics “is to provide a practical guide for professional behavior and the maintenance of a reasonable standard of practice within a given cultural context” (CASW, 1983, 2) The CASW code was updated in 1983 and 1994 SOCIAL WORK KNOWLEDGE While values focus on what is preferred, desired, or good, knowledge is concerned with what is true or false Social work knowledge derives both from inside the social work profession and from other disciplines Knowledge that is produced indigenously by social workers is based on the shared experiences of workers, individual professional experiences, and applied research Much of the knowledge that is “borrowed” is from other helping disciplines such as psychology, psychiatry, education, and public health; social work knowledge has also drawn extensively from academic fields of sociology, economics, history, and law It is this “crosspollination” of various types of knowledge that makes social work a highly interdisciplinary field (Johnson, 1998) Social work’s person-in-environment focus requires social workers to gain knowledge about the client system, the client’s environment, and the client in interaction with his or her environment At one level, social workers must learn about certain aspects of the client system - for example, work with individual clients requires an understanding of the person’s psychological, social, physical, spiritual, and other dimensions It is also important that social workers learn about the client’s environment and how culture, the general economy, the political climate, and other external systems may affect his or her ability to function Finally, social workers need to be aware of the factors that can influence the interactions between the client and his or her environment (McMahon, 1994) SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE The Planned Change Process Social work involves the transformation of knowledge into practice The aim of social work practice is to help people become more empowered so that they are able to function more effectively To achieve this aim, social workers apply a generic, formal, systematic, and scientific set of procedures This problem-solving process is commonly referred to as the planned change process The planned change process consists of five phases: 1) intake; 2) assessment; 3) planning and contracting; 4) intervention; and 5) evaluation and termination The intake phase in concerned with screening applicants who apply to social welfare programs Client needs must be considered in view of the agency’s eligibility criteria and resources: that is, can the agency meet the client’s needs or must a referral be made to a more appropriate resource? In the assessment phase, information about the client’s concerns or needs is accumulated and then organized to form an overall picture of the client’s situation In the planning and contracting phase, the worker and client decide together what needs to be changed (perhaps a behaviour, emotion, thought pattern, or environmental condition) and then establish a contract that outlines the goals and objectives of the needed change and the types of strategies that will be used to Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng effect the change The intervention phase involves putting the plan into action, monitoring its effectiveness, and modifying strategies as needed to achieve the goal Toward the end of the contract, the intervention is evaluated to determine its effectiveness, and the client-worker relationship is eventually terminated The planned change process does not always evolve in a linear fashion; as new client needs or goals arise, certain phase may be repeated or deferred SOCIAL WORK SKILLS Generalist social workers are trained to apply a wide range of practice skills in their work with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities Three generic skill areas are essential for generalist social work practice: 1) Interpersonal skills include communication and active listening skills, the ability to build a working relationship with clients, and interviewing and counselling skills 2) Process skills enable the worker to identify and assess client needs, plan and implement appropriate interventions, make referrals, and develop more effective methods for serving clients 3) Evaluation and accountability skills demonstrate competency in evaluating interventions and holding oneself accountable for one’s practice and behaviour (Johnson, Schwartz, and Tate, 1997) Social work skills can also be thought of in terms of the various roles the worker adopts Generalist social workers typically assume a wide range of roles The role of broker involves helping individuals and groups connect with needed programs and services in the community An advocate speaks or acts on behalf of a client who is having difficulty exercising his or her rights or accessing needed services A mediator helps people in conflict reach mutually satisfying agreements, while a consultant assists organizations in improving service effectiveness and efficiency A social worker who assumes the role of mediator identifies areas of need in the community and establishes new social programs and services for target groups The skills and roles mentioned above are generic in that they can be applied to interventions with any size of client system, including individuals, families, and small groups The illustration of the generalist social work perspective in Exhibit 7.2 reflects the person-in-environment perspective and shows the range of approaches and knowledge used in the helping process MULTISKILLING In recent years, a new approach to social work practice has emerged in the form of multiskilling The Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW, 1998, 1) defines multiskilling as “an approach to care and/or a concept in which staff are cross trained but not professionally educated in two or more tasks or functions associated with at least two disciplines.” Although social workers are still required to obtain accredited education in social work, they are able through multiskilling to receive additional training in tasks that are associated with other occupations For example, a social worker may be trained to conduct physical mobility assessments, an activity traditionally associated with physical therapy or other health-related functions Multiskilling offers advantages that have made it an increasingly popular approach Some organizations see multiskilling as a way to break up rigid divisions of labour and make professionals more flexible in the tasks they perform There are potential economic benefits as well: staff numbers can be reduced since more people are prepared to perform a wider range of duties Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng Multiskilling is not without its critics, however According to the CASW (1998, 3): Social workers believe that specialized practitioners are needed to assist in the meeting the varied needs of people Neutralizing or diminishing the roles of professions and specialists reduces options for clients and increases the potential for harm At its worst, multiskilling may give staff unrealistic expectations about their ability to perform tasks that are complex and thus better left to specialists PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY The Canadian Association of Social Workers was established in 1926 as a national federation of provincial and territorial social work associations At present, about 15,500 social workers are registered with a provincial or territorial association (CASW, 2000) According to its mission statement, the CASW (1994a, 2) “seeks to develop, promote, support and maintain national professional standards of practice of the highest quality.” To meet this end, the CASW sets certain standards and guidelines for social work practice in Canada and participates in the development of social work regulation and legislation The promotion of standards and control is intended not only to protect clients and the general public from incompetent of fraudulent practice, but also to legitimate the profession and its practice Social workers are expected to practise in accordance with the philosophy, purpose, and standards set by their profession and to be accountable to their clients, their profession, and society Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng Exhibit 7.1 A COMPARISON OF THREE HELPING PROFESSIONS SOCIAL WORK PSYCHOLOGY PSYCHIATRY Focus of attention Dual focus on individual and environment and interaction between the two Individual behaviour, which includes internal thoughts, feelings, and emotional responses Mental illness; wide range of disturbed behaviour and emotional reactions Assessment / diagnostic tools Social history; client interviews; observation Diagnostic tests ( I.Q., personality, etc.); interviews; observation Medical exams; use of International Classification of Disease; interviews; observation; tests Intervention methods Casework; family and/or group therapy; education/information; referral to community resources Behaviour modification; psychotherapy; environmental modification Prescribe psychotropic medication; psychotherapy; biological treatments Aim of intervention To help individuals, families, and communities understand and solve personal and social problems To solve or prevent behavioural, cognitive and affective problems To reduce symptoms, change behaviour, or promote personality growth Specializations Counselling, group work, social administration, research and evaluation, community organization, teaching Clinical, experimental, neurological developmental, social, counselling, educational, industrial personality Child, geriatric, forensic, liaison, behaviour, family, sexual, psychoanalysis, research Education B.S.W., M.S.W., D.S.W., B.A or B.Sc., M.A., Ph.D Ph.D Medical doctor and at least years’ psychiatric training Professional association (national) Canadian Association of Social Workers Canadian Psychiatric Association Canadian Psychological Association Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng UNIT SOCIAL WORK WITH INDIVIDUALS The helping process with individuals is sometimes called social casework, although this term is used infrequently nowadays A majority of social workers spend their time working with individuals in private or public agencies or in private practice Even though other types of social work are increasing, the practice of social work with individuals still predominates Individual social work is aimed at helping people resolve their problems or situations on a one-to-one basis, that is, helping unemployed people obtain work or training, providing protective services for abused children, providing counselling for mental health, providing parole or probation services, supplying services to the homeless and poor, co-ordinating services for people with AIDS and co-ordinating discharge services for a person being released from hospital All of us on occasion find ourselves with problems that we cannot resolve alone At times the help of a friend or family member may be enough, but at other times the skilled help of a social worker is necessary Social work with individuals can take different forms depending on the philosophy and perspective of the social worker While some workers may address personal problems, others may emphasize the social relations underlying the problem Still others may address both dimensions simultaneously In general, social work practice with individuals involves the following steps These steps are common to most social work interventions with individuals and families Although assessment precedes intervention, and intervention precedes termination, the process can be cyclical For example, during intervention the client and worker may discover new information that in turn raises the need for more planning In fact each process is taking place throughout the intervention, but at each step one or more is emphasized As mentioned previously, the steps are mere guideposts for a process that involves a combining and re-combining of actions into new ways of looking at thingsthat is a praxis or a process of “action-reflection-action.”  Intake Intake is usually the first step taken by a worker when a client seeks help Intake is a process whereby a request for service is made by or for a person, and it is then determined whether and what kind of service is to be provided The social worker attempts to gather initial information from the client in order to determine what assistance is needed, and whether the agency and worker is the appropriate provider If it is mutually determined by both the worker and client that the agency can be of service, then some sort of agreement or contract is made When it is determined that the person’s needs cannot be met by the agency, then a referral to a service elsewhere is made or a decision is made that no social work service is required During the intake phase, the client makes a personal request for help or someone from the community directs the client to a particular social work agency The social work relationship can be either voluntary or involuntary The intake step is voluntary when a client willing seeks help from a social work agency For example, a parent who recognizes the difficulties of caring for a child may approach a child welfare agency for assistance By contrast, an involuntary client is ordered to see a social worker or is required to so by law For example, a social worker is required by law to assist a child in danger when, for example, the child’s situation has been reported as unsafe by a Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng physician, hospital worker, police officer or school teacher In such cases, families are often uncooperative, especially if allegations of child abuse are reported In the intake step, the social worker acknowledges the client’s need for help, collects information from the client, assesses the client’s problem or situation and, based on the agency’s resources, determines if the social worker agency can help the client In essence, when they first meet ,both the worker and client want answers to specific questions The applicant or potential client wants to know: Can I get the help I need here? Can this person help me? How can I get the help I need at this agency or with this person? The worker will ask: Can I help this person or would it be more appropriate for someone else to help? How can I help this person?  Assessment and planning The assessment and planning step includes two processes In the assessment process, the social worker and the client analyze what help is needed based on the client’s ideas, thoughts and feelings about the particular problem Once the assessment is complete ,the social worker formulates a plan designed to help the client with the particular problem The plan is not set in stone but provides an initial course of action Many social work textbooks describe a process that involves problem definition, data collection and objective setting This type of model flows more from a management or bureaucratic approach to social work that stresses technical rationality In this model, the worker knows best and can rationally plan the optimal course of action In this section, we are emphasizing a social work process that stresses reflection-action-reflection in which the social worker continually thinks things through while acting on the problem at hand He or she adapts the intervention based on dialogue and reflection on experiences of and feelings about past actions Assessment is both a process and a product of understanding on which action is based (Siporin 1975,219) It involves gathering relevant information and developing an understanding How a social worker selects information and how he or she analyzes it is accomplished with reference to the assumptions that underlie a particular social work model, and by one’s own experience of the world In order to form a plan in the assessment phase, the social worker also relies on other people who know the client personally For example, in cases in which a client is provided with social services as a result of an involuntary intervention, the social worker may initially rely on information provided by a teacher, doctor or police officer (or, for example, an elder in a First Nations community) During assessment and planning, the worker and client identify problems and a set of actions needed to reach the desired goals The skill set for direct intervention would include the following items:  Validating feelings The social worker validates the client’s feelings by conveying an understanding of them This builds a rapport and helps the client to identify and sort out a variety of feelings The social worker must also consider non-verbal emotional responses in developing this understanding  Interview questioning Open-ended and closed-ended questions are used in an interview to elaborate information Open-ended questions give the client the opportunity to discuss aspects of the problem that they see as important in more depth The questions often begin with “how” or “what.” Closed-ended questions give the social worker the opportunity to clarify details of the client’s narrative They are often used late in a session to check for accuracy Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 10 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng  Paraphrasing Paraphrasing is a basic social work communication skill With paraphrasing the social worker re-states what the client has said in her or his own words Social workers use paraphrasing to confirm that the meaning the worker has attached to a client message is indeed the meaning intended by the client It also provides feedback to the client that the worker has grasped what he or she is saying Beginning social workers need to be aware that overuse of paraphrasing can give the client the impression of being mimicked  Clarification This skill is used to determine if the worker and client are on the same “wavelength.” It is often used to probe an issue that is not understood by the social worker It involves asking for specific details about an event Clarification often becomes a reciprocal process between the social worker and client as each tries to understand the true meaning of what the other is saying  Summarizing This is skill is used in attempts to capture or pull together the most important aspects of the problem or situation It provides focus for the next interview and can assist in planning Both the feelings and content of the client’s message should be used It is also useful when the social worker believes that it is time to move on to another topic  Information giving Without overwhelming people with too much information at one time, the social worker often shares information about resources in the community (e.g., women’s shelters) or information that shows that the client is not alone in experiencing the problem Be sure the client realizes that they can refuse the information, and provide pamphlets or brochures where possible  Interpretation This skill enables the social worker to delve into the presented problem and “read between the lines.” The worker’s insights may help the client develop a deeper understanding of what is really going on, and not just what appears to be happening It may provide an alternative way of looking at the problem or a new frame of reference Always check both verbal and non-verbal responses of the client to your interpretation  Consensus building Consensus building attempts to work out agreement on what should be done to address the problem It may be easily attained or there may be discrepancies between what a client says they want and their behaviour, or between separate messages given by a client Confrontation may be used to challenge a client to examine such discrepancies It should be non-adversarial and respectful and used only when a safe and trusting relationship has developed Planning is based on sets of decisions made by the worker and the client that are shaped by the worker’s analysis of the information collected in the assessment phase The planned actions may be at a wide variety of levels: individual, environmental, multi-person, systemic or structural For example, they might involve therapeutic, educational and social action-oriented approaches What frequently varies between practice models is the focus of attention A behaviour therapy approach would tend to focus on changing individual behaviours, whereas a social action or structural approach may focus on changing systems or structures in society in order to shift power relations In any event, the social worker assesses the client’s problem with the client and negotiates a plan with the client that includes:  the type of actions or interventions;  the length of the interventions; Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 15 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng Functional stage Integration enables group to implement plans and accomplish tasks Few groups reach the end of this stage Disintegration stage Groups may fall apart during any of the stages, but once the group feels that its goals have been accomplished, groups often disband Social workers may also bring a treatment group to an end to enable the members to move on Throughout these stages, workers will undertake specific tasks Depending on the type of group, social workers will take on any or all of the following tasks:  Facilitation This is the most frequent role for social workers in non-treatment groups The goal is to enable the group to function smoothly by asking questions, helping the group stay on topic, summarizing decisions and being supportive of members  Co-ordination This more administrative task involves monitoring the task completion by group members, and helping the group plan future activities  Therapy This is a broad task category and can include any of the skills discussed previously in the discussion of intervention with individuals Often, social workers are working with “the multi-person client,” such as a family The focus is often on issues around group interaction and communication  Conflict resolution While not always identified as a group work task, conflict resolution is increasingly a task of social workers (especially in child welfare, family therapy and international human rights work) The core elements include defining it as a group (rather than an individual) problem, listening to the different points of view and seeking to draw out common ground The aim is to create a “win-win” situation and encourage co-operation  Group Work Intervention Steps The steps for social work with groups are similar to those for work with individuals except that they involve groups of people  Intake During intake, the social worker acknowledges the client’s need, collects information from the client (for example, self-referral or referral by someone in the community), assesses the client’s situation and his or her capacity and motivation to change, and determines the agency’s capacity to help the client by using any type of group that it has available  Assessment and planning The worker completes preliminary assessment of the client’s situation or problem, provides a potential group process intervention plan and proposes a potential group to the client or adds the client’s name to a waiting list  Group intervention In working with groups, the social worker may any of the following: - help the group to find common ground in terms of the issues they wish to deal with; - anticipate obstacles to the group work experience and bring them to the group’s attention; - educate the group, providing information and support thought to be useful to the group; Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 16 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng - contribute thoughts, feelings, ideas and concerns regarding the group work experience (drawing upon insights derived from similar group work experience); - define the needs and limitations of the group-social worker relationship; and - monitor the group’s progress and provide ongoing evaluation of the group experience  Evaluation and termination The final stage deals with issues that arise from terminating the group experience, such as evaluating the group process with the group and the social work supervisor The worker may terminate the relationship with the group or mutually agree with the group members to end the group process Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 17 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng UNIT SOCIAL WORK WITH COMMUNITIES Social work with a community (or community work, as it is usually called) is often either not addressed in social work texts or is limited to a few pages at the back Students are left with little knowledge of what community work is and often feel that it is too complex or too abstract for them to learn They end up deciding that they would rather work directly with people or that community work is for social activists only In this book, community work is given equal treatment Community work can be thought of in different ways It may be a geographic community as defined by a specific neighbourhood, city district or local ward, with specific geographical boundaries It might also be a membership community as defined by a sense of belonging to a specific group; for example, the gay and lesbian community, the black community, the Native community and so on Or, it may be a self-help community consisting of persons with similar problems or difficulties; for example, those living with addiction, disability or unemployment, or coping with illness or the death of a loved one Community work is frequently a central part of international social work or social work in developing countries ( This type of community work is discussed in more detail in Chapter 13, which deals with international social work.)  Four Models of Community Work The nature of community work differs depending on the perspective informing one’s practice A useful approach is Rothman’s model of community development, which allows one to see the differences between the various forms of community development discussed and debated in Canada today Rothman’s typology regards community work as a continuous process and one that includes the staff who sustain and plan the process (Rothman 1970, 474) To this model, we would add a fourth component, “participatory action research” ( PAR) Community social work can therefore be seen as consisting of the following four types:  Locality development Community action for change involves the participation of a broad range of people in the community who focus on goal determination and action This model emphasizes community building to enable people to solve their own problems It is closely associated with adult education and self-help Within this model, the primary problems are identified as anomie ( disorganization), lack of communication and lack of problem-solving capacities The basic strategy is to involve a broad cross-section of people in determining and solving their own problems, with the aim of achieving consensus and increasing communication among the various groups Members of the local power structure are encouraged to become involved as well and are seen as potential collaborators in a mutual venture The definition of community in locality development is geographic; that is, the community is composed of people in a specific geographic area who share common interests or reconcilable differences Organizations involved in locality development may include overseas development programs, neighbourhood workers and consultants to community development teams Historically, settlement houses were of this type Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 18 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng  Social planning When individuals plan and gather data about problems in order to choose the most rational course of action, they are engaged in social planning The focus is on rational, deliberately planned and controlled change Social planning involves people in the community to varying degrees, depending on the nature of the problem The approach focuses on gathering information about problems and making rational decisions for change The change strategy may seek consensus of may acknowledge conflict Social planning focuses more heavily on gathering information than on changing the system This model’s definition of community is functional and may include a segment of a community in which the people are clients of particular problem The client population are considered to be consumers or recipients Typical organizations may include social planning councils, welfare groups of governmentsponsored organizations  Social action Social action organizes disadvantaged groups in the community to redistribute power, resources decision making It involves the disadvantaged segments of a community, those in need of more resources or improved facilities, in accord with social justice or democracy The change strategy is to work with a community to investigate and identify issues and to organize people to take action against groups who are exploiting or oppressing the disadvantaged groups It can involve conflict, confrontation, direct action or negotiation Social action is concerned with the shifting of power relationships and resources and sees issues as revolving around conflicting interests, which may not easily reconciled Typical social action initiatives include poverty activists, peace groups, civil rights groups, welfare right groups, trade unions, partisans and liberation movements  Participatory action research Research that is directed towards changing the structures that promote inequality is called participatory research Participatory research is similar to the social action model, but emphasizes the direct participation of the disadvantaged segment of the community in the entire research and action process This emphasis is based on the belief that people must produce their own body of knowledge, representing their own history and lived experience, in order to redress social inequality The basic change strategy for social workers is to help identify local social problems, to design action research in collaboration with local people, to collect information and use that information to confront power structures with the need for structural change Participatory researchers are critical of the standard social planning model They argue that, when doing “social planning,” researchers more often than not work for the existing power structure-outsiders design the studies, and the results of their studies primarily benefit people in power The plan, therefore, ignores the capability of local residents to form their own questions, design their own studies, collect their own information and, most importantly, use the knowledge gained for their own benefit The results are then subject to market forces and tend to benefit the powerful over the powerless ( PAR is discussed further in Chapter 13, page 246.) Every practising social worker will at some point become involved in community work of some kind or other This is particularly true for those who emphasize changing social structures or changing the client’s immediate social environment Like individual work and group work, social work with communities is a challenging area It involves working with individuals and groups in tandem, and therefore it requires a unique set of skills Students sometimes see community work as an optional field of knowledge, one in which they are unlikely to be involved In fact, community Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 19 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng work can be immensely satisfying as a main area of work, and a working knowledge of it is essential for anyone who wishes to become a well-rounded and effective social work practitioner  Virtual community work Today, the Internet makes it possible of community workers and activists to expand their networks by identifying and contacting people in other communities who have similar interests and concerns This could be loosely referred to as a kind of virtual community work Its importance should not be minimized By joining the appropriate Internet-based discussion lists and news groups, social workers can identify and communicate with people in other communities who are working on similar issues By sharing information, strategies and advice, the effectiveness of efforts may be enhanced For example, human rights workers have dramatically improved the effectiveness of Urgent Action work to call attention to human rights violations by spreading the news via the Internet As well, Jubilee 2000, a global movement for Third World debt relief was organized primarily using Internet communication A social worker in the community work field can be certain that there is a group on the Internet with similar interests And, as globalization increasingly affects our economy and the nature of social issues, there is growing importance in connecting with other groups and individuals Social workers worldwide are beginning to use the Internet to organize and mobilize on behalf of disadvantaged groups in society These individuals are turning to the Internet as a way to connect with each other, learn from each other and challenge what they see as injustices in society Grassroots activists are finding that they can interact on the Internet without the restrictions normally associated with official social services agencies Social workers are using the Internet to connect not only with those in distant areas of Canada but with like-minded people in other countries The new communications technology has opened up possibilities for conducting social work more effectively, and knowledge of this technology will be increasingly important to social workers in the future  Community Work Intervention Steps The worker will take the following steps for social work with a community  Entry The entry step is comparable to the intake step of the social work relationship with individuals In this step the community usually consults a community worker about its particular problem The social worker acknowledges and responds to the community’s need or is hired by someone to help the community For example, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) might hire a social worker to go to Kenya to assist a community in organizing to meet their health needs The worker needs to start slowly by getting to know the local contacts and developing an understanding of the power relations in the community The community leaders need to be informed about what the worker intends to If the community feels that what is being proposed is not valuable, then it is best to know this at the outset-and perhaps leave, rather than wasting the time of the worker and the community Bill Lee, an accomplished community organizer in Canada, believes three primary principles must be adhered to at this stage: (1) the organizer must begin where the people are and respect their value system; (2) his or her contacts must be broad (and include not only the Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 20 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng elite or powerful); and (3) he or she should attempt to find out who in that particular context has the power and credibility to mobilize and organize others into action (Lee 1996, 60)  Data Collection and Analysis It is important that the social worker work with key members of the community to determine what information and efforts are required One of the common goals of community work is to increase self-reliance within the community This goal will be hampered if the social worker enters the community as an expert and undertakes top-down social action Development goals can also be negatively affected when only the elite, or people with high social status, are participating It is critical that power be equally distributed information decision making The social worker and members of the community - collect information from interviews, questionnaires and observation (individuals and groups); - document and analyze the community in order to determine who the stakeholders are or what the distribution of power is (major/minor stakeholders/powerholders); - determine how community needs can be met; - ask how the community will evaluate the intervention; and - propose a plan and ask how the community will react to the proposed intervention plan In recent years, community social workers have become somewhat concerned with research itself as a social process and have begun to question the role of the “independent” researcher In this context, some social workers have found the idea of participatory research to be useful (see the discussion on participatory action research above, on page 83) Here, research is conducted not only by the social worker but includes the direct participation of the community members Certainly this can be an effective way to research information communities, and it may, in some cases, be the only way As with other aspects of community work, the type of research that would work best in any particular situation needs to be evaluated and discussed with the community In some cases, the best arrangement might be a conventional study; in others, a participatory model; and in still others, some combination of the two  Goal Setting The social worker brainstorms with the community to establish goals, evaluates the goals in terms of their feasibility, sets priorities with the community and provides education to community members Again, the maximum participation of community members from all social levels is critical  Action Planning The social worker, working with members of the community, creates an action plan The plan will include action steps, implementation steps, monitoring and evaluation steps, and re-planning steps Generally the plan should be a participatory process and may include: - what action or change will occur; - who will carry it out; Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 21 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng - when it will take place, and for how long; - what resources (i.e., money, staff) are needed to carry out the change; - communication (who should know what)  Action Taking In its simplest terms, this step involves the implementation of the action plan on the part of the social worker and the community However, “action taking” is not a separate activity; the worker and people in the community have been taking action throughout the entire process What most clearly distinguishes this stage is that action is being taken more by the members of the community than by the social worker Seeing a self-reliant community begin to improve its situation is one of the most rewarding aspects of being and community social worker  Evaluation and Termination/Re-planning In the evaluation stage, the social worker and the community evaluate the intervention and re-plan in the light of its effectiveness Evaluations in community work increasingly involve the direct and active participation of the community’s members Evaluating the success of the intervention and planned activities is a critical part of any organizing effort, and it is important not to wait until the completion of the organizing effort to evaluate its effectiveness The following questions provide a basic framework for a more extensive evaluation Try discussing these questions at an early stage Are we moving closer to achieving our intended objectives? What other unintended impacts and effects have resulted? What activities in particular are contributing to the achievement of our objectives? Are there better ways to achieve the desired results? Are our actions and work helping us to gain support in the community? An evaluation of results might reveal that the reason objectives have not been met is that the strategy was correct but not implemented effectively For example, the actions may have been timed inappropriately or the actions were too infrequent or not carried through thoroughly Revisions to strategy are frequently necessary Action-evaluation-action is a cycle that allows the worker and the community to change tactics The central indicator for evaluating success is, of course, whether your efforts have created the change you desired Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 22 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng UNIT SOCIAL WELFARE: PROMOTING CHANGE INTRODUCTION The primary of all social welfare programs is to change conditions that threaten individual and/ or social functioning To achieve this goal, a type of intervention must be applied In the social welfare context, the tem intervention refers to strategies, techniques, and methods that are used to help individuals, families, communities, or other social sytems change Interventions vary depending on the nature of the problem and size of the sytem that needs to be changed The change process may involve either (1) helping people change or adapt to their environment; or (2) changing the environment so that it is more conducive to meeting human needs Example of interventions include supporting an individual through the grieving process, teaching a family to listen to and show respect for its members, and helping a community adjust to a large influx of immigrants Many social welfare programs that focus on changing people have their origins in the English Poor Laws In the early days of social welfare, “change” was primarily in the from of imposed work Herded into workhouses or “houses of industry”, the able-bodied unemployed were put to work in the hope that they would “learn or retain the habits of industry and help to offset the cost of their keep” (Guest, 1980,10) Social welfare’s interest in changing people’s environment can be traced to the social reform movements of the late 1800s and early 1900s, Social activists in the urban reform movement, for example, sought changes in housing and health legislation that would reduce poverty and human suflering for city dwellers Similarly, supporters of the women’s rights movement advocated for changes in the social, political, and economic environment that would improve living conditions for women and their children In the post-World War I period, a growing amount of research in the helping professions paved the way fof a more professional, systematic, and “scientific” approach to changing people and their environments It was no longer enough for practitioners to simply “mean well”; instead, those working in social welfare were required to obtain formal training in the social sciences and to draw upon a recognized repertoire of technologies in their practice Until the 1930s, those technologies were based primarily on Freudian principles and the diagnostic school of social work, including formal interviewing skills, procedures for assessing or “diagnosing” human problems, and psychoanalytic strategies or “treatments.” Accompanying the emergence of these and subsequent technologies was a recognition of three distinct levels of change, which are described below:  Micro-level change involves face-to-face interactions with individuals, families, and small groups The primary goal of micro-level change is to help people obtain the resources and skills they require to become self-sufficient This type of intervention is often referred to as direct service or clinical practice  Mezzo-level change generaly occurs at the organizational level of social agencies and involves little direct contact with service users The focus is on changing systems that directly affect clients, such as social service prgrams, agency policies and procedures, and the delivery of service Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 23 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng  Macro-level change takes place at the community level and seeks to change social conditions Collective action is uasualy required at this level of change, since the systems for which change is sought are typically complex and well-established Exhibit 8.1 illustrates the relationship between the three levels and gives examples of interventions for each level This chapter examines social welfare programs and services that are designed to promote change at the micro and macro levels Mezzo-level change was covered in the discussion of intraorganizational change in Chapter CHANGE AT THE MICRO LEVEL: PROGRAMS AND SERVICES THE NATURE OF MICRO-LEVEL CHANGE Social welfare services that focus on micro-level change are aimed at helping individuals, families, and small groups to obtain “the basics they need to survive, subsist, develop, and even flourish within society” (Kahn, 1995, 571) One advantage of such programs is that their limited focus increases the likelihood that needs will be successfully identified and met One disadvantage is that change at the micro level rarely addresses the root causes of social problems For example, as Kahn (1995, 571) points out, a food bank that provides food for hungry individuals will ensure that, on a given day, a given number of people are fed But it cannot and does not address the question of why these people are hungry If the soup kitchen closes, the people it serves will again be hungry Despite their limitations, programs that attempt to effect change at the micro level are needed continue to be a primary emphasis of many socialwelfare agencies PROGRAMS FOR INDIVIDUALS Programs that are designed for individual are rooted in the social casework approach, which emerged during the organized charity movement in the late 1800s The casework method prompted a step-by-step approach to counselling and was used by “friendship visitors” – volunteers who visited the poor and provided friendship and support as opposed to financial relief These visitors were primarily from middle-and upper-class circles and were expected to be role models for the poor (Germain and Gitterman, 1980) Under the influence of the American social worker Mary Richmond,casework eventually became more scientific – as, for example, when it adopted a medical model to explain individual dysfunction This model required practitioners to conduct a thoruough and systematic exploration of an individual’s social environment (Johnson, 1998) Most present-day social agencies that provide direct client services have programs for individual, Examples include mental-health counselling, alcohol and drug counselling, homesupport services for elderly persons, adaptation programs for immigrants, support services for abused women, and victim-assistance programs Social welfare programs and services deigned for individuals are justified on the basis that communities and sociey in general suffer if individual needs are not sufficiently met Social worker and other professional helpers also recognize that providing services on a one-to-one basis can be effective in helping people change their behaviour, learn new coping strategies, and either adapt to or change their environment (Fischer, 1978) Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 24 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng Each individual who seeks help from a social agency has a unique set of needs, issues, and concerns However, most requests for services by individuals ralate to one or more of the following areas: 1) interpersonal conflict – overt conflict between two or more persons who agree that the problems exists, such as marital conflict, parent – child conflict 2) dissatisfaction in social relations – deficiencies or excesses that the client perceives as problems in interactions with others, such as dissatisfaction in a marriage, with a child or parent, with peers; 3) problems with formal organizations – problems occurring between the client and an organization, such as a school, court, welfare department; 4) difficulties in role performance – problems in carrying out a particular social role, such as that of spouse, parent, student, employee, patien; 5) decision problems – problems of uncertainty, such as what to in a particular situation; 6) reactive emotional distress – conditons in which the client’s major concern is with feelings, such as anxiety and depression, rather than with the situation that may have given riseto them 7) inadequate resources - lack of tangible resources, such as money, housing, food, transportation, child care, a job (Epstein, 1980, 178 – 179) Depending on their particular discipline, service providers use a variety of techniques to help individuals deal with these and other issues Interventions that focus on changing individuals may be based on one or more of a wide range of counselling models, including psychoanalysis, clientcentred therapy, gestalt therapy, transactional analysis, behaviour therapy, feminist therapy, rational therapy, feminist therapy, rational therapy, and reality therapy FAMILY SERVICES As a primary social unit, the family is responsible for procreating, nurturing, and protecting children, socializing individual members into the larger society, and linking its members to other social institutions If a family is unableto complete these tasks adequately, its members may seek help from family service agencies The origin of family services in Canada can be traced in part to the development of the Canadian Patriotic Fund (CPF) during World War To achieve its goal of “maintaining the home life” CPF workers provided support and supervision for large numbers of families who were temporarily without fathers because of the war Strong-Boag (1979, 25) comments on the likely effect to the CPF: “It seems very probable that the good results that the CPF demonstrated in improved school attendance, better housekeeping, lessened mortality and increased family stability helped further other efforts to shore up the nuclear family as the best guarantor of social order In the 1920s and 1930s, family casework emerged as a more scientific approach to helping families In their provision of services, family caseworkers set out “to reinforce and strengthen the endangered family, by drawing in the community’s resources, not only in materrial relief, but in chatacter and spiritual strength as well” (McGill University, 1931) Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 25 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng The needs and problems of families today are diverseand often complex However, Janzen and Harris (1986, 41 – 42) suggest that most concerns bringing families to social agencies are related to one or more of the following events: 1) Addition to the family Families seek guidance when the family structure changes, as when a member gets married or remarried, is pregnant, has a new baby, becoms a stepparent, fosters or adopts a child, or takes in an elderly family member 2) Separation or lot Family support service are often helpul when family member dies, a marriage breaks down, a family member is institutionalized (e.g., in a hospital, jail, long-term care), a working member loses a job, a child, a child leaves home, or there is suicide in the family 3) Demoralization.Familiesmayu seek helpwhen they feel demoralized or disheartened due to income loss, adddiction, infidelity, victimization, delinquence, or family violencde 4) Change in status or role Some families need supportive to help them get through a member’s development crisis, or, old age), cope with the loss of the parent role (e.g., when the last child leaves home), or adjust to a change in social staus (e.g, a move from “worker” to “retiree”) Exhibit 8.2 lists some of the services that family resource programs in the Canada offer families with young children SOCIAL WELFARE: FROMOTING CHANGE AT THE MICRO AND MACRO LEVELS Exhibit 8.2 FAMILY RESOURCE PROGRAM Did you know that across Canada family resource program offer:  support groups of parents  prenatal programs  well-baby programs  drop-in programs  playgroups  toy-lending programs  clothing, toy, and equiqment exchanges  resource library materials  “warm-liens” (telephone service offering noncrisis support and information)  referrals and liaison with other community services  peer counselling and professional counselling  crisis intervention Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 26 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng  support groups for family violence victims/survivors  health-related information  life-skills courses  employment counselling or training courses  community kitchen programs  literacy programs including ESL (English as a Second Language) source: Canadian Association of Family Resource Programs (Ottawa, n.d.) A practitioner who works with family systems may be trained in a variety of discipliens, including social work, psychology, and family therapy Regardless of their educational background, family service workers generally focus on helping family access resource and fulfil their roles (e.g., as parent, spouse, or provider) more effectively This focus underlies a broad range of family-orientend programs, such as child protection, family planning child development, family violence treatment, and family maintenance SOCIAL GROUP WORK A social agency may provide group programs as a more affordable and less timeconsuming alternative to individual service Another advantage of group programs is that they may meet certain client goals – such as the attainment of appropriate social skills – more effectively than one-to-one sessions  socialzation groups (e.g., an anger management group consisting of adolescent boy);  support group (e.g., a parent support group that encourages parents to share child-raising experiences and parenting tips);  educational skill-enhancement groups (e.g., a group that teaches life skills to people with severe disabilities); and  therapy groups (e.g., a groups that helps teenage girls with eating disorders) Exhibit 8.3 profiles some of the social groups at Catholic community Services in Montreal Social group work originated in the 1800s in settlement houses – large, privately run houses located in city slums Middle-class facilitators attempted to “use the power of group associations to educate, reform, and organize neighborhoods; to preserve religious and cultural identities; and to give emotional support and assistance to newcomers both from the farm and abroad” (Zastrow, 1996, 590) The techniques used in early social groups were poorly defined; such definition; group leaders claimed, would interfere with the spontaneous nature of the group process Grace Coyle, an American settlement house worker, later laid the foundation for modern social group work Her development of a theoretical framework introduced a strategie or scientific approach to working with small groups; this process emphasized the development of common group goals and democratic decision-making (Tropp, 1977) Coyle (1959) identified three ways by which small groups can meet members’ personal and social needs: Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành 27 Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng  The intimate face-to-face interactions afforded by small groups can facilitate the emotional maturity of members  Relationships formed within the group can be effective supplements to outside relationships Exhibit 8.3 SOCIAL GROUPS AT MONTREAL’S CATHOLIC COMMUNITY SERVICE SINGLE AGAIN A discussion group for separated or divorced women and men that deals with topics like new lifestyle, loneliness, anger, chidren, and new relationships This program will offer you a chanceto share concerns with others in similar situations It will also help you develop insights and learn new ways of coping SELF-ESTEEM THROUGH ASSERTIVENESS Discover your inner strengths An 8-week program for men and women offered three times a year Join a discussion group to explore:  New ways of building self-confidence;  Assertive communication;  Your view of the world around you and how it affects you;  The way you think about yourself STRAIGHT PARTNERS OF GAYS For men and women who are presently, or have been, in a mixed sexualorientation relationship  A support group,  A discussion group  A drop-in centre An ongoing group for those who have experienced the pain of a partner’s “coming out of the closet.” Intended to help heal the hurt, channel the anger, an help you cope, this group can give you hope and offer moral support by listening, sharing, and answering some of the most pressing problems that ralate to your situation Question regarding sexuality, children, health, and other important and relevant issues are addressed An experienced animator leads the group Members of the group who understand and can appreciate your dilemma play an important part in the life of the group  Group experience can help prepare members for more active participation in society as the individual learns to restrain his or her own inappropriate behaviour, the group Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành ... helping them to deal with the exigencies of their own particular situation Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng UNIT INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL WORK SOCIAL WORK AS A... social work values In 1938 the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW) Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng developed a social work code of ethics to help social... objectives of the needed change and the types of strategies that will be used to Tiếng Anh Chuyên Ngành Khoa Công tác Xã hội – Phát triển Cộng đồng effect the change The intervention phase involves