Lesson 4:

SOCIAL WORK SETTING,

PROCESSES, AND
SERVICES


Prepared By Mam Jarren Policarpio

SOCIAL WORK
SETTINGS

 
Social work
is performed and
exercised in different
settings, including but not
limited to government
departments.
 Social work is practiced either in a primary or
secondary setting.

Primary Settings – Are those
agencies whose programs and
services are direct purview of social
work.

EXAMPLES:
Christian Children’s Fund, Save the
Children, Hospicio de San Jose, Department of
Social Welfare and Development, among others.
 
Secondary Settings – Are agencies,
institutions, or organizations whose
primarily function is not to provide social
welfare services but employ social
workers to
support/strengthen/complement their own
services.

EXAMPLES:
Hospitals, family courts, nutrition centers,
schools, corporations, etc.
 GOVERNMENT
Social workers are involved
in research, technology
development, policy analysis,
and development, planning,
standards development,
capacity building, program
management including crisis
intervention and disaster relief
operation and management,
social marketing, and special
projects.
PRIVATE SECTOR
Social
workers are found
in private practice
and are offering
various kinds of
services.
CIVIL SOCIETY
Social workers
are often employed
by different child-
caring, and child-
placing social welfare
agencies offering
services related to
adoption, foster care,
residential care,
independent living,
reintegration/reunific
ation services, after
care services, etc.
SCHOOLS
Some
schools are also
hiring social
workers to aid
the students in
their adjustment
in school as well
as guide them in
their scholastic
performance.
COMMUNITY
Specifically,
social workers are
also employed in
different
community
service centers
(either run by
local counsils,
church and
people’s
organization)
SOCIAL WORK
PROCESS

 
 Social work follows a helping
process when working with
specific clients.
 HELEN HARRIS PERLMAN is
known to be the originator of
the problem-solving framework
in the social work profession.
Perlman (1957) as cited by Mendoza (2002)
presented a series of problem-solving operations
summarized as follows:

 STUDY – the facts which constitute and bear
upon the problem must be ascertained and
grasped;
 DIAGNOSIS – the facts must be thought
about i.e. turned over, probed into, and
organized in the mind, examined in their
relationships to one another, and searched for
their significance; and
 TREATMENT – some choice or decision must
be made as an end result of the consideration
of the particular facts with the intention of
 Nonetheless, there have been numerous
authors in social work literature who follow a
framework for the problem solving process.

Mendoza (2002) later on summarized this
into five (5) basic steps namely:
 Assessment
 Planning
 Intervention or plan
implementation
 Evaluation
 Termination
 ASSESSMENT

Max Siporin as cited by Johnson
(1986) and Mendoza (2002) defines
assessment as a process and a product of
understanding on which action is based.

 The Social Worker’s tasks include

information-gathering and problem
definition based on what the client and
worker agreed upon.
 Various sources in gathering data to obtain
accurate definition of the client’s problem.

a. PRIMARY SOURCE – the client it self.
b. SECONDARY SOURCE – the others with
whom the client has personal relationships.
c. EXISTING DATA – these can be records or
reports from other professionals or
documents from other agencies.
d. WORKER’S OBSERVATION – the worker
has the opportunity to observe the client
through the latter’s interaction and
relationship with others.
 The initial contact between the client and
the worker comes in three different ways:

a. WALK-IN - The client initiates the contact
and seek the assistance of the agency social
worker about a particular concern or problem.
b. REFERRAL – The client is referred to the
worker or a social welfare agency by an
interested or concerned party or entity.
c. OUTREACH – The agency, through its social
worker/s, reaches out to the prospective
clients to offer help.
 PLANNING

Its process translate the
content of assessment into a
goal statement that describes
the desired results and is
concerned with identifying
the means to reach the goals.
 Planning involves two major tasks:


 Formulating goals that
directly relate with the
clients problem.
 Defining the specific actions
or interventions that are
necessary in order to
achieve the goals.
 INTERVENTION

Intervention is
concerned with the action
that would solve the
client’s problem.
 EVALUATION

Evaluation is defined as the
collection of data about
outcomes of the program of
action relative to goals and
objectives set in advance of the
implementation of that program
(Johnson, 1986, p. 385).
 TERMINATION

The helping process has a
time limit therefore a social
worker is expected to discuss
with the client the expected
duration of the helping
relationship.
There were two terms used in relation to the
termination of the client-worker relationship

1. TRANSFER – is the process by which
a client is referred by her/his social
worker to another worker.
2. REFERRAL – is the act of directing a
client to another worker/agency
because the service that the client
needs is beyond the present agency.
 Lesson 5:
Methods and Tools
in Social Work

METHODS OF SOCIAL
WORK

 SOCIAL CASEWORK

Social casework is a
method of helping people solve
problems. It is individualized,
scientific, and artistic. It helps
individuals with personal as well
as external and environmental
matters.
 Hollis (1949, 1964) identified four major
casework processes or techniques namely;


a. ENVIRONMENTAL MODIFICATION
b. PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT
c. CLARIFICATION
d. INSIGHT DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL GROUP WORK

Is a process and method
through which group life is
affected by a worker who
consciously guides the
interaction process.
(Wilson & Ryland, 1949 as cited in Mendoza,
2002, p. 609)
 COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

Dunham (1970) described this
as a conscious process of social
interaction and a method of social
work concerned with the following:
a) Meeting of broad needs
b) Assisting people in effectively
c) Bringing changes in community
and group relationships
 SOCIAL ACTION/SOCIAL REFORM


Is an organized effort with
aim of securing social progress
and solving mass social
problems by influencing
legislation or the administration
of social services.
 SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH

Involves a critical inquiry
and the scientific testing of the
validity of social work
organization, function, and
methods in order to verify,
generalizes, and extend social
work knowledge and skill.
SOCIAL WELFARE ADMINISTRATION


Is the administration of
public and private social
agencies designed and
organized to achieve the full
effect of the services for which
they have been established.
Tools in Social Work

 INTERVIEW

This involves a face-to-face
interaction or meeting between
two or more persons, directed
toward a purpose like to obtain
information and facts, to give
instructions, and to help.
 COMMUNICATION

Is a two-way process
which usually starts with
the source initiating the
process and a receiver
responding.
The following are the important elements
of communication

a. SOURCE
b. MESSAGE
c. CHANNEL
d. RECEIVER
e. FEEDBACK
 RECORDS

It served a lot of
purposes to the worker
and the social welfare
agency.
The types of records prepared by social workers and social
welfare agencies include but not limited to the following


a. Intake Forms – reports containing data
obtained prior to admission and entering into a
helping relationship.
b. Summary Records - entries of information
obtained as part of the gathering stage in
problem-solving.
c. Survey Reports – contains findings about the
community situation indicating the date, place,
and source of data.
d. Case Study – report summarizing the obtained
information about the client and his/her
environment.
e. Summarized process Recordings –
should contain considerable details about
the content of interviews.

f. Progress Notes/Reports – regular
accounts of the client’s activities and
engagements.
g. Case Conference Reports – an account
of the proceeding or a summary of
recommendations from the helping team
composed of social workers.
h. Home Visitation – a report containing
vital information and assessment about
the client’s family and environment.
i. Periodic Evaluative Summaries –
includes a statement about the major
development that have occurred.

j. Transfer Summaries – a report prepared if
the case will be transferred to another
worker or unit.
k. Final Evaluative Statement - focuses on
the extent to which goals/objectives spelled
out in the Case Study.
l. After Care Reports – a report prepared six
months to one year after the reintegration
or reunification of the client to his/her
family.
m.Closing Summary – a report prepared