SOCIAL WORK WITH INDIVIDUALS The helping process with individuals is sometimes called social casework, although this term is used infrequently nowadays. A majority of social workers spend their time working with individuals in private or public agencies or in private practice. Even though other types of social work are increasing, the practice of social work with individuals still predominates. Individual social work is aimed at helping people resolve their problems or situations on a one-to-one basis, that is, helping unemployed people obtain work or training, providing protective services for abused children, providing counselling for mental health, providing parole or probation services, supplying services to the homeless and poor, co-ordinating services for people with AIDS and co-ordinating discharge services for a person being released from hospital. All of us on occasion find ourselves with problems that we cannot resolve alone. At times the help of a friend or family member may be enough, but at other times the skilled help of a social worker is necessary. Social work with individuals can take different forms depending on the philosophy and perspective of the social worker. While some workers may address personal problems, others may emphasize the social relations underlying the problem. Still others may address both dimensions simultaneously. In general, social work practice with individuals involves the following steps. These steps are common to most social work interventions with individuals and families. Although assessment precedes intervention, and intervention precedes termination, the process can be cyclical. For example, during intervention the client and worker may discover new information that in turn raises the need for more planning. In fact each process is taking place throughout the intervention, but at each step one or more is emphasized. As mentioned previously, the steps are mere guideposts for a process that involves a combining and re-combining of actions into new ways of looking at things-that is a praxis or a process of “action-reflection-action.”
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 09:29:33 +0000
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