Lesson 4:

SOCIAL WORK SETTING,

PROCESSES, AND
SERVICES


GROUP 4
Humss 1 (ALLIANCE)
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/reunificat
ion 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 resolving the
problem.
 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 once the
case has been closed or officially terminated due
to various reasons.