Social Workers

Social and welfare work implies helping people tackle the problems they face in their daily lives. These problems could relate to mental or physical handicaps old age problems, mental disharmony conflicts with law, unemployment, destitution etc.

As new problems are generated in the complex urban lifestyles the need for social and welfare workers has increased. These workers attempt to alleviate and prevent social problems or suffering caused by illness, poverty, maladjustment, crisis in family or at work, antisocial behaviour, constricted lifestyle etc. In India this is an emerging profession, multinational influences, complexities of every day life, neo nuclear families have generated complex day to day problems. The growing incidence of handicaps both physical and mental and psychological stress, delinquency all call for persons who can work on the front line to alleviate and relieve tensions and sufferings.

The study of social work is a broad one. It encompasses subjects such as sociology, psychology, human growth and development , marriage and family, economics, education, biology, criminology etc. Social work then is a practical application of this knowledge to such problems as mentioned earlier.

There’s much more to social work than charity. It’s another exciting field which is showing signs of steady growth. Hundreds of voluntary organisations have mushroomed in the past few years and are offering a vast job market. The whole concept of social service has undergone a sea change. It is no longer a matter of charity or compassion. The growing awareness that it is a professional discipline is drawing young people to it. There are specialist social work professionals who deal with cases pertaining to AIDS, Leprosy awareness, drug abuse, care for the elderly, disability, skill development etc. More than 200 societies are registered every day , a large percentage being NGOs.

Nature of Work

Social work goes on at three major levels. These are the individual level, also known as case work, group work and community or organization work. Social workers are generally engaged in activities undertaken by agencies in any of these areas.

Working with individual client on a case involves face to face contact with the individual or family, joint meetings in the office, home visits, work in a hospital or work with children at home, school or special institutions. Group work goals are generally rehabilitative in nature or at times aim at recreation. Generally group work involves working with special groups e.g the old, handicapped, people from similar socio economic groups, workers, delinquents etc.

Community work involves analysing problems of the whole community and finding possible solutions. It may involve community education or soliciting cooperation from the whole community. Generally a social worker has to work at almost all the 3 levels. The agency or organization with which the social worker is working generally determines the nature of work.

School social work

Social workers who work with schools work with students, teachers and parents. The major role a social worker plays is to bridge the gap between the school and the home with an effort to get the best for the child. Education, counselling and advocacy are important aspects of school, social work. They educate school students for the prevention of drug and alcohol abuse, sex related problems and diseases etc. and provide family life education.

Social workers counsel students facing problems of disabilities, addiction, emotional deprivation and abuse. They manage truancy and maladjustment among children. School social workers organize community programmes for students to develop in them the qualities of helpfulness and care. Sometimes social workers make referrals to other agencies particularly to help children and parents facing critical problems.

Medical social work

Medical social workers are found in cancer hospitals and in departments where critically ill are admitted. While in the West most hospitals employ social workers, in India this concept has to catch on yet. Coming to terms with a permanent disability or restricted mobility is difficult. A social worker is trained to work with seriously ill and with bereaved families. Counselling and practical assistance is given to the patients and their family.

Psychiatric social work

There are two main work settings for psychiatric social work: child guidance clinics and psychiatric units or hospitals. In child guidance clinics a team consisting of social workers, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists work with disturbed children and adolescents.

Most of the referrals come from medical practitioners and generally include those with behavioral problems, phobia, maladjusted teenagers, withdrawal cases and children with learning problems causing them to lag behind in school work or to play truant. The social worker makes an assessment of the social factors contributing to the problem by getting involved with the whole family to offer family therapy and other kinds of intervention. In some cases they liaise with teachers, and educational psychologists.

In a psychiatric hospital, social workers meet various different client groups. Patients could be old people suffering from senile dementia or depression or those suffering from psychological problems. They help the psychiatrist assess a new re feral, work out what the problem is and what has led up to it, while doing the case sheet writing. They also continue to work as facilitators in the treatment process.

Community social work

Community social workers specialise in working with groups who have a common problem, e.g., those facing problems of bad housing, unemployment, lack of local facilities, or minority group issues within the community. Community social workers initiate or support remedial action and use their knowledge, professional contacts and the resources they can summon to help a group, tackle problems. Social workers work towards influencing social policy at times and towards resources for the underprivileged. They can work in urban and rural areas and even with international or national organizations.

Child care/family services

Child care services include day care centres and child care homes. Social workers handle situations related to children from infancy to adulthood. With families they are equipped to handle problems related to different cultures and services for children with congenital disabilities.

Gerontological social work

This branch deals with care of old people. Old peoples homes requires gerontological social workers. In the area of AIDS also care of old people is becoming a growing problem.

Criminology and correctional social work

Prisons, reformatories, remand homes, crime and delinquent prevention programmes exist in every country. Crime and delinquency needs to be prevented. Social workers are trained to work in these areas largely to create a positive social climate for prevention of antisocial behaviours.

Labour welfare and industrial relations

Social workers, today, form an integral part of the labour welfare section of personnel departments in industries and commercial organizations. In private as well as public sector enterprises employee’s welfare is a major concern for maintaining a healthy industrial climate. Social workers work with personnel managers to achieve this goal.

Research

Social workers carry on social research. Social workers in India are researching for tribal welfare, for investigating human suffering after Bhopal gas tragedy or following the Latur earthquake etc.

Social Entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship is a comparatively new concept in India. Harvard, Stanford, John F Kennedy School of Government introduced formal programmes in Social Entrepreneurship. In London ,School of Social Entrepreneurs offers an 8 week course in fund raising, marketing and accounting. In US 6 alumni of Stanford Graduate School floated a non profit organisation ‘ Start Up”

In India, the newly-established National Foundation for Innovation in Ahmedabad (under the Department of Science & Technology) is being projected as a breeding ground for the ‘unsung heroes’. The foundation rewards grass root innovators; trains them in principles of marketing; looks for commercial/ non-commercial outlets for these small projects and generally helps them move-up the value-chain.

The Ashoka Programme - Drayton, developed the ‘venture capital’ approach to social problems. He established ‘Ashoka; Innovators for the Public’, a non-profit foundation based in Arlington, VA. The foundation has backed more than 1,000 Ashoka Fellows in 34 countries, running its longest programme in India with 170 Fellows over the last two decades.

The foundation, which has support from Rockefeller Brothers Fund, MacArthur Foundation Fund MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, besides influential private donors, typically gives a three-year living stipend to the Fellow depending on his/ her needs and the local salary standards. There is no bar on age, sex, educational qualification, cultural or linguistic attributes. The stipend though small, allows Ashoka fellows to pull out of their studies/ jobs and devote themselves full-time to their projects.

The foundation also runs a support network for young people called ‘Youth Venture’ for school or community-level projects. This group puts them in touch with senior Fellows who mentor them and share their business techniques and expertise with the younger lot.

Global programmes - ‘Centre for Social Entrepreneurs’ in Sao Paulo is a joint venture between Ashoka and Mckinsey. The centre enables Mckinseyites to work pro bono with Ashoka Fellows and give them behind-the-scenes strategic advice on how to make a project viable. The Environmental Innoviations Initiative (EII) and the Innovative Learning Initiative (ILI) helps define emerging globally applicable principles in these two fields. Ashoka’s changemakers.net is the web’s only portal and e-zine on social entrepreneurship.

Social Workers - Study and Training

Employment Avenues

Study and Training

Master in Social Work is a 2 year course open to graduates. This is a professional training necessary for social workers though anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists are also found suitable for some of the work social workers do. While the course is open to all graduates candidates from sociology/social work/psychology background would get preference. The course covers social science subjects - sociology, psychology, economics, philosophy, history of social and public institutions and the administration of such institutions.

Specialisation is offered in community social work/medical & psychiatric social work/criminology and correctional administration/family and child welfare etc. The field work during the course provides opportunity to work in the area of specialisation and complete a project on the work done. A course in labour and social welfare provides opening into the labour welfare section of personnel departments.

Admission to the postgraduate course is made through a written test and interview. The test assesses mental ability and general awareness and the interview is aimed to identify candidates with genuine interest in social work.

Almost 90 per cent of the students passing the Master’s Course in Social Work find suitable employment. They work for government organisations, prisons, hospitals, social work agencies and voluntary organisations. Career opportunities exist in the specific area of specialisation. Students who specialize in criminology and correctional work find jobs in prisons, and government departments.

Specialists in medical and psychiatric social work find opportunities in clinics, hospitals, sanatorium, child guidance clinics, counselling centers, mental hospitals, medical colleges, community public health centers etc. Social workers in community development are involved in field work with community groups, government and voluntary agencies. They work with local community leaders to bring about required changes in a given community to meet its welfare needs through the process of planned change.

Future prospects

Rural development, adult literacy, preventive health, food and nutrition, women and child welfare and environment conservation programmes are high on the agenda of the government, the future for trained social workers is certainly good. In the Industrial and Corporate sectors personnel welfare is becoming a major concern of most organisations.

Social workers form an integral part of the personnel department of most large public and private sector firms. Family planning and Aids awareness campaigns of the government also involve social workers. World organisations such as the United Nations, sponsors projects to facilitate developing countries in their social welfare and other developmental programmes. Enormous amounts of funds are used for funding such projects. Social workers are an essential part of such projects.

The NGO sector has come up in a big way. Ministry of social welfare and justice gives grant to more than 2,000 NGOs in the field of social welfare . A number of top Indian conglomerates have opened up social service wings and a number of international NGOs have set up offices here. The employment opportunities, in fact, have been expanding, from environment management to health and education.

In fact there are very few sectors which can do without social work professional. number of private hospitals employ professionals to examine the psychosocial aspects of diseases such as AIDS or cancer. CARE, an international NGO, has been making campus recruitment from several places like Delhi School of Social work, Jamia Millia and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Work Environment

Social workers do not always work at a desk. The job involves meeting clients, conducting interview, conferencing with other professionals, preparing reports etc. Counselling, educating, conducting group work takes substantial time. Much of the work needs travelling to the client's home and working with the family. Advocacy involves working with employers, agencies, legislators, NGOs etc. They may even testify in court.

Personal Characteristics

Social workers must have a mature outlook. They should genuinely like people, feel a concern for their welfare and accept people as they are, respecting their hopes and aspirations and working with them to improve their social conditions and to increase their autonomy. They need plenty of patience too, as it can be a long slow process building up a relationship with some clients and one may have to circumvent barriers of class, culture, religion, race and prejudice of all sorts. There may be set-backs and disappointments on the slow progress of cases. Majority of those engaged in social work are dedicated, conscientious people who enjoy excellent relations with their clients.

Studying Law and the Social Sciences

In my University, the University of Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, an academic restructuring took place just about one year ago. One of the consequences of this restructuring was that what had previously been separate Schools of study became one single Faculty of Social Sciences.

In this Faculty, we now have what were formerly the separate Schools of Economics, Law, Sociology, Social Policy, Management and Accounting. To a degree, these areas still retain autonomy within the Faculty structure, and the integrity of these programmes of study available within the Faculty has not been affected. Students still study Law, Economics, Business Studies and such subjects as independent single honours courses. But we are also trying to ensure that modular structures allow us to exploit cognate areas within the overall framework of the social sciences.

The social sciences more generally are at the heart of the most vibrant part of the British University system. British academics in areas such as Economics, Law, and Political Science have had a very significant influence in shaping public policy, including the policies of the present and last governments. Students coming to British universities to study these subjects will often have an opportunity to experience at first hand the principles and thought processors which are informing these areas. In these programmes, students will be able to benefit both from a coherent intellectual framework and from a direct vocational application. As a result, employment for graduates is very high.

With the growth of modularisation within the British University system, we can probably expect to see greater levels of integration within related subject to see greater levels of integration within the subject areas such as the social sciences. That is very much to be welcomed, while at the same time we should ensure that the specific expertise available in the subject areas themselves continues to be developed and protected.

I am certain that in my institution, as in many other British universities, students coming to Britain to study subjects such as Law, Economics, Business Studies, Management, Accounting, and Political Science still get some of the best teaching and learning available in the world. Taken together with the particular practice of British universities in giving close attention and care to students in their individual needs, this means that we can continue to be confident excellence in higher education is available in our disciplines.