CHAPTER SEVEN SOCIAL WORK PERSPECTIVES & METHODS Social Work & Social Welfare: An Invitation (2 nd ed.)

Key Ideas  Generalist social work practice  Levels of practice  Skills and roles  Theory in Generalist Practice  Person in Environment  Ecological Perspective Ecomap  Systems Theory Empowerment  Solution Focused Model

Generalist Practice  Being able to work with a variety of issues of concerns  Being able to work with diverse client systems  Being able to influence change at multiple levels or client systems

Levels of Practice  Micro Direct practice with individuals and families  Mezzo Groups  Macro Organizations and communities

Skills and Roles  Direct services  Counseling/therapy, group work, educator  Systems linkage  Broker, case manager, mediator, advocate  Systems maintenance and enhancement  Organizational analyst, facilitator, team member, consultant, survivor  Research  System development  Program developer, planner, policy developer, advocate

Theory in Generalist Practice  Theory: an empirically tested concept used to explain behavior, process, or phenomenon

Theoretical Perspectives  Person in Environment  Ecological Perspective  Systems Theory  Solution Focused Model

Person in Environment Perspective  The social worker perceives each individual as an interactive participant in a larger physical, social communal, historical, religious, physical, cultural, and familial environmental system Kondrat, 2008, 348

Systems Theory  Most used theoretical approach in social work  Aids in understanding the multiple and complex lives of families and the systems with which they interact  Can be used with:  Individuals within family, group, organization, community or society  Interactions within any of the above groups  Interactions between any of the above groups

What is a System?  A set of elements that forms an orderly, interrelated, and functional whole

Systems Theory continued  Enables understanding and use of potential growth in the broad environment  Eclectic and integrative perspective  Interactions are influenced by mutual feedback process  Views self as part of the system/process  Emphasizes the dual task that is the purview of social work (PIE)

Eco-Map  Paper-and-pencil assessment tool used to assess specific troubles and plan intervention for clients  A drawing of the client or client family in its social environment.  It helps both social worker and client view client’s environmental context from a systems and ecological perspective

Eco-Map  Helps both social worker and client achieve a holistic or ecological view of the client’s family life and the nature of the family’s relationships with groups, associations, organizations, and other families and individuals

Social Environment

A stressful, conflict laden relationship A tenuous, uncertain relationship A positive relationship _________ or resource The direction of the giving & receiving  exchange or a relationship or resource Commonly Used Symbols in Ecomaps

Strengths Perspective  Process of increasing personal, interpersonal or political power so that individuals, families and communities can take action to improve their situations

Empowerment  The process of helping individuals, families, groups and communities to increase their personal, interpersonal, socioeconomic, and political strength and to develop influence toward improving their circumstances. (Barker, 2003, 142)

Principles of the Strengths Perspective (Saleeby, 1995, 12-15) 1. Every individual, group, family, and community has strengths. 2. Trauma and abuse, illness and struggle, may be injurious but they may also be sources of challenge and opportunity. 3. Assume that you do not know the upper limits of the capacity to grow and change. Take individual, group, and community aspirations seriously. 4. We best serve clients by collaborating with them. 5. Every environment is full of resources.

Solution-Focused Model  Construct/re-construct the person’s reality  Builds on strengths to change a self-perception  Focus on individual goals  Effective with individuals and families