Social work (Essay Sample)

1 Explain how you became interested in social work or other professions and why you chose it as a major. As a young person, I have witnessed many age mates and others in my community turn to substance abuse due to various issues that could have been managed and avoided if they had been highlighted, noticed earlier, or in good time. I felt the need to major in psychology to understand human behavior and the mental process that leads people to act and think in certain ways, and the behaviors and attitudes they develop as they go along. I got attracted to the need to help those going through rough patches in their lives battling addiction and mental health issues occasioned by either peer pressure, the need to fit in, or even family and personal life-related issues and problems, working with them not only understand their behavior and thought process but also to fight the addictions, procure mental health medical assistance and also support them reestablish their dignity and place in the society. 2 Explain and discuss your personal values, as well as who and/or what you feel influenced you the most in forming your values In my beliefs, every person deserves and has a right to be treated fairly and respected, supported, and allowed to live a dignified life irrespective of their current situation, circumstance, environment, race, or beliefs and to the protection of all their human rights without bias whatsoever. I attach great value to promoting the well-being of all humans and animals that I interact with and ensuring that no harm, bodily, mental, or otherwise comes their way due to negligence, intention, or stigma. This can only be achieved through establishing strong relationships with all and especially those in need of assistance and ensuring that communities work towards the development of these trusting relationships. These values have been influenced by my experiences and watching the experiences of others in my community, especially those deemed to be odd or not to fit in or are basically not understood by others or have been victims of biases. Examples include persons with poor social skills, introverts, and those who have beliefs, behaviors, and values that others despise or attribute certain traits to them influenced by bias and generalization. 3 In addition, identify the values that lead you to pursue a career in social work or other field of study. I pursued a career in psychology as I felt the need to close the gap and get involved in helping others to be understood and deal with problems. I passionately value the need and the importance of a person being and feeling understood by others. Helping other people cope with their personal or community problems, improving and enhancing their psychological well-being, and preventing them from developing psychological disorders is very valuable and important as it ensures every individual feels happy, understood, and appreciated. This I could only achieve by studying the science that would enable me to understand how people feel, think, and behave, and why and what occasions these feelings, thoughts, and behavior, ensuring honesty, integrity, and fairness in the process and without bias of any form. 4 Discuss how your values fit with social work values for example what are the similarities or differences? (refer to NASW Code of Ethics). My values and those of the NASW Code of Ethics are similar or closely identical, they both broadly and largely focus on helping others dealing with problems of various forms and especially those that have negative or adverse emotional, mental, physical, and/or psychological effects on them. The core objective of social work is to enhance well-being, especially for those that are vulnerable, poor, and oppressed. My values perfectly fit in with those of social work, while social work focuses on addressing the external factors that influence and impact an individual’s outlook, behavior, and situation my values complement and support that as they centered on ensuring the psychological and mental well-being of these same individuals to ensure that their need, behavior, and needs are understood and met and are supported to live a life of dignity and full or potential. Social work helps them deal with their feeling about a particular situation and what they can or can be done about it, my values align as they seek to understand and support these people’s mental state and well-being to ensure that they are in the right frame of mind to enable and support the changes that they desire. 5 Explain how you feel your values and the values of your profession values will influence your role as a social worker or other professional. Include in your discussion the six core values and principles of social work. (refer to NASW Code of Ethics). The values of my profession are beneficence and nonmaleficence ensuring no harm to anyone, fidelity, and responsibility through the establishment of relationships of trust with those we work with, integrity promoting accuracy and honesty in practice, justice for all, and respect for people’s dignity and their rights. All these values are unanimously aligned with my values for fellow human beings and their mental and psychological well-being. These professional values and my personal values will positively influence and affect my role as a social worker as they will enable my performance as a social worker to uphold and enhance the six core values and principles of social work which are service, social justice, dignity, and worth of a person, the importance of human relationships, integrity and competence. All these values of my profession, social work, and my personal values all focus on creating and enabling all human beings to live in conducive social environments and to be in a good state of psychological and mental health, and all their problems are understood and managed both at a social, environmental, behavioral and mental level to the good of the individual and communities that they live in and with. 6 Discuss the client(s) that you feel may be problematic or difficult for you to work with and explain why it might be difficult for you to work with these client(s) (ex. religious differences, inmates, etc). How do you think your values would affect your work with them, how might you resolve the dilemma? I would in my profession find it difficult to work with clients who are dangerous and have caused harm to other human beings, especially children, and are still a danger to others and themselves, most of whom would be inmates serving time. These clients may be difficult to work with as they are by the nature of their thoughts and their behavior often times though not always still abusive, arrogant, and quick to anger, and feel no remorse for their actions and the harm they caused others. My difficulty to work with them would also be caused by the nature of their actions and behaviors which are perfectly contrary to my values on how human beings should be treated or treat one another. In calling to my work, ensuring that all human beings are helped to deal with the problems they face that affect their thinking and behavior, I would resolve my dilemma by applying the values of my profession and those of social work and ensure to establish a relationship of trust with them and work with them with honesty and competence, providing them with the service and social justice that they deserve while upholding their rights and dignity as human beings. 7 What personal strength do you possess that will be useful to you as a social worker or other professionals? I have personal strengths that will be useful to me as a social worker and psychologist, by nature I am a very empathetic and good active listener and I take time to listen to people’s stories and endeavor to understand both their words and ac...