SW 110

• Mainstream: A prevailing current or direction of activity or influence
• Mainstream - Having, reflecting, or being compatible with the prevailing attitudes and values of a society or group
• Mainstream - The way of life or set of beliefs practiced or accepted by most people
• Mainstream Social Work - Existing, prevailing, and dominant values, direction, and beliefs accepted by most social workers.
• Mainstream Social Work

  • The way of life of the profession
  • Social Work is closely related to Social Welfare
  • Existing Social Welfare determines the status of Social Work as a profession and as a practice
• Social Welfare - Status of the people in the community; reflective of the well-being of the community
• Social Welfare - The organized function or system of dierent functions with regard to how individuals and communities cope
• Social Welfare - Reflection of eective mobilization and utilization of human resources
• Social Welfare - result of interventions and programs given to the individuals that address the developmental aspect of society.
• 3 common concepts among UK, US, PH

  Mutual aid provided by the family, clan, and community

  Charity Model: Role of the church and religious organizations in providing social services to the poor.

  Professionalization of Social Work
• 1987 EO no. 123 by Pres. Corazon Aquino

  Renaming Ministry of Social Service and Development to Department of Social Welfare and Development.
• 1987 EO no. 123 by Pres. Corazon Aquino

  evolving from mere welfare or relief agency to the greater task of development

  The main agency tasked with the implementation of different programs to address the problem
• R.A. No. 7160 Devolution or the Commitment of LGUS in 1991

  Center/institution-based services; community-based programs and services; locally funded and foreign-assisted projects; and disaster relief and rehabilitation.
• Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)

  National poverty reduction strategy and a human capital investment that provides grants to extremely poor households for a maximum period of seven (7) years to improve the health, nutrition, and education of children ages 0-18 years old.
• The Gap between the Profession and the Service Users

  This is the result of the professionalization of Social Work and to standardize the social work profession.
• The Gap between the Profession and the Service Users - The need to protect the values and interests that they hold as a class pushes mainstream social work to gravitate toward dominant ideology.
• The Gap between the Profession and the Service Users - The privilege and protection of interests that come from the exclusive, monopolistic control of mainstream Philippine social work practitioners over their political space are guaranteed and enforced by the state.
• Mainstream social workers operate with state sanction and control through state legal recognition and licensing. To a certain extent, their continued enjoyment of privilege is predicted in a collaborative partnership with the state and by association, with the dominant class.
• Dual Loyalty Conundrum - On one hand, social workers have loyalty to the service users, social movements, and a code of ethics, which demands critical practice, and on the other hand, social workers are expected to have loyalty to their employment agency.
• Ideological Blindness - We look to foreign systems as important in the economic setting and even in the social work profession for poverty alleviation.
• Ideological blindness - Mainstream accounts of Philippine Social Welfare history, namely those in the professional encyclopedia uncritically regale readers with the advances made under Spanish and American colonial rules such as the establishment of hospitals, schools, and asylums in the former.
• Spanish Colonization - Colonial society, dominated by religion molded an individualist welfare philosophy that attributed social problems to spiritual and moral frailties
• Charity - means of going to heaven rather than because it is the right of people
• Functionalist - a tool to implement colonial powers in the country
• Benevolent Assimilation - strategy to impose colonial rule in the Philippines; save the ‘unschooled savage’
• Depoliticizing - We remove the notion of politics when we look at issues and problems.
• Used for Political Patronage - Social workers continue to grapple with the political system. Hence, a welfare system in which the persona and influence of elected representatives as well as paid public officials can hold huge sway.
• Machinery for Social Control - Mainstream Social Work has always been identified as part of the machinery for social control. While social work can be employed to project a caring society, it can also be used to strengthen society’s repressive characteristics.