Principles of Social Work

• Principles are statements of dos and don'ts to

get best results while practicing social work.
• They are the guide- posts for the professional
to carry out the work in the field.
1. Acceptance:
• The client and the social work professional
should both accept each other for getting
the best results.
• The client should accept the worker because
the worker is the one who is helping the
client to overcome his problem situation.
• Any doubt about the competence of the social worker by the client
results in serious complications in the helping process.
• Similarly the worker should also accept the client as a person with a
problem who has come to him for help.
• Irrespective of the appearance and background of the client the worker
should accept the client as he is, without any reservations.
• Sometimes the personal experiences of the worker may come in the way
of accepting the client.
“ For example, a worker who was abused by his alcoholic father during his
childhood may find it difficult to accept an alcoholic client who has come
for help in restoring his family relationships.
In this case the social worker should not be influenced his childhood
experience of being abused by his alcoholic father whom he hated and
rejected or show hostility or indifference towards the client.
Mutual acceptance is the beginning of the process of establishing a strong
professional relationship towards working out a solution to the client's
social disfunctioning.
Principle of Individualisation:
• This principle reminds the social worker that
while dealing with the client it is to be kept in
mind that the worker is not dealing with an
inanimate object or inferior being
• Further, the social worker should always
consider that each client is unique and distinct
from other clients having a similar problem as
each person responds and reacts to the same
stimuli differently and gets into or get out of
different problem situation in different ways.
3. Principle of Communication:
• In social work, the communication between the social
worker and the client is of paramount importance.
• The communication could be verbal, that is oral or
written, or non-verbal where gestures, signs or actions
are used to send the message.
• Most of the problems concerning human relations arise
due to faulty communication.
• In communication a message is sent by the sender and
received by the receiver. A true communication takes
place when the meanings of the terms and other
symbols the sender and the receiver use and act upon
are shared and have the same meanings
• The social worker should have enough skills to grasp the
verbal and nonverbal communication of the client.
• Therefore the worker should make all the efforts to see
that the communication between him and the client is
proper.
• The client should be made to feel comfortable and at
ease to express his thoughts, feelings and facts.
• Further he should be assured that the worker
understands correctly what he wants to convey. For
this, techniques such as clarifications and
reclarifications, elaborating what the client has said,
questioning and reframing of what the client has said,
can be effectively used.
• Other barriers to the smooth flow of messages, such as distance,
noise, temperament, attitudes, past experiences, mental
capacity to comprehend and so on.
• The client should be made to feel comfortable and at ease to
express his thoughts, feelings and facts
• Further he should be assured that the worker understands
correctly what he wants to convey.
• For this, techniques such as clarifications and elaborating what
the client has said, questioning and reframing of what the client
has said, can be effectively used.
• Similarly the worker has to make sure that the client understands
correctly what he is conveying to him. For this the worker may
ask the client to repeat what he is saying. In this way,
miscommunication between the worker and client can be reduced
and make sure that the worker client relationship is well
established and strengthened.
4. Principle of Confidentiality:
• This principle provides a strong base for effective use of social work
intervention.
• It helps in building a strong worker client relationship.
In social work it is most important to provide information to the worker. This
ranges from simple factual information to what may be very confidential. A
person may not be willing to share certain information about his personal
details with anyone unless the person with whom it is shared is
trustworthy.
• He must have confidence that workers will not misuse it to cause
discomfort, or to ridicule or to cause damage to his reputation.
• In social work unless the client provides all the information that is
necessary for the worker, it is not possible to help the client. For this to
happen the client should have absolute faith in the worker that the
information passed on to the worker will be kept confidential and will be
used only for assessing and working out possible solutions to the client's
problem.
To follow this principle the worker faces certain dilemmas.
• Firstly, should the confidential information be shared with other agency personnel
who are associated with the case and fellow professional social workers who too
can assist the worker in resolving the problem of the client.
• Secondly, what should he do about some information concerning the criminal
activities of the client, wherein as a responsible citizen he may be required to
pass it on to the investigation agencies whenever he is asked?
• In the case of the former the social worker may share the information in the
best interest of the client.
• But in the case of the later, it is really tough for the social worker to withhold
information as it has been received under the promise of keeping it confidential.
In such circumstances, the decision is to be left to the client whether to disclose it
to the social worker or not. And the social worker shall make it clear to the client
that he cannot give any guarantee of non-disclosure to the concerned authorities.
Where legal requirements compel ordinary citizens to make disclosure of
information received by him.
• Information that is needed should only be gathered from the client. Prior consent
of the client is to be taken before sharing the information with even those who
are concerned about the client.
5. Principle of Self-determination:
• This principle emphasizes the client's right to self-determination.
• Every individual has the right to assess what is good for him and
decide the ways and means to realize it.
• In other words, it points out that the social worker should not
impose decisions or solutions on the client simply because , the
client has come to him for help.
• No doubt, the client has come to social worker because he could
not solve the problem by himself. The social worker should
support and guide the client to develop insights into his social
situation in the correct perspective and encourage and involve him
to take decisions that are /is good and acceptable to him.
In this way the client is helped not only to realise his potentialities
but also to feel independent and like a person with worth and
dignity.
6. Principle of Non-judgmental Attitude:
The principle of non-judgmental attitude . presumes that the social
worker should begin the professional relationship without any bias.
That is, he should not form opinions about the client, good or bad,
worthy or unworthy.
He has to treat the client as somebody who has come to him for help
and he should be willing to help the client without being influenced
by the opinions of others about the client or his situation.
This enables the worker to build the professional relationship on a
sound footing as both the worker and the client feel free to their
understanding of each other.
However it is to be noted that a non-judgmental attitude does not
mean not making professional judgments about the problem
situation and the various options being considered in order to
tackle the problem
7. Principle of Controlled Emotional Involvement:
The principle of controlled emotional involvement guards social worker from either
getting too personally involved in the client's predicament or being too objective.
• In the case of the former the worker may over-identify with the client because he
finds a lot of similarities between the problem situation of the client and his life
situations or with the personality of the client.
• This may interfere with the professional relationship and judgments about the
client's problem.
• The worker may start sympathizing with over indulging in the client's life and this
may interfere with the client's right to self-determination and independence.
• In the case of the latter, by being too objective and detached the client may feel
that worker is not interested in him and his predicament.
• This may inhibit the client from coming out with all the confidential information.
• The feelings of worthlessness and helplessness may be reinforced in the client.
• All this may result in a premature end to the professional relationship.
• Therefore the social worker should maintain a reasonable emotional distance
even while sympathizing with the client. He should indicate the understanding of
the predicament of the client without showing pity or appearing to be indifferent.
8. Principle of relationship (Rapport)
• Relationship is a medium to help anyone.
• Relationship has to be positive to be effective
9. Principle of resource utilization:
• All the personal resources and resources
available within the community, agency and
with the relatives of the client should be
utilized.
10.