Client Population

At Adult Protective Services majority of our work involves investigation of abuse, neglect, and exploitation. At Adult Protective Services our job is to protect the vulnerable elderly population, as well as the population that have disabilities. “Only APS is statutorily authorized and responsible for investigating elder and vulnerable adult abuse and taking steps to protect the victims, and it is generally only APS that helps the most frail and incapacitated older persons”(Quin, 2012, p.68). When abuse is suspected, a case worker will reach out to all parties involved, such as the alleged victim, alleged perpetrator, and all collaterals. Unlike many other professions, case worker are not required to have any written consent to speak with

It is found that applying theory to practice may not always lead to the right conclusion, thus it establishes a precise approach to the social work process. The problem with choosing a particular point of view is that, whilst no particular theory is absolute, but when impartially applied, almost any can be used as theories as they are dynamic and always

I am employed as an on-going social worker by the MA Department of Children and Families (DCF). DCF is a child protection agency, which is responsible for protecting children from abuse and neglect and strengthening families. The Department has offices throughout the Commonwealth; I am located at the New Bedford area office. As an on-going social worker I am assigned families after a report of abuse or neglect has been reported, investigated and supported. It is the on-going social worker’s responsibility to provide professional child welfare social work services, through home visits, to the family. This is done by assessing the family’s strengths and needs, developing

The foster care system is something that very few people have experience with. People believe that it 's the best possible option for children who are in abusive homes, but that 's not always the case. Various researchers have found that abuse and neglect still occurs in foster care. As the amount of research done on this topic increases, more and more people are trying to figure out ways to stop it such as better training for foster parents, focusing more on the child 's needs and outcries of abuse and conducting more research on the topic.

A clear theoretical perspective guide and influences social work practice in five key areas: observation, description, explanation, prediction and intervention. Observation tells what to see, what to look out for. Description provides a conceptual vocabulary and framework within which observations can be arranged and organized. Explanation suggests how different observations must be link and connected, and it offers possible caused relationships

Being a social worker is often a challenging, yet rewarding career. Social workers are responsible for helping individuals, families, and groups of people to cope with problems they’re facing to improve their patients’ lives. Social workers are also trained caseworkers in social service agencies who perform several functions which they use different components of the practice framework, the theoretical underpinnings to in order to build helping relationships. After interviewing a caseworker in a specific social agency there were advantages and disadvantages of methods along with challenges encountered in working in that specific agency. With all of this the functions, roles and responsibilities of a caseworker is what helps any agency to uphold

Modern social workers are frequently tasked with certain objectives by their agencies, which leave little room for any work beyond specific treatments and timeframes (Gitterman & Knight, 2016). Although social workers are bound to the set of ethics put forth by the NASW, practitioners are often limited to focusing on the issues of the individual rather than the larger societal issues that may be behind those concerns. Additionally, many social work students end up working in direct practice, rather than macro work. There is a need for social workers to engage at the macro level in order to facilitate community organization and empowerment.

Practice based on empirical knowledge helps reduce bias, enables workers to study interpretations, perspectives or alternative solutions, and makes social workers more accountable for their decisions JD Hudson (1997).

This is difficult process and should be coupled with use of theoretical approaches. Adams et al (2008) advocates that social workers need to use an eclectic approach to their practice by selecting different elements from theories in order to produce one approach appropriate for the individual’s needs. Epstein (1992) suggests that to overcome the limitations of theories continuous reflection and debate is vital to incorporate complex

Social work practice has been altered, revised, and rewritten as society begins to acknowledge the acceptable oppressions and attempts to change the current circumstances. Every situation, when working with a service user, is different. Therefore, a plethora of theories, practices, and perspectives must be considered. There is not a definitive way to practice social work; multiple theories are considered per case to best accommodate the service user in the least distressing and oppressive way possible. A practice that has recently become popular in social work is anti-oppressive practice. This essay will examine the philosophies and ideas of anti-oppressive practice, how it is used in response to working with families, and describe a personal

Secondly, as a social worker it is necessary that my practice is guided by my value of providing a service to humanity. Therefore, this will allow me to put my interests aside and place the needs of others above when working in a professional capacity. This value will guide me to use my professional voice to promote the well-being of my clients. Moreover, this will extend to promoting personal development in

In our practice as social workers, we are urged to view and understand human behavior as a set of complex interactions between individuals and their environment. This is known as the person-in-environment framework. This framework encourages us to acknowledge the influence of environment on our lives and provides a beneficial framework to think about and understand human behavior (Hutchinson, 2017). Understanding our work from this perspective allows us to approach our clients from a multi-dimensional stance, taking into consideration how various factors, including but not limited to, race, class, age and gender create individual identity and shapes an individual’s experience in the context of

As stated by Trotter (2013), “The Collaborative Family Work model draws particularly on three key principles: problem-solving…pro-social modelling…and role clarification” (p. 54). Skilled welfare practitioners can provide assistance to clients experiencing difficulties within their family dynamic. Trotter’s (2013) Collaborative Family Work model offers strategies working with families and involuntary clients, with the emphasis of collaboration between practitioner and family members in developing strategies for learning new skills to improve their lives and situation. The model also prioritises the choice of goals which are set by the family members to resolve issues through therapy using strategies such as Trotter’s (2013) RIDGES process which

What types of groups are offered in your agency (employment or internship)? Be sure to focus on task groups as well as treatment groups.

This involves systematically examining survival skills, abilities, knowledge, resources and desires that can be used in some way to help meet client goals (Saleebey, 1996). The helping process from initial contact, goal identification, assessment and intervention to evaluation has the underlying assumptions that human beings have the capacity for growth and change (Weick, 1992), knowledge about one 's situation (Early & GlenMaye, 2000), resilience (Garmezy, 1994) and membership (Walzer, 1983). The major focus in practice from the strengths approach is collaboration and partnership between social workers and clients. Other methods include environment modification and advocacy (Early & GlenMaye, 2000). Tim explained to the students that he “tell the folks what he can do and what he can’t” Tim further explained that “I make it a policy never to do anything for the clients that they can do for themselves”. Tim identifies his clients’ strengths and work around that to enhance and empower them. Although, strength based proposed to work with the clients’ strength it must be elaborated that the approach must be a partnership with both client and social worker; it is a collaborative approach. People are seen as being experts on their own situation (Poertner & Ronnau, 1992; Saleebey, 1992c; Sullivan & Rapp, 1994; Weick et al., 1989) then