Lesson 1 : The Discipline of Social Work

In defining social work, Morales and Sheafor (1983) identified four areas of consideration:
1. In each helping situation, the social worker is concerned with enabling or facilitating change. Interventions to improve
the quality of life may appropriately occur as part of the social work practice.
2. The social worker is in the business of helping people or social institutions, such as family, change to enhance social
functioning. It is not focus on the whole person but on social relationships.
3. Applying the social systems theory, social work can be viewed as a profession that helps people interact more effectively
with their social environment. The focus is placed on the “interface or the meeting place or the transaction of person and the
environment”.

Goals of Social Work

1. The Goal on Caring
Caring refers to the heart of social work and it focuses on the well-being or the welfare and comfort of the individual and
community. This goal involves the enhancement of the quality of life in prisons, the upgrading and humanizing services
in nursing homes and juvenile facilities and the constant advancement of care to populations in need.
2. The Goal on Curing
Curing refers to the aspect of treating people with problems in social functioning. Techniques are use to aid individuals,
families and groups.
3. The Goal on Changing
Changing refers to the active participation of the social workers in social reforms. This goal comes from a perspective that
there is a persistence of poverty, environmental destruction, and social disintegration . This is one of the most significant
goals because it contributes in the struggle to pursue a lasting social change.

Scope of Social Work

1. Social Work as a Primary Discipline
A. Adoption and services to unmarried parents - facilitating the difficult decision of unmarried parents whether to keep
the baby or place the child for adoption.
B. Foster Care - about removing the children from their home and placing them temporarily in a foster care.
C. Residential Care - a group care home or a residential treatment center for a child.
D. Support Services - may be in the form of counseling, family consultations, and connecting clients with appropriate
institutions such as day care centers and home maker services.
E. Protective Services - are about protecting the child from child abuse, maltreatment and exploitation by one or both
parents. The social worker seeks to protect the child without infringing on the rights of he parents.
In terms of family services:
A. Family Counseling - employing the three approaches to this type of counseling, comprises of family case work, which
involves helping individual members of the family modify their behavior: family group work, which is about the process by
which the family examines its relationships and resolves their problem with the help of the social worker and lastly family
therapy focuses on transforming the structure of the family to make it more supportive to its member.
B. Family Life Education - an intervention that strengthen the family through educational activities that seek to prevent
family breakdown.
C. Family Planning - assisting the families plan the number, spacing and timing of the births of children to fit their needs.
2. Social Work as an Equal Partner
In terms of aging:
A. Support for people in their own homes program consists of helping older people remain in their own homes by linking
them with community programs that bring health care , meals and home care services into their home.
B. Support for people in long term care facilities program refers to nursing homes or other group living facilities.
In terms of community services,
A. Community organization activities involve the gathering and analysis of data.
B. Community planning refers to the involvement of social workers with the physical, economic, and health planners in the
long-range planning of communities
C. Community development is about the participation of social workers in providing aid to the people in the communities as
the aim to enhance their condition.
3. Social Work as Secondary Discipline
In terms of industry, social workers act as a support to both the managers and the employees of the company.
In terms of medical and health care, social workers attend to the social and psychological factors that are contributing to
the medical condition of the patients.

Core Values of social work

Mendoza (2002) cited that the Council on Social Work Education identified and described 6 values that are shared with the
social work profession. These values are as follows:
1. Right to self- fulfillment
- each person has the right to self-fulfillment which is derived from his/her inherent capacity and thrust toward the goal
2. Responsibility to common good
- each person has the responsibility as a member of the society to seek ways of fulfillment that contribute to common good
3. Responsibility of the society
- the society has the responsibility to facilitate self-fulfillment of the individual and the right to enrichment through the
contribution of its individual members
4. Right to satisfy basic needs
- each person requires for the harmonious development of his/her powers socially provided and socially safeguarded
opportunities for satisfying basic needs.
5. Social organizations require to facilitate individual’s effort at self realization
- the notion that individual and society are interdependent provides a perspective that the society has the responsibility to
provide appropriate social resources.
6. Self realization and contribution to society
- permit both self-realization and contribution to society by the individual , social organization must make available
socially-provided devices for need satisfaction.
Principles of social work
Social work is based on respect for the inherent worth and dignity of all people And it is cultivated by altruistic and
democratic principles. Mendoza (2002) indicate that seven principles adhered by social workers including the following:
1. Acceptance
- respecting the clients as they are under any circumstances and understands the meaning and causes of the client’s
behavior
2. Client’s participation in problem solving
- client is made to understand that he/she is expected to participate in the entire process.
3. Self determination
- the idea behind this principle is that the clients who are in need have the right to determine their needs and how they
should be met
4. Individualization
- recognizing an understanding the client’s own unique characteristics and using different principles and methods for each
client
5. Confidentiality
- client should be accorded with appropriate protection, within the limits of the law, from any harm that might result from
the information he/she divulges to the worker.
6. Worker self awareness
- social worker is conscious about his/her role in making use of his/her professional relationship with the client in a way tht
will enhance the client’s development
7. Client worker relationship
- purpose is to help client in some area of his/her social functioning in which at present, s/he is experiencing some difficulty
and where the worker is in the position to offer help.