Vision
Social workers contribute to a just society by being compassionate and caring individuals that provide the kind of support and assistance that people need in times of need. They work with children, families, and adults to get them help in terms of food, shelter, get them into training programs, and even refer them to services to help with employment (Coady & Lehmann, 2016). They are the first lines of assistance when people are coming out of some emergency or tragedy. I myself, am most interested in becoming a Child, Family and School Social Worker. I feel like I would be able to help children and families deal with their hardships and be able to enable a positive growth in them. I feel I will be able to assist in the various problems and situations that can arise in life.
Being from the Karen ethnic group and my family dealing with the conflict in Burma, I had issues with self-identity, finding stability, and feeling okay in my own skin. It was a hard transition learning new experiences and coming to a new place. But these experiences have helped me to deal with the situation that the Karen community has faced and I feel as though these kinds of ordeals are best handled when someone can guide you that has experienced it. I can be that guide for children and families and work with them and schools to ensure children receive a quality education and gain the knowledge they need to move past their suffering.
So many young people in this world suffer needlessly and they don’t have or know where to get the resources needed to improve. These resources can be invaluable and sometimes it just takes one person to help someone see what they are capable of and what they can do. I feel I can be that kind of person. Part of my strengths is I love the idea of working with children and families. I feel the most change can be made in a child’s life because they are still at an age where they believe anything is possible. Without that feeling, it is often hard to break bad habits and so forth. To have someone there that understands and knows what it is like to struggle, I can be able to show them they can triumph and have a successful and fulfilling life.
The kinds of skills and knowledge needed to be a social worker especially in the Karen community is speaking their language of which I can. Although there are subsets of languages, I can communicate with most in the community. Second, I have the understanding of the political situation in Burma so I know what kind of help they are going to need. Third, I had experience working as a midwife in a refugee camp so I understand the need for medical assistance and sexual/reproductive health. These are things that can help me in the process of learning and self-reflecting.
Working with families involves a certain amount of understanding of theory and to use a theory like Bowens Family Systems Theory to understand the needs of families is a great way for me to develop professionally. Working with families, it is important to understand that the family is a unit, a whole and that the actions of one member could have negative consequences for the other. Children in particular do not have power over their lives and so working with parents and helping them understand their impact on their child’s life would be extremely rewarding for me.
Coming from the Karen ethnicity, I understand extended family can have a significant influence on a child’s life. I would try to assess the situation in the child’s home and see if there are ways to either incorporate or remove influence from extended family. Lastly, I feel like there are so many ways to enrich a child’s life and I enjoy the idea of working in a collaborative effort with families to ensure positive, healthy outcomes. Therefore, I want to be a school social worker.
Generalist Social Work Practice
Generalist social work practice entails looking at things from a holistic perspective and recognizing the right of the client to choose what he or she may need in terms of assistance and resources. There are so many things that are required in terms of understanding the needs of the client from cultural and social awareness to understanding of that person’s environment. One article highlights the need to learn certain key aspects of social work through group work to provide a foundation of understanding other people’s differences and similarities and how these can be used to...
References
Birkenmaier, J., Berg-Weger, M., & Dewees, M. (2017). The practice of generalist social work. New York: Routledge.
Burton, J. (2015). Practice Learning in Social Work.
Coady, N., & Lehmann, P. (2016). Theoretical Perspectives for Direct Social Work Practice(3rd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
Kam, P. K. (2012). Back to the ‘social’ of social work: Reviving the social work profession’s contribution to the promotion of social justice. International Social Work, 57(6), 723-740. doi:10.1177/0020872812447118
Knight, C. (2013). Teaching Group Work in the BSW Generalist Social Work Curriculum: Core Content. Social Work with Groups, 37(1), 23-35. doi:10.1080/01609513.2013.816918
Low, S., Tun, K. T., Mhote, N. P., Htoo, S. N., Maung, C., Kyaw, S. W., … Pocock, N. S. (2014). Human resources for health: task shifting to promote basic health service delivery among internally displaced people in ethnic health program service areas in eastern Burma/Myanmar. Global Health Action, 7(1), 24937. doi:10.3402/gha.v7.24937
Mattison, D., Weaver, A., Zebrack, B., Fischer, D., & Dubin, L. (2017). Educating Social Workers for Practice in Integrated Health Care: A Model Implemented in a Graduate Social Work Program. Journal of Social Work Education, 53(1), S-72-S86.
Shannon, P. J., Vinson, G. A., Wieling, E., Cook, T., & Letts, J. (2015). Torture, War Trauma, and Mental Health Symptoms of Newly Arrived Karen Refugees. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 20(6), 577-590. doi:10.1080/15325024.2014.965971
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