Phl' Social Realities & Social Welfare

• Social context

  Relationship, Interaction, culture
• Social context

  The social environment and social situation where something happens
• Reality


  • Made up of your thoughts, feelings, and experiences
  • The way that you see things is considered to be your truth, your perception, your personal experience
  • Anything that exists
  • State of things as they are, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined
• Social Reality


  • The process by which people creatively shape reality through social interactions (culture)
  • Conditions in the macro level that has significant impact on the lives of the people in the society
• Philippine Social Reality


  Focuses on the Philippine socio-political, economic, cultural, spiritual, environment and gender realities in the context of local, regional and global situations, and their implications to social welfare and social work
• Social Welfare

  • Well-being of individual
  • Social Welfare and Social Work = SOCIAL PROTECTION
  • Social protection is defined as the set of policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labor markets, diminishing people's exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to protect themselves against hazards and interruption/loss of income
• Components of social protection (Philippines)


  • Social insurance (SSS, GSIS)
  • Social welfare
  • Labor market interventions
  • Social safety nets (subsidies)
• Social protection is a human right. It ensures access to health care and income security for all. It provides for you and your family when you're sick, unemployed, injured, pregnant or too old to work. It provides support for your family in case something happens to you.
• Three core programs of DSWD

  • Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (Pantawid Pamilya)
  • Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP)
  • Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services-National Community-Driven Development Program (KC-NCDDP)
• Focus on understanding the issues and problems present in the Philippines and what are the efforts of the government to respond to the needs of the people
• Problems are endless and continuous
• Implication of these problems in social work and social welfare
• Functions and roles of social worker duty bearers
• Philippines


  • Comprises a blend of traditional Filipino and Spanish Catholic traditions, with influences from America and other parts of Asia
  • Filipinos are family oriented and often religious with an appreciation for art, fashion, music and food
• Aspects of Philippine society

  • Demography and Health
  • Politics
  • Economy and Employment
• Demography and Health

  • Current population of the Philippines is 118,260,910 as of Tuesday, January 9, 2024
  • Birth Rate (2023): 19.579 births per 1000 people, a 1.01% decline from 2022
  • Death Rate (2023): 5.6 per 1,000 people
• Politics

  • Republic with a presidential form of government wherein power is equally divided among its three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial
  • Platform of government: 1. Health and COVID-19 Responses, 2. Anti-Insurgency, 3. Law and Order, 4. Environmental and Climate Change, 5. DRRM
• Employment


  • The 2023 General Appropriations Act authorizes an expenditure program amounting to P5,268.0 billion
  • 768 trillion for year 2024 national budget (allocates the biggest appropriation for the social services and economic services sectors)
  • Unemployment Rate in November 2023 was Estimated at 3.6 Percent
  • Underemployment Rate in November 2023 was Estimated at 11.7 Percent
  • Employment Rate in November 2023 was Estimated at 96.4 Percent
• Needs


  Things we cannot do without; anything that we are required to HAVE
• Problems

  Needs that are UNMET
• Social Problems


  Conditions or situations which members of the society regard as a threat to their values
• Not all problems are SOCIAL PROBLEM but ALL SOCIAL PROBLEMS are problems
• Problem

  A condition of discontentment resented by SOMEONE
• Social Problem


  A condition or behavior that has negative consequences for large numbers of people and that is generally recognized as a condition or behavior that needs to be addressed
• For a problem to be SOCIAL, it must involve a large number of people, groups, and institutions who consider a particular as undesirable and intolerable and want to correct through collective action. Hence, presence of social advocates.
• Components of a Social Problem

  • Objective Social Condition - refers to the existence of a social condition
  • Subjective Social Condition - refers to the belief that a particular social condition is harmful to society or to a segment of society and that it should and can be changed
• Stages of Social Problem

  • Emergence - emerge/exist
  • Legitimacy - evidence that a problem is real
  • Bureaucratization - problem is acknowledged by the government; institutionalized
  • Development of Alternatives Strategies - responses to the problem
• Related Theories of Social Problem

  • Structural Functionalist Perspective
  • Conflict Perspective
  • Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
• Structural Functionalist Perspective


  Society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole
• Theories of social problems from structural-functionalist perspective


  • Social pathology
  • Social disorganization
• Conflict Perspective


  View society as composed of different groups and interests competing for power and resources
• Symbolic Interactionist Perspective


  Emphasizes that human behavior is influenced by definitions and meanings that are created and maintained through symbolic interaction with others
• Poverty results from institutional breakdown: economic institutions that fail to provide sufficient jobs and pay, educational institutions that fail to equip members of society with the skills they need for employment, family institutions that do not provide two parents, and government institutions that do not provide sufficient public support.
• Karl Marx proposed that economic inequality results from the domination of the bourgeoisie (owners of the factories, or "means of production") over the proletariat
• Modern conflict theorists recognize that the power to influence economic outcomes arises not only from ownership of the means of production but also from management position, interlocking board memberships, control of media, financial contributions to politicians, and lobbying
• Individuals who are poor are often viewed as undeserving of help or sympathy; their poverty is viewed as due to laziness, immorality, irresponsibility, lack of motivation, or personal deficiency
• Wealthy individuals, on the other hand, tend to be viewed as capable, motivated, hardworking, and deserving of their wealth
• SPECSEG Framework


  Focuses on the Philippine socio-political, economic, cultural, spiritual, environment and gender realities in the context of local, regional and global situations, and their implications to social welfare and social work
• Social analysis


  The practice of systematically examining a social problem, issue or trend, often with the aim of prompting changes in the situation being analyzed
• Social problem


  A situation that is viewed by some community members as being undesirable