Lesson 8: The Professional and Practitioners of Social Work

Activity: Reflection

At the micro, meso, and macro levels, social workers play a significant role in disaster relief and
recovery. They help earthquake survivors and are on the front lines of emergency response, as they
were in the Bam earthquake. The practice of social work during natural disasters is known as disaster
social work. Individuals and communities are strengthened in the aftermath of a natural disaster in this
field. It entails working with a community's most vulnerable citizens while also strengthening the
community as a whole to aid in the recovery process. A natural disaster must be produced by a natural
force and result in significant damage or loss of life in order to be categorized as one. In the aftermath of
a tragedy, social work entails assisting the emotionally and physically injured while also strengthening
local communities. In addition to the tragedy, it is critical to concentrate on development challenges.

Social worker serves as a community organizer that also act as helpful facilitators, assisting community
members in returning to their pre-trauma lifestyles. Along with psychiatric assistance, social workers
hope to assist the general population in regaining control of their houses. Rather than taking over the
process, they want to assist the community in achieving these objectives on their own. The notion is that
community members should be the ones to rebuild their lives so that they can heal mentally and come
to terms with the calamity. Social workers must also be familiar with the community's processes and
institutions in order to work within and against them as needed.

I’ve realized that social workers have a clinical and research abilities in addition to community organizing
skills. These abilities should include the ability to analyze emergent community needs, so they can
swiftly assess the public health needs of individual community members during a disaster and devise a
plan to meet those needs. These types of evaluations aid social workers in planning and organizing their
responses. Social professionals must also structure their techniques in a way that promotes disaster
survivors' self-determination. Because disaster survivors are vulnerable, it is critical for social workers to
ensure that they retain agency over their life and are not disempowered by the social worker's
knowledge.