1. Key Themes Social workers can engage in micro, mezzo, and macro level of work to promote change and development in the society. The non-profit sector is one of the areas where social workers engage in mezzo level of work as program manager, capacity builder, researcher, case worker, manager among other. The Non-profit sector plays a key role in the protection of minority, experimentation and embracing the diversity of thought. There are many challenges that cause organizational problems in Nonprofit sectors.
The main cause of these challenges is resource based, structural and environmental which include political, policy and relation with the community. The organizational decision making shifted from community organization to organizational change because of political and social climate, scarcity of resources and shift in agency mission. Social workers need to adjust themselves to these changes and execute their work. To promote change and address presenting problem in any social work intervention planned change process framework can be an ideal tool.
This process makes our intervention more effective and efficient in addressing the micro, mezzo and macro level of intervention. The flow of intervention that extends from engagement to termination provides a more natural and gradual method of solving a problem which is effective. Addressing presenting problem with planned change process is in one of the tools I found relevant to my career path in counseling and direct social work practice. The planned change process help to to create a solid therapeutic relation with clients and enhance trust between the client and the practitioner.
Furthermore, the process also prevents from directly engage in the diagnosis and assessing client and quickly enters in intervention which damages the relationship. Hence maintaining the planned change process guide to strategically engage and assess clients situation and gradually plan for intervention based on the better understanding of clients presenting problem and dynamic. II. Organizational and Community Practice Helping community assess and recognize their capacity is the main objective of community practice that social workers involve.
Additionally identifying barriers and seeking a collaborative solution to community problem is an area that community practice engage. The planned change process also plays an important role in the community practice. Comprehensive Community Initiative approach helps to consider a comprehensive response to address a community presenting problem. Chris Krehmeyer CEO of Beyond Housing underscored how it is complex addressing social problems with a narrow scope of a solution.
He mentioned that addressing housing problem can not be complete without equally addressing problems in education, health care, job, and poverty. Therefore an effective community problem-solving work can be achieved through a comprehensive mechanism that considers several contributing factors to the presenting problem. Thave realized the vital importance of Geographic Information System (GIS ) for social work practice and intervention. This tool facilitates the collection, analysis and communicating of information in a more accurate, efficient and effective way.
GIS can also be used to enhance research, planning and advocacy efforts of a social worker. Community assessment and asset mapping tasks can easily be carried out with the help of GIS. Mapping of individual and community access to services and resources can be facilitated by this tool. The tool greatly helps to save the ever scarce resources in social services and nonprofit organizations. in social work Understanding, the demography of people we work with is important to design effective program and execute implementation.
To this using GIS facilitate a coordinated and easy access to demographic information we desired. Hence GIS will be an important tool that I am considering to learn more and integrate in my future social work practice with individual, family, community and organization setting. III. Career Goal and Area of Skill Development As an emerging social Worker, I have several professional goals to accomplish in the field of Social Work. I believe that the initial stage of this journey is to acquire the knowledge, skills, and values which are the tool to practice professional social work practice.
The courses I am taking are providing me the knowledge and skills required to be a professional social worker. I have a strong desire to work in children/youth counseling and behavioral health. I chose this track because of my country practice and believe towards behavioral health. The traditional believe and responses to the behavioral health disorders in my country setting appears to me has things to improve. Considering this I would like to build my skill and knowledge, particularly in human behavior, mental health, social work practice with children and youth and therapy.
Additionally, cultural competence is one of the important skill i have to develop to meet the needs of clients. Therefore, I need to deepen this competency to enhance my career goal. My country Ethiopia, for instance, has 80 different ethnic groups which all have different cultural background. This can give a glimpse of an idea how the needs are diverse according to the cultural background of the people. Hence building culturally competent practice skills is the area that I am determined to develop further.
Every culture has the strength that can be used to steer changes during the intervention process. As a social worker, my goal is to develop my expertise on how to identify and utilize one’s strength and cultural ascent into practice. Addressing every client according to their unique background would make my intervention more effective and culturally sensitive. IV. Social Innovation There are a variety of possibilities for social innovation in social work field. The social innovation address social problem in a sustainable and effective way.
Additionally, the approach enables to create and nurture local leaders who drive the social change process in a given community. Community-based psychotherapy is one of the social innovation possibilities in my area of interest. As I mentioned previously counseling! psychotherapy is my social work direct practice interest. In view of this, I am taking courses that will provide me knowledge and skills in mental health, psychotherapy and children and youth practice. To this end, I would like to employ the social innovation approach to assist the growing and unaddressed need of children and and adolescent psychotherapy.
It is in children and youth mental health sector that social innovation can play a key role in Ethiopia for instance. According to WHO, 15% of people in Ethiopia are affected by major mental health illness or substance use disorder. To make the matter worse it is only 1 residential mental health facilities available to provide care for severe mental illness. This is a major hindrance for providing mental health care for the nation with 94 million population that 15 % are affected by mental illness.
Government effort of addressing the problem can not be enough to effectively bridge the gap in the mental health care need of the people. Hence the integration of public, private and philanthropic supports can jointly be a meaningful change in addressing the problem. As part of the public and private sector role, I consider possibilities of mobilizing qualified social worker, psychologist, and nurse voluntary initiative that provide psychotherapy to children and youth affected by depression, anxiety,substance use disorder and behavioral problems.
This will be a community-based initiative which can be initiated by professional voluntaries but gradually run by the trained youths and adults from the community. The initiative not only assists vulnerable children and youth but also empower and prepare youths and adults from the community to take over the program and sustain it. The active engagement of the community youth and adult in the initiative creates the sense of ownership to the program. Further, this sense will also ensure the sustainability of the program.
Due to cultural and traditional beliefs, people hardly seek mental health services in Ethiopia. This problem particularly affects children, youth, and men’s. In light of this, having community-based informal therapy services can encourage these population to seek mental health services with less stress. Upon the client’s familiarization of the services and awareness about mental health, they can be referred to the available mental health facilities in the country for advanced and formal treatment as required.
