Question: What is the basic nature of Social Work Profession?

Basic Nature of Social Work Profession

Every profession has a particular function to perform in society: it has received a certain job assignment for which it is held accountable. To Schwartz the social work job assignment is to “mediate the process through which the individual and…society reach out for each other through a mutual need for self-fulfillment”. Social work itself a helping profession, which intend to help the individual, group and community with professional knowledge, skills and using some systematic approaches.

The basic nature of social work profession can be described as below.

 

Program Oriented

Social Work is a program based profession. Different types of program are taken concerning specific problems to be solved and/or situation to be changed or developed. Professionally social workers work with individual, group and community. So, the programs taken also vary due to the nature of problems, expected outcomes and solving and changing procedures. Thus programs are responsive to the needs and times.

 

Activity Based

Social Workers use a systematic activity plan when work with the clients. The activities are many. In a problem solving process social workers’ activities may categorized in three phases:

       a) Contact phase,

       b) Contract phase and,

       c) Action phase.

In addition to these social workers have to do the day to day administrative activities, research activities, planning, program formulating etc.

 

Method Based and Systematic Approach

As a human service profession social workers use some specific methods and approaches. The traditional methods of social work profession include a) case work, b) group work and, c) community organization. In addition to the case work, group work and community organization frame work, recently considerable attention has been given to efforts to reconceptualize social work strategies in terms of micro-macro approaches.

 

Administration and Agency Based

Like other profession, social work is also an institutionally organized profession. Social workers work through an administrative set up. Social work agencies’ have the organizational policy, code of ethics, goals and objectives, administrative hierarchy. Programs are set by the agency. Some social work departments (such as the social service department of a school system, a hospital, a court, and so on) operate as a part of a larger host agency.

 

Helping profession      

Social work is not a ‘doing’ profession rather a ‘helping’ profession. It is not exactly alike the profession of doctor or engineer, because they help their clients with some kind of instant remedies. But social workers help the clients proving some ‘helps’. These helps include enabling the client to cop with the changing situation or to develop situation, connecting the client with the resource system and making him/her able to solve the own problem. Social workers have to have professional education, training, skills, values etc. for competence.

 

Focuses on Psycho-Social Problems

The activities of social work mainly focus on the psycho-social problems of the clients’. People live in the environment. And there is a clear relationship between the coping activity of the people and the demand from the environment. If anyone fails to perform his/her social functions he/she fall in psycho-social problem. Social worker emphasizes on individualizing the person-situation complex in order to achieve the best match between each person and the environment.

 

Purposive

Social work is a purposive profession. According to Martin Rein, the purposes of social work are three as the following:

a)      To assist individuals and groups to identify and resolve or minimizing problems arising out of disequilibrium between themselves and the environment.

b)      To identify potential areas of disequilibrium between individuals or groups and the environment in order to prevent the occurrence of disequilibrium.

c)      In addition to these curative and preventive aims, to seek out, identify, and strengthen the maximum potential in individuals, groups, and communities.

Participatory

Social workers engage people in the all phases of activities related to problem solving or developing programs. People know better what the problem is and where is the problem. So, they can give proper information about it. That is why their engagement and participation is so important. Moreover, the solution would be satisfactory when people participate in the whole process.

 

Develop Leadership

When work with a group or community social workers be attentive to develop leadership in the group or community. That is because to make the people active and more participative and to make the result of the activities more sustainable under the supervision of ‘their man’. The leader would be the further pathfinder for the concerned group or the community.

 

Restore Capacity of the Client

Social workers believe that everyone has some capacities to fight against the unfavorable situation. But if the client is seen to be psychologically drained, social work just halt, steps back and tries to arise the capacities of the client. Unlike other profession, social work focuses of the restoring using the client’s own capacity.

 

Concerns Different Systems

Social workers concern different systems including client system, social system, value system and so on to establish the social work processes tactfully and to bring about sustainable result.

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