GOALS AND SCOPE

OF SOCIAL WORK
MODULE 8
 LEARNING COMPETENCY

● Identify the goals and scope

of social work
HUMSS_DIASS 12-Ie-16
01
What is
SOCIAL WORK?
Social Work
• Is a practice-based profession that promotes
social change, development, cohesion and the
empowerment of people and communities.

• Social work involves the understanding of human

development, behavior and the social, economic
and cultural institutions and interactions.
 Social Work
● Social Work is a helping profession.
● Some individuals have personal or family problems.
Sometimes they cannot solve these by themselves.
So, they need outside help. Such help comes from
trained people. The individual seeking help is known
as a client and the trained person helping him is
known as a social worker.
 Morales and Sheafor (1983) identified
four areas of consideration:
1. In each helping situation, the social worker is concerned
with enabling or facilitating change. Interventions to
improve the quality of life may appropriately occur as
part of the social work practice.
2. The social worker is in the business of helping people or
social institutions, such as family, change to enhance
social functioning. It is not to focus on the whole person
but on social relationships.
 Morales and Sheafor (1983) identified
four areas of consideration:
3. Applying the social systems theory, social work can be viewed as
a profession that helps people interact more effectively with
their social environment. The focus is placed on the “interface or
the meeting place or the transaction of person and the
environment” (William Gordon, as cited by Morales and Sheafor,
1983)
4. In helping to achieve their goals of improved social functioning,
the social worker must have handles in fortifying and securing the
necessary resources to attain the goals of the clients.
03
Goals of
SOCIAL WORK
What is the goal of
Social Work?
to improve a society’s overall well-being,
especially for the most vulnerable populations.
 Morales and Sheafor (1983) specified three (3)
distinguishing goals of social work namely:

The Goal on Caring The Goal on Curing The Goal on Changing

refers to the heart of refers to the aspect refers to the active
social work and it of treating people participation of the
focuses on the well- with problems in social workers in
being or the welfare social functioning social reforms.
and comfort of the
individual and
community.
04
Scope of
SOCIAL WORK
 According to Morales and Sheafor (1983)
Fields included in Social Work:

I. Social Work as Primary Discipline

II. Social Work as an Equal Partner

III. Social Work as a Secondary Discipline
 I. Social Work as Primary Discipline
In terms of child welfare, social work offers adoption and
services to unmarried parents, foster care, residential
care, support in our home, and protective services.

a. Adoption and services to unmarried parents

▪ Difficult decision to keep the baby or place it for adoption.
▪ In this process, social workers applies both individual and
group counseling to assist women in making decisions
 I. Social Work as Primary Discipline
b. Foster Care
▪ Removing children from homes and placing them to foster homes
temporarily.
▪ The process includes working with the parents, child and court to
administer court decisions to remove a child due to detrimental
situations and bring him/her to a foster home placement.
c. Residential Care
▪ Group care home or a residential treatment center for a child.
▪ These are for children exhibiting anti-social behaviors that
require intensive treatment
 I. Social Work as Primary Discipline
d. Support in own home
▪ Support services to keep children in their own homes.
▪ Support services may be in the form of counseling, family
consultations, and connecting clients with appropriate
institutions such as day care centers and home maker services.
e. Protective Services
▪ Protecting the child from abuse, maltreatment,
exploitation by parents - Seeks to protect the child
without infringing the rights of parents
 I. Social Work as Primary Discipline
f. Family Services
▪ Family counseling involves family case work, family group
work and family therapy.
▪ Family life education strengthens family relationships
through educational activities to prevent family breakdown.
▪ Family planning involves planning the number, spacing and
timing of child births to fit with their needs – Make decisions
about the patterns of reproduction towards enhancing quality
of life
 I. Social Work as Primary Discipline
g. Income maintenance
▪ Public assistance, financial aid to the poor. It includes
cash grants, food stamps, general assistance such as
hospital and medical care, and supplemental security
income.
▪ Social Insurance, social provisions that funded by
employers and employees through contributions to a
specific program. Other forms, cash in kind benefits,
emergency support funds, and other resources that can be
used by the poor for food and shelter.
 II. Social Work as an Equal Partner
In terms of aging, social work offers support for people in their
homes and support for people in long-term care facilities.

a. Support for people in their own home program

▪ Helping older people remain in their homes and linking them
with community programs such as health care, meals and home
care services.
b. Support for people in long-term care facilities program
▪ Refers to nursing homes or other group living facilities
 II. Social Work as an Equal Partner
c. Community Services
▪ Community Organization: activities, gathering and analysis of
data, matching delivery of services to the population
distribution, securing funds, coordination with existing
agencies and educating the general public about the services.

▪ Community planning: involvement of social workers with the

physical, economic, and health planners in the communities as
the aim to enhance their conditions.
III. Social Work as a Secondary Discipline
a. Correctional Facilities, provide counseling and link them
to the outside world, provide support upon release.

b. Industry, support to both managers and employees.

Serves as basis for employment.
c. Medical and Health care, attend to the social and
psychological factors contributing to the medical
condition of the patients.
d. Schools, facilitate the provision of direct educational and social
services and provide direct social case work and group work to
selected students.
▪ Act as pupil advocate focusing on the urgent needs of the
selected students;
▪ Consult with school administrators’ major problems toward a
planned service approach;
▪ Consult with teachers about techniques for creating a free and
motivating climate for children by interpreting social and
cultural influences;
• Use of peers to help a troubled child;
• Organize parent and community groups to channel concerns
See you next me
eting!