GOALS AND

SCOPE OF
SOCIAL
WORK
Activity: Who is a Social Worker?

#agentof___________
#workersforthe_________
#buildersof___________
#professional__________
#heroesforthe__________
__
OBJECTIVES:
1. Identify the Goals of Social
Work;
2. Explain the Scope of Social
Work; and
3. Express personal view
about Social Work
profession in the Philippine
Setting.
Directions: Read the statements carefully.
Analyze whether the statements fit to a
description of Goals and Scope of Social
Work. Answer yes or no to show agreement
or disagreement.
1. Social Work is a helping profession.
2. The concern of social work is to help people
who are in need.
3. The goal of social work is to reduce suffering
by solving people’s problems.
4. Social Work provides democratic ideas and
encourage the development of good
interpersonal relations, resulting in proper
adjustments with the family and neighborhood.
5. The main goal of social work is to improve a
society’s overall well-being.
DEFINITION OF SOCIAL
WORK
■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.
DEFINITION OF SOCIAL
WORK
■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.
GOALS OF SOCIAL WORK
■The main goal of social work is 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: caring,
curing, and changing. These goals are outlined and
described below:
1. The Goal on Caring
Caring refers to the heart of social work and it focuses on the
well-being or the welfare and comfort of the individual and
community.
2. The Goal on Curing
Curing refers to the aspect of treating people with problems
in social functioning
3. The Goal on Changing
Changing refers to the active participation of the social
workers in social reforms.
Activity 1. Connecting with Social Work Welfare
Agencies Instruction:
Provided in the box is a list of Government Agencies
and Non-Government Organization which has
Programs in alleviating people’s sufferings.

What Goals of Social Work were employed?

Give details about the known programs and
circumstances where 6 each organization and agency
are involved.
Scope of Social Work
■The concern of social work is to help people who
are in need so that they develop the capacity to
deal with their problems by themselves. It is
both science and an art.
■Social work is science in the sense that the
knowledge taken from different disciplines form
the body of knowledge for a social worker and
she/he uses this theoretical base for helping
people i.e., for practice. What theory postulates
has to be put into practice.
■The required capacity to do it is known as skill.
Hence, professional social work with selected
knowledge and the set of social work values, has
to be transformed into a professional service.
 According to Morales and Sheafor
(1983) Fields included in Social Work
1. Social Work as Primary Discipline
a.Adoption and services to unmarried
parents
- Difficult decision to keep the baby or place it for
adoption
- Applies both individual and group counseling to
assist women in making decisions.
b. Foster Care
- Removing children from homes and placing them
to foster homes temporarily - Works with the
parents, child and court to administer court
decisions to remove a child due to detrimental
situations.
 According to Morales and Sheafor
(1983) Fields included in Social Work
1. Social Work as Primary Discipline
c. Residential Care
- Group care home or a residential treatment center
- These are for children exhibiting anti-social behaviors that
require intensive treatment.
d. Support in own home
- Support services to keep children in their own homes
- Counseling, family consultations, 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
According to Morales and Sheafor
(1983) Fields included in Social Work
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
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
According to Morales and Sheafor
(1983) Fields included in Social Work
2. Social Work as an Equal Partner
a. Support for people in their own homes 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 the long term care facilities
- Refers to nursing homes or other group living facilities
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 long-
range planning of communities
According to Morales and Sheafor
(1983) Fields included in Social Work
3. 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.
According to Morales and Sheafor
(1983) Fields included in Social Work
3. Social Work as a Secondary Discipline
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
According to Morales and Sheafor
(1983) Fields included in Social Work
3. Social Work as a Secondary
Discipline
- Organize parent and community
groups to channel concerns
- Develop and maintain liaison between
the school and social work
- Provide leadership in coordination of
student services in guidance, clinic
staff, psychologists and attendants
Vocabulary:
Empathy - the action of understanding,
being aware of, being sensitive to, and
vicariously experiencing the feelings,
thoughts, and experience of another of
either the past or present without having
the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully
communicated in an objectively explicit
manner.

Principle - is a general belief that you

have about the way you should behave,
which influences your behavior.
Task! Express Yourself
In the midst of technological advent, there are
people who are suffering from Mental Health
problems.
Apply your creativity thru writing (doodles, art
using photo editors, etc.) a piece of advice by way
of short saying which is personally crafted.

Examples:
Your self-worth will never be a reflection of those
who don’t love you.
You are worthy, you are loved.
You are more than what you post on social media