Acceptance is important for social workers to build a meaningful and solid relationship with clients in direct practice. In this reflection paper, I would like to explore three components embedded in the concept of acceptance.
The first component is to acknowledge that clients are entitled basic human rights. As stated in social work Code of Ethics, social worker’s primary mission is to “enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people.” The premise underlying this statement is that all persons are equally entitled to basic human needs and rights. However, in reality, we are living in a world where power, privileges, discrimination, oppression, poverty, and other forms of social injustice exist and put some people in inferior or disadvantaged situations. So acceptance in direct practice means, in the first place, to recognize and accept clients as members of all people who need and deserve the
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This connection and relation motivate us to offer empathy and compassion. We try as much as we could to relate our feelings and emotions to clients, understand their sufferings and vulnerabilities by putting ourselves in their shoes, empathize their distress, and ultimately take actions to help and work with them.
The third component of acceptance is to respect clients. This concept of respect lies not only in the way and manner that we receive and treat clients, but also in our way of thinking that we accept clients as who they are. We listen attentively to clients telling us their life stories and experiences, appreciate their human qualities and characteristics without personal judgement, and acknowledge their dignity and humanity. Moreover, we enhance and promote their self-determination, which means clients have their own power, autonomy, and capacity to change and to address their own problems and
The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client The therapist accepts the person as they are, puts no condition on valuing them, separates the behaviour from the person. When they know they are not being judged, it allows the client to think perhaps they do not have to judge themselves (Rogers, 1975?) 5. The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s frame of reference and communicates this experience to the client When the client is empathically heard, they get greater understanding of themselves.
In addition, challenges can arise when there is no commonality in identities or when identities between myself and a client are radically different. In these times, as a social worker who has a degree of power in a relationship with people seeking help, that I must acknowledge to myself that my power can impede on inclusively practicing and remain self-aware (Gelfand, Sullivan, & Steinhouse,
Ethical Issues in Social Work Practice The social work profession and its Code of Ethics dictate that social workers must act in the best interest of the client, even when those actions challenge the practitioner’s personal, cultural and religious values. In practice; however, ethical decision-making is more complex than in theory. As helping professionals, social workers are constantly faced with ethical decision-making or ethical dilemmas. As noted by Banks (2005), an ethical dilemma occurs “when a worker is faced with a choice between two equally unwelcome alternatives that may involve a conflict of moral principles, and it is not clear what choice will be the right one” (as cited in McAuliffe & Chenoweth, 2008, p. 43).
This is will ensure the needs match appropriate services to help the clients. 6) Empowerment and Advocacy Empowerment encourage the client’s ability to improve themselves while advocacy involves helping the client directly. Appropriate collaboration between client and social worker is needed to promote mutual agreement for the betterment. Clients have to understand that social workers are there to empower and advocate for them rather than fixed their problems. 7) Diverse Workforce
Modern social workers are frequently tasked with certain objectives by their agencies, which leave little room for any work beyond specific treatments and timeframes (Gitterman & Knight, 2016). Although social workers are bound to the set of ethics put forth by the NASW, practitioners are often limited to focusing on the issues of the individual rather than the larger societal issues that may be behind those concerns. Additionally, many social work students end up working in direct practice, rather than macro work. There is a need for social workers to engage at the macro level in order to facilitate community organization and empowerment. Critics suggest this theory may not take into account the unique experiences of each individual and perhaps key characteristics of the individual or group are not taken into consideration (Sadan, 1997).
This is due to the experience of stigma, discrimination and disadvantage, even including the mental health professionals. According to the ASWEAS (2012) the values and attitudes identified come from the practice principals that are specific to mental health. These are identified in the “AASW Competency Standards for Mental Health Social Workers”. Some examples of these include of: valuing and recognition of the person, respect for the client as a person – regardless of their mental health problems, a duty to the importance of partnership and mutuality – especially with clients and their family/ friends through active collaboration and a willingness to participate in a respectful partnership, a commitment to social justice for people with mental health problems – based on their human rights and to advocate at the system and individual level. In here also comes the compassion, empathy and the importance of conveying assurance and hope, as well as the sensitivity to process and adherence to honesty, mutuality, integrity and respect in professional
Putting the client as the expert, understanding her story instead of attempting to judge it, in the therapist’s point of view. The therapist must in any point display with utmost care, interest, respectful curiosity, openness, empathy, and fascination. Once this collaborative relationship has been established, the counsellor and the client can move forward and work on how to improve the outcomes of the
Person centred counselling According to McLeod (2003) states that “the emphasis is on the client as an expert and the counsellor as a source of reflection and encouragement and this is captured in the designation of the approach as a ‘non-directive’ form of counselling.” Empathy, congruence (genuineness) and acceptance (unconditional positive regard) are known as the three ‘core conditions’. These core conditions are essential for effective counselling. According to Gillon (2007) “from a therapists’ point of view, an empathic attitude is a desire to understand a client’s perceptual world as if it was his or her own”. Meaning that the Therapist must listen and follow what the client is trying to communicate to them and that the therapist tries
Despite social workers best efforts to keep their feelings in check and to respect differences, being confronted with situations in which their values and morals conflict with those of their clients is a common scenario. For example, one may feel uncomfortable dealing with clients because of his or her sexual orientation. This issue arises because of the practitioner’s religious affiliation which results in the practitioner being unable to accept homosexuality. Another example, a pregnant client, ask her pro-life social worker for help obtaining an abortion. As the act of abortion conflicts with the social workers’ values, they may feel torn.
The theoretical knowledge that has been utilised at both my placements and is a core component for social work practice is a strengths-based approach. A strengths-based approach encourages the social worker and the clients/families to identify strengths in all areas of the clients’ lives using an ecological framework and to use those strengths to form the basis of the assistance given to the clients/families. By assisting clients to generate their own outcomes through the use of a holistic model of practice that sees the potential of all clients. This has been crucial at my current placement working at the Asylum Seekers Centre, as well as in my previous child protection placement. It allows the social workers to acknowledge their clients’
Correspondingly, it will guide me to provide my clients with the ability to make informed consent. Additionally, this value is important to my future practice because it ensures that I become an advocate for my clients in every capacity, including human rights. Lastly, as a social worker, I will ensure that I work towards my clients being free from violence and the threat of violence (Heinonen & Spearman, 2010, p. 34). Secondly, as a social worker it is necessary that my practice is guided by my value of providing a service to humanity.
Social work practice has been altered, revised, and rewritten as society begins to acknowledge the acceptable oppressions and attempts to change the current circumstances. Every situation, when working with a service user, is different. Therefore, a plethora of theories, practices, and perspectives must be considered. There is not a definitive way to practice social work; multiple theories are considered per case to best accommodate the service user in the least distressing and oppressive way possible. A practice that has recently become popular in social work is anti-oppressive practice.
This may be related to limited time in which a choice as to be made. Ethical decision making is a core part of the work of social work and human service practitioners, who confront with regularity dilemmas of duty of care; confidentiality, privacy and disclosure; choice and autonomy; and distribution of increasingly scarce resources. The ETHIC model framework was developed by E.P. Congress to take into consideration social work values, the NASW Code of Ethics, and social work professional contexts the first step in the ETHIC model is to examine relevant personal, societal, agency and professional values. Social work professionals should identify all the different values that impinge on their worldviews—their own personal values, the agency in which they operate, the client’s values and belief systems, and the discipline’s values. The social worker has to learn how to relate to their clients not only on a professional level but by being empathetic towards his client.
Thus, caregivers should take instructions and directions from clients seriously. In the nursing field, there are major concepts that help to cement the nursing value systems. The people concept mainly focuses on the patients themselves, their family members, friends, and any other groups related to them (Blackford, 2016). To make the people concept more effective, positive and personal connections should be maintained throughout the time the patient is seeking care, and the patients should be afforded the freedom to manage their health with dignity and self-awareness (Blackford, 2016).
The value of the client’s narrative also inspires me to think of and express how policy could be created or amended to better suit the populations served. Hearing, understanding and empathizing with the narrative of the clients I serve causes the development of strong rapports and represents the importance of human relationships. The value of an individual’s narrative is closely connected to the significance I place on curiosity in relationships. I can be counted on to question why things are the way they are, what could be done to make them better and what is the best way to make those changes a reality. My practice involves believing in my clients, reflecting on the context, receiving education on what can be done, and using the client’s voice as well as leveraging my own to be involved in advocacy for the client and the populations he or she belongs to.