How Social Work Practice Utilises Its Knowledge and Skills - Dissertation Example

How Social Work Practice Utilises Its Knowledge and Skills Introduction Social injustice is a major form of social immorality leading to a wide range of pernicious problems affecting the social uplift of common people. Social injustice can have potential negative impacts on the health and financial status of individuals to a great extent. Since the social environment in which an individual is born is one of the social determinants of health, issues like social injustice can adversely affect the health status and life expectancy of that individual (WHO, Press Release). Despite all efforts taken by national and local governments to curb this issue, social injustice is still raising threats to the wellbeing of poor and middle class people. At this juncture, the scope of social work profession is growing as it is capable of contributing significantly to the eradication of the evils of social injustice. This paper will discuss the theories and skills that can equip social work to confront the pernicious problems of social injustice. In addition, this will also address the tensions faced by a ‘human rights based social work approach’. Finally, the paper will explain the position and function of social work addressing concerns such as protection, entitlement, rights and responsibilities. Current Pernicious Problems of Social Injustice Social injustice can be considered as a relative concept about the claimed injustice of a society with regard to the division of its burdens and rewards, and this concept also encompasses incidental inequalities based on an individual’s viewpoint of humanity. The term immorality is often used as a synonym for social injustice; however it is to be noted that social injustice is only one type of immorality. According to Levy and Sidel, the term social injustice can be defined as “the denial or violation of economic, socio-cultural, political, civil, or human rights of specific populations or groups in the society based on the perception of their inferiority by those with more power or influence” (as cited in Lewis,et al 2010, p.12). The pernicious problems of social injustice raises potential challenges to the development of society as these issues lead to the formation of social classes and unequal treatment of the humanity. The issues of social injustice have a wide variety of manifestations according to the social context in which they occur (Levy & Sidel, 2013, p.3). To illustrate, for children living in urban slums and undeveloped rural areas, social justice means that lack of nutritional food, insufficient number of teachers, crowded classrooms, poor development of marketable skills, and functional literacy (Ibid). In case of women, social justice means that the high vulnerability to sexual molestations or violent attacks. Social injustice may reflect a lower probability of obtaining a permanent job for unemployed youth. In general, majority of the people throughout the world are prone to some or other form of social injustice such as unsafe food and water; violation of fundamental human rights; poor sanitation and housing; environmental hazards; limited access to public health services; and preventable illness, injury, and premature death (Ibid). Researchers indicate that an individual’s financial background, education, and social status can determine the degree to which he/she is prone to social injustice. When the issue of social injustice may improve the living standards of the upper class, the poor and middle class people would be severely affected by this social problem. Evidences suggest that the concept of globalisation has notably contributed to social injustice because this international process makes the poor poorer and the rich richer. The most harmful problem of social injustice is that it can dreadfully impact the public health as people from different segments of the society do not obtain equal access to public health services. Social workers reflect that social injustice leads to a wide range of adverse health consequences, which in turn would affect the overall development of the society and/or nation. According to the American Psychological Association (2007), the issue of social injustice can have psychological impacts as well. As a result of this pernicious social problem, many people obtain undeserved advantages such as government jobs and other positions whereas some others fail to gain posts that they actually deserve. Since the public often hesitates to respond to social injustices strongly, this issue is still prevailing in the society and raises potential challenges to social welfare. Critical Analysis of Theory and Skills There are many theories that can equip social work to address the pernicious problems of social injustice. The ‘Justice as Fairness’ is a theory relating to social justice and it was developed by John Rawls. This theory is comprised of two key principles of liberty and equality, and the principle of liberty is subcategorised into fair equality of opportunity and difference principle (Austin, 2013, p.33). The principle of liberty is the most important principle which states that every individual has an equal right to fundamental liberties. The theorist adds that certain rights and liberties are more crucial or basic than others. To illustrate, the author says that the right to personal property is a basic liberty while an absolute right to unlimited private property may not constitute a basic liberty. Basic liberties cannot be removed from individuals by governments. The principle of equality tries to establish distributive justice and it states that individuals should not be treated unequally on the ground of their social class or positions. The ‘fair equality of opportunity’ component of the equality principle reflects that offices and positions should be open to every individual regardless of his/her gender, social status, or ethnicity. At the same time, the difference principle speaks about regulating inequalities. Rawls prioritises the principles in the orders of the liberty principle, fair equality of opportunity, and difference principle. The main intention of this ‘lexical priority’ arrangement is that it can determine the priorities of the principles if there is a conflict in practice (Taylor, 2011, p.175). These principles are applied to make certain the needs of the ‘least advantaged’ are met fairly. The lexical priority arrangement of these principles would greatly assist social workers to fight social justice in a fair and thoughtful way and to accomplish the outcomes desired. In other words, this theoretical framework can benefit socials workers to eliminate conflicts in practice by focusing on the principles proposed in the lexical priority. Similarly, system theory is another major social work approach and is based on the key concept that people are not isolated individuals but they operate as part of wider networks called systems. According to this theory, there may be informal systems (family and friends), formal systems (clubs and support groups), and public systems (schools and hospitals). If the individual cannot fit to the systems in which he/she operates, several difficulties would come up. These different systems may be employed to assist the service user to achieve the change needed. The major advantage of this theory is that it gives primary emphasis to changing the environments rather than individuals. In addition, it focuses on patterns rather than ‘cause and effect’ facilitating different ways of gaining the desired outcomes. The main limitation of this theoretical framework is that it fails to explain why things happen and guide how to achieve the desired change. The idea of informal, formal, and public systems can extremely benefit social workers to form understanding of the social systems in which people operate. While addressing the harmful challenges of social injustice, it is particularly important for social workers to identify how individuals fit to various social systems. Likewise, it is relevant for social workers to maintain some key skills to fight the pernicious problems of social injustice effectively. First, they should possess great analytical skills to evaluate a complex problem or situation and to work through different possible solutions. Caring and kindness must be two basic qualities of social workers because a compassionate attitude toward the victims of social injustice is essential to meet the professional outcomes expected. In addition, they should develop proper communication skills to speak clearly and to listen well so as to understand the particular problem scenario precisely. Emotional resilience is another key skill required for social work in order to deal with this emotionally demanding job. Interpersonal skills constitute the foundation of the social work profession as understanding human psychology is vital in order to interact appropriately with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. In addition, organisation is another crucial skill required for social workers to balance between many client caseloads at one time. Maintaining accurate and well organized records of social work is inevitable for personnel engaged in this field to stay on top of responsibilities. It is really a challenging task to help people who are either victims or prone to social injustice issues, and hence social workers cannot make any progress in this field unless they maintain patience at the extreme level. It is vital for social workers to comply with ethical standards and practices with a high degree of professionalism. As the clients’ health and wellbeing greatly depend on the activities of social workers, it is necessary for the professionals working in this field to demonstrate great judgment skills at all times. Finally, social workers must try to develop time management skills because making effective use of working hours available is really important for social workers to deal with large caseloads. Critical Examination of Tensions in Social Work It is identified that a human rights based social work approach faces a range of tensions in the task of confronting the pernicious problems of social injustice. The growing cultural diversity in the society seems to be a potential challenge for the social workers (Hodge, 2015, p.22). Today more and more people migrate to overseas countries in search for financially-rewarding job opportunities, and hence many countries like US and UK have become agglomeration of different cultures. All social workers may not be skilled or experienced enough to identify the needs of people from culturally diverse backgrounds and this situation would intensify social injustice. In addition, recently some local groups have mobilised to restrict or eliminate the existing rights for immigrants, such as public education and public healthcare. To illustrate, following the terror attack at Charlie Hebdo – a French satirical magazine – that killed 17 people, many local groups in the European countries have united their voice to withdraw the rights and privileges allowed to the Muslim immigrant population. In this situation, it would be very difficult for social workers to argue for the human and social rights of Muslim immigrants because such a practice may spark public anger. Likewise, some locally organized groups claim that it is vital to eliminate the existing rights such as gay and lesbian marriage and access to reproductive healthcare for adolescent women. Such conflicts of interest significantly limit the scope of social intervention. With the process of urbanisation, there have been notable demographic shifts, and the situation challenges social workers’ career (Cohen, 2006). When rich and educated people move to cities in an attempt to take advantages of urbanisation, poor and illiterate people remain in rural areas. When services like public healthcare and public education concentrate on urbanised areas, they almost remain out of reach of the rural people. It is evident that social workers have many limitations in extending such services to people living in rural or underdeveloped areas. Insufficiency of funds is another major issue posing serious challenges to confronting the pernicious problems of social injustice (Higham, 2008, p.203). Social workers are not always organised groups, and hence they have limited financial sources to fund their social activities. They do not obtain much governmental assistance and this situation often reduces their performance efficiency and the quality of outcomes. In addition, the number of people turning toward the social work profession is declining day by day, and as a result, the frequency and intensity of social injustice is increasing. Social workers all over the world say that their workloads have been increasing over time. Although workloads could be mainly attributed to bigger caseloads, other factors including monotonous paperwork and greater disclosure requirements also contribute to increased workloads. As a result of the cuts in government funding for many social programs, social workers need to search longer and harder to find potential services for their clients. In a 2007 National Association of Social Workers Membership Workforce Study, nearly 25 percent of the participants opined that the heavy workload was a major contributor to job-related stress (Arrington, 2008). Due to the high level job-related stress, social workers are likely to develop compassion fatigue (also known as secondary traumatic stress disorder), which is a mental condition characterised with eventual lessening of compassion over time (Mathieu, 2007). This condition is often described as a kind of ‘emotional depletion’. When social workers lose compassion for the suffering of others, they cannot involve actively in the problems of others, and such a situation would bring an end to their profession. Since the global economy is yet to recover from the severe shock of the recent global recession, social workers need to deal with more clients having multiple and more serious problems. Many social workers report that challenging clients constitute a significant job stressor. Finally, low pay is another crucial factor that persuades people to stay away from this profession (President, 2012, p. ix). In the 2007 National Association of Social Workers Membership Workforce Study, over 16 percent of the respondents mentioned poor compensation as a major work-related stressor (Arrington, 2008). According to the Bureau of Labour Statistics, social workers earned an average annual income of $42,480 in 2010 (Memphis edu, n.d.). Position and Function of Social Work The social work profession can play a notable role in addressing major concerns such as protection, entitlement, and rights and responsibilities. Social workers take constant efforts to shape the face of different segments of the society with particular emphasis given to the protection of basic human rights. The role played by the social work professionals in implementing secularisation in the society is not negligible. Secularisation is the process of transformation of a society from its close recognition with religious values and institutions toward irreligious values and secular institutions (Facts 101 e-Book, 2012, p.na). The process of secularisation has assisted the society to reshape its values and beliefs and to improve the moral standards of people. Sociologists suggest that secularisation has had significant positive effects on social structures and social welfare. In addition, this process noticeably contributed to the modernisation of the society because it broadened the mindset and viewpoint of the people. By promoting the development and growth of a secularist society, social workers try to make sure that no person is discriminated on the ground of his/her religion and thereby to establish the principle of equality (Babie P & Rochow, 2012, p.148). Hence, the social work profession greatly benefits people to protect their right to equality and to enjoy all the government facilities and services regardless of their religious faith. Similarly, social work professionals work closely with children to protect their basic rights and to safeguard them from violent attacks and abuses. According to UNICEF (n.d.), millions of children are still affected by poverty. They have very limited access to safe drinking water, nutrition and education, and essential vaccines. In addition, children living in poverty are at high risk of being abused both physically and sexually (Ibid). Evidences suggest that social workers can play a significant role in alleviating child poverty and reducing the rate of child abuses (Reamer, n.d.). They try to pool various government resources to finance the educational and nutritional needs of poor children and decrease their exposure to nutritional deficiency diseases and child labour. The values of social work profession greatly fit to the policies that steer the operations of modern child welfare organisations (Canadian Association of Social Workers). Once it is identified that parental care is below the accepted community standards and increases the child’s vulnerability to harms, social workers may interfere the family to tackle the situation. In addition, social workers have an important role to play in reporting child abuses to the agencies concerned and ensuring that no case of child abuse goes unattended. Likewise, the social work profession is crucial to protect the rights of women and to empower their lives. Although more women have come to the mainstream of the society compared to the last century, the percentage of women representing key societal positions is still low. Social workers have launched a number of campaigns to improve this situation and to facilitate women empowerment. They also work to address the growing violence and sexual assaults against women with the support of government and law enforcement institutions (Turner, 2011, p.215). In addition, social workers pay particular attention to the issues like killing of female foetus/infants, a dreadful social problem very common in developing countries like India. Another role of social work profession is to promote the rights and protection of prisoners. Unfortunately, it seems that social workers are less interested to know what is happening inside prisons. This situation may persuade governmental authorities and other public organisations to close their eyes to issues such as unfair treatment of inmates. By interfering in correctional facilities appropriately, social workers can ensure that prisoners are not tortured physically or mentally thus their human rights are protected (Maher, 2004, p.400). Conclusions Social injustice as a pernicious problem poses serious threats to the wellbeing of the current society. The harmful issues resulting from social injustice have a range of manifestations based on the social context in which they occur. The ‘Justice as Fairness’ theory and the system theory make some remarkable points that can direct social workers in confronting with the insidious consequences of social injustice. In order to be a successful social worker, one needs to maintain a set of skills such as analytical skills, communication skills, emotional resilience, empathy, interpersonal skills, organisation, patience professional demeanour, and time management. While fighting the evils of social injustice, social workers need to face a range of tensions. The growing cultural diversity and emerging negative attitudes toward minorities seem to raise serious threats to performance efficiency of the social work profession. In addition, the geographical shifts emerging from urbanisation together with insufficiency of operating funds become a barrier to accomplishing the desired social work outcomes. The development and growth of a secularist society was driven by the social work profession, and this societal setting enhances the equal treatment of people. Finally, social workers play a notable role in protecting the rights of children, women, prisoners, and other least advantaged groups. References American Psychological Association (2007) The Psychological and Health Impacts of Social Injustice. Available at: http://www.apa.org/pi/about/newsletter/2007/06/bappi-07.aspx Arrington, P. (2008). Stress at work: How do social workers cope?. NASW Membership Workforce Study. Washington, DC: National Association of Social Workers. Austin MJ (2013) Social Justice and Social Work: Rediscovering a Core Value of the Profession. US: SAGE Publications. Babie P & Rochow N (Eds.) (2012) Freedom of Religion Under Bills of Rights. University of Adelaide Press. Canadian Association of Social Workers. Social Work Practice in Child Welfare. Available at: http://www.casw-acts.ca/en/social-work-practice-child-welfare Cohen B (2006) Urbanization in developing countries: Current trends, future projections, and key challenges for sustainability. Technology in Society 28 (2006): 63–80. Facts 101 e-Book (2012) e-Study Guide for Introducing Comparative Politics: Concepts and Cases in Context, textbook by Carol Ann Drogus: Political science, Politics. Cram101 Textbook Reviews. Higham P (2008) Post-Qualifying Social Work Practice. US: SAGE. Hodge DR (2015) Spiritual Assessment in Social Work and Mental Health Practice. Columbia University Press. Lewis, J et al (2010) Community Counseling: A Multicultural-Social Justice Perspective. US: Cengage Learning. Levy B & Sidel VW (2013) Social Injustice and Public Health. UK: Oxford University Press. Maher J (Ed.) (2004) Europa World Year. US: Taylor & Francis. Mathieu F (2007) Running on Empty: Compassion Fatigue in Health Professionals. Rehab & Community Care Medicine. Available at: http://www.compassionfatigue.org/pages/RunningOnEmpty.pdf Memphis edu. Department of Social Work School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy. Available at: http://www.memphis.edu/socialwork/pdfs/masocialworkbroch0113.pdf President A (2012) How You Can Become an Invincible Social Worker: The Real Deal on Beating Burnout in Social Work. US: AuthorHouse. Reamer FG. Why Our World Needs Social Work. Social Work Today. Available at: http://www.socialworktoday.com/news/enews_0312_01.shtml Turner FJ (Ed.) (2011) Social Work Treatment: Interlocking Theoretical Approaches. Oxford University Press. UNICEF. Children living in poverty. Available at: http://www.unicef.org/sowc05/english/poverty.html WHO Press release. Inequities are killing people on grand scale, reports WHO's Commission. Available at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2008/pr29/en/ Read More