Social Work:

Method & Tools in Social Work

What is Social Work?
— A helping profession that fundamentally and radically aims to assist individuals, groups, and
communities in coping with their complex socio-economic and psychological problems by
enabling themselves to solve their problems by helping themselves.
— A profession which help the individuals to help themselves.
Primary Methods:
 Social Case Work – a method employed by a social worker to help individuals and to find a solution of
their problem of social adjustment which they can enable to handle in a satisfactory way by their own
efforts.
 Elements of Social Case Work – also known as the 5P Theory.
 Person / Problematic Client – any individual is not a person in social casework practice. A
person is a man, woman, child or anyone with social-psychological and economic problems
who finds or needs some help and assistance in his social living. This person is known as a
client. When a person fails or cannot cope with his problems through his own effort and seeks,
social workers' help is considered a client.
 Problem / Psycho-social Issue – a situation that arises from a man's surrounding obstacle and
has attacked the adequacy of his efforts to work effectively. According to Hussain & Alauddin –
"Problem in social casework means a stressful situation which has threatened or disturbed the
normal functioning of the client" problem may be of two conditions. Such as:
 Intra-personal Problem: a situation that affects only one man, and the impact of the
situation is being felt by only one particular person.
 Inter-personal Problem: a situation that affects two or more individuals or a group
 Place / Social Work Agency – refers to the agency through which the professional caseworker
helps the client's social functioning. "A social caseworker agency is an organised institution
which renders services materials or non- materials for the solution of their problems." The
agency is formed into two:
 Public agency: refers to agencies run by the state help.
 Private agency: refers to agencies run by voluntary contribution and aid from the
state.
 Professional Representative / Social Case Work – a caseworker should be skilful in
establishing relationships with the clients and finding out the client's problems and solutions.
"By social caseworker is meant a professional person employed by a social agency who
possess knowledge, skills & techniques of social casework. The social caseworker has the
obligation towards:
→ his profession
→ his agency
→ his client
→ his own self
The caseworker's designation varies with the workplace, such as medical caseworkers,
psychiatric caseworkers etc.
 Process / Problem-Solving Process – refers to a series of steps taken to help the clients solve
the problems. In Problem solving process, there are five phases:
 Psycho-social study
 Diagnosis
 Treatment plan
 Evaluation
  Follow-up
 Social Group Work - According to Reid (1997) the purpose of group work is to help improve the well-being
of the members and relieve personal suffering. This is accomplished because groups have the ‘power to
enhance problem-solving capacity, prevent the development of serious social problems, and restore and
maintain the social functioning of members’. Group work is used in all settings of social work.
 Stages of Social Group Work: Tuckman’s 5 Stages of Group Development
 Stage 1: Forming – the process of putting the structure of the team together.
 Stage 2: Storming - begins to occur as the process of organizing tasks and processes surface
interpersonal conflicts. Leadership, power, and structural issues dominate this stage.
 Stage 3: Norming – team members are creating new ways of doing and being together. As the
group develops cohesion, leadership changes from ‘one’ teammate in charge to shared
leadership. Team members learn they have to trust one another for shared leadership to be
effective.
 Stage 4: Performing – True interdependence is the norm of this stage of group development.
The team is flexible as individuals adapt to meet the needs of other team members. This is a
highly productive stage both personally and professionally.
 Stage 5: Adjourning – termination of task behaviours and disengagement from relationships.
 Community Organization - a process through which efforts are directed towards meeting the community's
needs by organising the human and material resources of the community.
Secondary Methods:
 Social Action – organized group process solving general social problems & furthering social welfare
objectives through legislative, social, health or economic progress.
 Objectives of Social Action:
 Reduction of Discrimination – There are diverse forms of social discrimination such as Gender
discrimination, Economic discrimination, Cultural Discrimination, Social discrimination and
Class diversity; this is why various types of Psycho-social problems (Social mal-adjustment,
disparity, frustration) occur and to remove all these problems is needed social action.
 Emancipation of Deprived Downtrodden - Who are deprived or oppressed? They mostly fail
to social functioning and to various types of social inequality, injustice and discrimination. So
to emancipate them from exploitation, oppression, and repression, Social action is needed.
 Building awareness among mass people
 Building the field of Social Policies for the betterment and change in adjusting social policies
 Building social change from the unexpected situations
 Form new laws and change unusual existing changes
 Rising public opinion against harmful customs, rules and institutions
 Solving social problems
 Social and Economic Development
 Skills Involved in Social Action:
 Social Welfare Administration - is a process through which social work services both private and public, are
organised and administered.