THE

SOCIAL WORK
PROFESSION
The uninformed in our society associate social
work with doleouts or acts of altruism -- the
giving of material aid to those in need, out of a
sence of kindeness. In this light, many charity-
givers or philantrophists are called
“social workers”.
 Social work that is profession that is praticed
independently or as part of a team in many
different fields - health (medical social worker;
psychiatric social worker), education (school
social worker), labor and industry (inducstrial
social worker), corrections (court social worker,
probition social worker) and community
development (community organizer), among
many other.
 Social workers intervene in countless
problematic situations people find theselves in
today: poverty-stricken heads of families who
can hardlt provide for their gamilies' basic
needs; women and children who are victims of
sexual abuse and other forms of violence; drug
abusers desperately needing rehabilitations;
slum dwellers seeking assistance to be able to
adjust in settlement areas;
 rural residents who are suffering from lack of
certain basic amenities like water supply; voctims
of natural disasters who need to rebuild thier lives;
victims of armed conflict d other refugees with no
resources to start a new; former ressidents; released
prisoners; discharged mental patients who all need
to be reintegrated to the comunity; and countless
others who need help in order to function well
socially. All of these concern the social worker
What then, does the social worker do?
 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS:
SOCIAL WORKS FOCUS OF
CONCERN
 William Schwartz states that “every
profession has a particular function to
perform in society; it recieves a certain
job assignment for which it is held
accountable.”
Thus, we know that a person who suffers from a
physical ailment seeks help from a doctor, a
person who is accused of having committed a
crime consults a lawyer; and a person who
needs spiritual guidance sees a religious leader
such as a priest or minister.
But what about the social worker? What is their
particular “job assignment” in society? With so
many individuals, groups and organizations
engaged in helping others with all kinds of
problems, can we delineate the responsibility of
social workers? Do social workers have
competencies which these other individuals and
groups do not have?
The reality is there is still a lack of clarity about
the professional “job assignment” of social
workers. This lack of clarity is not only on the
part of the public, but also on the part of social
workers, themselves. Because of the image of
“helpfulness” of social workers, an image
which envolved from the Judeo-Christian roots
of the social work profession, many social
wokers get exploited by others.
Their exploitation is often traced to some
social workers own lack of understanding
of what ought to be the focus of their
concern.

Let us review different writings about

social work's focus of concern.
Wernes Boehm (1958)
• Social Work seeks to enhance the
social functioning of individuals,
singularly and in groups, by
activities focused upon their
social relationships with
constitute interaction between
individuals and their
environments.
William Schwartz (1961)
• The general assignmnet foe the social
work profession is to mediate the
process through whixh the individual
and society flfillment. This
presupposes a relationship between
people and their nurturing group
which we would describe a
“symbolic”
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 aconomic theory.
Harriet Bartket (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)
• 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 fucntioning.
• Thus, the ultimate goal of all social work
pratice is the enhancement of the social
functioning of individuals.
 Social functioning is the key concept in social
work so its meaning should be very clear. The
different authors' use of “person and situation”
and “person and environment” makes the use of
one or the other acceptable. In any case, there is
need to clarify the difference between
“situation” and environment.”
• The social environment is a • Social situation is an
network of overlapping impinging segment of the
social systems and social social environment “has
situations, including meaning for the individual
ecological systems, cultures and that is uniquely
and institutions. perceived and interpreted by
him, in which he has one or
more status.
A social situation is considered functional when
it is experienced as livable and favorable,
supportive and facilitative of well-functioning
human beings and of their environing social and
ecological systems.
 The social worker's “job assignment”
involves “mediating” (schwartz), or
“matching” (Gordon), or striking a
balance between people's coping ability
and situation / environmental demands
(Bartlett).
Causes of and responses to social
functioning problems
 Social functioning (or social role performance)
problems may be caused by factors iherent in the
person (e.g., his physical condition, attitudes, values,
perceptions of reality, etc. which affect one's “coping”),
factors in the situations or environment (e.g., lack of
resources or opportunities, expectations that are beyond
the individuals cping capacities), r factors in both the
person and the situation or environment.
Specifically, social work intervention
is laways directed toward enhancing
or improving the individuals social
functioning through any of the
following ways:
1. changed strategies directed toward the
individual if personal inadequancies or
sometimes pathologies make it difficult
for the individual to cope with the
demands of his situation or environment;
2. changed strategies directed toward the
environment if it is the latter that is beset
with inadequancies, or if the situation is
such as to be beyond the coping
capacities of the individual; and
3. changed strategies directed toward
the individual and the environment.
The functions of social work
In 1958 the comission on Practice of the
U.S National Association of social
Workers came up with a statement of
what has since been accepted as the three
purposes or functions of social work.
1. To assist individuals and groups to identify and
resolve or minimize problems arising out of a
disequilibrium between themselves and the
environment. This referred to as the restorative/
curative/ remedial as well as rehabilitative function
of social work. The currative aspect of social work
seeks to remove factors which have caused the
breakdown in the person's social functioning.
2. To identify potential areas of disequilibrium between
individuals or groups and the environment in order to
prevent the accurence of disquilibrium, This is referred
to as the preventive function of social work which
involves the early discovery, control, and elimination of
those conditions or situations which may have a harmful
effect on social functioning.
3. To seek out, identify, and strengthen the maximum
potential in individuals, grous, and communities.This
referred to as the developmental function of social
work. The aim is both to help the individual make
maximum use of his own potentilas and capacities as
well as to further the effectiveness of available social pr
community resources.
This three social work functions are interrelated. In
actual pratice, many social workers in the
Philippines, regardless of the functons. The
following illustration shows that different factors
can block or impede a social work client's self-
realization. In social work, these factors are dealth
with through the exercise of the profession's three
functions.
Physical, social
cultural, economic,
psychological and Self-realization
other impediments

Resorative
Developmental
Preventive
THANK YOU!!!!