Problem Solving Framework in Social Work

Helen Harris Perlman is considered as the originator of the problem-solving framework in social work which has greatly influenced social work thinking. She describes social work process as a progressive transaction between the professional helper and the client, consisting of a series of problem-solving operations which can be summarized as follows: 

1. The facts that constitute and bear upon the problem must be ascertained and grasped (Study);
2. The fact must be thought about, ie., turned over, probed into, and organized in the mind, examined in their relationships to one another, and searched for their significance (Diagnosis);
3. 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 (Treatment).

In social work literature, there are a number of other well-known authors who follow a framework for problem-solving. Among these are the following whose writings are based on the traditional social work methods of casework, group work, and community organization:

Reference:
Lee-Mendoza, T. (2008) Social Welfare and Social Work. Central Book Supply

Social Work Principles

1. Acceptance of people as they are.

• respecting the client under any circumstances
• meeting and interacting with the client non judgmentally
• manifests a genuinely warm interest and concern in the client and his situation
• recognizing that people have strengths and weaknesses, and capacities and limitations

2. Participation of the client in problem-solving.

• client is asked to provide pertinent facts, present his own perceptions of the situation, involve in problem identification, and if there are many problems, client is involved in prioritizing problems
• client  participates in planning ways of resolving the problem
• worker builds upon and utilizes client's strengths

3. Self-determination as a right of the client.

• client has the right to determine what he needs and how they should be met
• worker does not do everything for the client, for she knows that client is capable for "self-help"
• worker will not manipulate but will guide client to look at problems objectively
• client develops self-respect and self-confidence when he realizes that he is able to solve his problems

4. Individualization

• recognition and understanding of each client's unique qualities and the differential use of principles and methods 
• worker should relate to each client as an individual in a situation
• individuals may present same problems but circumstances of the problem, perceptions and responses will be different

5. Confidentiality

• provide client protection
• what the client tells the worker is not discussed with others except when this is done within the context of professional relationships, for the purpose of helping the client, eg. case conference
• requesting of information about the client from another professional or agency are not prepared without the permission of the client, eg. what wife tells the worker is not shared with husband without her permission

6. Worker Self-awareness

• worker must always be conscious that her role is to make use of her professional relationship with her client in a way that will enhance the client's development rather that her own
• worker must examine feelings whether her responses and feelings are professionally motivated
• no one is completely free of biases: it is important to be aware of this and be able to control them so that they do not interfere professional practice

7. Client-worker Relationship

• professional relationship: controlled and purposive
• does not just happen, formed on the basis of expectation from the parties who compromise the relationship
• moves in the direction of certain goals or objectives which have been identified by mutual agreement

Reference:
Lee-Mendoza, T. (2008) Social Welfare and Social Work. Central Book Supply

Social Work as a Profession

5 Elements Constituting the Distinguishing Attributes of a Profession:

1. Systematic Body of Theory 

The skills that characterize a profession flow from and are supported by a fund of knowledge that has been organized into an internally consistent system called a body of theory. Theory serves as a base in terms of which the professional rationalizes his operations in concrete situations. Acquisition of the professional skill requires a prior or simultaneous master of theory underlying the skill. because understanding of theory is so important to professional skill, preparation for a profession must be an intellectual as well as a practical experience.

2. Professional Authority

Extensive education in the systematic theory of her discipline provides the professional with a type of knowledge which the layman does not have. In the helping relationship, the professional's judgment and authority are respected and accepted by his "client", unlike in a transaction with a non-professional where the rule is "the customer is always right". This authority ascribed to the professional by reason of her educational background gives the client a sense of security that the professional has the capacity to help him  with his problem. 

3. Community Sanction

Recognition of professional authority is expressed not only in the client-professional relationship but also in the professional-community relationship. The community sanctions a profession's authority by way of giving it certain powers and privileges. Among these powers and privileges are the professional's control over its (a) training centers, (b) admission into the profession, and (c) standards for professional performance.

4. Regulative Code  of Ethics

Every profession has a built in regulative code, partly formal and partly informal, which compels ethical behavior on the part of its members. This code serves to check possible abuses which can arise out of a profession's exercise of authority, and its accompanying powers and privileges.

5. Professional Culture

Formal and informal groupings characterize all occupations, including the professions. For social work, the network of formal and informal groups within which it operates includes the organizations that benefit from a profession's services (schools, courts, social agency, hospitals); the educational institutions which produce and replenish professional manpower; and the professional association which promotes professional interests and aims. The culture of  a profession consists of its values, norms and symbols.

Reference:
Lee-Mendoza, T. (2008) Social Welfare and Social Work. Central Book Supply

    

        

Functions of Social Work

1. Restorative/curative/remedial/rehabilitative functions - to assist individuals and groups to identify and resolve or minimize problems arising out of disequilibrium between themselves and the environment.                               

• curative aspect - seeks to remove factors which have caused the breakdown in the person's social functioning. 
• rehabilitative aspect - tries to put back the person to a normal or healthy state of social functioning. 

One example for curative aspect is helping a girl who engages in prostitution for a living to change her ways through counseling relationship and effecting necessary changes in her home or environmental conditions. the rehabilitative aspect could involve helping her avail herself of opportunities for schooling, skills training, and legitimate employment. 

2. Preventive function - to identify potential areas of disequilibrium between individuals or groups and the environment in order to prevent occurrence of disequilibrium. This involves early discovery, control and elimination of those conditions or situations which may have a harmful effect on social functioning. 

Examples of this function include counseling on premarital and other family problems, sex education of youth to prevent early marriage, sexual abuse; and working for the enactment of laws and policies that would help prevent abuse of women and children.

3. Developmental function - to seek out, identify and strengthen the maximum potential in individuals, groups and communities. The aim is both to help the individual make maximum use of his potentials and capacities as well as to further the effectiveness of available social or community resources. 

Examples of developmental function would include helping unemployed and underemployed breadwinners to avail themselves of opportunities for skills training while at the same time providing necessary supportive services.

Reference:
Lee-Mendoza, T. (2008) Social Welfare and Social Work. Central Book Supply

Social Work's Focus of Concern

Wernes Boehm, 1958

Social Work seeks to enhance the social functioning of individuals, singularly or in groups, by activities focused upon their social relationships which constitute interaction between individuals and their environments. These activities can be grouped in three functions: restoration of impaired capacity, provision of individual and social resources, and prevention of social dysfunction. 

William Schwartz, 1961

The general assignment of social work profession is to mediate the process through which the individual and the society reach out to each other through a mutual need for self-fulfillment. This presupposes a relationship between people and their nurturing group which we would describe as "symbiotic" - each needing the other for its own life and growth, and each reaching out to the other with all the strength it can command at a given moment. the social worker's intervention lies at the point where two forces meet: the individual's impetus toward health, growth and belonging, the organized efforts of society to integrate its parts into a productive and dynamic whole. 

William Gordon, 1969

The central focus of social work traditionally seems to have been on the person-in-his-life-situation complex - a simultaneous dual focus on man and his environment. this focus has been concentrated at some times on the side of the organism as interpreted by psychological theory and at other times on the side of environment as interpreted by sociological and economic theory. The mainstream of social work, however, has become neither applied psychology nor applied sociology. 

Harriet Bartlett, 1970

Social functioning is the relation between the coping activity of people and the demand from the environment. This dual focus ties them together. Thus, person and situation, people and environment, are encompassed in a single concept, which requires that they be constantly reviewed together. 

Louise C. Johnson, 1989

Social workers become involved when individuals are having difficulty in relationship with other people; in growing so as to maximize their potential; and in meeting the demands of the environment. Harriet Bartlett has described this situation as "people coping" and "environmental demands". The bringing together of these two aspects of living in society can be termed social functioning. The core of social work endeavor is to find the client and the worker interacting in relation to problems in social functioning which problems are reasons for worker-client interaction. Thus, the ultimate goal of social work practice is the enhancement of the social functioning of individuals.

Scope of Social Work

1. Social Work provides material assistance to persons who are dependent, or in economic distress, or simply belong to the bottom level of the population.

2. It helps persons whether as individuals, families, groups or communities to adjust, to improve, and/or change for the better their economic and social environment.

3. It is concerned not only with the material or economic problems but also with the psychosocial ones, whether these problems be the cause or effect of poverty, illness or crime, or appear independently.

4. It seeks to provide the economically deprived with opportunities for improving their own economic and social situation.

5. It seeks to develop the capability of persons to participate in problem-solving and decision-making, especially in matters directly affecting them.

6. It helps them to translate their decisions into action.

7. It also works for the development of economically viable and socially developed communities and of a knowledgeable, dynamic and self-reliant citizenry imbued with a sense of nationhood.

8. It sees to it that the clientele population has access to work and employment opportunities, improved health services, and better education facilities.

9. Where there exist conditions of dire economic poverty, social injustice, violations of human rights, and human exploitation, social work must join hands with others to achieve social reform and social change.

References:
Brown, E.L. (1942). Social Work as a Profession. Arno Press
De Guzman, L.S. (1992). Introduction to Social Work. New Day Publishers

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Important Goals of Social Welfare

1. Humanitarian and Social Justice Goals - This goal of social welfare is rooted in the democratic ideal of social justice and is based on the belief that man has the potential to realize himself, except that physical, social, economic, psychological, and other factors sometimes hinder or prevent him from realizing his potentials. This concept submits that it is right and just for man to help man, hence, social services. This goal involves the identification of the most afflicted, the most dependent, the most neglected, and those least able to help themselves and making them the priority target for the investment of scarce resources.

2. Social Control Goal - This goal is based on recognizing that the needy, deprived, and disadvantaged groups may strike out, individually and/or collectively, against what they consider to be an alienating or offending society. Society, therefore, has to secure itself against the threats to life, property, and political stability in the community, which are usually presented by those who are deprived of resources and opportunities to achieve a satisfying life. Social services to dissidents and to juvenile and adult offenders exemplify the social control goal of social welfare.

3. Economic Development - This economic development goal prioritizes programs designed to support increases in producing goods and services and other resources that will contribute to economic development. The immediate beneficiaries of such programs may be the able-bodied, relatively better-off members of the community. Examples of social services which pursue economic development goals are:

• Social services which directly contribute to increased productivity among individuals, groups, and communities, such as counseling services for the youth and for the adjustment of workers to industrial settings; labor welfare services and facilities; services for the rehabilitation of handicapped workers; skills training for the unemployed and the underemployed, integrated social services for farmers;

• Social services prevent or relieve the burden of dependence on adult workers of such dependents as the very young and the very old, the sick, the disabled, etc., which could hamper their productivity. Examples of these are daycare centers, old age homes, health clinics, and rehabilitation centers;

• Social services which prevent or counteract the disruptive effects of urbanization and industrialization on family and community life and help identify and develop local leadership in communities. Examples of these are family life education services, leadership training programs, and various types of community services which enhance or develop self-reliance and therefore promote people's own capacities for problem-solving. 

Reference:
Lee-Mendoza, T. (2008) Social Welfare and Social Work. Central Book Supply

Social Services

Social services refer to the programs, services, and other activities provided under various auspices, to concretely answer the needs and problems of the members of society.

There is a need for social services at all times, everywhere, because people have needs and problems beyond their own capacity for solutions.

The term social services referred to a variety of programs, among which were social/public assistance, child welfare, corrections, mental hygiene, public health, education, recreation, labor protection and housing, and many more.

The Social Worker

According to the Social Work Law, the Social Worker is a practitioner who by accepted standards of training and social work professional experiences, possesses the skill to achieve the objectives as defined and set by the social work profession through the use of basic methods of casework, group work, and community organization.

The Social Worker has knowledge and techniques of social work designed to enable individuals, groups, and communities to meet their needs and solve their problems of adjustment to changing patterns of society. Through coordinated actions, the Social Worker can help improve economic and social conditions. The Social Worker must be connected with an organized social work agency supported partially or wholly by government or community-solicited funds.

To be able to practice social work, the graduate, after finishing the Bachelor of Science in Social Work (BSSW) degree, must pass the licensure examination annually given by the Board for Social Workers of the Professional Regulation Commission, the government’s overall regulating body for the professions.

Social Work: Defined

Republic Act 4373, otherwise known as the Social Work Law, defines social work as a profession that is primarily concerned with organized social service activity aimed to facilitate and strengthen basic relationships in the mutual adjustment between individuals and their social environment for the good of the individual and the society, and by the use of social work methods.

In 1977, the Philippine Association of Social Workers came up with its own definition of social work as "the profession which fosters, facilitates, and strengthens basic social relationships in order to achieve the full development of the individual and society by the use of social work methods."

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) defines Social Work as the professional activity of helping individuals, groups, or communities enhance or restore their capacity for social functioning and creating societal conditions favorable to this goal. Social Work practice consists of the professional application of Social Work values, principles, and techniques to one or more of the following ends: helping people obtain tangible services; counseling and psychotherapy with individuals, families, and groups; helping communities or groups provide or improve processes. The practice of Social Work requires knowledge of human development and behavior; of social, economic, and cultural institutions; and of the interactions of all these factors.

Social Work is concerned and involved with the interactions between people and the institutions of society that affect the ability of people to accomplish life tasks, realize aspirations and values, and alleviate distress. These interactions between people and social institutions occur within the context of the larger societal good. Therefore, three major purposes of social work may be identified: to enhance the problem-solving, coping and developmental capacities of people; to promote the effective and humane operation of the systems that provide people with resources and services; to link people with systems that provide them with resources, services, and opportunities. 

References:
Lee-Mendoza, T. (2008) Social Welfare and Social Work. Central Book Supply
Bauer, J.B. (1979) Educating the Baccalaureate Social Worker: Report of the Undergraduate Social Work Curriculum Development Project, by Betty L. Baer and Ronald C. Federico. Ballinger Publishing Company

Social Work: An Introduction

SOCIAL WORK is a value-laden profession. Its philosophical evolution and historical development as a voluntary humanitarian activity trace it to its present status as a profession. As charity work, it was primarily motivated by the religious teachings of the Jews and Christians. Its religious base, the belief that man was created after the image and likeness of God, provides the philosophical foundation of the profession, that man was imbued with inherent worth and dignity and therefore deserves every other human being’s respect. 

As a creature of God, every man is a unique individual yet depends on others for his self-realization. This makes him a social being. Man is also believed to possess the capacity to grow, to develop, and to change – attributes that provide the rationale for social work goals and activities. Because of these fundamental beliefs and assumptions, social work is committed to the value that “it is good and desirable for a man to fulfill his potential, to realize himself, and to balance this with equal effort to help others do the same.”

The seven guiding principles of the profession: acceptance, non-judgmental attitude, individualization, purposeful expression of feelings, controlled emotional involvement, confidentiality, and client self-determination – flow logically from the major premises of social work. These values dictate how the worker should regard and relate to the persons that need help.

References:
Lee-Mendoza, T. (2008) Social Welfare and Social Work. Central Book Supply