Social Work For Social Development, Issues, Theories, And Suggestions

Social Work for Social Development

Question :

1.This Topic Discuss With Relevant Social Work and other Literature Reviews?

Social works are mainly associated with poor and underdeveloped people and their families towards supporting them through difficult time and ensure that vulnerable people are safeguarded from harms (Tafvelin et al., 2014). This study will make argument on the concept that social work looks after the poor and administers financial assistance to the clients. The study will discuss the social work towards social development and analyze various social work theories. Moreover, the study will also demonstrate various social work issues and provide some suggestions for mitigating those issues.

Social work is an academic and practice based discipline, which seeks to facilitate the welfare individual, groups, families and communities. Social works take initiatives towards promoting social changes and grassroots empowerment of people. According to Harris-Taylor et al., (2016), social work is a helping profession, which is aimed at assisting the individual, groups and community towards coping up with their complex socio economic psychological problems. Over the years, various social worker associations of NGOs in Singapore have become engaged in social development of their communities (Hsu et al., 2014).

Roth et al., (2016) pointed out that social workers are mostly associated with providing assistance to the concrete needs of the poor people in the community. Moreover, they provide foods, shelters, clothing, health care and child care benefits. For instance, Mercy Relief of Singapore provides financial assistance, water, shelter, healthcare and education for community development. On the hand, Golia, (2015) opined that social worker often fails to assess the exact issues of the poor people towards their development. It can hinder the effectiveness of the social work towards developing the quality of life of poor people.

According to Sonenshein, (2016), social works are also highly associated with caring for family members through understanding the conflicting family relationship. Furthermore, the social workers also fight against social isolation for the people, who are isolated from the society due their social status or stigma of HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, Jones and Felps, (2013) opined that social and welfare organizations also focus on providing privileges to the young educated people, who belong poor social classes. In this way, they develop their quality of life for the poor people through offering source of income and employment. For instance, Trans Family Service in Singapore provides variety of casework & counseling, community work & outreach, group work, happy health hour towards community development (Robinson & Webber, 2013).

Furthermore, social welfare organizations of Singapore also strive for the empowerment of the women within the community. Moreover, these organizations take initiatives towards providing bold livelihoods of the women. However, Alvarez et al., (2016) opined that most of social welfare organizations in Singapore are only limited within women empowerment and they are not looking forwards towards overall development of the community and poor people. According to Henttonen et al., (2014), non-profitable and social organizations also provide charity towards development of poor people. On the other hand, O'leary et al., (2013) opined that social work can also develop poor people through non-cash support.

Various Social Work Theories

Social work theory helps in understanding the task and purpose of the social work. Moreover, the theories also assist in indentifying the roles of social workers towards developing the society. According to BrintzenhofeSzoc, (2015), social learning theory encourages the social workers towards understanding the social issues through observing and imitating the behavior of the people. It can be most useful theory to be followed by the social workers. Rather than simply hearing the social issues, it is always better to observe the issues and learn about the problems. It can help in analyzing the issues for identifying the root causes of the issues. In this way, social workers become much more capable of providing suitable support towards solving social issues. On the other hand, Jones and Felps, (2013) opined that Socio-cultural theory is the best social work theory to be applied in social development. Socio-cultural theory stresses on the interaction between the developing people and their surrounding people. Moreover, this theory is based on the belief that culture has significant importance in developing the mental abilities of the people. Hence, this theory can help the social workers towards identifying the cultural issues behind the underdevelopment of the community people. Therefore, social workers can provide better facilities towards developing not only the individuals but also the society as a whole.

According to Sonenshein, (2016), solution focused theory works best in providing supportive solution towards developing the quality of life of poor people. This theory focuses on identifying the present and future circumstances of the clients and setting goals as per those circumstances. Moreover, this theory particularly focuses on the problems and seeks solution to the particular problem, which can be used repetitively to the problem again and again as and when it arises. Social workers can use their theory for mitigating the family conflicts of poor people. On the other hand, Harris-Taylor et al., (2016) opined that empowerment theory is the most efficient theory towards helping the social workers for social development. This theory concentrates on the identifying the strength perspectives of the clients and recognizes hinders for their underdevelopment. Through this process, the social workers facilitate the clients with the purpose of enabling the challenges. In this way, the social workers can provide financial assistance to the poor people towards improving the quality of their life.

According to Golia, (2015), social workers often face the exact issues of the society and actual reasons behind the social issues. Moreover, it is also extremely difficult to understand the genuine problems of the poor problem. On the other hand, Alvarez et al., (2016) opined that social workers often faces difficulties towards handling multiple and severe issues of the clients. It is quite difficult to research on the community and understand the root cause of the issues.

According to Robinson and Webber, (2013), lack of motivation of the social workers can also hamper the effectiveness of the social work. Most of social workers do not actual show empathy for the clients and therefore, the effective of the solution is hampered. On the other hand, BrintzenhofeSzoc, (2015) opined that low pay of the worker also de-motivates the social workers towards effective social work and assists the poor people towards their development.

Social Work Issues

According to Alvarez et al., (2016), limited resources for supporting social issues can be a significant issue for effective social work. Huge cutting in the Government funds also limits the resources towards the effective social works. On the other hand, Harris-Taylor et al., (2016) opined that less funding for social development actually hinder the overall development of the society and therefore, the effectiveness of social work is diminished.

According to Hsu et al., (2014), non-profit organization should hire experts for identifying proper client serving the supportive service. Moreover, the social work organizations should identify the clients, who are actually facing social issues and lagging behind the developed people. It would enhance the effectiveness of the social work serving the actual affected people. On the other hand, Golia, (2015) opined that identifying proper clients can also help the support organization to narrow down the social issues and provide effective support.

According to Jones and Felps, (2013), the social workers should be paid enough for their efforts towards the social development. Moreover, increasing salary structure would motivate the social worker to do hard work for helping the poor and affected people. On the other hand, Robinson and Webber, (2013) opined that the social worker should be trained enough towards aligning themselves with the actual problem of the affected people for providing effective support.

Resources both in sense of financial and non-financial are high required for supporting the actual issues of the affected people. According to BrintzenhofeSzoc, (2015), the social welfare organizations need to arrange adequate amount of financial and non-financial resources towards proper development of affected people. Furthermore, Sonenshein, (2016) opined that the social welfare organizations should make their recognizable identity towards getting more and more donations for social charity.

Conclusion

While concluding the study, it can be said that social work is a profession, which is concentrated on helping the individual, groups, families and communities for developing both their individual and collective wellbeing. Most of the social works in Singapore are concentrated on developing the poor people and administers the financial assistance for developing the quality of their life. Social works are also focused on empowering women and enhancing education rate in the society. However, the criticism of social work reflects on the fact that most of social works are concentrated on empowering women and not on the overall development of the society. Various social work theories have significant contribution towards facilitating the social workers in their social work. However, lack of motivation of the social workers and lack of adequate resources can hamper the effectiveness of the social work.

References

Alvarez, R., Ginsburg, J., Grabowski, J., Post, S., & Rosenberg, W. (2016). The social work role in reducing 30-day readmissions: the effectiveness of the bridge model of transitional care. Journal of gerontological social work, 59(3), 222-227.

BrintzenhofeSzoc, K. (2015). A Family in Need of a Palliative Care Social Worker. Journal of social work in end-of-life & palliative care, 11(3-4), 208-215.

Golia, G. M. (2015). On the importance of direct practice experience among clinical social work faculty: A recent graduate’s perspective. Clinical Social Work Journal, 43(3), 325-333.

Harris-Taylor, C., Drazek, L., Rusen, J., Sarvananthan, K., Bergman, I., Lipscombe, L., & Mukerji, G. (2016). Emerging Adult Clinic and the Importance of Social Work. Canadian Journal of Diabetes, 40(5), S30.

Henttonen, K., Johanson, J. E., & Janhonen, M. (2014). Work-team bonding and bridging social networks, team identity and performance effectiveness. Personnel Review, 43(3), 330-349.

Hsu, B., Hackett, C., & Hinkson, L. (2014). The Importance of Race and Religion in Social Service Providers. Social Science Quarterly, 95(2), 393-410.

Jones, T. M., & Felps, W. (2013). Shareholder wealth maximization and social welfare: A utilitarian critique. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(02), 207-238.

O'leary, P., Tsui, M. S., & Ruch, G. (2013). The boundaries of the social work relationship revisited: Towards a connected, inclusive and dynamic conceptualisation. British Journal of Social Work, 43(1), 135-153.

Robinson, K., & Webber, M. (2013). Models and effectiveness of service user and carer involvement in social work education: A literature review. British Journal of Social Work, 43(5), 925-944.

Roth, B. J., Sichling, F., & Brake, A. (2016). Recentering our tendencies: Immigrant youth development and the importance of context in social work research. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 26(6), 509-520.

Sonenshein, S. (2016). How corporations overcome issue illegitimacy and issue equivocality to address social welfare: The role of the social change agent. Academy of Management Review, 41(2), 349-366.

Tafvelin, S., Hyvönen, U., & Westerberg, K. (2014). Transformational leadership in the social work context: The importance of leader continuity and co-worker support. British Journal of Social Work, 44(4), 886-904.