SOCIAL WORK

GROUP 9
CLIENTELE AND AUDIENCES
Social work professionals work with various
types of clientele and audiences not only to help
them improve their social functioning, but also
to help them realize their fullest potentials as
individuals, organizations, and communities.
Motivated by the principles of empowerment,
liberation, social justice, and human rights,
social workers render services to a wide array
of clientele in various settings.
INDIVIDUALS
The practice of social work geared toward
individual clients is referred to as micro practice.
Individual clients cover a very wide range of
clientele groups depending on the field of
practice. Individual clients may be children,
youth, adults with mental health problems,
adults dealing with substance abuse, people
with developmental or physical disabilities,
battered women, and the elderly, among others.
INDIVIDUALS
Children in challenging circumstances, such as
facing abuse, neglect, or forced labor, require
specialized interventions that often involve their
families. Child welfare services provide protection,
family preservation, and alternative care solutions
like foster care or adoption when staying with their
family is not possible. These services aim to
improve family dynamics and secure safe
environments for children in need.
INDIVIDUALS
Social work prioritizes support for individuals
facing economic, social, and systemic
disadvantages. Programs often focus on
empowering vulnerable populations—such as
women, children, persons with disabilities, the
elderly, and indigenous communities—helping
them to achieve social equity and a higher quality
of life.
INDIVIDUALS
In social work, the person-in-environment (PIE) model emphasizes
understanding how individuals function within their environmental
contexts. It recognizes that people are shaped by past experiences,
current socio-political and economic realities, and hold potential for
growth. This approach also values personal agency, acknowledging
that individuals can influence their environment to bring about
change. Social workers often assist those facing discrimination,
oppression, and marginalization due to systemic injustices,
addressing these issues through community organizing, policy
development, advocacy, and research to improve quality of life and
promote social change.
GROUPS
Another type of clientele that social workers deal
with are groups. Chess and Norlin (1996), as
cited by Ambrosino et al. (2008, 133), defined
group “as a form of social organization whose
members identify and interact with one another on
a personal basis and also have a shared sense of
the group as a social entity.”
GROUPS
Social work professionals work with primary groups,
or groups characterized by intimate, personal, and
enduring relationships among its members. Group
work in social work, as defined by Ambrosino et al.
(2008, 133), is “a process and an activity that seeks
to stimulate and support more adaptive personal
functioning and social skills of individuals through
structured group interaction.” Group work was
usually conducted to complement casework.
GROUPS
According to Hepworth, Larsen, and Rooney (2002,
300), there are two categories of groups which social
workers are often associated with: task group and
treatment groups. Task groups, as the term denotes,
are established to accomplish a task, produce a
product, or carry out a mandate. Social workers in
task groups work with other professionals through
consultation and collaboration to facilitate client
service.
GROUPS
Task groups are generally structured within
professional, academic, political, or advocacy
parameters. Task groups are not designed to meet
the socioemotional needs of members. As such,
members are likely to organize around or be
assigned to task groups based on their skills,
expertise, or resources rather than commonality of
psychosocial experiences or shared personal issues.
GROUPS
Task groups tend to be more formal in their structure
and decorum. The focus is on goal-setting, objective
outputs, problem-solving, and decision-making
around principal tasks to which their personal growth
or well-being are secondary. Program committees,
task forces, or team training groups, are just some of
the examples of task groups.
GROUPS
Treatment groups, on the other hand, have the broad
purpose of increasing the satisfaction of its members'
socioemotional needs. See Table 8.2 for a summary
of the differences between task and treatment
groups.

ps: paki-tingin yung table na naka docs (8.2). thanks

GROUPS
Treatment groups, on the other hand, have the broad
purpose of increasing the satisfaction of its members'
socioemotional needs. See Table 8.2 for a summary
of the differences between task and treatment
groups.
GROUPS
Toseland and Rivas (as quoted in Hepworth, Larsen, and Rooney 2010,
274) provided a refined classification of treatment groups, as follows:

• Support groups assist members manage life stresses by strengthening

coping skills to more effectively adapt to future life events (e.g., persons
suffering from cancer discussing the effects of the disease and how to
cope with it).
• Educational groups basically aims to help members gain an
understanding of one’s self and their society (e.g., adolescent sexuality
groups).
GROUPS
Toseland and Rivas (as quoted in Hepworth, Larsen, and Rooney 2010,
274) provided a refined classification of treatment groups, as follows:

• Growth groups, also referred to as encounter groups, emphasize self-

development by providing members opportunities to enhance their
capacities and awareness of one’s self and make personal changes
(e.g., a group of teens who lack self-assertiveness and are suffering
from low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy). Ambrosino et al.
(2008, 136-137) underscored the importance of building “an atmosphere
that encourages trust, open expression, candid feedback, and sensitivity
to one’s own and others’ emotions” among members of growth groups.
GROUPS
Toseland and Rivas (as quoted in Hepworth, Larsen, and Rooney 2010,
274) provided a refined classification of treatment groups, as follows:

• Therapy groups help members replace maladaptive behaviors, deal

with their personal problems, or recover from social or health trauma
(e.g., drug addiction or alcohol addiction groups). Support is emphasized
in therapy groups, with focus on remediation and rehabilitation.
• Socialization groups are intended to facilitate transitions through
developmental stages, from one role or environment to another, by
improving interpersonal stationships or social skills.
Such groups usually have programmed activities and structured exercises,
such as role plays (e.g., a social club for formerly institutional ized persons)
GROUPS
Toseland and Rivas (as quoted in Hepworth et al. 2010)
underscore that in actual practice, the functions and objectives
of the different types of groups overlap.
Ambrosino et al. (2008, 136-137) cited another group type with
a different focus and membership: recreation groups.
Recreation groups aim to provide participants with
entertainment, enjoyment, and experience and allow
opportunities for shared interaction, interdependence, and social
exchange. It can also serve as constructive outlets for
individuals in a monitored environment. Examples are sports
tournaments for senior citizens.
GROUPS
Both Ambrosino et al. and Hepworth et al. also identified self-
help groups as a distinct group type that has "central shared
concerns such as coping with addiction, cancer, or obesity"
(Hepworth et al. 2010, 301). Both authors highlighted that this
group's emphasis is on mutual aid, interdependence, and on
"creating an environ- ment in which individuals may once again
take charge of their lives." Self-help groups are facilitated by
nonprofessionals who have personal experience on the issue
being addressed, such as alcoholism and drug addiction.
COMMUNITIES
Apart from individuals and groups, social workers also provide
services to commu- nities. Practitioners involved in community
social work aim to identify and address systemic issues that
cause community dysfunction.This entails studying power and
social structures that govern interactions within a community.
Services geared toward communities usually involve community
organization. Caragay (2014) defined community organization
as the collective process of working together toward the solution
of community problems, the attainment of its goals should lead
to peoples empowerment and a community that is controlled
and managed by the people.
COMMUNITIES
Community operation is at the heart of social work community
practice. For social work community efforts to succeed, there is
a need for representation and action from groups within the
community. This approach lies at the belief that people working
together have a greater capacity of improving their lives. To
facilitate cooperation within members of the community, social
workers help develop community awareness, identify and
develop potential leaders, create strategic alliances, and build
commu nity capacity for sustainable community development.
Examples of community-based social work projects are coastal
resource management initiatives and rehabilitation programs for
disabled persons.
COMMUNITIES
Rothman proposed three models of working with the community:
social action, locality development, and social planning.
Caragay (2014), quoting Rothman, provided a description of the
said models.
• Locality development or community development is a
process designed to create conditions of economic and
social progress for the whole community with its active
participation and the fullest possible reliance on the
community's initiative. It emphasizes democratic procedures,
voluntary cooperation, self-help, develop ment of indigenous
leadership and educational objectives
COMMUNITIES
• Social action presupposes a disadvantaged segment
of the population that needs to be organized, perhaps
in alliance with others, to make adequate demands on
the larger community for increased resources or
treatment more in accordance with social justice or
democracy; aims at making basic changes in major
institutions and community practices. It seeks
redistribution of power, resources, or decision-making
in the community and/or changing basic policies of
formal organizations.
COMMUNITIES
• Social planning emphasizes a technical process
of problem-solving with regard to substantive
social problems. Rational, deliberately planned,
and controlled changes are central. It includes the
ability to manipulate large bureaucratic
organizations. It is concerned with establishing,
arranging, and delivering goods and service to
people who need them.

PS: paki-tingin yung table na naka docs (8.3) thanks

COMMUNITIES
Social work practitioners in communities also take part
in government-initiated programs or that of civil society
organizations' programs and services. An example of a
government-initiated program in which social workers
are involved is the Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-
Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social
Services (KALAHI-CIDSS), which is a poverty alleviation
program of the National Govern- ment implemented by
the Department of Social Welfare and Development
(DSWD).
COMMUNITIES
Community needs addressed by social workers are
mainly on health, welfare, and livelihood. Social workers
also help in improving local economies and in bridging
individuals, groups, and organizations with institutions,
systems, and processes. They also advocate reforms to
address policies and other factors that perpetuate
marginalization and victimization of community
members.
 SUMMARY
• Clientele and audiences of social work can be individuals, groups, or
communities. These client groups are vulnerable sectors that are commonly
poor, depressed, disadvantaged, oppressed, exploited, marginalized, and
discriminated by virtue of age, status, race, gender, class, and ethnicity. Client
empowerment is the ultimate goal of social workers working with such
vulnerable sectors

• Social workers often work with two categories of groups: task groups and
treatment groups. These groups can be contrasted in terms of communication,
roles, procedures, and evaluation process. Task groups are established to
accomplish a task, produce a product, or carry out a mandate. Social workers
in task groups work with other professionals through consultation and
collaboration to facilitate client service. Treatment groups are classified into
support, educational, therapy, encounter or growth, and socialization groups.
 SUMMARY
• In working with communities, social workers can use
either locality development, social planning and social
action. Each of these models are different in terms of goals
for organizing communities how they view communities
and power structure; strategies in bringing about change,
tactics and techniques; and the role of the communities
and community workers.
THANK YOU SO MUCH