Social work is an interdisciplinary field that entails several roles and functions that help the practitioner solve those problems that affect individual, their families, and society. The functions of consultancy, resource management, and the broad nature of generalist functions reflect flexiblity and broad areas of social work practice that empower the social worker as an agent of change.
Kirst-Ashman (2017) focuses on critical thinking in the profession of social work and the need for social workers to think critically about various roles, on the one hand, while Zastrow (2013) considers the comprehensive nature of social work practice to address a wide range of clients’ needs at a given time.
Roles of Social Work
The roles of consultancy, resource management, and integration of generalist functions will be explored in this article about these frameworks and the purpose of social work.
Consultancy in Social Work
Consultancy in social work entails a social work professional as a consultant who comes with specialized knowledge and helps solve problems as they advise individuals, families, communities, or organizations. As Kirst-Ashman (2017) pointed out, critical thinking is important. It will help a social worker analyze clients’ situations, understand what circumstances hinder their well-being, and determine the necessary solution.
Along with direct facilitation of clients, this consultancy position also involves working with other people, including educators, health care specialists, and other community members. As consultants, social workers unite to design an intervention to enable people to regain their capacity and enhance their social support. Indeed, consultancy is a common practice among social workers since they are accustomed to giving expert advice in different capacities.
Generalist Intervention Model
Kirst-Ashman uses certain problem-solving models, including the Generalist Intervention Model, to assess the client’s issues and to identify appropriate strategies, as Zastrow (2013) mentioned. For example, in a school setting, a social worker may discuss with teachers and the head of the school a particular student’s problematic behaviors to discuss appropriate ways of managing the behavior and to provide a referral to outside services, including counseling for the family.
This is a type of problem-solving consultancy evaluation, where the social workers also need to assess the needs of their clients beyond their first-degree needs, be it a family structure, education systems, or healthcare systems, among other relevant circles. Also, social workers actively engage in advocacy as one of the consultancy services.
This results in the fact that through fighting for their clients, they help them access various necessary services such as legal services, shelter, or medical services. As Zastrow noted, the other reason is advocacy because social workers are mostly called upon to fight for clients’ rights and ensure that social systems meet the requirements and other needs of the clients.
Resource Management
Resource management is one of the significant tasks in social work practice because people require tangible, emotional, and social resources to address clients’ needs. As Kirst-Ashman (2017) explains, critical thinking is part of resource management. The social worker must determine what resources are available, whether they are appropriate, and if the client is right for the resource. Resource management entails not only the recognition of resources but also scheduling the resources in ways that can help the clients.
Sharing of Resources
Zastrow (2013) defines resource management as sharing resources by connecting clients with services. This means that social workers’ clients are provided access to healthcare services, housing, financial support services, and mental health services. For instance, in a case of poverty, more often within a family, the social worker may be in a position to mobilize resources from private entities, government agencies such as the Department of Social Services, and employment agencies, among other organizations.
As Zastrow (2013) pointed out, the other key factors involves a social worker’s ability to work with other agencies and organizations. Social networking is also important in this function because many social workers work in a team with other healthcare providers to ensure that the clients are given the right attention.
Interdisciplinary fosters teamwork throughout the health and education sectors; this is particularly important because most clients will present with complex issues. Further, there is advocacy regarding the management of resources, as Kirst-Ashman (2017) observes.
On behalf of such population groups, social workers actively seek resources as they fight for the right of these groups not to be discriminated against for access to services. This function entails social workers being informed of the existing resources that may be helpful and the limitations that may hinder the clients from accessing the resources, for instance, policy restrictions, economic restraints, or discrimination.
Integration of Generalist Functions
Generalist practice entails combining several roles and tasks, such as consultancy and management of resources, to ensure different approaches are taken toward problems.
Micro, Mezzo, and Macro Practice
In the generalist model, social workers use micro, mezzo, and macro practice, meaning practice at the individual, group, and community levels. Zastrow (2013) has also noted that as specialists in specific areas of practice, generalist social workers are expected to be able to operate at all these levels in as much as the context and the needs of clients require. For example, suppose a social worker is working with a homeless man.
In that case, he will be involved in a micro-level intervention like counseling the man, and at the mezzo level, he will be involved in lobbying for changes in the housing policies. On a macro-level, they could demand change in whole sets of circumstances, such as better training and urban services for the needy or anti-homeless social rules and systems. This ability to accommodate generalist functions ensures that social work ventures are client-centered and rooted within the general system, handling diverse social problems comprehensively.
Divisions of Social Work Functions
The function of social work means the innate activity of social work or the declaration of the approach to be taken when conducting social work. There are four major categories of social work functions:
Curative Functions
The services offered under curative functions include medical and health services, psychiatric services, child guidance services, child welfare services, and services for the disabled in the form of protection and rehabilitation. Such services seek to treat the bodily, relational, tangible, and mental ailments of people in society.
Correctional Functions
Correctional social work function has three broad contexts; these are:
- Individual Services: Correctional reform services include prison reform, parole, other related services, and probation.
- Services Facilitating Social Relationships: Family welfare services, school social work, industrial social work, etc.
- Social Welfare Services: These cover services such as finding employment, stopping prostitution, combating beggary and woman uplift services, etc.
Preventive Functions
This comprehends life assurance services, public welfare, social reform, literacy and disease control amongst adults, etc. In its basic sense, this type of function is all about the services preventing issues such as insecurity, unlawfulness, ignorance, sickness, etc. It aims to remove such factors in the social context or defects in personality development that make the person unworthy of attaining a minimum desirable level of social and economic existence.
Developmental Function
Developmental function encompasses socio-economic development activities like education, recreational services, urban and rural development, programs of integration, etc., i.e., functions that mainly do with the development of individuals, families, groups, and communities.
Basic Functions of the Social Work
The basic functions of social work can be categorized into three broad areas of need, which are interdependent and interactive nowadays.
Restoration of Social Functioning
The practice of impaired social functioning is the social work profession’s oldest and most known function. It is further divided into curative and rehabilitative functions. The curative aspects are to remove any conditions that compelled the breakdown of the social functioning of individuals, groups, or communities, and the role of the rehabilitative aspects is to identify and reconstruct social communications in society. As pointed out earlier, social workers attempt to enter the client’s milieu in any way at the point of contact.
Thus, the environmental factors that may limit a person’s functioning may be social, economic, political, or cultural. This function focuses on change at the psycho-social level of individuals and groups and changes in the attitude of the recipients of the services. Thus, if a person becomes dysfunctional because of any of the factors mentioned above of the vicinity, the initial goal will be to bring the person back to the norm. The second process will evaluate the loss, and plans and actions will be worked out to reintroduce the person into society and make him a useful member again.
Provision of Resources
Resources are further categorized into developmental and educational areas. The developmental aspects are intended to optimize existing social, human, or material resources or achieve full personal potential for increased social contacts. The educational functions are planned to disclose to the public certain needs for new or changed educational resources and modes of action.
Prevention of Social Dysfunction
The prevention of social dysfunction is a process of prevention of conditions and situations that may hinder the effectiveness of this social function. Its main two divisions are the preventing problems concerning individuals and groups in human interaction and the preventing social evils. While it is one of the most critical functions of social work, it is the most overlooked in most circumstances. Social work has generally focused only on curative and rehabilitative tasks and relied on the problem-solving paradigm.
But considering the dynamics concerning the current social setup, it is probably high time that the bulk of social work shifted to preventive measures. The profession should guarantee that there are no problems to solve, which should result from practice, and none should be solved, which should have occurred at the start. In the performance of this function, the task of the social workers is to raise consciousness, create capacities, and mobilize people so that they can prevent social disorders themselves.
References
- Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2017). Introduction to social work and social welfare: critical thinking perspectives. Boston: Cengage learning.
- Zastrow, C.H. (2013). The practice of social work: a comprehensive work text. Belmont: Cengage learning.
