Bicol University
College of Education
Integrated Laboratory High School
Disciplines and Ideas in the Applied Social Sciences
MODULE 7: Professionals and Practitioners in Social Work
What is this lesson about?
Professional social work practice is distinctive from other helping professions in its approach of assisting
clients to function optimally within their environments. The person-in-environment approach is central to social
work practice. Through this perspective, professional social workers are uniquely trained to help clients maximize
the opportunity for change in themselves and/or their situations. The term client encompasses individuals,
families, groups, organizations, and communities.
Social work is distinctive also for its professional values and ethics, appreciation for human diversity,
emphasis on social and economic justice, understanding of social welfare policy and services, and strong
foundation in field education.
Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:
• Show an understanding of the roles and functions of social workers;
• Identify specific work areas in which social workers work;
• Identify career opportunities for social workers;
• Value rights, responsibilities, and accountabilities; and
• Distinguish between ethical and unethical behaviors among practitioners.
Let’s Try This!
WHAT I KNOW
WHAT I KNOW
Instruction: Mark a check ( / ) if the statement corresponds to whether T (True) or F (False). T F
1. Social work has the dual aims of helping individuals fit better into their environments, typically
known as micro practice, and changing the environment so that it works better for individuals as
the macropractice.
2. A social worker is someone who should be registered and licensed by a legitimate state and
has specialized training to be one.
3. One of the roles of a social worker is to assess people’s needs, strengths and wishes, working
with individuals and families and organizations.
4. A social worker can have several roles.
5. A social worker cannot be a counsellor.
6. Social work does not aim to change the environment, just people.
7. Social workers cannot be educators.
8. One of the skills of a social worker is critical thinking.
9. A social worker should be able to facilitate mediation among parties especially if one party is
socially disadvantaged.
10. A social worker needs to be able to resolve conflict.
Let’s Read
Defining Roles, Functions and Competencies of Social Work
Being a social worker is often a challenging, yet rewarding career. Social workers are responsible for
helping individuals, families, and groups of people to cope with problems they’re facing to improve their patients’
lives. One aspect of this is teaching skills and developing mechanisms for patients to rely on to better their lives
and experiences. We must not put our own problems in our work, it may affect our work so we should separate
our own problems in term of works. And sometimes we need to put ourselves in their situations so we can
understand what they feel.
Areas of specializations of Social Work
Professional social work requires full professional training with college degree and in a number of cases,
requires a person to have master’s or doctor’s degree in social work. Social work specialization covers five major
fields:
1. Family and child welfare.
This includes services to families in situations that seriously disrupt family life such as physical or mental illness,
unemployment, divorce, in aid of improving client’s family life. In child welfare programs or services such as
adoption, daycare, foster child care, and care for children with disabilities and aiding physically or emotionally
abused children and their families.
2. Health.
Social workers help patients and their families in clinics, hospitals, and other health-care facilities. They provide
physicians information about the social and economic background of patients; help patients and their families
deal with the impact of illness and death and counsel patients who have been discharged to help them return to
everyday life; provide counseling in maternal and child care; the care for dying patients and victims of certain
diseases like HIV or cancer.
3. Mental health.
Social workers provide aid to people suffering from mental and emotional stress and many other services similar
to the ones offered by medical social workers. Many have training in psychotherapy, the treatment of mental or
emotional disorders using psychological methods.
4. Corrections.
Social workers in corrections are involved with programs concerned with the prevention of crime and the
rehabilitation of criminals and provide counsel to people who are on probation or parole.
5. Schools.
Social work in school is part of the program on all levels, from preschool through college. It includes services to
students in special schools for individuals with emotional disturbances or physical disabilities. Social workers in
schools provide vocational counseling, school adjustment counseling, and help with behavioral management
and personal problems. They also assist students who have learning difficulties and help them work to their
potential.
Career Opportunities of Social Work
✓ Many social workers provide clinical and case management services directly to individuals, couple, families,
and groups.
✓ They provide clinical services, such as therapy or counseling, and connect people to resources in the
community to help them overcome challenges.
✓ Some social workers do not work directly with individual clients, Instead, they work in community
organizations, government, and advocacy groups to alleviate poverty and social injustice on a big-picture
level and these social work careers include legislative advocacy, policy analysis, and community organizing
to break down barriers and drive reform.
✓ Many social worker’s career include both individual client-centered work and big picture work, whether
professionals choose a career as a school social worker, child social worker, medical social worker, or
another social work path.
Rights, Responsibilities and Accountabilities of Social Work
By definition, social work is jointly presented buy the International Federation Association of School of
Social Work (IASSW): “The social work profession facilitates social change and development, social cohesion,
and empowerment and liberation of people. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility
and respect for diversities are central to social work. Underpinned by theories of social work, social sciences,
humanities and indigenous knowledge, social engages people and structures to address life challenges and
enhance well-being (March 2013).”
Code of Ethics of Social Work
The National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics is a set of values, principles and standards
for social workers to adhere to and reference in order to guide decision making and conduct, because ethical
decision making arises frequently in social work. Any given situation can have nuances and idiosyncrasies that
bring a social worker from black and white to the grayest of areas. Ideally, a social worker can apply this set of
ethics to a situation in order to make an informed and appropriate decision or judgment, if the primary goal of a
social worker is to help people improve the quality of their lives and meet their basic human needs, then a social
worker’s essential task is personal, social, political, economic and more.
Social workers are advocates for social justice and change, working on behalf of their clients to improve
the environmental forces that create, contribute to and address quality of life and the National Association of
Social Workers (NASW) defines the mission of the Code of Ethics as being rooted in a set of core values. The
core values are: service, social justice dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships,
integrity, and competence. The NASW uses the core values to build a balance that responds to and aims to
improve on the complexity of the human experience. The code is divided into different sections that outline the
specific responsibilities of a social worker and this includes social workers’ ethical responsibilities: to clients, to
colleagues, in practice settings, as professionals, to the social work profession and to the broader society. It’s
important for social workers to have the Code of Ethics because the nature of social work can be very personal
and directly plants social workers into the lives of their clients and at the heart of social work is the idea of
responsibility, social workers help their clients to take responsibility for their own lives and respond to or get out
of bad situations.
Though the NASW’s Code of Ethics doesn’t guarantee ethical behavior from social workers, it does
provide a set of guidelines and language that other social workers, employers, organizations and agencies can
use in order to judge a social worker’s behavior or response to a situation. In this way, the Code of Ethics can
be used in a peer-review process. The Code of Ethics is used by social workers as a landmark and touchstone
of ethical practice. Social workers’ commitment to the code ideally results in upholding it and performing their
duties according to the core values. Most of the standards explained by the NASW are enforceable guidelines
for professional conduct. However, some are aspirational and can be interpreted in different ways based on any
number of influences. It’s important to have guidelines spelled out and agreed upon by the social work profession
so that every individual social worker can behave and react accordingly.
Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Worker
Service Social worker’s primary goal is to help people in need and to address social
problems.
Social Justice Social workers challenge social injustice.
Dignity and worth of the Social Workers respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person.
Person
Importance of Human Social workers recognize the central importance of human relationships.
Relationships
Integrity Social workers behave in a trustworthy manner.
Competence Social workers practice within their areas of competence and develop and
enhance their professional expertise.
Let’s Try This!
ACTIVITY 1 | Direction: Provide answers to what is asked below.
1. In your own words, what are the important roles and function of a social worker? Cite and explain at
least two.
2. Identify the specific work areas in which social workers work. In what field would you like to work as a
social worker?
3. List down three (3) ethical and unethical practice or behaviors of a social worker.
Ethical behaviors Unethical behaviors
4. If you were to be a future social worker, how would you exhibit or embody the ethical standards of your
profession? Provide concrete or specific examples.
