DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN THE APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCES

Part III: The Settings, Processes, Methods, and Tools of Social Work

10.1. Government Setting

The government setting offers the widest space for a variety of social work services. Social work
is present almost everywhere, from social policy formulation and analysis, advocacy, and
implementation to enhance the well-being of societal members, to the provision of social services
through appropriate government departments and agencies. The government as an employer needs
occupational social workers. As the manager of several agencies as well as of mental and health
institutions and systems, implementer of social welfare programs, as provider of pensions, and in
its capacity as enforcer and manager of justice and correctional systems and institutions, the
government needs social workers. In the United States, social workers are considered key
employees in the federal, state, and local government agencies. They may work on-site at a
government agency, at a non-government agency whose client base is generated from their
relationship with a government agency, or in a contracting relationship as independent consultants.
The range of government settings in which social workers practice include (National Association
of Social Workers 2011):

• agencies serving children and families, such as foster care agencies;

• health-care settings, including community-based clinics and hospitals; schools;

• federal, state, or local correctional facilities;

• settings that serve older adults, such as nursing homes; and

• agencies serving military veterans and active duty military personnel.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (2011) reported that at a single point in time,
there are over 8,000 social work positions in the federal government. They work in a number of
cabinet level agencies within the government, which include: Social Security Administration
(SSA); Veterans Administration (VA); The Department of Defense (DOD) as civilian social
workers assigned to military components (Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines) and in other DOD
facilities; Department of Justice (DOJ) as direct service workers in areas such as community-based
offender re-entry programs and federal parole and probation agencies and also serve as policy
analysts for DOJ; Health and Human Services (HHS) in service areas that include community
health, HIV / AIDS, mental health, and substance abuse.

In all these agencies and programs, social workers perform a variety of professional tasks and
functions for the government agencies, ranging from clinical practice to program management/
administration (National Association of Social Workers 2011). Functions vary from agency to
agency but essentially include: case management, individual and group therapy, psychosocial
assessments; treatment and discharge planning substance use counseling and treatment; and
administration. They are integrated into federal programs that address health care, behavioral
health, criminal justice, social services, and child welfare issues. They also play a significant role
in formulating policies and developing program standards and guidance for federal programs. For
those who practice in a government agency, they are usually integrated into a broader continuum
of services along with other disciplines such as physicians, nurses, and substance abuse counselors.

In the Philippines, a number of social work services are undertaken by the Department of Social
Welfare and Development (DSWD). For its mandate:
The DSWD provides assistance to other national government agencies (NGAs), local government
units (LGUs), non-government organizations (NGOs), people's organizations (POs), and members
of civil society in the implementation of programs, projects, and services that will alleviate poverty
and empower disadvantaged individuals, families, and communities to improve their quality of
life. It implements statutory and specialized social welfare programs and projects.

In the Philippines, professional social work tends to be associated with the welfare field. This has
to do with its inception where social work is used to implement government initiatives to provide
public welfare assistance to economically deprived individuals, families, and groups. This type of
social work often focused on determining whether a person is poor enough to deserve public
assistance. To date, DSWD does a lot of work mostly in the areas of women and child welfare. In
child welfare, social workers provide services to children who are abused and neglected by their
parents and those from lower-income families who cannot afford to adequately care for them. Child
welfare social workers normally do case management, that is meeting regularly with the child and
his/ her family to assess conditions in the home and report on the care that the child is receiving.
When a child is in danger, appropriate measures are taken.

However, there are many other areas in which professional social workers play a vital role such as
in the implementation and monitoring of social welfare and social development projects under the
DSWD or those devolved to the LGUs such as the National Household Targeting System for
Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and Kapit Bisig
Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-
CIDSS). Particularly, professional social workers provide research-based evidence regarding the
effectiveness of certain initiatives and socio-economic measures that are designed to alleviate,
reduce, or eradicate poverty in the country.

10.2. Private Sectors Setting

In the private sector, particularly corporate setting, occupational social work is practiced. The type
of social work typically has five structures within which it generates interventions: employee
assistance programs, labor union social services, human resource management offices, community
relations offices, and organizational development initiatives (Segal, Gerdes, and Steiner 2005).

10.3. Civil Society Setting

The civil society sector sees itself as a champion of the people with regard to ensuring
accountability in government services; hence, social workers in civil society tend to work for
advocacies of human rights and social justice. Their work ensures the delivery to concerned sectors
of universal basic needs that may range from physical needs, intellectual development, emotional
development, social growth, and spiritual growth. In some cases, civil society work fosters delivery
of motivational needs such as physiological necessities, security, belongingness, esteem needs, and
self-actualization as advocated by Abraham Maslow's (1970) hierarchy of needs. Others align their
commitments to personal development needs as identified and articulated by Charlotte Towle
(1957), that is, biological, psychological, interpersonal, social, and cultural. Civil society is
generally organized by the social sector, representing any marginalized individuals and groups.
There are those who work with and for street children and other children who are in danger. Some
organizations are committed to women or environmental issues. Some work for migration and
migrants. Some work with groups like gays and lesbians, cancer patients, elderly, and workers.
Each of these areas of civil society concerns provide a unique setting that may call for distinct
social work specializations and general practice.
10.4. School Setting

The school is a social service and within it lies similar situations that arise elsewhere: violation of
human rights, injustice, violence, sexual harassment, discrimination, and so on. Internally, social
work embedded structures see to it that where violations occur, social workers can respond
appropriately. Externally, the school does also work with communities in its extension services
and community service where students and teachers work with communities to deliver voluntary
services. Here, the social workers can facilitate school entry into the community, understand the
community, engage with the community, select and implement correct social development
intervention, and exit strategically. A school social worker is a liaison between the school and
students' families, a sustainer of effective communication among parents, teachers, and students,
essentially bridging the children's personal lives and education to ensure that students' needs are
being met. In some cases, the responsibilities crisscross with the functions of guidance counselors
when qualified social workers take care of special needs of children to facilitate their integration
into mainstream classes. In the same sense, some social workers assume responsibility for other
related school issues like the formulation and implementation of behavioral interventions
programs, truancy prevention programs, sexual education programs, health education programs,
crisis intervention, and disaster prevention and management programs.

10.5. Community Setting

A community consists and represents all kinds of social work services. It is the locus of social
work challenges. It is in the community where human rights of individuals and groups are denied
or violated; where injustices are made and committed; where marginalization of individuals and
groups occur. Racism, sexism, homophobia (fear of lesbians and gay men), classism, ableism
(discrimination of people with disability), ageism (discrimination based on age), anti-Semitism
(oppression of Jews), and islamophobia (fear of followers of Islam) exist in the community caused
generally by the presence of mainstream or dominant groups who tend to enjoy certain privileges
which are built in their lives (Segal, Gerdes, and Steiner 2005).

Majority of government and non-government institutions designed to deliver social services and
other services with social work component are embedded in the community. Social work in
community settings is essentially defined by social policy and realities. Therefore, the community
setting primarily calls for generalist social work practitioners who possess a broad range of training
and employ their skills to guide and coordinate services for the clientele. Johnson and Yanca (as
cited in Segal, Gerdes, and Steiner 2005) describe generalist social work practice as an approach
that "requires the social worker to assess the situation with the client and decide which systems are
the appropriate units of attention or focus of work for the change effort. As the units of attention
may include an individual, a family, a small group, an agency or organization, a community, or the
transactions among these, the generalist approach emphasizes knowledge that can be applied to a
variety of systems."

The community setting orients social work to a generalist framework that divides work into micro-
practice and macro-practice. Whereas micro-practice social workers target their service at helping
individuals, families, and small groups to function better in a larger environment, macro-practice
social workers focus on changing the larger environment in ways that benefit individuals, families,
and groups (Segal, Gerdes, and Steiner 2005).

In general, community setting social work interventions include a wide array of approaches with
different theories and emphasis that social workers have to comfortably employ on two or three
levels: individuals and families, groups, and communities.