Characteristics and Principles of Social Work

Characteristics and Principles of Social Work

Social work focuses on the interaction between human beings and their environments, with the aim of assisting individuals, families, groups, and communities to adapt to the social environment in which they live, so what are the characteristics and principles of social work? Let's take a look!

Characteristics of social work

1, focusing on the wholeness and integrity of the individual, including focusing on personal, environmental and behavioral factors.

2, emphasizes the important role of the family in shaping and influencing human behavior.

3. It is important to use community resources to help people solve problems.

4. The use of supervision provides guidance to inexperienced workers and allows experienced people to grow.

5. Social work has a unique educational program that combines both classroom instruction and practical activities side by side.

6. Traditionally, social work has emphasized three basic approaches: the casework approach, the group work approach, and the community organization approach. There are also some social workers who believe that the techniques utilized in all three approaches are basically the same, and this new orientation is referred to as the generic social work practice model.

7. Social work has its own professional organizations. The Association for Social Work and the Federation of Social Workers.

8. In social work, relationships are central. Social workers strive to create an emotionally supportive relationship.

9. Social workers have a useful psychiatric conceptual orientation and put considerable energy into understanding people.

10. Social work speaks of society, emphasizing social interaction and the resulting normal functioning or dysfunction of society.

11. Social work recognizes that the social settings of human beings themselves contribute significantly to social problems and shape human behavior.

12. Most social workers work in institutions.

13, The basic goal of social work is to help people to help themselves or to help communities to help themselves.

14. Most social workers are employees of an agency with a fixed salary.

15. Traditionally, social workers have provided services and therapy to individuals and families. Recently, there has been a tendency to generalize to all people.

16. Social workers are good at building teams and using teamwork methods, and at coordinating services and activities.

Principles of Social Work

1. Individualization holds that all human beings have the right to be living individuals, and that each person is a unique 'individual.' The caseworker needs to be treated as a person. Each person's experience is different and there cannot be only one solution to everything. Instead, we use different principles and methods based on the different problems, needs, and goals of each client to help them make the best adaptations.

2. Purposeful expression of emotions Social workers recognize the need of the client to freely express his/her inner feelings, especially negative feelings Social workers should listen purposefully without blocking or blaming. Avoid emotional transference effects or emotional countertransference effects. (1) Emotional transference: refers to the caseworker's projection of repressed emotions onto the professional. (2) Emotional countertransference: refers to the professional projecting the psychological needs of the self onto the caseworker and treating him as that particular person.

3. Moderate emotional involvement can be sensitive to the emotions or feelings expressed by the caseworker and respond appropriately. Casework relationship must be calm, on the one hand, to maintain rationality and objectivity, to be invested in the establishment of the relationship with the case owner, the recipients have to bear, but also have the emotional input and flow, so that the other side to feel the warmth and support. The purpose is to establish a "professional relationship", not to establish a "friendship relationship".

4. Acceptance is a behavior in which the social worker treats the case with sincerity, including acceptance of the case's strengths and weaknesses, appropriate and inappropriate traits, negative or positive emotions, constructive or destructive attitudes and behaviors. Acceptance and acceptance of differences make the caseworker feel respected as a person, able to self-acceptance, and then after some self-search and examination, can develop new confidence to deal with their own problems.

5. Non-judgmental attitude. Social workers take the initiative to provide services to the client based on the client's needs, not on whether the client is "worthy" of the service. They should temporarily put aside their own situation in the case, put themselves into their inner world, and from the other's point of view and position, put themselves in the case of the subjective feelings of experience and understanding.

6. Self-determination of the caseworker. Recognize the right and need of the client to make his/her own choices and decisions in dealing with his/her own problems. Motivate and assist the client to utilize social resources appropriately, to develop his/her potential, to reach self-determination, and to enhance his/her social functioning. The client must be allowed to manipulate his/her own destiny for continuous growth and improvement. Instead of solving the problem for the client, it is important to help the client to "recognize the problem",*** identify ways to solve the problem, and assist the client to choose an appropriate method to solve the problem and bear the consequences. The right of self-determination of the caseworker is not unlimited.

7. Confidentiality. There is a duty or obligation to maintain the confidentiality of private information communicated or disclosed by the client in the course of the professional relationship. Confidentiality is not only a professional ethic in social work, but also an important factor in building a relationship of mutual trust between the social worker and the caseworker. Absolute confidentiality vs. relative confidentiality.

;