Lesson 10
THE SETTINGS, PROCESSES, METHODS
AND TOOLS OF SOCIAL WORK
INTENDED At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:
LEARNING 1. Describe social work in a government setting;
OUTCOMES
2. Describe social work in a private sector setting;
3. Describe social work in a civil society setting;
4. Describe social work in a school setting; and
5. Describe social work in a community setting.
Elicit
Based on what you know or have experienced, how would you describe
the settings, processes, methods, and tools of social work?
Read out your answers to the class.
Engage
Have you met a professional social worker? Are you aware of what
he/she does as a practitioner? Visit the barangay hall nearest you and inquire
about their social work services and what their social workers do on a regular
basis?
Explore
10.1 Government Setting
The government setting offers the widest space for a variety of social work
services. Social work is present almost everywhere, from social policy
formulation and analysis, advocacy, and implementation to enhance the well-
being of societal members, to providing social services through appropriate
government departments and agencies. The government as an employer needs
occupational social workers. As manager of several agencies as well as mental
and health institutions and systems, implementer of social welfare programs, as
provider of pensions, and in its capacity as enforcer and manager of justice and
correctional systems and institutions, the government needs social workers. In
the United States, social workers are considered key employees in the federal,
state, and local government agencies. They may work on-site at a government
agency, at a non-government agency whose client base is generated from their
relationship with a government agency, or in a contracting relationship as
independent consultant. The range of government settings in which social
workers practice include (National Association of Social Workers 2011):
agencies serving children and families, such as foster care agencies;
health-care settings, including community-based clinics and hospitals;
schools;
federal, state, or local correctional facilities;
settings that serve older adults, such as nursing homes; and
agencies serving military veterans and active duty military personnel.
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (2011) reported that
at a single point in time, there are over 8,000 social work positions in the
government. They work in a number of cabinet level agencies within the
government, which include: Social Security Administration (SSA); Veterans
Administration (VA); The Department of Defense (DOD) as civilian social
workers assigned to military components (Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines)
and in other DOD facilities; Department of Justice (DOJ) as direct service
workers in areas such as community-based offender re-entry programs and
federal parole and probation agencies and also serve as policy analysts for DOJ:
Health and Human Services (HHS) in service areas that include community
health, HIV/AIDS, mental health, and substance abuse.
In all these agencies and programs, social workers perform a variety of
tasks and functions for the government agencies, ranging from clinical practice to
program management/administration (National Association of Social Workers
2011). Functions vary from agency to agency but essentially include: case
management; individual and group therapy; psychosocial assessments;
treatment and discharge planning; substance use counseling and treatment; and
administration. They are integrated into federal programs that address health
scare, behavioral health, criminal justice, social services, and child welfare issues.
They also play a significant role in formulating policies and developing program
standards and guidance for federal programs. For those who practice in a
government agency, they are usually integrated into a broader continuum of
services along with other disciplines such as physicians, nurses, and substance
abuse counselors.
In the Philippines, a number of social work services are undertaken by the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). For its mandate:
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) provides
assistance to other national government agencies (NGAs), local government
units (LGUs), non-government organizations (NGOs), people’s organizations
(POs), and members of civil society in the implementation of programs,
projects, and services that will alleviate poverty and empower disadvantaged
individuals, families, and communities to improve their quality of life. It
implements statutory and specialized social welfare programs and projects.
In the Philippines, professional social work tends to be associated with the
welfare field. This has to do with its inception where social work is used to
implement government initiatives to provide public welfare assistance to
economically deprived individuals, families, and groups. This type of social
work often focused on determining whether a person is poor enough to deserve
public assistance. To date, DSWD does a lot of work mostly in the areas of
women and child welfare. In child welfare, social workers provide services to
children who are abused and neglected by their parents and those from lower-
income families who cannot afford to adequately care for them. Child welfare
social workers normally do case management, that is, meeting regularly with the
child and his/her family to assess conditions in the home and report on the care
that the child is receiving. When a child is in danger, appropriate measures are
taken.
However, there are many other areas in which professional social workers
play a vital role such as in the implementation and monitoring of social welfare
and social development projects under the DSWD or those devolved to the local
government (LGUs) such as the National Household Targeting System for
Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4 Ps) and
Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social
Services (KALAHI-CIDSS). Particularly, professional social workers provide
research-based evidence regarding effectiveness of certain initiatives and socio-
economic measures that are designed to alleviate, reduce, or eradicate poverty in
the country.
10.2. Private Sectors Setting
In the private sector, particularly corporate setting, occupational social
work is practiced. The type of social work typically has five structures within
which it generates interventions: employee assistance programs, labor union
social services, human resource management offices, community relations
offices, and organizational development initiatives (Segal, Gerdes, & Steiner
2005).
10.3. Civil Society Setting
The civil society sector sees itself as a champion of the people with regard
to ensuring accountability in government services, hence, social workers in civil
society tend to work for advocacies of human rights and social justice. Their
work ensures delivery to concerned sectors of universal basic needs that may
range from physical needs, intellectual development, emotional development,
social growth, and spiritual growth. In some cases, civil society work fosters
delivery of motivational needs, self-actualization as advocated by Abraham
Maslow’s (1970) hierarchy of needs. Others align their commitments to personal
development needs as identified and articulated by Charlotte Towle (1957), that
is, biological, psychological, interpersonal, social, and cultural. Civil society is
generally organized by the social sector, representing any marginalized
individuals and groups. These are those who work with and for street children
and other children who are in danger. Some organizations are committed to
women or environmental issues. Some work for migration and migrants. Some
work with groups like gays and lesbians, cancer patients, elderly, and workers.
Each of these areas of civil society concerns provide a unique setting that may
call for distinct social work specializations and general practice.
10.4. School Setting
The school is a social service and within it lies similar situations that arise
elsewhere: violation of human rights, injustice, violence, sexual harassment,
discrimination, and so on. Internally, social work embedded structures see to it
that where violations occur, social workers can respond appropriately.
Externally, the school does also work with communities in its extension services
and community service where students and teachers work with communities to
deliver voluntary services. Here, the social workers can facilitate school entry
into community, understanding the community, engagement with community,
selecting and implementing correctly social development intervention, and exit
strategically.
A school social worker is a liaison between the school and students’
families, sustainer of effective communication among parents, teachers, and
students, and essentially bridging the children’s personal lives and education to
ensure that student’s needs are being met. In some cases, the responsibilities
crisscross with the functions of guidance counselors when qualified social
workers take care of special needs of children to facilitate their integration into
mainstream classes. In the same sense, some social workers assume
responsibility for other related school issues like formulation and
implementation of behavioral intervention programs, truancy prevention
programs, sexual education programs, health education programs, crisis
intervention, and disaster prevention and management programs.
10.5. Community Setting
A community consists and represents all kinds of social work services. It
is the locus of social work challenges. It is in the community where human rights
of individuals and groups are denied or violated; it is in the community where
injustices are made and committed; it is in the community where marginalization
for individuals and groups occur. Racism, sexism, homophobia (fear of lesbians
and gay men), classism, ableism (discrimination of people with disability),
ageism (discrimination based on age), anti-Semitism (oppression of Jews), and
islamophobia (fear of followers of Islam) exist in the community caused generally
by the by the presence of mainstream or dominant groups who tend to enjoy
certain privileges which are built in their lives (Segal, Gerdes, & Steiner 2005).
Majority of government and non-government institutions designed to
deliver social services and other services with social work component are
embedded in the community. Social work in community settings is essentially
defined by social policy and realities. Therefore, community setting primarily
calls for generalist social work practitioners who possess a broad range of
training and employ their skills to guide and coordinate services for the clientele.
Johnson and Yanca (as cited in Segal, Gerdes, & Steiner 2005) describe generalist
social work practice as an approach that “requires the social worker to assess the
situation with the client and decide which systems are the appropriate units of
attention or focus of work for the change effort. As the units of attention may
include an individual, a family, a small group, an agency or organization, a
community, or the transactions among these, the generalist approach emphasizes
knowledge that can be applied to a variety of systems.”
The community setting orients social work to a generalist framework that
divides work into micro-practice and macro-practice. Whereas micro-practice
social workers target their service at helping individuals, families, and small
groups to function better in a larger environment, macro-practice social workers
focus on changing the larger environment in ways that benefit individuals,
families, and groups (Segal, Gerdes, & Steiner 2005).
In general, community setting social work interventions include a wide
array of approaches with different theories and emphasis that social workers
have to comfortably employ on two or three levels: individuals and families,
groups, and communities.
Explain
Think-Pair-Share
What new learning did you develop about the settings, processes,
methods, and tools in social work? Pair up with your seatmate. In five minutes,
take turns in sharing your new insights.
Elaborate
Interview a social worker in your barangay or community. Find out the
specific setting to which he/she has rendered service, then describe the process,
methods, and tools that he/she undertook and used. Use the table below to
organize your interview notes.
Barangay
Name of Social Worker
Setting
Process
Methods
Tools
Evaluate
Name: _____________________________________ Date: _________________
Grade & Section: ____________________________ Score: _________________
I. Test Your Knowledge
Supply what are being asked in the following items. Write your answers in
the space provided.
A. Give three government settings where social workers practice
1.
2.
3.
B. Give two settings in the private sector where social work is needed.
1.
2.
3.
C. Give two settings in civil society where social work is needed.
1.
2.
3.
D. Give three school settings where social workers practice.
1.
2.
3.
E. Give two community settings where social workers practice.
1.
2.
3.
II. Check Your Understanding
Describe the social work process in the following settings. Write your
answers on the lines after each item.
1. Government
____________________________________________________________
2. Private sector
____________________________________________________________
3. Civil Society
____________________________________________________________
4. School
____________________________________________________________
5. Community
____________________________________________________________
III. Apply Your Learning
Using the outer circles, identify the unique needs that are recognized and
addressed in setting given. Then, in the center circle, describe the needs that
are commonly recognized and addressed among the different settings of
social work.
Government
Private Sector School
Common Needs
Civil Society Community
Extend
If you were a social worker, what setting would you choose? Why would
you choose it? Describe the processes, methods, and tools you expect to utilize in
your chosen setting.
