What is social work?
In a simple way, the term Social work can be defined as “a profession which help the individuals to help themselves”.
In a country like India there are certain misconceptions are associated with this profession. Common man failed to separate professional social work from the voluntary social work due to these misconceptions. The real seeds of these perverted views can be described as follows;
1) Social workers failed to separate western professional components as well as traditional religious components from the social work which is practiced in India.
2) Terminology has not developed as social workers are pre occupied with solving problem of day to day nature.
3) Precision and accuracy is lacking as most of the findings are drawn from social sciences.
4) Social work deals with problems about which even a layman has some fixed ideas.
5) Adding to this confusion politicians, film stars and cricketers describe some of their promotional campaigns as social work, trained social workers since are paid and voluntary, and untrained are not paid, but both working side by side, layman often cannot understand the difference between the kind of activities that come under the label of social work carried on by a wide range of persons with differing backgrounds.
Has Social work a scientific basis?
Social work practice has a strong scientific base. Social workers believe in a scientific body of knowledge that borrowed from different disciplines of social and biological sciences such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, political science, economics, biology, psychiatry, law, medicine and so on. The knowledge in social work can be differentiated in three categories.
1) Tested knowledge.
2) Hypothetical knowledge that requires transformation to tested knowledge.
3) Assumptive knowledge which is practical wisdom requires transformation to hypothetical knowledge and from there to tested knowledge.
Social work strives to understanding of human nature. Social workers make use of this knowledge to solve problems of their clients.
Humanitarianism is the philosophy used in social work practice. It is “Scientific Humanism” as it uses scientific base. Social work is based on certain values which when organised constitute the “Philosophy of Social Work”. Social work is based on faith in the essential worth and dignity of the individual. Man is an object of respect not because he is rich or powerful but became he is a human being. Human nature endows the individual with worth and dignity which, every other human being has to respect.
Social work hesitate any kind of discrimination based on caste, colour, race, sex or religion. Social work is against “Social Darwinism” and the principle of “survival of the fittest”. This means that social work does not believe that only the strong will survive in society and the weak will perish. Those who are weak, disabled and or need care are equally important for social workers. The individual is understood as a whole with the same worth and dignity in spite of differing psychological, social and economic aspects.
The social worker believes in the capacity of the individual and also recognises individual differences. The individual’s self-determination is given importance. He should be understood from both domestic and cultural points of view. Social work is a combination of “idealism and realism”. To a social worker an individual is important but society is equally important. The individual is greatly moulded by social circ*mstances. But, ultimately the individual must bear the responsibility for his or her conduct and behaviour. The worker has to solve the problem on account of which the client is disturbed.
Scope and methods of social work
The concern of social work’s is to help people who are in need so that they develop the capacity to deal with their problems by themselves. It is both science and an art. Social work is a science in the sense that the knowledge taken from different disciplines forms the body of knowledge for a social worker and shake holder uses this theoretical base for helping people i.e., for practice. What theory postulates has to be put into practice. The required capacity to do it is known as skill.
Hence, professional social work with selected knowledge and the set of social work values has to be transformed into a professional service. A social worker has to establish a positive relationship with the clients. She should know how to interview and write reports. He or she should be able to diagnose i.e., find out the cause for the problem and finally should work out a treatment plan. An Assessment of the problem, planning for its solution, implementing the plan and evaluating the outcome are the four major steps involved in social work. Social worker’s keen interest in helping the client, alone will not solve the problem.
The methods of social work will help his/her to understand ways of helping people. Social work methods are:
Primary methods (direct helping method)
1) Social case work
2) Social group work.
3) Community organisation.
Secondary methods (Auxiliary methods)
4) Social work research.
5) Social welfare administration.
6) Social Action
These six social work methods are systematic and planned ways of helping people.
Social case work deals with individual problems- individual in the total environment or as a part of it. An individual is involved in the problem as he is unable to deal with it on his own, because of reasons beyond his control. His anxiety sometimes temporarily makes him incapable of solving it. In any case, his social functioning is disturbed. The case worker gets information regarding the client’s total environment, finds out the causes, prepares a treatment plan and with professional relationship tries to bring about a change in the perception and attitudes of the client.
Social group work is a social work service in which a professionally qualified person helps individuals through group experience so as to help them move towards improved relationships and social functioning. In group work individuals are important and they are helped to improve their social relationships, with flexible programmes, giving importance to the personality development of the individual in group functioning and relationships. The group is the medium and through it and in it, individuals are helped to make necessary changes and adjustments.
Community Organisation is another method of social work. Being made up of groups, a community means organised systems of relationships but in reality no community is perfectly organised. Community Organisation is a process by which a systematic attempt is made to improve relationships in a community. Identifying the problems, finding out resources for solving community problems, developing social relationships and necessary programmes to realize the objectives of the community are all involved in community organisation. In this way the community can become self reliant and develop a co-operative attitude among its members.
Social Welfare Administration is a process through which social work services both private and public, are organised and administered. Developing programmes, mobilising resources, involving selection and recruitment of personnel, proper organisation, coordination, providing skilful and sympathetic leadership, guidance and supervision of the staff, dealing with financing and budgeting of the programmes and evaluation are, some of the functions of a social worker in administration.
Social work research is a systematic investigation for finding out new facts, test old hypotheses, verify existing theories and discover causal relationships of the problems in which the social worker is interested. In order to scientifically initiate any kind of social work programmes, a systematic study of the given situation is necessary, through social work research and surveys.
Social action aims at bringing about desirable changes to ensure social progress. Crating awareness about social problems, mobilizing resources, encouraging different ‘sections of people to raise their voice against undesirable practices, and also creating pressure to bring about legislation are some of the activities of the social workers using the method of social action. It seeks to achieve a proper balance between community needs and solutions mainly through individual and group initiatives and self-help activities.
Functions of social work
The basic functions of social work are restoration, provision of resources and prevention. These are interdependent and intertwined. Restoration of impaired social functioning has two aspects-curative and rehabilitative. The curative aspect eliminates the factors responsible for the individual’s impaired social functioning. That means disturbed interpersonal-relations re corrected by removing the factors responsible for it. After removing the factors responsible for the problem, the individual has to adjust to the new remedy or device suggested. The individual is helped to adjust to the needs of the new situation. That is what is known as rehabilitative aspect. For example, a hearing aid is suggested as a curative measure for partially deaf child, whose social relations are impaired due to the problem. That is the curative aspect. Getting oneself adjusted to the hearing aid is the rehabilitative aspect.
Provision of resources has two aspects, the developmental and the educational. The developmental aspect is designed to enhance effectiveness of the resources and to improve personality factors for effective social interaction. For example Mr & Mrs X are living happily in spite of some differences of opinion. They are not going in for a divorce and there is no problem in their marriage. But with the help of a family counselling agency, they can sort out their differences and improve their relationship. This is what is known as the developmental aspect. The educational spectrum is designed to acquaint the public with specific conditions and needs for new or changing situations. For example a talk given by a counsellor to alleviate family and marriage problems is an educational process. The third function of social work is prevention of social dysfunction. It includes early discovery, control or elimination of conditions and situations that potentially could, hamper effective social functioning. For example starting a youth club in some areas for boys may help prevent juvenile delinquency. Pre-marital counselling for youth may prevent marriage problems in future.
Collected from : Misra P.D, IGNOU, Wikepeadia
