11

DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS

IN APPLIED SOCIAL
SCIENCES
JOEL PHILLIP T. GRANADA
SPECIAL SCIENCE TEACHER I
CLIENTELE AND AUDIENCES IN
SOCIAL WORK
Social work is a profession is concerned with
helping individuals, families, groups, and
communities to enhance their individual and
collective well-being. The discussion below clarifies
the characteristics and needs of these clienteles.
WORKING WITH INDIVIDUALS

In casework, the individual is the principal client and

efforts of helping are focused on her/him. De Guzman
(1992) explains that the person’s inability to manage
stress which may have been a result of a distressful
situation or problem caused her/him or those
concerned with her/him to seek professional help.
WORKING WITH INDIVIDUALS
The social worker then needs to acquire basic knowledge of
human behavior, of stress and the human being’s response to it
in order for her/him to understand the situation of the client
and eventually help the latter. In the casework process, the aim
of the intervention is to facilitate the individual’s social
adaptation, to restore, reshape, or reinforce her/his functioning
as a social being.
WORKING WITH INDIVIDUALS

For a start, the worker must understand that the person is

a person “biopsychosocial being” wherein s/he is made
up of at least three parts or subsystems-the physical, the
psychological, and the social. Thus, in order to help the
person, the worker needs to know whether that person
can be helped and how s/he can be helped.
WORKING WITH INDIVIDUALS

The worker also needs to understand that the

person’s present behavior is a manifestation of
her/his own mode of adaptation to her/his current
condition that has caused her/him stress.
WORKING WITH INDIVIDUALS

A person who faces a threatening situation, s/he will

likely try to use her/his accustomed modes of
adaptation and if these fall, s/he will revert to modes
s/he previously used. Samples of modes of
adaptation include fight, flight, and pairing.
FIGHT

Means physical or verbal projection of angry feelings

on others especially when encountering difficult
circumstances, frustration, disappointment, or even
anxiety (e.g., when a wife quarrels with her husband
because of jealousy or a person under stress finds
her/himself shouting.)
FLIGHT

This is manifested when the person physically moves

away from the problem like resorting to drugs,
alcohol or substances that will make one forget the
current stressful situation (e.g., husbands or father
who abandoned their families because they can no
longer provide economic support.)
PAIRING

It entails the entry into a relationship with another

person who is perceived to be stronger, stable, or
who has the capacity to provide help over her/his
problem (e.g., a support group formed by solo
parents for emotional and psychological support.
Below are some of the clients who may need the
social worker or the agency’s help through casework.
This may include the following but not limited to:
(i) Children who are either abandoned, neglected,
orphaned, abused, or exploited;
(ii) (ii) Children in conflict with the law, street
children, children living with or affected by HIV;
(iii) (iii) Out-of-school youth
(iv) Socially disadvantaged women;
(v) Solo parents;
(vi) Persons with disabilities, physically, and
mentally challenged individuals;
(vii) Elderly;
(viii) Indigenous peoples;
(ix) Internally displaced persons;
(x) Survivors of natural calamities and disasters, or
those affected by armed conflicts
The typology of clients may include the voluntary
clients, those involuntary clients and those who are
being assisted by another person’s or agency.
VOLUNTARY CLIENTS
Persons who opted to voluntarily seek the assistance of the
worker or the services of the agency due to a problem or a
difficulty which s/he think s/he cannot do anything by
her/himself. This is also referred to as walk-inclients. Examples
are the following: a solo parent seeking material assistance, a
displaced person asking for core shelter assistance, a physically
challenged person needing medical attention, etc
INVOLUNTARY CLIENTS
Individuals in need who may not even consider asking for help
because they think that they are doing fine and will survive
somehow or they are unaware of the agencies that can provide
with them some assistance. These persons, often referred to as
reach-out clients. These may include the street children,
working children, some children/youth in indigenous
communities, and some out of school youth.
REFERRED CLIENTS

Other clients are being assisted by another person,

group/organizations, or community leaders/workers
who are concerned about the client’s situation. These
may include drug dependent, abandoned child,
unwed pregnant, an elderly without any family, etc.
De Guzman (1992) also introduced factors that may
affect or influence the helping relationship between
the client and the workers. These factors may interfere
and cause difficulties in the helping relationship and
therefore must be dealt with accordingly. These
relationship components or factors:
TRANSFERENCE

this means that the client’s responds to and relates to

the worker unconsciously in the manner that s/he
used to react to that familiar figure and sometimes
the client becomes unaware that s/he is already re-
enacting some of her/his early behavior.
COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE

are the worker’s relationship reactions that s/he may

project on the client and usually it is the worker who
transfers previously experienced feelings on the
client
REALITY

The realistic and objective perception of existing

condition or situation.
In casework process, there are certain ethical
considerations that govern the client-worker
relationship that were put together by Biestek (1957)
as cited in De Guzman (1992).
Acceptance – the worker’s recognition of the
individual’s worth as human being imbued with inherent
worth and dignity.
Nonjudgmental attitude – means without labeling, no
stereotyping, and noncondemnatory act that refrains
from assigning blame or failure to the client.
Individualization – characterizes that every
individual is unique and possesses certain traits or
attributes specific only to her/himself. This simply
means that “no two persons are exactly alike” and this
distinguishes a single human being separately from a
group.
Purposeful expression of feelings – refers to the
worker’s allowing and facilitating the client’s
purposeful expression of feelings. This means the
free sharing with a sympathetic worker of her/his
thoughts and feelings even the negative ones.
Controlled emotional involvement – refers to the worker’s way
of responding to the client’s purposeful expression of feelings. It
must involve sensitivity, understanding, and responding.
Confidentially – refers to the preservation of secret information
concerning the client which is disclosed in the professional
relationship
Self-determination – it is derivative of the belief in
the inherent worth and dignity of a person-that s/he
is endowed with a reason and a free will and is
capable of making her/his own choices.
WORKING WITH
GROUPS AND
ORGANIZATIONS
Social group work is rooted on the sociological
concept that a person is a social being who has the
inclination and need to associate with other human
beings. Another concept of social group work is that a
group can be utilized as a target for change, as a
medium for change, and as agent for change.
As a target for change, members in a group are clients of an agency who
have common problems, needs, and concerns that match the agency’s or
worker’s group service orientation. As a medium for change, the group
is used to facilitate the growth and development needs of some members
of the group as the need for self-expression, communication,
relationship, developing self-confidence and modifying negative
attitudes, behavior, and values. As an agent of change, the group is used
to effect the desired change needed outside the group.
The need for group experience is basic and universal. That
group of individuals can be helped to grow and change in
personality, attitudes, and values through group experiences…
that persons not only develop in groups but also through groups.
And that groups are dynamic, ever changing and must be
accepted by the social worker at its level of development. The
purposes of social group work include the following:
(i) To enhance the social adjustment of the individual and developing the
social consciousness.
(ii) (ii) To provide opportunities for planned group experiences that are
needed by all people;
(iii) (iii) To provide experiences that are relaxing and that give individuals
a chance to create, to share and express themselves
(iv) (iv) To help individuals in groups to take responsibility for their own
behavior, relate with others and how to become participating members
of society
WORKING WITH COMMUNITIES
The philosophy of community organization is the acceptance
of the right of the community to decide what it wants rather
than having the organizer’s views imposed upon it, belief on
the capacity of the people to find richer and more satisfying
ways of living if they are helped to use the resources within
themselves and their environment which are and could be
made available for them.
The following are the focus of community organization:
i. Removal of blocks to growth
ii. ii. The release of potentialities in the individual, group and communities as a
whole
iii. iii. The development of the capacity of indigenous leaders to lead, to
manage, and function in their assigned social roles in the community iv.
Developing the ability of different sectors in the community to function as
an integrated whole
v. Strengthening people’s capacity for problem-
solving, decision-making, and cooperation.
vi. The full use of inner/indigenous resources before
tapping external resources
The purposes of community organization include the
following:
i. To solve certain problems and meet needs
ii. To achieve selected social goals
iii. To strengthen the people’s capacity in dealing with their
problems, needs, and aspirations.
SOCIAL WORK SETTING
Social work is performed and exercised in different
settings, including but not limited to government
departments, such as mental health hospitals, social
welfare units, institutions for the aged, disabled, youth,
and correctional, private institutions such as family and
marriage, offenders outside of prison, early childhood
development, and social work in corporate and
educational institutions (SACSSP, 2016).
PRIMARY SETTING

Agencies whose programs and services are direct

purview of social work. Examples of which are:
Christian Children’s Fund, Save the Children,
Hospicio de San Jose, Department of Social Welfare
and Development, among others.
SECONDARY SETTING

Agencies, institutions, or organizations whose

primary function is not to provide social welfare
services but employ social workers to
support/strengthen/complement their own services.
Examples of which are: hospitals, family courts,
nutrition centers, schools, corporations, etc.
GOVERNMENT
Social workers are involved in research, technology
development, policy analysis and development, planning,
standards development, capacity building, program
management including crisis intervention and disaster relief
operation and management, social marketing, and special
projects. They engage either at the national, regional,
provincial and local level.
PRIVATE SECTOR
Social workers are found in private practice and are offering
various kinds of services such as but not limited to the
following: advocacy, counseling, mediation, policy and
program development, organizational development, research,
capacity building activities, corporate social responsibility,
consultancy services, and employee assistance program.
CIVIL SOCIETY
Social workers are often employed by different child-caring and child-
placing social welfare agencies offering services related to adoption,
foster care, residential care, independent living,
reintegration/reunification services, after care services, etc. Others are
involved in managing cases of children in conflict with the law, children
in need of special protection, children affected with HIV, children in
armed conflict, abused or exploited children, children with special
needs, trafficked children, among others.
SCHOOL
Some schools are also hiring social workers to aid the students in their
adjustment in school as well as guide them in their scholastic
performance. Social workers conduct assessment, case conference,
referral and home visitation to deal with students with concerns and
problems like truancy, bullying, low self-esteem, aggressive behavior,
discrimination, and family conflicts which may affect their performance
at school as well as their relationship with the teachers and classmates.
COMMUNITY
Social workers are also employed in different community service
centers (either run by local councils, church and the people’s
organizations). They are involved in counseling services to
individuals or families. Others are engaged in community
development work assisting groups or communities to identify
their needs and find means to respond them. Some localities in the
country employ social workers at the barangay level and some
organizations deploy social workers to their adopted communities.
PROCESSES AND METHODS IN
SOCIAL WORK
Like any other helping profession, social work follows a
helping process when working with specific clients.
Historically, Helen Harris Perlman is known to be the
originator of the problem-solving framework in the
social work profession. Perlman (1957) as cited by
Mendoza (2002) presented a series of problem-solving
operations summarized as follows:
a) Study – the facts which constitute and bear upon the problem must be
ascertained and grasped;
b) Diagnosis – the facts must be thought about (i.e. turned over, probed into,
and organized in the mind, examined in their relationships to one another,
and searched for their significance); and
c) Treatment – some choice or decision must be made as an end result of the
consideration of the particular facts with the intention of resolving the
problem
Compton and Galaway (1994) stressed that a social
worker must follow this following sequential steps:
recognition or definition of the problem, data
collection, assessment of the situation, goal-setting
and action planning, intervention or carrying out of
the action, and evaluation and termination.
Mendoza (2002) later on summarized this into five
basic steps namely: assessment, planning,
intervention or plan implementation, evaluation, and
termination. Significantly, this helping process
involves the beginning phase, the middle phase, and
the ending phase.
ASSESSMENT

This involves the collection of necessary information, analysis

and interpretation to reach an understanding of the client, the
problem, and the social context in which it exists. The social
worker’s task include information-gathering and problem
definition based on what the client and the worker agreed
upon. This will lead the worker’s writing of an assessment
statement.
PLANNING

Planning is the link between assessment and

intervention and its process translates the content of
assessment into a goal statement that describes the
desired results and in concerned with identifying the
means to reach the goals.
PLANNING

Planning involves two major tasks: formulating goals

that directly relate with the client’s problem and
defining the specific actions or interventions that are
necessary in order to achieve the goals. In social work
practice, the defined goals and plans guide the
worker’s activities.
INTERVENTION

Intervention has a lot of terms in social work

literature which include: action, plan
implementation, and treatment. Intervention is
concerned with the action that would solve the
client’s problem.
EVALUATION

Evaluation is defined as the collection of data about

outcomes of the program of action relative to goals
and objectives set in advance of the implementation
of that program (Johnson, 1986, 385).
EVALUATION
In social work, it is a continuous process of gathering information
which can be utilized in an ongoing reassessment of objectives,
intervention plans, and even the problem definition which is referred
to as ongoing evaluation. In social work practice, conduct of
evaluation is imperative because social workers and social welfare
agencies must answer for their work to the public that supports them
and this is referred to as accountability in the profession
TERMINATION

The helping process has a time limit therefore a social

worker is expected to discuss with the client the
expected duration of the helping relationship. Also, the
client should be made aware that the client-worker
relationship will not last long and that the interventions
and services will not stay for them forever.
SOCIAL WORK METHODS
SOCIAL CASE METHODS
It deals with individual problems through one to one
relationship which is guided by professional knowledge of the
social case worker. Under method the social case worker
attempts to repair the impaired relationship of the client with
his social environment and through a guided interaction he/she
enables the client to adapt with his/her social environment.
SOCIAL CASE METHODS

Through this method the case worker discovers

different aspects of the clients problem, prepares an
appropriate treatment plan and finally with professional
knowledge in social relationship tries to bring about
necessary changes in the attitude and behavior of the
client in favor of his own growth and development.
SOCIAL GROUP WORK
It is a process in which the individuals in a social group are
helped by a professionally qualified worker, who guides their
interaction through planned program activities so that they may
be able to relate themselves with others and find growth
opportunities in accordance with their needs and capacities
towards the noble end of individual group and community
development.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
A process through which efforts are directed towards meeting the
community needs by organizing human and material resources of the
community. Identifying problems, finding resources relevant to their
needs, developing and organizing inter-personal and inter-group
relationship, planning and executing effective program activities are
some of the specific activities in community organization method.
Organized and collaborative effort of the members of the community
for their own development is the main concern of this method.
SOCIAL ACTION
Social action method of social work is the one that is used to bring
about desirable changes in the defective system for ensuring social
progress. Through this method attempts are made to mobilize people,
to create awareness on existing problems, to organize them and to
encourage them to raise their voice against undesirable practices
which hampers their development and finally to create pressure for
bringing about suitable legislation for social progress. This method
seeks to relate the community needs with the solution of the
problems mainly through collective initiatives.
SOCIAL WELFARE ORGANIZATION
It refers to a process through which social policy is transformed into
social service. In the other words, it is a process to manage the affairs
of social work or social welfare. Developing programs, mobilizing
resources, recruiting and involving suitable personnel, proper
organization, coordination, providing skillful leadership, supervision
and guidance of staff, budgeting and evaluation are some of the
specified activities involved in social welfare administration method.
SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH
It refers to the systematic and critical enquiry of the questions
encountered by social work professional in the field of application.
Through this method effort are made to find answers to the existing
and emerging problems of social work so as to make them use in the
practical fields. Social work research like that of other social sciences
is contributing a lot to the store house of its knowledge and helping in
the better planning and implementation of social work programs.