THE SOCIAL WORKER - PART 8

There are times when the social worker can feel 'all at sea', but not always with the confidence of having a protective and supportive employer's boat under their feel.

The practice challenge for the social worker, is that of how does he/she combines and applies the theoretical framework which they have acquired during their training, to the practical problems which are affecting the families and individuals they are seeking to empower. so that they are better able to improve how they carry out their various roles and responsibilities? Whether it be that of parenting their children, establishing and maintaining healthy relationships with others, including partners, parents, and children who might be displaying difficult to manage behaviours.  Or to maintain their own emotional stability and live viable lives.

In short, the social worker’s raison detre' is no other than that of enabling the solution of the problems which other people are experiencing in their daily lives.  Which can be just as, if not more challenging than those of the neediest of his/her clients or service users.




In order to be an effective social worker, he/she needs to have certain basis requirements. These, as I have probably mentioned earlier, will include the following:

• The ability to empathise with the people they are endeavouring to help, which is not to say they have to overlook or marginalise their failings, especially when they can place vulnerable children at increased risk of significant harm,

• The ability to engage their clients, service users and others to elicit relevant information about the problems affecting them and resulting in the problem they are experiencing.

• The ability to carry out good quality assessments of the service user, using relevant tools and assessment framework formats.

• Relevant knowledge and skills to analyse the information they have gathered, understand the problems affecting the service user or client, form the appropriate conclusions about their likely causes and probably solutions, and use it to inform appropriate action plans for resolving it.

• The ability to engage the service-users, their families and other relevant parties into working cooperatively to achieve agreed objectives to resolve the identified problems affecting the service-user.

• The ability to motivate the service user to become self-motivated, if the latter is lacking, towards making the changes which are required to effect the desired changes in their problem-system.

• Good application to making relevant and statutory case recording.

• Good discipline in systematically carrying out your social work duties and responsibilities.

Thinking ahead without quite knowing what could be around the corner.

Previously, I have mentioned the difficulty that social workers can experience in sticking to the plans which they have made regarding managing their cases. Difficult as this challenge can be, at times, what is probably worse than not being able to consistently implement your case work plan, is not to have any plan at all. 

 Just as how a child needs to know what is required of him/her, and to have routines in their lives in order to feel secure and psychologically safe, so does a social worker needs clarity of purpose, the ability to stay focus, and be able to see the trees for the woods.  In order to avoid becoming submerged by the demands on him/her; which can result in acute depression, with the worker’s performance becoming acutely and then chronically dysfunctional, with all that could mean for the safety of their clients, themselves and their employers.

The social worker needs to be alert and vigilant, but also staying calm and focused on achieving his/her planned goals or objectives.