Macro Practice in Social Work Materials from Social Work Macro Practice 4th edition Netting, Kettner, McMurtry and other sources as cited.

Macro Practice Defined Macro Practice is professionally guided intervention designed to bring about planned change in organizations and communities.

ALTERNATIVE DEFINITION Macro social work is the practice of helping individuals and groups solve social problems and make social change at the community, organizational, societal, and global levels. – Brueggemann, 2006

Three Areas of Macro Intervention

Levels of Involvement in Social Work Practice Micro - The most basic system, referring to an individual's most immediate environment Mezzo - A more generalized system referring to the interactional processes between multiple microsystems (i. e., effects of spousal relationships on parent-child interactions). Macro - Settings on a more generalized level which affect indirectly, family interactions on the micro and meso levels (i. e., the effects of parent's employment on family interactions).

Levels of Intervention Micro Macro Individuals Domestic Unit Small Groups Organizations Communities Policy

Some Professional Roles of Macro Social Workers Planners Policy Analyst Program Coordinator Community Organizer Manager Administrator

The Interrelationship of Micro and Macro Social Work Practice Find the Faith Healer Social Worker Psychotherapist

Unfaithful Angels? Social work, having adopted values of individualism and having been socialized to organizational norms, along with mainstream society has abandoned in large part its understanding of the social and communal. From Unfaithful Angels- How Social Work Has Abandoned Its Mission

Saul Alkinsky is quoted as saying about social workers: They come to the people of the slums not to help them rebel and fight their way out of the muck..most social work does not even reach the submerged masses. Social work is largely a middle class activity and guided by a middle class psychology.

How are direct practice social workers involved in macro practice?

A Systematic Approach to Macro Social Work Practice

What is “theory”? A way to connect observable events. Theories give us a LENS for a clearer way of seeing and understanding Helps organize our thinking. A theory is useful to the degree that it can Describe Explain Predict Must be abstract to be useful

Systems Theory Importance of integration and functioning Boundaries Negotiate environment Resources for the system can be people, equipment, funding knowledge, legitimacy or other forms.

Community Practice: Based in Social Work’s Purpose & Mission

Community Practice: NASW “A historic and defining feature of social work is the profession’s focus on individual well-being in a social context and the well-being of society. Fundamental to social work is attention to the environmental forces that create, contribute to, and address problems in living” (NASW preamble)

Three Principles Autonomy Beneficence Social Justice

Social Justice Social justice is a dynamic goal or condition of democratic societies and includes equitable access to societal institutions, resources, opportunities, rights, goods, services, responsibilities for all groups and individuals without arbitrary limitations based on observed or interpretations of differences in age, color, culture, physical or mental disability, education, gender, income, language, national origin, race, religion or sexual orientation.

Summary Macro social workers 1. use a informed systems approach to identify goals and outcomes 2. value consumer/collaborator participation 3. embrace professional social worker identity by thinking critically