Thursday, December 12, 2019

Masters of Social Work

Question: Write an essay about the Social Work. Answer: Reflective Journal Social Work practice is a very crucial way of practice, where the bonding between the client and the worker is very important. Generally in this practice workers use the Generalist Intervention Model. Generalist Intervention Model consists of a number of levels of approaches which allows a worker to work in different environments. These environments can be on a mezzo, macro or micro level. It rests on four major steps. Firstly, human behavior is connected to the social and physical environment (Dewees, Berg-Weger and Dewees, 2014). Secondly, the process for changing the functioning of the system of a human involves the changing of the system itself and modifying the interaction of the system with the environment and vice-versa. Thirdly, while working with any human system, irrespective of being individual or social, similar social work process should be used. And lastly, generalist practitioners are responsible not only to practice to work towards only social policies but also consul t different research. The Generalist Intervention consists of seven levels of practice but here as a social worker, I am going to use only five which are engagement, assessment, intervention, termination and review. The given case study is about Mohammed, who is totally obsessed with everything, his health, his wife, his business and his children. He is not happy anywhere. He is always in a hyper mode irrespective of business or health or family (Langer and Lietz, 2014). He is a 55-year-old Middle Eastern man with a 25-year-old wife of Cyprian background. Her thoughts, values, tradition has a great Cyprian influence. His children are bilingual. They speak both Cyprian and Arabic. His thought does not match with his wife. They have a lot of communication gap. He is always putting her down verbally but never physically. His wife Stamita wants to leave him but for the children, she stays there. He had been looking after the family very nicely with his electrician business. But two years ago he had a mild stroke which gave him depression, anxiety and panic attacks. This attack is being repeated in his life from that time continually making him lose confidence and gain depression. His wife is also wo rking but after his health problem, everything fell on her which made her more pressurized regarding the economic responsibility of the family. Mohammed has understood that his health condition will not improve so he is also losing his confidence which made him less enthusiastic towards the business (Peat, 1926). Now he just sits in his house watching TV and getting irritated about everything. Moreover, his youngest daughter Mariaka has recently disclosed her wish to leave home. Now the problem with both Stamita and Mohammed was that these she was going out of tradition to fulfill think like that. This thing could not be accepted by the society especially in Mariakas case, as, she is a girl. When they had not even overcome with this problem, their son revealed his being a gay which could not be digested by any of the family members. But he is blessed with his middle daughter Zulfia, who is a fathers daughter indeed. She never does anything against tradition or culture. Mohammed is a lso blaming his wife for this behavior of the eldest and the youngest one. All together made him lose interest in life and business. He is also not taking medicines properly. Both Mohammed and Stamita have become less cooperative towards each other. So, after having a brief idea about Mohammeds life we can understand the mental condition of him and the reason behind his anxious and sleepless nights. So being a social worker I would undergo the process of Generalist Intervention Model to bring a type of relief in his life (Sousa, Agante and Gouveia, 2014). I cannot solve his problem personally, but then, I can help him handle those problems without having any negative effect on him nor his health neither his environment. Engagement practice of social work constitutes involvement in the problem of the client by the worker. This is the first instance where the client meets the worker. The worker has to provide a very warm welcome and hospitality to the client. The meeting can be of some minutes or hours but then, the main criteria should be helping the client to find his comfort zone so that he can open up with the problem (Volpintesta, 2016). I am to be very aware of the fact that Mohammed is an irritated type of person who has no patience to understand the problems of his own family. So I have to give him his personal space and try to win his trust, because if he trusts me, then it will be easier for me to solve his problems. I have to keep soothing eye-contact with him and actively listen to what his point of view is all about. I will be asking him questions about himself, his family, his hobbies, his least favorite issues and his aspiration about his future. I have to try to convince him to answer all my questions and listen to the answers carefully, if needed, take down points also. This session is going to be an "All about me" session where he will be speaking and I would be listening to him as a well-wisher or a friend. In this way at first, I have to try to gain his confidence on me. The assessment stage is when the client and the worker sit together for a discussion on the things told in the engagement stage so that, intervention can proceed. Here I will be repeating whatever he has told about all the above-asked questions but in my own friendly way of approach so that does not seem repeating, but, yet repeating. I have to keep his interest growing towards a positive way of handling life (Van Nispen tot Pannerden, 2011). I will be discussing his strengths and weaknesses regarding life so that it will help him boost up his self-confidence. Things that affect him will also be shared to see his time spending areas of life and also try to explain him the positive and negative effects of those on him. The missing points also will be included in this process so that a clear picture is drawn about his life near me. This will help us together proceed further towards finding solution and planning actions to solve these problems. I have to make sure that he has shared eac h and every problematic and disturbing aspects of his life with me otherwise action plan is difficult. The intervention stage involves both planning and implementing Generalist Intervention Model. By now the issues that are disturbing and non-disturbing are clear to both of us. So now we are going to plan some ideas and implement them in real life to solve the disturbing issues of his life. If needed, then a contract can be made so that he is forced towards reaching the target. Here my work will simply be to monitor his progress and attain information so that it can be rendered to him. I have to deal with him like a child, for example, I will have to reward him each time he achieves small goals. His reward will be his favorite dish. Here I will also have to make him tolerant towards different cultures by showing him the positive side of it. As he is always blaming his wife for everything, I will have to make him understand that blaming the wife for everything would not help him solve the children issues rather sitting with the family and trying to erase the communication gap may help (Lindenberger, 2007). He has to understand that his son being a gay has nothing to do with his wife nor his son. None is to be blamed for it. The next two stages of termination and evaluation are the final and crucial factor of this whole assignment. At first, I will have to make him fill up a form where questions related to his present life conditions will be given. This will give me a vivid idea of his progress. The hope that problems can be solved is to be implanted into his head. Here I will have to do a lot of research regarding his present way of handling issues. This is going to involve a lot of question-answering sessions (Sheehan, 2016). If needed, then the assessment and intervention stages can be repeated again and again if he feels that he is not being able to cope with the situation by himself. I have to see if there is any improvement in the mood, behavior and confidence level of him. By this stage I believe, that his sight towards life would change. Moreover, a recognizing change will be seen in him that would give him the confidence to go further with the completion of goal for which he had come to me. The above stages can be applied if and only if the client has faith in the worker and is ready to make concrete commitments towards the positive change. Moreover, the worker should also be self-determined towards the goal set. The worker has to be very careful while handling emotional decisions of the client. They should be careful that their experiments do not affect or harm or increase problems in the clients life. Demonstrate the SW roles and skills you would use. The social workers roles are indefinite and vast for anyone irrespective of anything. A social worker provides justice and social fairness by reducing barriers and expanding choice for all people, especially for those who are oppressed or disadvantaged. The worker has to advocate social justice to maintain equality and discrimination in the society (Shafer and Pace, 2015). The protection of the natural environment is also an important role of that person. While working for the society a worker might have to face many social dilemmas. Not all people are going to take the steps taken by a social worker positively. They have to be very patient enough and positive nature and also be prepared to face the word wars of the society and the government. Here in this case of Mohammed, it would be wrong to blame him for the deeds hat he is being done. He, being a social figure, has to keep going with his family not only emotionally but also in a socially accepted manner. His daughter asking to l eave home, his son being a gay, all these are socially obsessed problems. He has to be rigid mentally to accept these aspects of his family. What would be your social work purpose in this case and how would you be able to fulfill the SW purpose? In the above case mentioned my social work purpose would be to make Mohammed understand that he is not only the only father in this world who is having to face these problems. He has to mix with his children as a friendly father otherwise his children can get diverted to a negative path which shall ruin their lives permanently in turn ruining his life too (Patti, 1985). He has to understand that whatever he has done till date was his responsibility towards family. His children love and trust him, for that reason only they have gathered that much courage to inform him about their decisions. His denial or rejection can affect not only his children's lives but also his and his wife's. So, at first, I am going to help him gain confidence in himself and then accept the truth positively. His blaming his wife will not make anything right rather spoil and ruin the family that he had raised with his blood and sweat. How would you use the values and practice principles from the AASW code of ethics? The Australian Association of Social Workers has a code of ethics that help the social workers understand their values in the lives of the clients. The code shows the values and responsibilities which integrally characterize the profession of a social worker. It intends to help all social workers, individually and collectively, towards achieving the aim of the profession. The code provides a standard and guides to ethically conduct social work and delivery of service (Aasw publications, 1996). It also says to have respect for other people and their emotions, provide social justice and understand the integrity of the profession of a social worker. So while dealing with the problem of Mohammed and his family members I am going to impart suggestions and solutions in such a manner that it will not affect the status or emotion or feelings of him or his family in any way. Hence, for this reason, I am also going to have conversations with his family members also as I should not draw any con clusion without consulting the feelings of his family members also. Moreover speaking to the other family members shall help me understand the improvements made by Mohammed. What cultural considerations need to be considered and how would manage these? Cultural barrier is the main problem with Mohammed's family. He and his wife are from two totally different backgrounds so explaining to him anything against his wife's background is not going to help rather worsen the matter (Shapiro, 1998). Not only that, they are also victims of the language barrier. But the main problem here lies with the age difference between his wife and him. So, at first, I am going to make him realize his love for his wife and children. His second wife Stamita has accepted her step children and his children have also accepted their stepmother. His children and wife have given respect to his decision so he should also give importance and respect their decision. He should be proud of his family members, especially his children, who have acquired the knowledge of their mothers language. They can speak both Arabic and Cyprian. They are bilingual. References Aasw publications. (1996).Australian Social Work, 49(2), pp.57-57. Dewees, M., Berg-Weger, M. and Dewees, M. (2014).The practice of generalist social work. London: Routledge. Langer, C. and Lietz, C. (2014).Applying Theory to Generalist Social Work Practice. Hoboken: Wiley. Lindenberger, H. (2007). Towards a Characterization of Modern Opera.Modernist Cultures, 3(1), pp.84-93. Patti, R. (1985). In Search of Purpose for Social Welfare Administration.Administration in Social Work, 9(3), pp.1-14. Peat, H. (1926). Economic Welfare and Family Responsibility.Economica, (18), p.269. Shafer, K. and Pace, G. (2015). Gender Differences in Depression across Parental Roles.Social Work, 60(2), pp.115-125. Shapiro, D. (1998). Introduction. Ethical considerations and cultural property.J Int Cult Property, 7(01). Sheehan, R. (2016). Forensic Social Work: Implementing Specialist Social Work Education.Journal of Social Work. Sousa, A., Agante, P. and Gouveia, L. (2014). Communication Model for Generalist News Media Websites.IERI Procedia, 10, pp.32-37. Van Nispen tot Pannerden, P. (2011). HANDLING CULTURE.Journal of Positive Management, 2(1). Volpintesta, E. (2016). Additional Considerations for the ExpertGeneralist Model.Academic Medicine, 91(4), p.448.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.